The Best Race
Palm Sunday
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”Ps. 22
The formation that we should all be seeking every day is conformity to Christ. It is within our reach and it is the best race, the highest, the one that will make us achieve the most in this life and for eternity.
As St. Paul says, if for a corruptible crown athletes strive…
“Everyone who competes in games abstains from everything. They do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible one. Therefore, I run in this way, not as if l have no goal; in this way I fight, not as if I beat the air, but I beat my body and make it my slave, lest, having preached to others, I myself be disqualified.”1 Cor 9,25ff
The good thing about this race is that it gives us access to true wisdom, freeing us from much short-sightedness of human vision, it graduates our sight to see correctly with the eyes of God, it frees us from much foolishness and clumsiness, because it leads us to Christian maturity, to divine dignity, to the freedom of children of God.
This race will fill us with the fruits of the Spirit, which is the most desirable and precious thing we can find in this world, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, meekness, mastery of our ego. He also gives us access to his gifts: wisdom, strength, discernment, science, advice, …
What more could we wish for? No other career assures us of such priceless fruits and gifts. And the best thing is that you do not need to go to study in a specific place, or pay tuition, or submit to a class schedule, or stay up late studying etc. For it is the school of life itself, and its teacher is Jesus, who continues to teach us constantly through his Church, always at our disposal, wherever we are, whenever we open our hearts to him.
Training with Him is better than with the most prestigious teacher in Jerusalem or the whole world. It is the most prestigious university that will give us true wisdom. There is only one necessary condition or requirement: to want. Wanting is power, because it will lead us to seek and put the necessary means, because if one does not seek, he does not find.
We need to hunger and thirst for God, for his love, joy and peace, to seek him every day, and to yearn as the highest ideal for this formation, the conformation with him, to form ourselves in his image who is the perfect image of God that we are called to be (Col 1:15).
If we are not given body and soul to this ultimate ideal, our defects and clumsiness will increase, the ego will absorb us in its foolishness and absurd whims, and we will end up being the most worthy of compassion.
“For those whom He foreknew He also called to be made after the image of His Son, that He might be the
firstborn among many brethren.”Romans 8:29
Readings for the Week
Monday: Is 42:1-7; Ps 27:1-3, 13-14; Jn 12:1-11
Tuesday: Is 49:1-6; Ps 71:1-6, 15, 17; Jn 13:21-33, 36-38
Wednesday: Is 50:4-9a; Ps 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34; Mt 26:14- 25
Thursday: Chrism Mass: Is 61:1-3ab, 6a, 8b-9; Ps 89:21-22, 25, 27; Rv 1:5-8; Lk 4:16-21 Lord’s Supper: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15
Friday: Is 52:13 — 53:12; Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1 — 19:42
Saturday:
a) Gn 1:1 — 2:2 [1:1, 26-31a]; Ps 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35; or Ps 33:4-7, 12-13, 20-22;
b) Gn 22:1-18 [1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18]; Ps 16: 5, 8-11;
c) Ex 14:15 — 15:1; Ex 15:1-6, 17-18;
d) Is 54:5-14; Ps 30:2, 4-6, 11-13;
e) Is 55:1-11; Is 12:2-6;
f) Bar 3:9-15, 32 — 4:4; Ps 19:8-11;
g) Ez 36:16-17a, 18-28; Ps 42:3, 5; 43:3-4 or
Is 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6 or Ps 51:12-15, 18-19;
h) Rom 6:3-11; i) Mt 28:1-10
Sunday: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8; Jn 20:1-9 or Mt 28:1-10 or (at an afternoon or evening Mass) Lk 24:13-35