Fifth Sunday in Easter

Year C

Fifth Sunday in Easter

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“People will know that you are my disciples”

Points to note

We have been marked with the sign of Christ at our baptism.  In fact, we have not only been baptised in the name of Christ, we have been baptised with the name of Christ.  After our baptism, we carry the name of Christ with us and people call us Christian.  We express this mark with which Christ marked us by adhering to the great commandment of Jesus.

It is often forgotten that Jesus did not leave us many commandments.  In Jn, he left us only one:  this one to love one another.  Everything else is secondary.  There is a story that John, when he was exiled to an island in his old age, was asked by his students why he spoke about nothing else but love.  The disciple who had half a century to reflect on the teachings that he learnt while leaning on the breast of Jesus, looked into the distance and replied, “Because there is nothing else but love, and love, and love.”

I do have an axe to grind with the Church for changing the old name of Maundy Thursday to Holy Thursday.  I felt that in doing so, we lost the meaning of that feast.  Many Catholics believe the feast commemorates the institution of the Eucharist, but the Gospel reading is not on the Eucharist.  Maundy comes from the Latin word, mandatum, which means commandment.  So, Maundy Thursday was the night of the Great Commandment and the commandment is to love.  Thus, Holy Thursday should remind us of Jesus injunction to us to love.

It is important to emphasise that being a Christian means that we have to let people know that we are Christian.  This Sunday’s reading, therefore, follows on from that of last Sunday.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment:

love one another, just as I have loved you.”

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Jn 13:33-35)

When Judas had gone Jesus said:

“My little children,

I shall not be with you much longer.

I give you a new commandment:

love one another;

just as I have loved you,

you also must love one another.

By this love you have for one another,

everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

All:    Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Discussions

Last week, we talked about our names.  When did we get our names?  At our baptism.  You may wish to ask all the children one by one what their parents replied when the priest asked their parents. ‘What name do you wish to name this child?’  This way, too, you can remind yourself the names of the children.  And the children like it too.

Do you know that we got another name at our baptism?  That of Christ:  after our baptism, people call us Christians.  Remind the children that this is our form of branding like sheep get branded to identify them as belonging to one particular shepherd.  In the same way, people have to identify us as belonging to Christ.

Discuss how people will know that we are Christians.  One way is that we show that we love each other within our Christian family.  Discuss how we could do this:  start with the family at home and how we do not do things that others could say is non-Christians.  We should also not fight when we come to Church. 

But these are the negative things; what about the more positive ones.  We should be helping out at home more often.  Give signs of love to our family: hugs, etc..  At church, we could help out as well.  Some people do:  servers, choir for instance.

Discuss also about those who managed to show others their Christianity by the things that they do outside.  For instance, those who teaches and does good deeds, etc.  Basically, those who follow God’s commandments are good Christians.

What is a commandment? It is an order to do something.  Can you think of any commandments that come from God? The Ten Commandments.  Can you remember any of them?   Emphasise the difficulties that the children have in remember them all.  That is why Jesus gave us only one commandment – it is easier to remember and all other commandments stem

from this one.  As long as we follow this one commandment, people will know that we belong to Jesus.

Note that this is the only commandment that Jesus gave: “I give you a new commandment”.  Discuss what the children could do to show that we love.

Discuss what loving actually means.  Emphasise that love is not something we do but love is something that makes us to something.  So, the proof that we love is not so much what we do (yes, that is important but …) but why we do it.  We could end up doing the same thing but if it comes from a different motivation other than love, then we don’t have love.

You can run through a few examples.  If someone helps a rich man but he is hoping the rich man would reward him: is that love?  If someone gives to charity but it is because she wants everyone else to see that she is generous: is that love? If someone follows all the Ten Commandments but it is because he wants God to take him to heaven: is it love?  Is it that he loves his salvation more than he loves Jesus?

Unlike some other religions or sects who take a literal reading of their scriptures, we Catholics look beyond the words of the Bible and likewise we look beyond the actions of what we do into the why we do.

Fourth Sunday in Easter

Year C

Fourth Sunday in Easter

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The Good Shepherd

Names

Points to note

The fourth Sunday of Easter is often known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.  In all three years of the cycle, the reading for this Sunday is from the passages about the Good Shepherd in the Jn. 

This is one of the most endearing images of Christ: Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  In many ways, there are two images of the Good Shepherd.  One, as a leader after whom his disciples will follow.  And his disciples include us.  His disciples will follow him because we know him.

The other image is that of a shepherd risking his life for his sheep, fighting off wolves and the like.  Jesus, however, not just risked his life for us, he laid down his life for us.  For younger children, you may not wish to emphasise this image if you think the children are not yet matured enough.

The idea of the shepherd who knows his sheep gives us the opportunity to share our names since knowing everybody’s name is one way we can know each other.

The final question in the dialogue on how we show that we are followers of Jesus, flows into next week’s dialogue.  So, if you do not complete it, that’s fine.  If you do complete it, reprise it next week so that you can follow through with a deeper discussion set out in next week’s leaflet.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;

I know my own sheep and my own know me.

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

All:   Glory to you O Lord

 (Jn 10:27-30)

Jesus said:

“My sheep that belong to me listen to my voice;

I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life;

they will never be lost

and no one will ever steal them from me.

The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone,

and no one can steal from the Father.

