Pope Francis in his homily at an early morning mass in the chapel of his residence explained that just as atheletes we as christains too need to train to attain the Victorious life of christain which is Heaven.
He reflected on the first reading ofrom the book of Saint Paul to the Romans and urged everyone to offer our bodies and soul to the lord “as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.”
Pope Francis adviced us to make efforts to uphold righteousness in order to sanctifed as he said “The efforts we make, this daily work of serving the Lord with our soul, with our heart, with our body, with our whole life only opens the door to the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said. “It is he who enters into us and saves us! He is the gift in Jesus Christ!”
He added that working towards attaining Heaven is a day-by-day struggle, and he admitted that he is also aware that on eachday of our lives temptations to go back to our constant since, original sin and the Devil will always stand in our way. As an example, the Pope spoke about a woman he met who despite suffering from cancer, “moved with happiness” and “acted like she was healthy.’
“And speaking about this attitude, she told me, ‘Father, I would do anything to beat the cancer!’ It’s that way with the Christian,” the Pope said. “We who have received this gift in Jesus Christ and we have passed from sin, from the life of iniquity” and must keep moving forward, “one step every day.”
These small efforts, he said, “help us not to fall, not to go back, not to return to iniquity but to go forward toward this gift, this promise of Jesus Christ which is precisely the encounter with Him.”
“Let us ask this grace from the Lord: to be strong, to be strong in this training of life toward the encounter, that we might receive the gift of justification, the gift of grace, the gift of the Spirit in Christ Jesus,” the Pope said.
