Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Twenty-sixth Ordinary Sunday 

Images

Tolerance

Different people

Points to note

The word Catholic means universal.  It refers to the Church that is the Church of all peoples and in all nations.  It refers to a Church where people could speak different languages and be of different races but bound together by a common faith.  The most evident expression of this catholicity is seen in the masses held in international conferences of Catholic bishops or leaders.

In many countries. Catholic masses are often in many different languages to cater for different language communities or migrants.  Sometimes, you get many languages in a single mass as different communities attend that same mass.  Masses like that remind me of the catholicity of the Church.

Our expression of catholicity is more than just in language, but also in our tolerance of different ways of praying.  Greek Catholics in Eastern Europe and Maronite Catholics in Lebanon, for instance, owe the same allegiance to the Pope but have masses that are very different. Even within Roman Catholicism, there are very different ways of prayer:  a Charismatic renewal prayer session and a Latin language Tridetine mass are poles apart in atmosphere but neither can deny the Catholicism of the other.

Liturgy

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Your words are truth, O Lord,

consecrate us in the  truth.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Last Sunday, we saw how Jesus dealt with those who were arguing about who was the greatest of the disciples, while they were on the way to Jerusalem.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Mark

(Mk9: 38-43, 45, 47-48)

John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw a man who was not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us, we tried to stop him.”  But Jesus said, “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me.  Anyone who is not against us is for us.

“If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.

“But if anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck.  And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.  And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.  And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fires go out.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

What languages do we speak at home?  List the languages used.  Highlight especially the more unusual languages encountered.  Are we able to say that just because some people do not speak the same language that we speak, God does not listen to them? Discuss if God is limited to one language or one race.

Emphasise that most of us are different in one respect or another. Some of us are quiet and some of us are exuberant.  Discuss if God prefers one type of people to another.  Discuss the difference between the apostles.  See if any of the children can identify the type of persons they are. There is no right or wrong answer to this one but draw out the impression the children have of the personalities of the apostles from the stories they know.  For instance, I think Peter is brash, John is young, Thomas is tough, Andrew is trusting.  Discuss if God loves any of them more than others.

Go through the first part of the reading again and discuss the impressions of the apostles:  they went to another town and found other people casting out devils, when they thought that they and only they, being the friends of Jesus are able to do that. Did Jesus think that they were right to think in that way?

Discuss the implications of what Jesus said.  Are we able to say that just because some other people are different from us, God loves them less?  What about different ways of praying?  Discuss the different ways of praying that we encounter in the church:  youth masses, prayer meetings, rosaries, charismatic, etc. Can we say that any of them is better than the others?

Discuss also people who do not belong to our church.  Are those people in Assumption parish any better than us or any worse than us?  We all still belong to the Catholic Church worldwide.  Explain the meaning of the word Catholic.

What about those Christians who are not Catholics?  Are they any less Christian than we are just because they are not Catholics?  What about those who are not Christians?  Are non-Christians bad people just because they are not baptised?

In this age of Ecumenism, we have to redefine the limits of tolerance. It will be too advanced for the children to go into the intricacies of it all, but we aim to impart on the children that they are other ways of being praying to our God, and for Christians, many ways of expressing our Christianity.  That God loves us all even if we are different.

Say Amen

When you go up for communion, the communion minister says "Body of Christ" and you say "Amen" (which means 'I agree', not 'I believe'), have you ever thought about what exactly it is that you are agreeing to?  Yes, at one level, we are agreeing that the piece of bread is now the body of Christ.  But at another level, we are also agreeing to the two of us in that dialogue are in the same Body of Christ.  And for me something magical happens: two persons who never met and didn't know each other suddenly becomes one family, bound in the same faith by Jesus Christ, in whose body they were part of.  And so, I know wherever I am in the world, I say Amen and I know I am home.

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Twenty-sixth Ordinary Sunday

Image

Self-righteous people

Points to note

This is a short and simple parable, aimed very much at the Pharisee in us.  Pharisees are still with us today, in some ways.  When I was wondering around the London district of Stanford Hill one Saturday, where many orthodox Jews live, a little Jewish boy (complete with skullcap and braids) came up to me and asked me to ring the doorbell for him.  To orthodox Jews who are not allowed to work on Saturday, touching something electrical is work.

Not just the Pharisee in us, but the children too.  For some children, it may hit to close to home for comfort.  Protracted quiet during the session may mean a great deal.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

If anyone loves me he will keep my word,

and my Father will love him and we shall come to him.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain to the children what a parable is.  Explain the situation in Israel at the time of Jesus.  There were Pharisees and priests who thought that because they knew God’s law and kept them, they were better than others who do not.  They also believed that as descendants of Abraham, they will automatically go to heaven whatever they do.

