There is a degradation of society.

One could easily surmise this from the evident facts littering
our wayward communities. Absurd and immoral laws are being forced into the Senate, the empty pews
in churches during Sunday masses in contrast with the fully booked bars and party places around town,
endless barrages of false complaints, although some are unfortunately true as far as their physical
essences go, against the church and the over-all change in the disposition towards the faith. Inasmuch as
the Church’s plight to promulgate solutions to combat the silent murder, society resists more terribly
than a feral beast cornered and rearing to rend flesh and break bone if the opening presents itself.

Why is this so? We ask so obliviously more than we are credited to, looking between the lines
when ironically the problem exists so clearly in our midst. Yes, there might be diverse manifestations of
it but the essence of the problem remains the same: the youth of society are being corrupted. The
youth, though the older echelons of society may beg to argue, are integral cogs in the mechanism of
society because of the potentiality present in them to transcend from the minor influence and presence
they are into becoming the holders of the community’s reins. The tapestry of adulthood and its virtues
are painted on the virgin canvass of youth. Neglect the transitory importance of youth and you
necessarily come up with a faulty, and oftentimes broken, adulthood.

Although subtle and not explicitly expressed, the Church has, but not always, in a sense rejected
the importance of relating with the youth in a language that they could call their own “lingua franca”.
Time has stood witness to the higher echelons of the Magisterium promulgating traditional teachings,
stiff doctrines and unreasonably strict mandates that choke the life, and vigor, out of the people. This
especially targets the youth because of their dynamic characteristic bordering towards modernity and
secularism. The higher ups have never understood that this potential energy inside of every jovial young
person is not to be controlled and choked into submission but, on the other hand, it must be lovingly
guided by a nurturing velvet hand.

Even society itself has oftentimes view the youth as the lost generation. Judging their state
rather than trying to make amendments that could somehow meld them into a closer and more
cohesive unit. They are too near sighted and easily forget that the youth are the building blocks of the
edifice of tomorrow’s society.

In lieu of this harsh reality, the youth look to the skies and dig deep in themselves to find a way
to grow out of their unformed shells and into the polished adults that they hope to be. Unknowingly,
they have found it. Yes! In the most unlikely of places a seedbed exists to help cultivate in the youth the
seed of prudent adulthood and a wellspring to quench their power, that which is a foothold in this world
of rejection and harsh judgment. If they care to look more closely, begin to really read between the
lines, think outside the box and scratch their cranial coconuts, they could find this lush garden of
possibilities in sports.

It is a bit absurd to even just listen to that claim and even more so in accepting it but I hold fast
to my belief in the integral part that sports play in the formation of the youth. It does not only physically
form a person, but it holistically approaches every societal dilemma within each one and presents
humble yet powerful solutions to each one. This is credited to the fact that in playing sports, no matter
how physically trivial or mentally so they may seem, every facet of one’s humanity is polished.

In the humble undertakings of playing a sport, one submits entirely to rules and opts to be
governed by them as long as one plays the sport. There cannot exist an entire claim to freedom in
playing a sport due to this position’s inclination to chaos. So, in playing a sport, one humbles oneself and
submits to the law without bickering or murmurs. This is clearly a prelude to the youth’s inevitable fate
which is to be governed by rules and chained by regulations and responsibilities when he crosses the
threshold of adulthood. He learns to be obedient but ever dynamic in dealing with his different whims
under the contracted laws. This does not destroy his freedom but it helps him to be more flexible and
initiative minded in accomplishing tasks that are present before him. In other words, it transforms the
quality of his freedom into a more benevolent minded one. Here, he attains the power of creativity and
dynamism in obedience.

Defeat and victory are contradictory terms that are ever present in every sporty undertaking.
The presence of the essence of competition is always accompanied by these key concepts. This is true as
far as the physical and temporal competition goes but in the silence of the hearts of the competitors, in
the deepest recesses of their souls they unconsciously know that there are no losers and all are winners,
no failures. This is absurd, yes, it is in more ways than one. But, the trick is hidden in the search for the
true essence of competition and playing. The underlying importance of learning more than just mere
victory. Relating this to the real world, in adulthood, the youth is faced with whimsical caprices left and
right which don on the mantle of completion due to the faulty social contracts present in society. In
these contracts, where the demarcation line between good and bad is blurred by the mere hunger to
succeed in the selfish sense, the youth turned adult must learn to search and unlock the underlying
essence of the undertaking. Search for the truth rather than the surface achievements that may come
from dishonesty and selfishness. Here, he attains the power of learning over selfishness, in failure or in
success, dignity in defeat and humility in victory.

In the game of basketball, five players standing on the court have different distributed duties as
the game proceeds. These duties are unique with each one of the players and are all equally important.
The center’s rebounding duties are as important as the power forward’s burden to bully the ball through
the lines of enemy defense and score the contested point. This diversity of duties is integral in ensuring
the continuity of rhythm and order in the team’s operating system on the court which in turn is
important in capturing the bacons. Same is true with the duties and responsibilities placed on the
shoulders of the youth when they turn into adults. From the little duty of cleaning the company halls to
the heavy burden of managing the whole corporation, every job is of utmost importance. There must
not exist discriminations of any form between the purveyors of these jobs in order for harmony to exist
due to the inherent equality present with them demarcated only by the difference in financial
compensation and job description. All of them are working for the attainment of the unified cause.
Here, the youth learns to heed importance in every duty he makes no matter how small it is and to treat
his fellow men who do such as so. There must be equality in diversity.

There exists a plethora of learnings burning on the sacrificial altar of sports, as diverse and
myriad as the burning stars that decorate our night sky. However, these learnings themselves need fuel
to burn brightly into the void: honesty and sacrifice. These two virtues regulate the healthy nature of
sports and should be practiced at all times so that the undertakings would not be for naught, or worse
twisted. Honesty to fuel the formation of values and sacrifice to fuel the formation of determination and
grit. Both are essential in simulating the perfect circumstances of formational playing because they
baptize the simple acts of honest competition and wholehearted devotion expressed by sacrifice into
Christian virtues essential for the attainment of the good life.
 These, in effect, would trigger the youth to indulge themselves in a healthier and formational form
of leisure. Instead of exposing themselves to the dangerous and corrupting nature of other forms of
pleasure, they could play sports and obtain a double effect, cultivation of the soul and the integration of
the body. This could effectively replace the weak points and shortcomings of their elders in providing for
them the right conditions to grow out of their shells. Youth is wasted on the young, that is what they
always say but it doesn’t have to be. If cultivated well and nurtured as Christian as possible, the potentials
present in the essence of youth may bloom into a more refined essence of adulthood. One that has seen
and undertook a benevolent youth, will burn brightly with it still evident in every fiber of their being as
age and maturity finally catch up to them. Youth is not wasted on the young, it is gifted to them as a
sacrificial lamb which they feed and nurture and finally sacrifice on the pyres of adulthood for the greater
glory of our God and societal development. Empower the youth through sports and they will empower
the community to offer more fitting praise to God with their lives of virtue.