In Saint Paul’s words: “Compete well for the faith.”
If one is to compete well at something they must continue to practice each day at their craft. An athlete would be unable to compete well if they did not first commit their self fully to their sport of choice. One would not simply wake up and find themself playing in the NFL or NBA if they had not first prepared themself to compete.
This rule also applies to our pursuit of faith. Saint Paul lists a whole slew of virtues for us to excel at. He mentions: “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” Despite this how many of us truly set out to master these virtues in order that we can be numbered among the saints?
The Prophet Amos makes it known that there are those who have grown complacent. They have allowed themself to be surrounded by comfort and excess and they see no reason to be put into action. This rings true with many who see no urgency to excel at their faith. On September 11th the Twin Towers came tumbling down. With it came a great urgency which filled churches, but as time went by the numbers only decreased.
To live out our faith properly we must transcend urgency and it must become something that is put into practice daily. We must remember that as Christian we are called to live within the world, but not be of the world. This notion is further summed up for us in today’s Gospel passage. Here we came to encounter the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man lived in the world, but he also lived of the world. On the other hand, Lazarus lived in the world, but he did not live of the world. The rich man came to be punished for his ways while Lazarus, in his poverty, was taken into the bosom of Abraham.
And so with this in mind it would be a grave mistake for Christians to allow their eternal destiny to become overshadowed by their worldly preoccupations. In the words of Cardinal Sarah from his newest book, The Day is Now Far Spent: “Faith is therefore a Yes to God. It requires a person to leave his gods, his culture, all human assurances, and riches in order to enter the land, the culture, and the inheritance of God. Faith consists of letting oneself be guided by God. He becomes our wealth, our present and our future. He becomes our strength, our support, our security, our unshakable rock in which we can rely.”
I hope that we can see that faith is more then a word. It is a way of life. It is something that we must set out each day to grow in. Each of us are called towards Heaven and yet so many do not heed this call. We have been called to “compete well for the faith.” We have been called to grow in our pursuit of virtue. We have been called to allow God to become our strength in the midst of all that we encounter. May we come to heed this call.
