Gordon D'Arcy of Leinster lifts the Heineken Cup trophy in 2012. Cup-shaped trophies are legion in the sports world. But why?
A few years ago I had a Pentecostal religious experience, but not in a church. It happened in a sports temple.
While on a business trip to San Francisco with Rick Barry, one of the fifty greatest basketball players in the game’s history, I witnessed something divine. What I saw suggests why so many famous sports trophies are in the form of a cup.
Pilgrimage to the Olympic Club
Our last meeting of the day was hosted downtown at the Olympic Club, a unique facility containing a dining room, meeting rooms, guest rooms, banquet rooms, two pools, and a couple basketball courts.
Upon arriving out front, we ascended the stairs from the street-level realm of mortals into the temple, past tree-sized marble columns, into the outer sanctuary, which some people unimaginatively call “the foyer.” Statues of athletic heroes and glass-encased sports memorabilia honoring a pantheon of sports gods and their superhuman accomplishments filled the outer court.
Before our business meeting began, our hosts ushered Rick into one of the inner courts––a basketball court where twenty boys were in the midst of their afternoon practice. The coaches blew their whistles and gathered the boys at Rick’s feet to hear from a living, breathing sports legend. After all, those boys weren’t there to learn to play basketball but to be coached in the arts of immortality.
Before saying a word, Rick did something extraordinary. His 30.5 points-per-game record with the American Basketball Association still stands as the highest career total for a player in any professional basketball league. His mastery of an unorthodox, but highly accurate underhanded free throw method contributed in no small part to his record. Taking the ball, Rick turned toward the basket, bowed his head and closed his eyes, then put the ball through the hoop without looking. Swish!
That got the boys’ attention.
The Winner’s Cup
Rick’s talk aimed to motivate these boys to be the best team players possible, whether in the realm of sports or otherwise. He whet their appetite to taste the thrill of victory and one day hold up the winner’s cup in celebration.
Cup-shaped trophies are legion in the sports world. But why?
There’s the America’s Cup (yacht racing), the Davis Cup (tennis), the Stanley Cup (hockey) and various World Cups for soccer, cricket, alpine skiing, and even chess. There are dozens of more cups, including the Eisenhower Cup (golf), the William’s Cup (basketball), and the Swaythling Cup (table tennis). There's the King's Cup (England airplane racing), and the Heineken Cup, one of the most prestigious trophies in Rugby up through 2014.
So what’s up with the cup?
Ever hear of that legendary “sporting event” called the quest for the Holy Grail?
Modern sports champions in quest of a cup of victory and the cup of Christ in the Liturgy are the same story. The Arthurian legend links the two.
There’s a deep and abiding connection between two types of celebrations that are more the same than different. There are sports champions who celebrate victory by elevating a cup overhead. Then there are priests in the Liturgy who celebrate Christ’s victory over all things evil by elevating the cup filled with His blood. Both celebrate the thrill of a victory won by chivalrous heroes who at great sacrifice play by the rules even when others don’t.
The Perilous Seat
What launched the quest for the Holy Grail according to Thomas Malory in Le Morte d'Arthur (“The Death of Arthur”)? It happened at a Secret Counsel gathering of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table on the Day of Pentecost.
Merlin had reserved a vacant seat at the Round Table, a seat known as the Siege Perilous or the Perilous Seat. It was to remain empty until the arrival of a knight with the purity of heart necessary to succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail. A prophecy foretold that this knight would sit in the Perilous Seat for the first time on the Day of Pentecost.
Galahad obtains the Grail. Modern sports champions in quest of a cup of victory and the cup of Christ in the Liturgy are the same story. The Arthurian legend links the two.
And then it happened. On Pentecost Sunday in A.D. 454, the recently knighted Sir Galahad took his place at the Round Table. Being found to be the purest in heart of all knights, he sat in the Perilous Seat. An image of the Holy Grail then appeared floating above the table, a sign to the knights assembled that the time had come to go in search of the Grail. Game on!
In the years that followed, many knights on many adventures sought for the Grail. All ended up badly wounded or worse. Then finally, Sir Galahad, pure in heart and bent only to pursue heavenly ideals, proved indeed to be the greatest of knights, succeeding where others had failed. He obtained the prize, found the Grail and with it, immortality.
The Quest Immortal
So yes. Whoever drinks His blood from the cup, Jesus says, “has eternal life” (Jn. 6:54). But are you beginning to see that while the Holy Grail isn’t anything less than the cup that Christ lifted up at the Last Supper, it's so much more?
The Holy Grail is also the America’s Cup, the Davis Cup, the Stanley Cup and so forth. It is even the Heineken Cup, known in France as the “H Cup” because of the French ban on alcoholic sponsorships.
And yes, it’s also true that the legend of King Arthur and his knights is an ancient Celtic-shaped Christian tale. Long before the Celts were introduced to Christ by St. Patrick, they were already dedicated to the making of ceremonial bowls, chalices, and cups. So is it any surprise that the first sports trophies to assume the shape of a cup in the modern era first emerged in the Celtic-shaped lands of the British Isles?
While this is all rather a lot of fun, what’s deeply true about it all is that the Holy Grail is the abiding symbol of your quest and mine for immortality, regardless of form or approach.
We’re all mysteriously drawn to the Quest Immortal. It doesn't matter if you're sailing a boat, smacking a tennis ball, kicking a football, climbing 8,000 meter peaks, playing chess, or drinking Christ’s blood from a chalice served by a priest in the Eucharistic worship of the Church. We’re all playing the same game for the same prize.
A Pentecostal Story
The quest for the Holy Grail, whether in ancient legend or modern sports, is at heart a Pentecostal story. Pentecost is the thrill of being made kings and priests who reign on the earth before playing the game.
At Pentecost, we're all made new creations in the outpouring of the Spirit. This outpouring is for “all flesh,” including “young men,” “old men," “male servants,” and “female servants” (Acts 2:17-28). Like Galahad, we all may now sit at the Round Table in the Perilous Seat.
Those who sit in the Perilous Seat do not do so because they have already found the Holy Grail. They sit in this sacred place of Secret Counsel as ones destined to find it.
The greatest champions know the thrill of victory long before ever setting foot on the field of battle. Champions win the cup of victory before the game, not after.
At the Olympic Club that afternoon, Rick made that free throw the instant he bowed his head and closed his eyes. That’s why the ball went through the hoop after he released it.
Champions first center down by sitting down in the Perilous Seat and “wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). Then it's game on!
The Feast of Pentecost, 2015
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