Last Sunday was a day full of memorable and spectacular events. The day started with an epic battle for supremacy in the tennis world between Swiss “Maestro” Roger Federer and Spanish “Iron Man” Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open Tennis Championships at Melbourne, Australia. The 5-set match was such a riveting show to watch and when the smoke cleared, Federer was left standing alone, hoisting the championship trophy for his improbable run and unprecedented 18th Grand Slam Title- in effect solidifying his place as the greatest tennis player of all time.
Later in the evening, it was the grand pageant of smart and talented beauties from eighty-six countries in the world competing for the much coveted title of Miss Universe in Manila, Philippines. This event attracted much attention because of what happened at the competition last year when the host, Steve Harvey, proclaimed Miss Colombia who was actually the first runner-up as Miss Universe 2016 instead of Miss Philippines who was the choice of the panel of judges.
When Steve Harvey who was hosting the event once again gave his opening remarks, he referred to the major blunder that he committed the previous year. And he reminded the audience that mistakes that we commit are a thing of the past and we need to just move on after we learn valuable lessons from them. Why Manila was chosen to be the venue for the next pageant may have been a political move to mollify the feelings of the wronged Pia Wurtzbach, the Filipino reigning Miss Universe and the millions of her countrymen that she represented who may have been slighted by the faux pax. In fact in the selection process, it seemed that the organizers tried to make up for the elephantine mistake by having Miss Philippines and Miss Colombia get to the final six and three respectively.
I like the positivity with which the host and the contestants that were offended took it. Pia worked hard to bring the pageant to her country and hoped that the same guy would host again to have the chance to redeem himself. She even came to bring a pair of eyeglasses to Steve prior to reading the results of the judges’ vote “so that he doesn’t make the same mistake” as he did the previous year. Which Steve dutifully put on this symbolizing a desire and determination to be accurate and precise in the proclamation of the results.
The undeclared theme seemed to be that when we make mistakes we should learn from them, leave them behind and move on. In fact this was the basis of the final question that was asked of the final three contestants. Miss France was direct to the point and she told the world what she did as a result of her mistake and made her life all the better for it. I honestly believe this won her the title.
In our spiritual lives, we fail and make mistakes as humans normally do. This is expected. What is important is that we learn from our mistakes and the lessons we learn should make us better persons as we move on to the achievement of our cherished dreams and goals.
St. Paul said, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:13, 14).