Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Twentieth Ordinary Sunday

Images

 

Feast for a world-wide family

Points to note

 

This week’s reading is the fourth 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.

Liturgy

Acclamation

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me

and I live in him, says the Lord.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that Jesus was explaining to the people his miracle of the loaves and the significance of him feeding 5000 men plus the women and children.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

(Jn6: 51-58)

Jesus said to the crowd:

“I am the bread of life which has come down from heaven.

Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;

and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, 

for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they said.  Jesus replied:

“I tell you most solemnly,

if you do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man 

and drink his blood,

you will not have life in you.

Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life:

and I shall raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me 

and I live in him.

Just as I, sent by the living Father,

myself get life from the Father,

so whoever eats me will get life from me.

This is the bread that come down from heaven; 

not like the bread our ancestors ate ;

they are dead, but whoever eats this bread will live for ever.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussion

Just as the family at home have meals together, the family of God also have a meal together.  The mass.  Draw parallels between the family at home and the family of God. There is a dining table (the altar table) with a table-cloth over it (the altar cloth).  There is food on the table (the bread and wine) and lots of diners (the congregation).  

Imagine a big party to be held.  Get the children to think in terms of a big party.  Can you think of a place big enough to hold a very, very big party. Your church?  No bigger!  The Stadium?  No, bigger! Imagine a party so big that it needed 12,000 Stadiums to hold all the people invited.  That is what happens every Sunday.  Every Sunday, over 4,000 bishops and 400,000 priests celebrate mass for one billion Catholics in 900,000 churches throughout the world.

Get the children to stretch their imagination and imagine millions of people attending mass at the same time.  Imagine that at the same minute that you are taking communion, maybe one million other Catholics are taking it with you.  Emphasise that it is one big family meal for a family so big that we need to hold the meal at the same time in different places all over the world.

Explain that it is the same mass that is celebrated throughout the world. Jesus promised that he is the bread of life that is given to all people who believes in him.  And everyone who believes in him will be coming for mass every Sunday.  

Explain that the mass is organised so that every church will be using the same readings and will be saying the same prayers the same way.  We all use the same mass books drawn up by the bishops in Rome.  We all also use the same Missal, which dictates which reading is to be used for every Sunday of the year.  Praying from the same mass book and reading form the same Missal is our way of saying we are family.  We also learn the same faith from the same Catechism and the same Bible.

How many of us have been overseas?  How many of us have attended mass overseas?  How many of us have attended mass overseas in another language?  Explain that there is no difference in the mass here and overseas and whatever language it is.  

Actually you don’t need to go overseas to attend mass in another language.  Check out the different languages at masses in the local nearby parishes and share that with the children.  Ask them how many different language masses they have been to.  We don't know how many language the mass has been celebrated all over the world.  The complete Bible can be found in over two thousand languages and I am sure masses are celebrated at least in part in many more languages than that.  It makes me proud to be a Catholic.

You see: ask the children what does Catholic mean? It means universal.    It means that people who are in all countries in the world speaking different languages, practicing different customs but bound by the same faith.  The Malaysian Church is probably more Catholic than most.

Explain that we are sometimes called the Body of Christ because St Paul taught us that we are all like different parts of the same body with Jesus as the head.  

So, when we say ‘Amen’ to the Eucharistic Minister’s ‘Body of Christ’, we are not just agreeing (remember, ‘Amen’ means ‘to agree’) that the piece of bread has now become the body of Christ, but also we are all part of the one Body of Christ, we believe in the same God and we belong to the same family.  And you know at that point, something special happens.  Two persons who have never met become one family, one in the same church, one in the same Body of Christ.  And wherever that you take communion in the world, you are at home. 

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Persistence

Points to note

There is more than one way of looking at this passage.  We can talk about how Jesus came to save all people and not just the Israelites.  From here we can relate it to God reaching to all religions and not just Christianity.  This, though, could confuse the children if not handled right and you don’t have the answers ready.  This is particularly the case with the younger ones.

I have chosen to discuss the way the Canaanite woman debated her way.  It is easy sometimes to accept Jesus’ first answer.  Sometimes, we are even told that it is a matter of humility to accept it and shut up.  But Jesus loves a good debater and he gave in to her more because she came up with a smart answer rather than her persistence, which she seems to have in plenty, too.  I suspect that this is one debate that he did not mind losing.  So, it would seem that, to get on to Jesus’ right side, one need to be persistent and have a smart answer.

