Collect for 20th Sunday of Year A

 

COLLECT SERIES

 

COLLECT

 

The Collect for the 20th Sunday of Year reads as follows:

 

O God, who have prepared for those who love You

Good things which no eye can see,

Fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of Your love,

So that loving You in all things and above all things,

We may attain Your promises, which surpass every human desire.

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

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

1.How would I describe my relationship with God?

2. How would others describe my relationship with God?  Is there any difference? What changes might I make this coming week?

3.What does the love of God mean to me especially the warmth of His love?

4. What priority do I give to God?  Is He no 1? Do I love Him in all things and above all things?

5. What are the priorities I give before God?  Remember these priorities can be good in themselves but are a lesser choice when God is no 1 priority.

6.What are the promises of God? How do I find out about the promises of God?

 

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 15:21-28. In this Gospel Jesus highlights the need to persevere in our prayers of petition. Prayer has many elements to it such as adoration and thanksgiving as well as intercession.  Prayer of Praise and adoration and thanksgiving should be the start of every prayer before we ask for our spiritual and temporal needs, needs which we cannot provide by ourselves. Christ himself has told us to ask Him for these needs: "ask and you shall receive."

When we pray we need to pray with faith as it is essential to the prayer being granted.  It is also important to remember that we may pray incessantly for something and not necessarily receive it exactly as we ask.  We may be tempted to think that Jesus did not answer our prayer but we need to remember that Jesus always answers our prayers in the most loving way for us.  Sometimes when our prayer is not granted in the way we want, we are being saved from a lot of pain. We need to accept as part of our faith in our prayer that Jesus does know what is best for us and will do the most loving thing for us.

We also need to ask with fervour and perseverance. God hears our prayer the first time we ask so it is not like we think God is deaf or He has forgotten about us.  Praying with perseverance helps us build our faith.  Do we ask with the fervour and perseverance which prove that we have "great faith"?

In today’s Gospel, the Canaanite woman gives us an example of that deep-seated faith and trust in Christ's power and Christ's goodness. Even though He seemingly ignored her she continued to beseech Him, and when He answered with what seemed a direct refusal, her faith and trust did not waver. She answered His reason for refusal with another statement which showed that the granting of her petition would not in any way interfere with or impede His primary task, His mission to His father's chosen people. This was the proof of great faith which He required. He granted her request.

When we intercede for ourselves for a particular spiritual or temporal need, our faith must be sincere and we must be unwavering.  Today is also a good reminder to see what we ask of Jesus.  Are our requests always for temporal needs or do we have a good balance between asking for spiritual needs and temporal needs?  You might like to check this over a day/a week and a month to see what we pray for most or what is missing in our intercessory prayer. 

This Gospel invites us to imitate and learn from this pagan mother. Her love for her child made her ready to undergo every hardship or suffering for the restoration to health of her loved one. When we turn to Christ in our needs is our faith in Him as sincere and unwavering as was this woman's? No doubt it often is, and yet we do not get the desired answer. As Christians we know that our particular request may not always be for our good, or for the final good of the person for whom we are praying. In that case, the good God will not grant what would be to our eternal disadvantage. But if our prayer is sincere and persevering, we shall always get an answer, and one which is better than what we asked for.

Perhaps we may go through phases where we wonder at or perhaps doubt God's mercy. We might even say where is God's mercy?  We might even feel like this as we pray for an end to the covid 19 pandemic and yet, see the numbers each day on the TV.  Where is His answer to these sincere prayers?

In this time of doubt or wonder, we must continue to pray and persevere. We may even tell God about our doubt and wonder.  However, when we realise this situation, we may wish to acknowledge it and ask in prayer ‘help our unbelief’. 

 

We do not understand the ways of God, but we know in faith that God loves us.  God will bring good out of any situation. We need to pray with trust and with faith and never give up hope. Sometimes this can be overwhelming for us to continue to pray when we see no result or no result we want.  Can we leave the result up to God and pray with faith and trust and continue to intercede for our world, for others we know in need and for ourselves for our spiritual and temporal needs?

It is only when we get to heaven - and getting to heaven is our purpose in life - that we shall see how our prayers, sincere and persevering, were answered by God.