In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b- 27, St. Paul
shares with us his determination to practice what he preaches and to run the race to the finish line (birth into
eternal life) in order to win an
imperishable crown. He is as committed
to training for that race as are athletes committed to whatever disciplines
will assures that they win the prize
offered for whatever competition into which they enter. In the responsorial psalm, Psalm 84, we pray “Blessed
those whose strength you are, [O Lord]; their hearts are set upon the
pilgrimage.” Individuals whose strength is the Lord will definitely complete
the pilgrimage with flying colors.
The Gospel puts before us what our training, in part,
entails; namely, removing the splinter from our eyes rather than focusing on
the specks in the eyes of others. In
other words, our training involves everything that leads to our conversion into
Christ, allowing the Lord to shape us, mold us, prune us, melt all that is
within us that is not of God in the lava of Christ’s love. This training can be
very painful at times. We need to learn,
as we journey down the path to conversion, to continually put on the attitudes, the
dispositions, the desires of Christ and to recognize those that are contrary to
the way of the Lord. It means allowing ourselves to be purged of the desires of
the flesh, that is, to be pruned of prideful ambitions, jealous disturbances, and
resentful energies. As athletes for Christ, we are repeatedly invited to choose those
disciplines that transform our darkness into light, that shape us into vessels
of the Spirit through which divine energies flow and that purify us of sinful
tendencies.
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