I love children who can give me a smart answer, provided of course, I don’t have them at my dining table every night.  Somehow, smart answers make for more lively discussions.  But, if we are not ready for the cut and thrust of that kind discussion, stay clear.  Children have a cruel way of telling you they enjoy seeing you humiliated when you lose a debate.

Anyway, for this discussion, we focus on the Canaanite woman’s other virtue: her persistence.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom,

and cured all kinds of sickness among the people

Alleluia!

Gospel

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 15:21-28)

Jesus left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  Then out came a Canaanite woman from the district and started shouting, “Sir, Son of David, taken pity on me.  My daughter is tormented by a devil.”  But he answered her not a word.  And his disciples went and pleaded with him.  “Give her what she wants,” they said, “because she is shouting after us.”  He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet.  “Lord,” she said, “help me.”  He replied, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.”  She retorted, “Ah yes, sir; but even the house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”  Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, you have great faith.  Let your wish be granted.”  And from that moment her daughter was well again.

This is the Word of the Lord

Dialogue

How many of you have younger brothers or sisters?  Have you noticed the way they ask things from Mom and Dad?  They keep asking and asking until Mom and Dad agrees to give it to them.  It should be interesting that children will be quicker to claim that younger siblings unfairly get things because they are persistent.  Be careful that this does not become a grouse session and that we do not convey the impression that this is acceptable.

Explain the meaning of the words, persistence and perseverance.  Explain how we use them, in language and the context that it is used.  Older children may be able to differentiate between persistence and pestering.  Persistence is when we do it while pestering is when someone else gets something unfairly simply because they are persistent.

Go back to the reading.  Note how Jesus recognised the way woman was willing to persist in her request.  Ask if the children have encountered any examples of such persistence - when someone persists in asking for something someone else unreasonably will not give.  There should be examples at home and in school.  There are also examples of people who persist in fighting for freedom:  Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Aung San Su Kyi.

Translate these into our spiritual lives.  How do we persist in our spiritual lives?  When we ask for things from God, we constantly pray to him.  Care should be taken that we do not convey the impression that God is someone unreasonable that we have to keep bugging to get what we want. 

Some people say that if we pray hard enough, God will give us what we want and we do not get what we want when we ask God because we did not pray hard enough.  Do we agree with that?  Explain that it is not how hard we pray but also that what we pray for must be something good.  Therefore, we must be persistent in wanting the right thing and for the right reasons. 

Also, in praying, we don’t just ask God for things.  We also make sure that we live good lives.  It is of no use if we pray to God everyday but do not behave as good Christians do.  Therefore, we must be persistent in living good lives because our lives are also a part of our prayers.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

A race

Points to note

I have opted out of the Gospel reading that is based on rather difficult principles, which can be controversial even among adults.  I have chosen the second reading instead.

You may note from the reading that the image of the race is explicitly referred to only once in the reading although the rest of the reading implies the image.  In reading the passage, therefore, care should be taken to stress that verse of the reading and where possible, actions and attitudes accompanying the reading after that verse should reflect the actions of a race.  It is easier to make these references in the subsequent working through of the reading.

Liturgy

As the Gospel is not read, there is no Acclamation before the Gospel.

Reading

As the Gospel is not read, there is no dialogue before the Gospel.

Explain to the children that this reading is not from the Gospel.  We do not know who the author of the letter to the Hebrews is but we know that he was trying to explain to Jewish Christians about Jesus.

A Reading from the letter to the Hebrews

(Hb 12: 1-4)

With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too then should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started.  Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection:  for the sake of the joy which is still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne.  Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage.  In the fight against sin: you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.

This is the Word of the Lord

Dialogue

Have you ever been in a race before?  No, not just games: what about competition types of races.  Have anyone been to competitions?  Sports day?  Football matches?  Discuss the atmosphere there.  Who were the people involved in sports day?  The competitors, the people they are competing against, the organisers, the spectators.

Discuss that if they were to compete in Sports day, what do they have to do to prepare themselves?  Discuss the training and probably the prayers, too, etc.  Discuss how important the preparations are.  Discuss how difficult the race may seem to be and how the finishing line seems to be so far away.  What urges them on?  The knowledge that they have done it before and reached the finishing line.  And also the crowd!  Wouldn’t they run all the faster if they know that their coach and friends are there cheering them on.  And their parents.

