COLLECT SERIES
The Mass: Collect Series Icon.
COLLECT
The Collect for the Twenty Second Sunday Year B 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,
You may nurture in us what is good
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
In making this prayer tangible, the
following reflection questions emerged:
1. Name the gifts God has given you
in this last week and say thank you to God for these gifts.
2. How do I speak about God?
3. Do I take the Lord’s name in vain
or do I use it to honour and praise Him?
4. What do I do when other people
misuse God’s name. What strategy can I use this week to bring to awareness the rightful
use of God’s name and stopping its misuse?
5.What do I see good in Me? How does God see me?
6. Spend time this week giving thanks
for all God is doing in my life.
GOSPEL REFLECTION
The Gospel is from St Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23. In today's encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus tells them that
they are hypocrites: "they honour God with their lips but their heart is
far from God"; they obey the Law and the traditions, not to please God,
but to be seen and admired by men; their motive, self-glorification, vitiates every
otherwise good act they perform. Christ then addresses the people — the crowds
who most likely had overheard his dialog with the Pharisees — and he tells them
that it is not legal or cultic uncleanliness that matters, but cleanliness of
the heart before God. Eating with unwashed hands, or using unwashed vessels for
drinking, does not defile a man, this does not make him less worthy before God.
It is not from things outside him that a man incurs defilement but from his own
innermost self. Every serious sin against God and neighbor has its beginning
within a man, in his intellect and will; the evil design is the forerunner and
instigator of the evil deed.
The
Pharisees should have known all this. They did know it. They knew very well
that before a man breaks any of the commandments of God he must first plan and
decide to break it; it was not their theology that was defective but their
practice. They despised their neighbours and called fellowmen
"sinners," because through ignorance they violated many of the
man-made precepts the Pharisees had added to the Law of Moses. There were also
fellow-Jews of theirs who violated the law itself, but it was not their right
to judge or condemn much less excommunicate them, as they so often did in
practice.
Christ
condemned the Pharisees by word and deed. He was merciful, kind and
understanding to all sinners. He forgave sin and promised forgiveness to all
who would repent of their past misdeeds. Not only that: for he left to his
followers for all time his sacrament of mercy and forgiveness, by means of
which they could have their sins forgiven by his minister, acting in his name.
Should we ever forget all he has done for us and disobey in a
serious way any of his commandments, let us remember that we are not excluded
from his company as the sinners were excluded by the Pharisees: we have banged
the door on ourselves but he has given us the key with which to reopen it. Let
us never be so foolish as to fail to use that key.
Let us recommit to receiving God’s mercy through the Sacrament of
Reconciliation regularly.
‘In this time of pandemic where we may not be able to receive this
Sacrament because of lockdown restrictions, we can turn to Christ and ask His forgiveness and prepare to make a
good confession at the first opportunity.
Lockdown can be an opportunity to review our lives and to prepare the
way of the Lord to receive His mercy.
