Collect for 16th Sunday of Year B

 COLLECT SERIES

The Mass Collect Series Icon.

COLLECT SERIES

The Collect for 16^th Sunday of Year B reads as follows:

 

Show favour, O Lord, to Your servants

and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace,

that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity,

they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

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

1. What is the main area in my life that I wish to ask God favour for this coming week?

2. How can I cooperate with God’s grace this coming week?

3. What are the commands that I need to be watchful this coming week?

4. What are the commands of the Lord that I find difficult to keep?

5. How will I make progress in my spiritual life this coming week (even in this period of lock down?)

 

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

Jesus takes the apostles away to a quiet place for retreat, so that they can pray and be together, and deepen their faith and commitment. However, when their boat comes ashore, a crowd of people are already there before them and are waiting for them. The planned retreat must now give way to the needs of this hungry people, who are hungry for more of what Jesus has to offer them. Jesus could have turned that boat around and gone off in search of another place for peace and quiet. But he did not do that since to do that is to close your heart to human need.

 

The sight of these people has a profound effect on Jesus. He is deeply moved by what he sees - people who seem lost and directionless, people who seem vulnerable to every wind that blows. They are people like sheep without a shepherd.

Shepherds, as we know, provide leadership and good guidance for sheep, finding new pastures for them and keeping guard over them in the watches of the night, so that predators may not attack and kill them. So many people in the world are like sheep without a shepherd, easy prey for those who would take advantage of them and destroy them. Life should not be like this. Everyone deserves to be loved and cared for, but the world is full of sorrow. That is why the retreat had to wait. Jesus saw needy people and responded right away.

The world needs shepherds. Everyone needs a shepherd. Without the care and love and protection of a shepherd we will all be lost. We will be vulnerable to those who wish to exploit us for their own selfish and cruel ends. Sometimes people fall through the cracks in society. No one seems to be responsible, and young people and poor people are left to die by the wayside.

When we see a need  do we respond to it in some way or do we close our minds and hearts to the person who is in need.  Jesus tells us in the scripture that ‘whatever we do to the least of our brethren, we do to Him’.  He also reminds us in Matthew’s Gospel that at the end of time, we will be judged (Mt 25).