This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Show favor, 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.

In this prayer, when we ask God to show us His favor, we are asking Him to satisfy us. In Latin, it means that we want Him to give us what we want. But what we want, which an increase of HIs gifts, comes after our repentance, when we tell God we are sorry and want to make amends.

We are asking for more of His grace, which is the Holy Spirit. The gifts of His grace are the theological virtues of hope, faith, and charity.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1813, we learn that these virtues are “infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life.” Even more powerful, the Catechism tells us that these virtues are “the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.” Hope, faith, and charity are the divine life in us.

The benefit of God’s favor is that we can carry out His commands. If you’re thinking the there are only 10 commandments, so this shouldn’t be too bad, you need to think again. In the Gospels, Jesus adds more to our “to do” list, and these is only a few examples: He tells us to repent (Matt 4:17), follow Him (Matt 4:19), let our light shine (Matt 5:16), seek the Kingdom first (Matt 6:33), do not worry about tomorrow (Matt 6:34), and practice forgiveness (Matt 8:21).

In Matthew 28:19-20, just before He ascends into heaven Jesus gives another command, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

If it sounds like a tall order, Jesus also commands those who love Him to keep his commandments (John 14:15). If we need to make that order even taller, 1 John 5:3 tells us that “for the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

How can all these commands not be a burden? Remember, we have been given faith, hope, and charity, and today we ask for more because If we want to do more for God, we need more of God.

The virtues in the prayer aren’t listed in the order we’re accustomed to, however, I believe that the reason that hope is listed first is because in the prayer we ask that we would be ever watchful. Faith gives us the reason to hope, but it is hope that allows us to endure.

This prayer is a catch-22 that is a win-win. We ask for more of the divine life of God that comes in hope, faith, and charity. With greater hope, faith, and charity, we have more courage and power to keep Jesus’ commandments. When we obey His commands, we become more like Him and we bring an even bigger presence of the Kingdom of God to earth.