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?

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Twenty-ninth Ordinary Sunday

Image

Things that should be given to God

Points to note

This is a simple and well-known story but there seems to be a dearth of materials in the story to make a good discussion.  It is recommended that we concentrate on idea that we are citizens of two societies and that we contribute to both.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

You will shine in the world like bright stars

because you are offering it the word of life.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that Pharisees are Jews who believes that the only way to heaven is to follow strictly all laws to the point that laws can even be more important than love.

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: 15-21)

The Pharisees went to discuss between them how to trap Jesus in what he said.  And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say, “Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you.  Tell us your opinion, then.  Are we allowed to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  But Jesus was aware of their intentions and replied, “You hypocrites!  Why do you set this trap for me?  Let me see the money you pay the tax with.”  They handed him a coin and he said, “Whose head is this on the coin?  Whose name?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied.  He then said to them, “Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar - and to God what belongs to God.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Do we not belong to two families?  God’s family and our family at home.  Discuss the similarities of the two families: each has a head, all members know each other, etc.  Concentrate on the fact that each member has obligations to each other in the families.  Discuss the kind of work we do for each other in each of the families. 

Explain that we also belong to two societies: the human society and the divine.  Each has its own set of rules: the laws of society and the laws of the Bible.  Discuss the obligations of each set of laws.

Who is the head of the government?  Who is the head of the Church.  The king/prime minister/president and God.  Do we owe anything to them?  To answer this, what are the symbols of government?  A dollar note.  Actually, it can be any symbol, but try to lead them to a symbol with a picture of the king/queen/president on it, e.g., in a government office, a picture of the king/queen/president on the wall or a stamp with the king’s/queen’s/president’s picture on it.  Eventually, lead them back to the dollar note. 

Discuss the symbol of the Church: the crucifix.  What God asks of us is in that symbol: for us to do things for him out of love.  Discuss what else that is on the crucifix that God requires from us.

Take a look at the crucifix and see what is it on top. It is a square with the letters "INRI" on it, representing the proclamation that Pontus Pilate put on the cross to state the crime Jesus was supposed to have committed: "Iesu Nazarene Rex Idumea" which means "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews". Discuss what type of king that Jesus was. Washe the type of king that we have around?  As a Christian anointed as priest, prophet and king, our kingly role is carried out as a service to others.

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Twenty-eighth Ordinary Sunday

Images

Preparing for a celebration

Points to note

There are actually two parables in this Sunday’s reading, although treated as one in the reading.  You may wish to concentrate on one or the other.  Both parables are in the nature of allegories. 

The first parable is akin to that of last Sunday and it may be an idea to revisit the leaflet (cf. Sunday 27).  Many of the points raised there apply again this week.  Role-playing would also be useful here.  In introducing the first parable, it is advisable to refer to what was done last Sunday to refresh the memory.  This would reinforce the idea in the children’s minds that the readings for the Sundays are part of an integral plan.

The second parable introduces a new concept of being ready, which has not been touched on in the last few Sundays.  Please refer to the adult’s leaflet for the details of this reading.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

The Word was made flesh and lived among us;

to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Go through with them again the nature of a parable and what allegories are.  Ask them to watch out for the persons the characters in the parable represent.  Remind the children of the reading last week.

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 22:1-14)

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding.  He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.  Next he sent some more servants.  ‘Tell those who have been invited’, he said, ‘that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready.  Come to the wedding.’  But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants and killed them.  The king was furious.  He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town.  Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready; but those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the cross-roads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.’  So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing wedding clothes, and said to him, ‘How did you get in here, my friend, without wedding clothes?’  And the man was silent.  Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Has anybody helped prepare for a wedding?  Was there a lot of preparation to do?  Get the children to discuss whose wedding they helped prepare and what they personally did in the wedding preparations.  Discuss what else others did to prepare.  If no one in the group has helped in a wedding, replace with another celebration:  birthday party, etc.

How many of us have attended a wedding feast?  Do we dress up well for the wedding?  Discuss how the host would feel if we turn up for the feast in shabby clothes or clothes that we wear at home.  And this is after all the hard work that they have put into preparing the wedding feast.

The mass we have at Church every Sunday is also a feast and there is much preparation to do.  Has anyone helped in preparing for a mass?  Discuss the preparations needed for a mass: the priest has to pray, and prepare his homily and the prayers; the lectors have to rehearse their readings and pray over them; the choir will practise the hymns; the other ministers need to know what is expected of them and pray; the sacristan gets the church and the altar ready; the altar has to be decorated with flowers, etc..

Jesus invites us to be with him in Paradise.  Paradise is usually described as a big banquet.  Have you made any preparation for this feast?  Going by the same thread as the earlier discussions, the children will be looking at how the host prepares for this banquet.  Eventually, bring the discussion round to our preparation to attend the banquet.  Ask how upset they would be if guests turn up at the wedding or birthday party dressed as they would at home.  Similarly with God if we do not prepare ourselves to attend the banquet in Paradise.  How do we prepare ourselves for the banquet in Paradise?  By loving, praying, caring, etc.  Spend some time to discuss this.