Collect for 25th Sunday of Year A

 

COLLECT SERIES

 

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COLLECT

 

The Collect for the 24th Sunday of Year reads as follows:

 

O God, who founded all the commands of Your sacred Law

upon love of You and of our neighbour,

grant that, by keeping Your precepts,

we may merit to attain eternal life. 

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. .    What is the state of my relationship with God right now? 
2.     What is my relationship with my neighbour?.   
3.   What is my relationship with myself- do I love myself as God loves me as a child of God?
4. What do I need to do to know the precepts of the Catholic Church to make them my own? Do I know them and can apply them in my life?
5. How badly do I want to attain eternal life?

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

Jesus says in today’s Gospel ‘Why be envious because I am generous.’

From the psychological perspective, envy is caused by a dissatisfaction with self-image—our perception of our actual stature. This dissatisfaction is also called low self-esteem—a poor self-appraisal of our actual stature. Because we feel inferior to the person we may envy, envy is related to shame. Envy encourages us to achieve higher stature.

There are a variety of key signs of when we fall into the trap of being envious and/or are being targeted by someone in our lives who is envious of us.  To read more about these signs you may wish to click on this link. 

If we think of those workers in the parable who worked hard all day in the heat, they were tired and weary but they also would have likely to have had low self esteem.  Why- they were unemployed. Yes, the vineyard owner gave them work for the day. They would have likely to have been grateful for that initially at the beginning of the day, but on an ongoing basis, they knew in their hearts that this employment was going to be short lived. They were not able to deal with their issues of shame.

The other problem for our early workers in the parable is that they expected more when it was not their call to expect more.  Notice too, they took the money but grumbled.  If they really were that angry with the vineyard owner for his treatment of them, then why did they accept the money and then grumble. After all, Jesus points out it was what was agreed upon in their contract with the vineyard owner.

 

So what about us?  Are we envious/jealous?   How do you feel when you are struggling and you hear of someone winning tattslotto?  Do you really wish them well or do you truly wish it was you who had the good fortune?  Do you feel a tinge of envy- perhaps you might even say’ I wish that was me’?  Are you able to wish someone well without comparing or wanting it for yourself?

 

It is interesting to note that when we look at envy from the spiritual perspective that envy is listed as one of the seven deadly sins or the seven capital sins. The Church encourage us to practise virtue to combat our traits/sinfulness.  We can ask the Holy Spirit to root out the deadly sin of envy and replace it with the fruit of the Spirit of generosity.  For each of the 7 deadly sins which kill the life of God within us and makes our conscience dead to the life of Christ, the Church provides the remedy- the Virtues which are the vaccine for these deadly sins.  Unlike a vaccine, we need to be continually injected with the fruits of the Spirit and practise these virtues every day. 

 

Why was it that the first group of works grumbled and not the other workers?   They lacked appreciation for what the vineyard owner did for them. He gave them work for that day.  The other workers were given a better outcome through the generosity of the vineyard owner.  The first group had expectations which were not theirs to have and they failed to appreciate that their work in the field was valuable.  If they had a healthy self esteem, they would have been pleased that the other workers did well and they would have taken pride in their own work. 

 

So where do we fit into this parable?  Are we the vineyard owner able to be generous with what we have because God has been  kind to us?  Are we in the position to provide work for other people and provide a fair wage for their work?

Do we grumble at home or at work when other people are promoted or get a raise/bonus and we do not or are we able to be pleased for them?

 

There are many applications in our lives to this parable.  We need to remember what Jesus said ‘  ‘Why be envious because I am generous.’