Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Gifts and talents

Points to note

Today’s reading is a very simple story that children can relate to at their level.  I have not translated the value of talent in this reading to modern equivalents in order to preserve the word talent, which we will use in the discussions.  But, if you really want to know: a talent is worth about 20 years wages of a labourer, say about $200,000 or so.

The key is to encourage the children to share their talents and abilities.  If you know all the children to be confident, it is acceptable to take turns to share their talents but such a format tends to eb difficult for those who may be a little hesitant, as it put them under pressure.

Be sensitive to children who have never been encouraged to proclaim their talents or were suppressed in their expressions of self.  Sometimes, you do get a child who has not been conditioned to believe they have a talent or are talented.  Do not pry or insist that they have talents but encourage them with examples of simple gifts that children normally have or, suggest one if you know a talent they personally have.  Do not ask other children to point out talents of that hesitant child as it could back-fire if no one can come up with any.

In truth the money referred to in the reading is not the gifts and talents that God gives us, but I will leave you reflect on the reading – you will have to read the passage carefully.  That’s the beauty of scriptural readings – they yield water at whichever level you dig.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia!

Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.

Whoever remains in me bears fruit in plenty. Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Mt 25:14-30)

Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out.

  

‘The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. The man who had received two made two more in the same way. But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

  

‘Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.”

  

‘His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”

  

‘Next the man with the two talents came forward. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”

  

‘Last came forward the man who had the one talent. “Sir,” said he “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”

This is the Good News of the Lord

Dialogue

Get the children to share their talents.  You could also get them to point out talents of their friends they know in the group – it is good to get them to affirm each other.

Discuss how they can use their talents to help God and the Church.  There are always the ministries in the Church and at mass.  Discuss how they can contribute to each of these ministries.  If you are laden with ulterior motives, this would be a good time to get volunteer helpers for your church’s Christmas preparations.

Expand their talents to beyond the Church, to how they can bring Christ’s message to the rest of the world.

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Thirty-second Ordinary Sunday

Images

Preparing for a feast

Points to note

For this Sunday, the theme is limited to the preparation for the feast.  It is important to draw the parallels with the children’s everyday life.  Extract from them their experiences on their preparations for their parties.  They then need to understand that the feast we have in Church is similar to the parties they have had in that preparations need to be made.

The reading itself actually deals with preparations for the life in the hereafter.  I plan to cover this in the later years of the cycle.  However, for the older children, the eschatological aspects of the reading may be broached.  The reading deals more with the implications of not being ready for the feast.  It is crucial therefore that we continue to emphasise the requirement to prepare for Paradise.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Stay awake and stand ready,

because you do not know the hour

when the Son of Man is coming.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that Jesus has just denounced some Jews for thinking that they know how to get to heaven by themselves.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew

All:   Glory to you O Lord

 (Mt 25: 1-13)

Jesus told this parable to his disciples:  “The kingdom of heaven will be like this:  Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish and five were sensible:  the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps.  The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep.  But at midnight there was a cry, ‘The bridegroom is here!  Go out and meet him.’  At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some of your oil:  our lamps are going out.’  But they replied, ‘There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.’  They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived.  Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed.  The other bridesmaids arrived later.  ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us.’  But he replied, ‘I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.’  So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Have you ever held a party before?  A birthday party?  A Christmas party?  Did you help in the preparations?  What did you do?  Where children did not help much in the preparations, ask what the parents and the rest of the family did.  Make the discussion as complete as possible.

The family of the Church also holds celebrations.  When are the celebrations held?  What do we call these celebrations?  Who are the people who make the preparations?  What do they do?  The priest has to prepare for mass; the music ministry prepare the hymns, the altar boys get the altar ready; the church office prepares the bulletins; the altar ladies prepares the flowers; the church is cleaned by the cleaners; the readers practices the readings; the wardens organises the car park and welcomes the people.  What else can anyone think of?  You may wish to dwell on the items that are prepared such as the vessels such as the ciborium (which holds the host) and the chalice (which holds the wine); the altar with the altar cloth and candles; the vestments such as the alb (the white gown  the priest wears over his clothes) and the stole (the strip of cloth the priest wears over his neck).

Discuss how we ourselves prepare for mass: We wake up early, which means we need to get to bed early the night before.  We put on nice clothes to go for mass.  We help our parents to get things ready (getting the younger ones dressed and into the car, or helping get the dinner into the oven).

More importantly, we also prepare ourselves spiritually for mass.  Most families may do it in a different way.  Some may read the Sunday mass readings before-hand while others make do with some simple prayers. It will be also pleasing to God if we can reflect back on the past week – whether there is anything we need to thank God for, give him praise or to ask his forgiveness.  And of course we all try to do good before we go to mass and avoid anything that could be upsetting to God – much like how we try not to upset the birthday boy before and during the birthday party.

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Thirty-first Ordinary Sunday

Images

The teacher

Points to note

The teacher is a very central role model to children.  For the younger children, we could concentrate on the importance of the teacher to the children and how Jesus is the most important of our teachers.

For older children, we could go into the core of the passage: how do we react if the teacher fails us as role models.  For us as adults, the failure of a particular role model can be an excruciating experience.  If this is to be discussed with the children, it will have to be handled very sensitively.

