Collect for 30th Sunday of Year A

The Collect for the 30th Sunday of Year A reads as follows:

 

Almighty ever-living God,

increase our faith, hope and charity,

and makes us love what You command,

so that we may merit what You promise.

 

In making this prayer tangible for during the week, the following reflection questions emerged:

 

1. What is faith and what does my faith mean to me?

2. How will I increase my faith this coming week?

3. What is hope and what does it mean to me?

4. How will I increase hope in my life this coming week?

5. What is love and what does it mean to me?

6. How will I increase love this coming week in my life?

7. What does God command?

8.  What does God promise and how will I merit it?

 

In the first reading we are reminded that if we are harsh with the widow or orphan, God's anger will rage against you.  In other words, we are to treat those who are experiencing difficulties in their lives with respect and the more vulnerable their position is, the more we need to treat them as well as we can.

 

In the second reading, we are reminded to turn away from idols and to serve God.  We need to examine therefore what our idols are as awareness of them is the first step. If we are not aware that they serve as an idol, it is impossible to make the decision freely to turn away from them.  If we are not aware of the idols in our lives, then pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten us- to show us the areas of our lives that need  changing- that possess some sort of idol in it.

Idols can be in themselves harmless but it is what we make them, what we do with them that makes them an idol.  For example- watching TV can be an enjoyable activity. However when we watch too much of it and neglect our duties or our families or God, then it has become an idol. We consider it to be more important than God, our family or our duty. It is out of whack with what is healthy.

Food can become another idol- we all need food but as we know some food is not good for us in extreme amounts. Food for some people can become an addiction and/or an escape from the troubles in their lives.  It can replace God in this sense because they go to food as their comfort and guide rather than seek God and His guidance.  I know- it is my weakness and something I have to watch carefully.

 

The Gospel outlines the commandment of love- the two fold one- to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

From a counselling perspective it is
difficult to give and receive love if we do not love ourselves in a healthy manner first.  Note I say a healthy manner. 

God expects us to love ourselves- He does not consider it to be selfish. It can be if we only think of ourselves but healthy love of ourselves involves  respecting ourselves in our body, in our mind and in our souls. It means to give balance to our relationship to God, to oneself and to other people. It means to be aware of our shortcomings and be prepared to work on these areas so that we can become a stronger, healthier version of ourselves- to be made in the image and likeness of God. It is us who, through original sin and our contribution of sin mar God’s image. We need to love God that we wish to restore that likeness of God’s image  and do whatever it takes to live a healthy balanced and respectful life  by being the best version of ourselves- the version God intended.

Loving our neighbour can only occur effectively if we, ourselves love God.  We cannot fully love our neighbour and ourselves if we fail to spend time with God, if we do not pray and enter into relationship with Him.  We cannot love God if we do not give Him worship at Sunday Mass or we ignore His commandments. 

God must be number ONE  in our lives.  Then and only then, will our quest for loving ourselves in a healthy way and our neighbour be possible.