I like to win. I like it when my sports teams win. A personality test once told me that one of my biggest strengths is in competition. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishment of having set a high goal, worked and trained hard, and the achieved something that really stretched you. The desire to be the best, sometimes helps bring out the best in people.
St. Paul uses a lot of competition and sports analogies in his preaching. He tells the Corinthians that life is a like a race and we should “Run so as to win,” (1 Cor 9:24). In today’s second reading he tells the Philippians, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
St. Paul says that he wants to “possess,” literally, “grab hold of” or “grasp” this prize. This is the great prize of his life, to know Jesus and the power flowing from his resurrection. What prize are you running after in life? What are you grasping at?
Even if you find that you at times are grasping at things less than God, Paul gives us some great news. The most important thing is not so much that we grasp God but that he has grasped us. If we are running away from him or fallen to the ground in our sin, God is right there. He wants to grasp us and lift us up.
Jesus became one of us and endured all of his holy passion because he is passionate about us. He loves us and wants us more than anything. We are his prize. Is he ours?