Collect for 26th Sunday of Year A

 

COLLECT SERIES

 

COLLECT

 

The Collect for the 26th Sunday of Year reads as follows:

 

O God, who manifest Your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy,

Bestow we, pray, Your grace abundantly upon us

And make those hastening to attain Your promises heirs to the treasures of Heaven.

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.Do I truly believe in the power of God to pardon and show mercy to me?

2. When have I/do I experience this power?

3. What is my ‘relationship’ to the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  How will I improve this relationship this coming week?

4.What are the promises of God? How do I attain them?

5.How can I receive some of the treasures of Heaven now/this coming week?

6.How will I ensure this coming week that my life shows my goal of wishing to attain Heaven?

 

 GOSPEL REFLECTION

Today’s Gospel from St Matthew shows through the parable that lip service is not acceptable to God- in working in His vineyard.  There is no room for hypocrisy. In the parable Jesus was warning the chief priests and elders, knowing full well that this was the type of service they were offering God.  Yet, in His mercy, Jesus through the parable teaches them to look at their lives and change.  Did they listen and take action?  Some may have listened  and some may have taken some action for some of the time and of course some did not the need to change.

 

Of course, the parable is not only for those chief priests and elders.  It is for ourselves too.  We need to listen to this Gospel and hear Jesus ask us whether we will go into His vineyard today.  Will we be like the first or second son.

Notice that the first son said yes immediately but did not follow through with the necessary action.  The second son said no initially but thought the better of it- in other words, he realised his mistake and took action to rectify it.

 

We all have a first and second son in each of us.  We need to identify the times we tend to be like the first son. We need to ask ourselves why we give lip service and we need to remember that every time we give lip service to someone we are really giving lip service to God.  Are the any patterns in the activity that leads us to give lip service or it that we really don’t care enough about doing work in the vineyard of the Lord- in our home workplace, parish and wider world?

 

Then we need to examine the second son in us. What are the occasions that we tend to say no to initially and why do we say no?  What are the occasions we have said no and gained benefit when we have rectified these poor decisions?

I wonder whether when we asked to do something whether it may be better to say  and mean something such as ’ I will give consideration to your request’- then we can think sincerely about what is being asked of us and whether we can do the task. We are not under pressure to give an answer straight away.  For some people making a quick assessment of a situation is difficult for them and they prefer to think about it first.  Putting them on the spot is a sure way to get a no answer immediately. However allowing them to think and return to you with their answer means they will be fully committed if they say yes. They have thought if through.

 

Jesus gives us the chance to be both sons and still loves us. He wants us to work in His vineyard but He wants us to be willing participants in His work. The other aspect of saying Yes and then not following through at both the practical and spiritual level is trust is either gained or lost in the process.  If we say yes and then do not follow through and we do this regularly, then our word means nothing. We cannot be trusted. Saying no initially could be impulsive and we could miss out on God’s graces for the task He is asking of us through someone else.  When we think the better of it, it takes a certain amount of humility to admit we made a mistake and backtrack.

 

God wants us to work for Him in building up the Kingdom.  The church is in a state around the world along with the world itself desperately trying to take God out of the psyche of society.  We need to be prepared to say Yes to God and mean it = to say yes whole heartedly and be ready to roll up our sleeves and get working for Him.   We may not earn treasure for us on earth but we will be building treasure for our souls so that we will be ready for Heaven.