Explain that the writer of this letter is telling his friends that they too have to prepare for the mission (remember mission: we have been talking about mission for the last few Sundays).

Just like for the race, we have to prepare a lot for doing God’s word:  which is to let others know that we are Christians by the love we show to each other.  And just like in the race, doing God’s work may seem to be really difficult at times.  But we know that in the crowd, Jesus and the saints are cheering us on.  And because of that we are trying harder.  It also helps that we know that Jesus and saints have been having a lot of problems when they tried to bring the Gospel to other people.

We think of stories of the saints when we are in difficulties, especially those stories similar to the difficulties we currently are in.  If there is time, you may wish to discuss the saints as examples to us.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Twentieth Ordinary Sunday

Images

 

Feast for a world-wide family

Points to note

 

This week’s reading is the fourth 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.

Liturgy

Acclamation

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me

and I live in him, says the Lord.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that Jesus was explaining to the people his miracle of the loaves and the significance of him feeding 5000 men plus the women and children.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

(Jn 6: 51-58)

Jesus said to the crowd:

“I am the bread of life which has come down from heaven.

Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;

and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,

for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they said.  Jesus replied:

“I tell you most solemnly,

if you do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man

and drink his blood,

you will not have life in you.

Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life:

and I shall raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me

and I live in him.

Just as I, sent by the living Father,

myself get life from the Father,

so whoever eats me will get life from me.

This is the bread that come down from heaven;

not like the bread our ancestors ate ;

they are dead, but whoever eats this bread will live for ever.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussion

Just as the family at home have meals together, the family of God also have a meal together.  The mass.  Draw parallels between the family at home and the family of God.  There is a dining table (the altar table) with a table-cloth over it (the altar cloth).  There is food on the table (the bread and wine) and lots of diners (the congregation). 

Imagine a big party to be held.  Get the children to think in terms of a big party.  Can you think of a place big enough to hold a very, very big party.  Your church?  No bigger!  A Stadium?  No, bigger!  Imagine a party so big that it needed 12,000 stadiums to hold all the people invited.  That is what happens every Sunday.  Every Sunday, over 4,000 bishops and 400,000 priests celebrate mass for one billion Catholics in 900,000 churches throughout the world.

Get the children to stretch their imagination and imagine millions of people attending mass at the same time.  Imagine that at the same minute that you are taking communion, maybe one million other Catholics are taking it with you.  Emphasise that it is one big family meal for a family so big that we need to hold the meal at the same time in different places all over the world.

Explain that it is the same mass that is celebrated throughout the world. Jesus promised that he is the bread of life that is given to all people who believes in him.  And everyone who believes in him will be coming for mass every Sunday. 

Explain that the mass is organised so that every church will be using the same readings and will be saying the same prayers the same way.  We all use the same mass books drawn up by the bishops in Rome.  We all also use the same Missal, which dictates which reading is to be used for every Sunday of the year.  Praying from the same mass book and reading form the same Missal is our way of saying we are family.  We also learn the same faith from the same Catechism and the same Bible.

How many of us have been overseas?  How many of us have attended mass overseas?  How many of us have attended mass overseas in another language?  Explain that there is no difference in the mass here and overseas and whatever language it is.  

Actually you don’t need to go overseas to attend mass in another language.  In most countries, there are masses in different languages for communities who come from different countries.  You are usually welcomed to attend as these communities are usually happy to see people taking an interest in themselves.  You may sometimes see a different way of having mass: different ways of singing, maybe even dance, etc

You see: ask the children what does Catholic mean?  It means universal.    It means that people who are in all countries in the world speaking different languages, practicing different customs but bound by the same faith.  

Explain that we are sometimes called the Body of Christ because St Paul taught us that we are all like different parts of the same body with Jesus as the head. 

So, when we say ‘Amen’ to the Eucharistic Minister’s ‘Body of Christ’, we are not just agreeing (remember, ‘Amen’ means ‘to agree’) that the piece of bread has now become the body of Christ, but also we are all part of the one Body of Christ, we believe in the same God and we belong to the same family.  And you know at that point, something special happens.  Two persons who have never met become one family, one in the same church, one in the same Body of Christ.  And wherever that you take communion in the world, you are at home.