Collect for 19th Sunday of Year B

 

COLLECT SERIES

The Mass: Collect Series Icon.

The Collect for 19^th Sunday of Year B reads as follows:

 

Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit,

we dare to call our Father,

 bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption

as your sons and daughters,

that we may merit to enter into the inheritance

which you have promised.

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:

How will I nurture the relationship I have with the Holy Spirit this coming week?

What is my relationship with God the Father?

What does it mean to me to be a son or daughter of God through adoption?

What steps will I take this coming week to enter into my inheritance of God through the life I lead?

How will encourage others to dare to believe in God and accept their true calling?

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

The Gospel is from St. John 6:41-51. The main point of doctrine in this part of our Lord's discourse, as given by St. John, is the necessity for belief in Christ who has come down from heaven. It is only in the last verse of today's text that Christ explicitly states that he is about to give his own very body as their spiritual food to those who believe in him. The description of himself as "bread from heaven" and the vital difference between the effect of this bread and the manna given to their fathers in the desert, are a definite preparation for the announcement of the doctrine of the Eucharist.

However, before they could even think of accepting this teaching on the Eucharist they had first to accept Christ as divine, as the Son of God.  This is just as true now in our own time.  Jesus is truly present as we receive the body and blood of Christ.  The host may look and feel and tastes like bread but it is not just bread. It is truly Jesus Himself when exposed in the monstrance, in the tabernacles of the Church an from the moment of consecration at Mass.  Yes, Jesus is truly present through the power of the Holy Spirit through the channel of the priest.

These Galileans  who listened to Jesus with their ears and not their hearts began a long line of unbelievers which has stretched down through the centuries to our own day. The reasons for the unbelief are the same today as they were in the year 29 A.D. Man is proud of his intelligence; which he did not give to himself. Whatever he cannot grasp within the limited confines of that intellect, he treats as non-existent as far as he is concerned. If a God exists, a doubtful possibility to these great thinkers, we mortals can know nothing about him; he is beyond our ken and we can be of no concern to him.

However, Jesus also tells the disciples elsewhere in scripture ‘happy are they who have not seen and yet believe’. 

Are we one of those happy believers or do we go to Mass out of obligation or just half-heartedness?  Perhaps, with covid 19 when we have had to stop physically attending, we have not attended a Mass online either. Or perhaps, when we can attend Mass physically in person, our mind and heart is elsewhere.

 

Whatever our current situation, we can review where we are at and decided this week through the grace of God to believe- truly believe Jesus in the best possible ways we can. We can ask Jesus during Mass either in person or online for the graces we need to be truly committed to Him and to be open to all the graces He wishes to give us for our lives.

We can also resolve to do something towards being the person Jesus wants us to be this coming week.