Swimming in Jesus’ Love - Catholic Herald

Rachel Uchytil was a member of the swimming team at St. Leo University in Florida. She is now the associate director for the Office of Parish and School Human Resources for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. (Submitted photo)

BY RACHEL UCHYTIL

SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC HERALD

At age 4, I wanted to be in the AquaNuts Swim Team photo with my big brothers. My mom told me I could join the photo if I joined the team. In my innocent desire to belong, I committed to the swim team instantly. This led to a lifelong love of swimming and opened the door for Jesus to show me the meaning of belonging.

Once I started swimming competitively, I developed a passion for the sport. By age 9, I was racing at the Junior Olympics. As a tween, I got to warm up for a swim meet in the same lane as 12-time Olympic swimming medalist Ryan Lochte. He was nice enough to pretend not to notice me giggling underwater every time he lapped me. In high school, I won medals at the state level and thrived on the team dynamics. Finally, I decided to attend St. Leo University in St. Leo, Florida, and joined the NCAA Division II Swim Team. I always wanted more swimming, like I was searching for something deeper.

What is so enticing about swimming that keeps swimmers coming back for more, despite the 6 a.m. practices in the rain, grueling dryland workouts (what most non-swimmers call “exercising”) and constant smell of chlorine?

Part of it is the camaraderie, the seemingly paradoxical desire to suffer together, and the communal understanding that can only develop among team members. But those experiences come with any team sport.

What makes swimming special to me is that every time I dive into a swimming pool, I feel refreshed and renewed — like the worries of the day are washed away. Being fully immersed in water allows for an intensity of focus and freedom that I’ve rarely experienced outside a swimming pool. Combining the sense of peace from the water and the sense of belonging from my teammates made swimming feel like a “little heaven on earth.” But Jesus had bigger plans for me than a 25-yard swimming pool.

Shortly before college, I experienced a significant personal loss that left me searching for a new identity. At college swim practice, I struggled to find the peace I had always felt in the water and the fellowship I had always known in the locker room. Though I competed at a high level throughout the swim season, the swim team no longer satisfied my desire for belonging. I could no longer cling to my identity as an athlete. However, the lessons of dedication, discipline and ritual that I had learned as a competitive swimmer proved invaluable on my faith journey.

St. Leo’s founders (Benedictine Monks) recognized that constant prayer is the foundation of a faithful life. This was reflected in many ways around the university, but my favorite was a tiny chapel tucked in the center of campus, accessible 24 hours per day. I was encouraged by a friend, now an ordained priest, to attend Night Prayer in the little chapel. The consistency and discipline of Liturgy of the Hours appealed to me as a dedicated athlete and a faithful Catholic.

Each night, there was one antiphon in Night Prayer that struck me: “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord.” (Psalm 130)

I did not recognize it then, but my familiarity with deep, all-enveloping experiences in the water is the reason I was prepared to open my heart to truly cry out to Jesus and his ocean of love. I remembered my Baptism at age 8 at Easter Vigil Mass. The waters of Baptism were the door through which Jesus invited me in. It was like he was preparing me through the water every day I went to swim practice, and inviting me to a deeper sense of belonging every evening at Night Prayer. A belonging I couldn’t find in the depths of the swimming pool.

Through my Baptism and graces of other sacraments, I was able to recognize and accept my truest identity as belonging fully to Jesus. That consolation has served me well as I have grown into my vocation as a woman, navigating challenges of family dynamics, loss, health and daily stressors. Keeping my identity firmly rooted in Jesus has allowed me to love my husband and family through anything.

My love of swimming persists to this day. However, when I dive into the pool now, I don’t need a team cheering me on. I don’t want to be in a team photo. Today, when I swim, I ask myself what plunge the Lord is asking me to take and how it supports my vocation and my family. Faith and sport come together in the cyclical nature of lap swimming, which offers much time for prayer and focused contemplation. No matter what the struggle or discernment, I can always be sure that even in the most turbulent waters, Jesus’ love keeps me afloat.

Rachel Uchytil is the associate director for the Office of Parish and School Human Resources for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.