Yesterday I got to do something that I haven’t done in 5 years…well, part of something. I participated in the Malibu Olympic Distance Triathlon as part of a relay team. I did the 25-mile bike portion along PCH. It was awesome! I arrived at Zuma Beach at 5:30 a.m. to set up in the Transition Area. It was still dark. The air was full of nervous energy. The area slowly filled with hundreds of people.
As I awaited my team members to meet me, I stood on the sand away from the growing crowd and watched. People of all different ages, sizes, nationalities, and I’m sure beliefs were coming together. In the people not wearing masks I could see lots of smiles. In the people that were I could see in their eyes that they were smiling. There were conversations of the challenges of training during a pandemic and how it was last year when all the races were cancelled. The nervous energy seemed to disappear as the sun rose to reveal a unified excitement to be out there together for a triathlon.
He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers and sisters.” Hebrews 2:11
As I was chatting with people in the Transition Area, I had a moment of feeling really moved by the fact that we are all brothers and sisters. It is so hard for me to see and hear the all the ways families, communities, and our nation are so torn apart. There are “sides” and “they and them”. Yesterday there were hundreds of us together for that race without “sides” or “they and them”. This Scripture verse from this coming Sunday’s Second Reading brought God into that moment yesterday when I felt moved – God created each and every one of us. God created Jesus. We are all brothers and sisters of Jesus and each other. God consecrates each of us as His sons and daughters. I am humbled to be a part of that truth.
May you be blessed by the brothers and sisters that surround you!