30th Sunday Ordinary Time – Year A

Deacon Tom Vert

Preached: October 26, 2025

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Today we see St. Paul in the 2 nd reading in a prison cell in Rome writing his last letter to his friend a fellow missionary Timothy. He is playing a highlight reel in his head of his journey of faith and all the things that have happened…and what a journey it was.

Paul gave us a summary in his letter to the Corinthians:

• 199 lashings with a whip, 3 times beaten with rods, once he was stoned, three
  shipwrecks on his three missionary journeys where he walked, rode and travelled
  by boat over the ancient Greek world.
• He tells us that he suffered through robbers, persecutions, false teachers to fight
  with, weariness, pain, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness.
• And we know of all the troubles he had to deal with in the new churches with
  rivalries, internal fights and squabbles

Looking back on his life, Paul makes three key statements: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. St. Paul conjures up the image of a Greek athlete in the first century that would have been well known to all his readers.

The Ancient Olympics were a major event with running and boxing as key components, and the athletes would, just like now, put in every possible effort to win to the point of exhaustion.

“I have fought the good fight,” as the struggle had been sustained in his travels.

“I have finished the race”, which was not only the long journeys that he took, but also the mission which he had received from Jesus himself.

“I have kept the faith”, St. Paul looks back on his lived life to guard the treasure of the faith and help those entrusted to him by passing on the baton of the “Good news”, the gospel of Christ.

In the gospel we see two others reviewing their faith journeys as they went to the Temple to pray – a Pharisee and a tax collector.

The Pharisee we are told “took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself”, being puffed up with pride and telling himself and God what an awesome religious person he was.

He did more than required of the law, fasting more, giving bigger donations, and essentially saying that he was perfect and in no need of God’s assistance.

The tax collector couldn’t even enter the temple, couldn’t raise his eyes to heaven as he felt so unworthy and pleaded to God for mercy as he could not go forward alone but needed God’s help.

The comparison of the two “highlight reels” as they review their lives are stark as we see the contrast between humility and pride. And we know what God loves from the book of Isaiah “This is the one I love: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word". God wants a true relationship of love with each of us in which humility, honesty, and truth are the foundation.

Pope Francis echoes this when he tells us “What can the Lord give to the one whose heart is filled with one’s self-importance…Nothing.”

• So how do we go forth today in the example of the tax collector and St. Paul? We hear some wonderful messages to help guide us today: From the first reading of Sirach, we are told “he hears the cry of the burdened” and we can take comfort that when we bring our needs to him humbly our prayers will “pierce the clouds” and reach God’s ears.
• In the psalm we are told that like St. Paul, “the Lord is close to the broken-hearted and those who are crushed in spirit”. When we are devastated by the challenges of this life, we are comforted as God draws even closer to us.
• And from Paul’s letter to Timothy, as he his reviewing this “highlight reel” of his life, his key memory is that “the Lord stood by me and gave me strength.”

This is the Good News of our salvation!

We have a Messiah, our Lord and Saviour, who came to earth, and lived with us, so that our relationship with God, through him and with the power of the Holy Spirit, means that we never walk the challenges alone.

We can experience the love of God each day as “heaven here on earth”, right now, because Christ offered himself up in love, so that we may know the love of God and be able to share that love with our neighbour.

His love, his presence, and comfort are available as we approach him with a humble and contrite heart.

So, this week, I would offer that in our prayer life, just before our sleep at night, we look back on our day, quietly, humbly and submit ourselves to him saying: Thank you for being with me Lord…I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.