The Father and I are one.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

All:    Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Discussions

This is a good opportunity for everybody in the group to share his or her name.  Make sure that each gives his name out loud to the group and not just to the facilitator. 

Anyone has a dog?  Does your dog come when you call?  Explain that sheep flocks in the Middle East tend to be small and the many flocks need to search for scarce grazing land.  Grazing grounds generally overlap and flocks tend to mix freely.  Interestingly, though, when the shepherds leave at dusk, each has no problem in identifying his sheep and leading them home.  The sheep all knew their master and each will respond only when its master calls and not another, very much like how dogs recognise their masters.

Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd and that his sheep, i.e., we, know him and will follow him when he calls.  How do you think he will call us?  By our names.  Discuss those who God called by their names:  Abraham, Samuel, etc.  Discuss how Mary Magdalene did not recognise Jesus at the tomb until he called her by her name.  A good example of the sheep who knew the shepherd.

Have you seen how cows are branded?  With a red hot metal rod, which then imprints the owner’s name or sign on the side of the cow.  Cows are branded so that everyone knows to whom those cows would belong.

If we are Jesus’ sheep, do we also need to be branded like the cows?  Yes!! Like the cows, we are branded with Jesus’ name on us.  We are all called Christians.

Is there any way other people can know that we belong to Jesus?  Discuss that following is not just to physically to follow a person somewhere like the sheep following the shepherd.  A follower also follows what his or her master does.  When other people see that we are doing the same thing as our master, they know that we are followers of our master.  Discuss the things we should be doing so that people will know.

Third Sunday in Easter

Year C

Third Sunday in Easter

Images

Eating together

Points to note

I have taken a mid point in the options for this reading in the missal.  The full reading runs to verse 19 while the short version only runs to 14.  I have taken to reading to verse 17.

The reading requires a little explaining in order to highlight certain interesting features that the author has included into the passage.  Following that, the idea of Jesus eating together with his apostles is also interesting to explore.  Basically, we say that a family that eats together stays together:  the idea being that eating somehow has a bonding effect on people.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Lord Jesus, explain the scriptures to us.

Make our hearts burn within us as you talk to us.

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

All:   Glory to you O Lord

 (Jn 21:1-19)

Jesus showed himself again to the disciples.  It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this:  Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together.  Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”  They replied, “We’ll come with you.”  They went out and got into a boat but caught nothing that night.

It was light by now and there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise it was Jesus.  Jesus called out, “Have you caught anything, friends?”  And when they answered, “No”, he said, “throw out the net to the starboard and you’ll find something.”  So they dropped the net, and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in.  The disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”  At these words “It is the Lord”, Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water.  The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.

As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it.  Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”  Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them: in spite of them being so many the net was not broken.  Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”  None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, “Who are you?” they knew quite well it was the Lord.  Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.  This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

After the meal Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?”  He answers, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”  A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  He replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Look after my sheep.”  Then he said to him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” and said, “Lord you know everything; you know I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussions

Go through the reading again to identify some interesting features of the reading:

©    How many times did Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection: to Mary Magdalene (in the morning of Easter Sunday); on the road to Emmaus (in the afternoon); in the locked room (in the evening); to Thomas (a week later).  Apparently, John called this the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples.

©    Jesus asked Peter if he loved him three times.  The number three came up again in another Jesus-Peter story.  Which one?  When Peter denied Jesus three times.  People say that Jesus asked Peter three times, to forgive him for the three times Peter denied him.

©    The disciples did not first recognise Jesus.  This is the same as in some of the other resurrection stories: who else?  Mary Magdalene; the disciples on the road to Emmaus. When did they properly recognise Jesus?  When he started eating with them, just like at Emmaus.

©    The story is very similar to another story of the catch of fish, which one? The one after which Jesus called Peter to be his disciple.  We seem to be coming round to one big circle.

©    Why did Jesus eat with his disciples?  Because he was hungry after three days in the tomb; because he wanted to prove that he was not a ghost.  After all, ghosts can’t eat, can they?

If we take each of these interesting points, there is something to say in each of these.  Let’s take two of them.

Remembering Jesus

In each of the occasion when the disciples did not recognise Jesus after the resurrection, there was something in common about when they recognised Jesus.  Go through each of these: Mary recognised Jesus when Jesus called her by her name; the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognised him when he broke bread with them; the apostles recognised him when they hauled in the fish and confirmed it when he ate with them.  In each of these, they recognised Jesus when Jesus did something familiar to them, which he had done before with them.

For older children

Explain that the words of the Institution in the Eucharistic prayers at mass are our way of recognising Jesus.  Like the disciples, we often do not recognise him but we will when we see something familiar to us – the Eucharist.  That is why the priest says the word, “Do this in memory of me” at the end of words of the Institution.  In truth, though, we do more than remember, we relive it.  

Fishers of men

Remember how Peter first met Jesus?  He was fishing without success when Jesus asked him to cast his net out and he ended up with a lot of fish.  He then asked Jesus to leave him for he was a sinful man.  But, Jesus asked him to follow him.  Hence, the ending of the story for this Sunday, “Follow me”. 

Jesus also told him that the apostles will be fishers of men.  In this Sunday’s story, you will see that there were 153 fishes in the net.  Now, in the ancient world, they believed that there were 153 countries in the world.  So, the apostles will be able to make Christians out of all countries of the world and being them into the Church.  Just as the net did not break, neither will the Church break with so many different languages, cultures and customs from so many different countries.