Opening Prayer Series: Seventeenth Sunday of Year

The Opening Prayer for the Seventeenth Sunday of Year A reads as follows:

Let us pray

( that we will make use of the gifts that God has given us)

God our Father and protector,

without You nothing is holy,

nothing has value.

Guide us to everalasting life 

by help us to use wisely 

the blessing you have given to the world. 

In making this prayer tangible, the following reflection questions emerged.

1. What gifts has God given to me?
2. How doe I presently use these gifts?
3. What gifts would I like to receive to enhance the gifts already given?
4. What is my relationship with Father God like?
5. How may I improve this relationship this coming week?
6. What are the blessings that God has given to the world?
7. How might I use these blessings more wisely this coming week?

In case we stayed lukewarm after reading/hearing last's week's gospel, the same message is reiterated,which is

'the angels will separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth'   Obviously,  there will be no advantage to anyone (except perhaps dentists!!) being placed with the wicked. We must live our lives according to the gospel so that when the end times come, we will be placed with the just.

With these three parables in today's gospel, Jesus is telling us that we must place our goal of Heaven as our top priority. We must consider it a pearl of great price and worth selling everything to buy it.  Obviously we cannot buy Heaven, but we need to consider it as the ultimate goal for our lives, and want to place all our worldly wealth in their rightful place- second not first in our lives.

This gospel could also be helpful to those of us who have a tendency to hoard. We need to sit down and sort out what is good and what we need as compared to what used to be good and no longer has any use to us.

We need to do this with our physical environment as well as our emotional and spiritual environment.

When we let go of our attachments either on a material, emotional or spiritual level, then there is room for something new  to come in.  Let us not however throw out the baby with the bath water in our 'spring clean'.  We need to use wisdom and discernment to know what to respectfully hold and to use. Both new and old are both good in themselves.  It is up to use to make sure that we keep them in their rightful place.

During this week, let us keep this gospel in mind, and live our lives as justly as we can. Let us keep our goal of Heaven firmly in our minds and hearts since Heaven is our ultimate goal.