Friday, September 12, 2014

Athletes for Christ



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.  

That is what God is inviting me to consider in today’s reading? To what is God inviting you?

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