COLLECT SERIES
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THE MASS: COLLECT SERIES. |
COLLECT
The Collect for the Twenty Second Sunday of Year C reads as
follows:
God of
might, giver of every good gift,
Put into
our hearts the love of Your name,
So that,
by deepening our sense of reverence,
And,
by Your watchful care,
keep
safe what You have nurtured
Through
our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives
and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God
for ever and ever.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Converting this prayer into
spirituality in action, the following reflection questions emerged:
1.What are the good gifts God has
given me this past week?
2.What are the good gifts I hope to
receive this coming week?
3. How can I love God’s name this
coming week?
4. How have I not honoured in the
past e.g. Allowing people to use God’s name in conversation which does not
honour Him or do I use His name in conversation myself?
5.What does reverence mean to me and
how I deepen my sense of reverence?
6. How has God nurtured me and how can
I bring that sense of nurture to others?
GOSPEL REFLECTION
Imagine attending a very special
banquet or special dinner with ‘’celebrities and/or important people. Imagine if we were to attend a state dinner
hosted by the Queen. What would we
do? Chances are we would not go waltzing
in and sit at the top of the table next to the Queen for example, regardless of
how tempting that might be. No, we would be ushered to our seat and there we would
sit.
Just for a moment, imagine if by impulse
or spur of the moment we did such a thing. What would the reaction be- like
today’s Gospel we would be ushered back to our allotted seat probably feeling
very silly and totally embarrassed.
Now imagine the other scenario- we
are at a state dinner with very important people there. Then one of the waiters come and says to you ‘
The queen requests your company at her table’’.
Imagine walking up to her table- how would you feel- imagine the other
people in the room too- what would they say?
Who is that person -why he/she must be really somebody’’ You would go up
in other people’s estimation.
So today’s Gospel is not so much
about state dinners and places to sit but knowing our own worth. We are equal
in God’s sight, yet we do need to know our place in society.
More importantly today’s Gospel is
about humility. Being humble is not
about being self denigrating or denying the gifts that God has given each of
us. He wants us to be proud of our
achievements but we need to acknowledge that nothing is possible without God’s
help. We all have gifts- special talents
and abilities- we have worked on those gifts of course but God provided them
for us and gives us the ability to improve them even more. If we walk around with a swelled head
thinking and believing that we did it on our own, we have missed the
point. Yes we put in the work but
without God’s help nothing is possible.
On the other hand, we cannot be self
denigrating either by putting ourselves down and our abilities. Why, because
that is not humility. Putting ourselves down or making self-denigrating
comments shows we are not humble but have self esteem issues which heed addressing.
When we self denigrate, we are basically
saying that God had no part in our gifts and we are making out we are the ones
to praise. No, we praise God for our
gifts and accept them and be at peace with who we are. We also need to acknowledge that the gifts
came from God too.
There is obviously a balance to be
struck in this matter- we are all good at something. We need to be pleased for
other people ‘s gifts and who they are and celebrate them. In this process of celebration we do not need
to feel inferior or not as good as or self denigrate.This is not truly being at
peace with ourselves or showing God that we are accepting of our own abilities
through His grace and help.
Celebrate both yourself and your
gifts and others too and embrace the girt of humility in our lives.
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