30th Sunday C 07

Many of us use sporting terms to describe everyday events.
We say things like, on your marks, fight your corner,
par for the course and game set and match.
This is not new. We heard how St Paul described his own life
as the good fight fought and a race finished.
What he meant was, of course, that he had a good go at
doing what the Lord wanted him to do.
He tried hard to live his life in accordance with
the teachings of Christ and in the face of many difficulties
he kept the faith.
He wrote this letter to his co-worker Timothy from captivity
where he felt that his end was near. He did not mind that,
he was ready to move on and claim his reward from God.
He added that all of us could look forward to
getting our rewards.

So having made a good attempt to live our lives well
we can look forward to our heavenly crown.
Some of you will say, no, not me.
There have been many bad things in my life,
I have not always tried to do the good thing,
I failed miserably, and so on.
The man who said the same sort of things about himself
in the Gospel, the tax collector,
was at rights with God - said Jesus.

Let us be positive about our future,
whatever difficulties we may face at present.