Year B
Twenty-first Ordinary Sunday
Food and sustenance
This week’s reading is the last of a series of
readings centred around the account of the feeding of the five thousand in Jn.
For the five weeks, the readings will be laden with theological themes of: the
feeding (Sunday 17); true bread (Sunday 18); the person of Jesus (Sunday 19);
Jesus as bread (Sunday 20); and accepting Jesus (Sunday 21).
While it makes sense to present them in such a cycle
to adults, it is very difficult for children.
I have therefore interpreted it as: preparing the meal (Sunday 17); what
we eat (Sunday 18); who we eat with (Sunday 19); the wider church who shares
the bread (Sunday 20); and what to do after the meal (Sunday 21).
In all instances, it is important to emphasise the
personal and the everyday occurrences that children encounter at meals and
parallel them with the meal for their spiritual world.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Your
words are spirit, Lord, and they are life:
you
have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Explain that Jesus has just told the Jews
that he is the Bread of Life.
A Reading
from the Holy Gospel according to St John
(Jn 6: 60-69)
After hearing his doctrine many followers of Jesus
said, “This is difficult to believe. How
could anyone accept it?” Jesus was aware
that his followers were complaining about it and said, “Does this upset
you? What if you should see the Son of
Man ascend to where he was before?
“It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has
nothing to offer.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they
are life.
“But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning those who
did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, “This is why I have told you that
no one can come to me unless the Father allows him.” After this, many of his disciples left him
and stopped going with him.
Then Jesus said to the Twelve, “What about you, do
you want to go away too?” Simon Peter
answered, “Lord, who shall we go to? You
have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy
One of God.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Discussion
What do you do when you finish a
meal? The children better be those
who will be helping Mom and Dad to clear up the dishes and put out the
garbage. If there are guests at the
dinner, we entertain the guests. We definitely
do not rush off and lock ourselves into our bedroom with the Playstation!!
Likewise, discuss what we do when we
finish the mass. Some of us stay back to
chat with our friends over coffee morning.
Some of us go to Sunday School.
Some help to put away the chairs.
There are also others who attend other meetings and activities and choir
practices, youth meetings, St Vincent de Paul meetings.
Get the children to come up with any
other post-mass activities. Take time to
explain what these groups and activities do.
Not very nice is it if everyone rushes off home straight after
mass? Get the children to imagine how
such a church would look like and whether they would feel welcomed in such a
church.
It is a bit like some of the people
in the reading who could not accept the food that Jesus is to give and left,
leaving Jesus all alone with his disciples.
By the way, you may wish to take the
opportunity to remind children not to run off from mass too early. After all, somebody left the first mass (the
Last Supper) early too and we don’t want to be like him, do we?
As we have discussed a few weeks ago,
the physical food we eat gives us physical strength to do physical work. What kind of physical work do we do? Homework, housework, play, etc. What happens to the food, though, if we
were to eat it all that food and do not do any work? Well, take this politely: it comes out in the toilet and is useless to
anybody.
Likewise, the spiritual food we eat
at mass gives us spiritual strength to do spiritual work. What kind of spiritual work do we do? Love, pray and do good deeds. What
happens to the spiritual food, though, if we were to eat it all that spiritual
food and do not do any spiritual work? Well,
take this politely: it probably comes
out in a spiritual toilet and is useless to God. We wouldn’t want that to happen, do we? Discuss specific things we could do to avoid
such a situation,
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