If you wish to explain some of the words used in the passage, please refer to the adult’s leaflet.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening:

you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that after the attempts that we have seen in the past two weeks by the Pharisees and the Saducees to trap Jesus, it is now Jesus’ turn to denounce the Pharisees.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew

All:   Glory to you O Lord

 (Mt 23: 1-12)

Jesus said to the people and his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit at the priestly seat in the synagogues.  You must do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not follow by what they do: since they do not practice what they teach.  They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them?  Not they!  Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader prayer boxes and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.

“You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers.  You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father and he is in heaven.  Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ.  The greatest among you must be your servant.  Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Who is your favourite teacher in school?  What’s he/she like?  Get the children to talk about why they like that particular teacher.  Bring the discussion round to the point of respect for the teacher. 

For younger children

Is it important to have teachers?  Why?  Discuss the wider implication of having teachers.  It is not just a matter of having someone to teach us.  Teachers also often set good examples for us.  What are the qualities that you respect most in your teachers? 

Can teachers only be found in schools?  Where else do we find teachers?  What do we call people who teach in the Church?  Catechists.  Note that anyone who teaches us is a teacher.  Even people younger than us can be our teachers.  At LSW, the children can sometimes be the teachers to the facilitators.  That is why we don’t call ourselves teachers.

For older children

Have you ever have a person you respect a lot and one day find out that he/she is not the type of person you thought he was.  Don’t push the question too far.  Most children have not had a failure in role models.  If so, limit the discussion to friends who turn out to be different from what you thought they were.  How did you react when you found out?  Take them through how they felt.  Remember, there is no right or wrong way of feeling.  Ensure that that is respected. 

Bring the discussion round eventually to what Jesus said in the Gospel.  If an advice that was given by a person was a good advice, does it become a bad advice if the person eventually turn out to be a rogue?  Jesus said Do what they say but not what they do.  Isn’t that a good advice?

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Thirtieth Ordinary Sunday

Images

Loving God

Loving people

Points to note

This is a lovely reading, which forms the crux of our Christian living.  There is, however, a danger in not preparing well enough as the session could be very unfocussed.

There is little that is doctrinal in this passage.  There is no complicated plot or allegory to unravel.  All in all, there is little to explain.  We ought to move on rather quickly to the practical aspects of loving.  For this instance, we concentrate on loving God and the image of him as the head of the family.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Open our heart, O Lord,

to accept the words of your Son.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain to the children that Jesus had just had to fend off attempts by the Jews to trap him.  Remember the trap of the Pharisees last week with the coin?  Saducees are a group of powerful Jews during Jesus’ times who do not believe in certain things like angels and the resurrection.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew

All:   Glory to you O Lord

 (Mt 22: 23-40)

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Saducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, “Which is the greatest of the commandment of the Law?”  Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second resembles it: you must love your neighbour as yourself.  On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Explain the setting: one by one, over the past few weeks, we had different groups of people coming to Jesus trying to trap him.  This week it is the turn of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were people who were very strict about following the precepts and rituals of the Mosaic Law, as contained in the first five books of the Old Testament.  They believe that salvation comes from strictly following the Law to the letter.  So, from the Ten commandments, they expanded them to 637 commandments. 

For instance, from the simple commandment to keep the Sabbath Holy, the Pharisees defined it that one should do no work on the Sabbath.  Then to the question what constitute work, they came up with 39 prohibited categories.  One of these categories is to carry something from one domain to another.  So, what happens when someone’s cow fall into the ditch?  Wouldn’t common sense dictate that they pull it out?  But that would contravene the Law.  Which is why Jesus asked this very question in Lk 14:5 and Mt 12:11.  Which is why Pharisees disliked him.

So the trap set was like this: with 637 commandments, you can expect people to have very differing views as to which one is the favourite.  So, ask Jesus to state which of the 637 is his favourite and watch him get bogged down with everyone disagreeing with him and trying to advance their own favourite.

Jesus, however, turned the tables on them by appealing to the more basic commandment, from which all these 637 spring: the commandment to Love.  In Christianity, the injunction to love and mercy overrides everything else.  It is just due to our human inadequacies that we are not always able to find an answer to love constantly in this complex modern human society.  Love and mercy, while considered a virtue in most other religions, is obligatory in Christianity.

Do people like Pharisees still exist today – people who think applying the letter of the law is the key to salvation?  Yes, of course.  Modern Orthodox Jews have reinterpreted the commandments in the light of modern technology.  For instance, another of the 39 prohibited categories for the Sabbath includes lighting and extinguishing fires.  Now, how does a modern car start?  Spark plugs and an internal combustion engine – they involve constant lighting and extinguishing fires.  So, driving cars is prohibited for orthodox Jews on their Sabbath.  Would you like to live like this?

The Islamic religion is also based on strict reading of the Quran.  And some interpretation is more conservative than others.  For instance, Muslims also have a story in the hadiths of an adulterous woman being brought to the Prophet for him to decide what to do with her.  But unlike Jesus who forgave her, the Prophet instead ordered her to be stoned to death as that is what was stipulated in the Law.

Even Christians are not immune, with some fundamentalist Christians taking a very literalist view of what the scriptures says.  For instance, there are churches that deny blood transfusions because of their reading of Old Testament passages.

So, in carrying out our religious duties, we must always remember that the injunction to love comes before anything else.  Which is why Pope Francis has constantly highlighted the need for mercy in pastoral duty rather than a blind adherence to the letter of the laws of the Church. The Laws were made for us to help us love more.  If the Laws to not enable us to love, do the Laws need to be relooked into?