Collect for 27th Sunday of Year B

 

COLLECT SERIES

 

The Mass: Collect Icon.

COLLECT 

The Collect for the Twenty Seventh Sunday Year B reads as follows:

 

Almighty ever-living God,

who in the abundance of Your kindness

surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,

pour out Your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads

and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.

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 How has God shown me abundance and kindness in my life/during this past week?

2. How have I expressed this gratitude to God for this great abundance and kindness?

3.Make a list of desires which would give you the most joy.  Watch in God’s time how He gives and surpasses my desires at what I think would have made me happy.

4.What areas in my life do I need God’s mercy?

5. What is my attitude to the Sacrament of God’s mercy- Reconciliation? What hindrances do I experience  and how I can I delve deeper into this sacrament?

6. What do I dare not ask God?  Why not ask it this week.

 

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

 The Gospel is from St Mark 10:2-16.  It is divided into two sections.  On the first section which relates to "divorce", Jesus reiterates what was in the Book of Genesis, 2:18-24 which clearly states that from the very beginning, God's plan for marriage was that it should be a life-long unity of one man and one woman. Its purpose is the procreation of children and their education, as well as the mutual love and fulfillment of the husband and wife. These demand this life-long bond. Divorce, which tries to break this bond, breaks the law of the Creator who decreed what was best for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the human race.

The second section of today's Gospel describe an incident which is in no way connected with the previous section, but which has a very useful lesson for all Christians. It describes Christ's love for children and while manifesting this love he stresses the need for all his true followers to be childlike. "I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

To receive the kingdom of God is to accept the teaching of Christ and live according to it in his kingdom on earth. He who does this will enter, after death, into the eternal kingdom of heaven. Christ says, however, that we must accept "like a child": his kingdom on earth, his teaching and the Church he founded to carry on that teaching. Of course, this does not mean: in a childish way, an unthinking, uneducated way, but in a child-like way-a humble, grateful, receptive way. A child is unselfconscious, content to be dependent on others' care and generosity. Christianity is a gift of the generous God to us, we have done nothing and never could do anything to merit it. We must accept it simply and gratefully as a gift; we could never deserve it.

We may wish to reclaim our inheritance as we think of ourselves as a child of God.  Yet we may wish to reflect upon whether we truly are living it as a child of God. If not, resolve to make one change this coming week. Start the process of becoming a child of God in its fullest sense.

The assent of the intellect to the doctrine revealed by Christ is not sufficient of itself for a Christian to earn the eternal kingdom; faith is the total acceptance and commitment of the believer to God through Jesus Christ. A person of true faith commits himself/herself to God with a filial childlike trust, assured that if he/she does all that he can God will do the rest. In fact why not ask our Heavenly Father what to do  and how to do our tasks. Asking God for help is essential but we can also ask Him before we begin a task/duty. Perhaps we have so many tasks to do and we don’t know where to start. Ask your heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, our Christian faith must be childlike, a trusting, humble and obedient faith. This is the kind of faith that will move mountains—the mountains that loom so large in the vision of too many Christians today—the mountains of doubt, selfishness, unwillingness to be subjected to authority. Christ asks us, if we would be his followers: to take up our daily cross and climb the way to Calvary after him. This daily cross is made of the troubles and trials of life from which no one can escape. They can be borne with reluctance and grumbling or they can be accepted as the loving God's means of training us for the future life. Every true Christian accepts his trials in the latter way, for if he is true to his faith he knows that his years on earth are his apprenticeship to prepare him for his eternal life.

God is surely not asking too much of us when he asks us to live our Christian faith in childlike humility, candour and confidence during the days of our pilgrimage on this earth.

Let us live this coming week with passion, enthusiasm and joy despite the difficulties of our personal lives and the global pandemic.