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 21: 28-32)

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, “What do you think?  A man has two sons.  He went and said to the first, ‘My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today.’  He answered, ‘I will not go’, but afterwards changed his mind and went.  The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, ‘Certainly, sir’ but did not go.  Which of the two did the father’s will?”  “The first,” they said.  Jesus said to them, “I tell you truly, tax collectors and Gentiles are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you as a model of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and the Gentiles did.  Even after seeing that, you refused to change your mind and believe him.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussions

Run through the story again and list all the different characters.  Point out whom the different characters are supposed to represent:  the father, God; the first son, the Pharisees; and the second son, the sinners.  Discuss how the Pharisees see themselves as people destined for Paradise and how they see others who do not measure up to their standards of righteousness.

Discuss the meaning of the terms ‘the letter of the law’ and ‘the spirit of the law’.  Give examples:  when Mom says ‘No cookies before dinner’, eating sweets but not cookies would be obedience to the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.  Explain that God does not expect merely that we observe the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law as well.  What he wants is that we do the right things for the right reasons.  Link this up with the second son in the story of the Prodigal Son.

Explain that in the parable, Jesus does not condone the sins of the sinners.  Nevertheless, he loves them because they repented.  Link this up with the thief who repented while on the cross next to Jesus.

Who are the modern day Pharisees?  Restrict the discussion to the types of situations where the children have encountered people who are self-righteous, and not the individuals themselves.  We do not want a litany of other people’s sins.  Do they find these people irritating? 

Among the examples could be those who scrupulously do all their own chores in the house but refuses to help in other chores as they are other people’s work; those who observe all the school rules but tell on others who do not without discussing with the offending person first; those who attend mass every Sunday and do good deeds because they think that that is all they need to do to get into heaven. 

Do we do these things?  There would normally be silence in addition to a few shaking of heads.  Leave it to them to think about it and discuss how others feel if they see us doing the things we just mentioned – exactly the same thing that we mention about others.

Note that in all these, God is not looking at what is done but the intention.  For instance, he does not want us to attend mass to chalk up a score for our eligibility for Paradise, but because we love him and his Church.  In all things, love and only love should be the motivation.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Identifying with people who suffer

Points to note

This is a difficult reading to do.  The story is a very dark one with very graphic illustrations that may sometimes scare children.  We will have to do it with moderation of the less palatable scenes for the children.

Then there are the concepts that we want to get across.  It is easy to say that the rich will suffer in the afterlife while the poor will enjoy an easier afterlife but this is not the intended message.  As we have seen in last week’s reading, being rich in itself is not going to get you into hell but making a master out of money will.  This week’s reading takes it one step further: being indifferent to those who are suffering will also get you into hell rather fast.

Another image to avoid is that we can get into heaven by suffering in this life.  The Beatitudes make it clear that we can get into heaven by suffering only if we are suffering for Jesus.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice, says the Lord

I know them and they follow me.

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Lk 16: 19-31)

Jesus said to the Pharisees. “There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently everyday.  And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.  Dogs even came and licked his sores.  Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to heaven.  The rich man also died and was buried.

“In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus at his side.  So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in pain in these flames.’  ‘My son,’ Abraham replied, ‘remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus.  Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony.  But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been set up to stop anyone who wants to, from crossing from our side to yours, and to stop anyone from crossing from your side to ours.’

The rich man replied, ‘Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.’  ‘They have Moses and the prophets,’ said Abraham, ‘let them listen to them.’  ‘Ah no, father Abraham,‘ said the rich man, ‘but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.’  Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.’ “

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

Go back into the story and discuss Lazarus’ condition.  Just beware not to turn off any child but the objective is to identify what suffering is.  Some children may have very simplistic or self-centred views about suffering but be gentle with them. 

Can we see who in the world are suffering today?  There are sufferings at various levels.  People who are destitute or fleeing from war may be suffering like Lazarus.  But there are also people who suffer because they have lost loved ones in accidents and the like.  And the old lady on welfare next door getting upset because she has lost her purse is also suffering.  Or the friend in school who just got taunted online.

What should we do with the people who are suffering?  Ignore them?  Explain that this was what got the rich man into hell.  Be sensitive with the word ‘hell’ as some parents have taught their children that it is a swear word: it is not the word but the context in which you say it that makes it a swear word.

List all the good things we could do including material help, emotional support, praying for them, etc.  You may want to discuss with the older ones that if you do these things because you think that it will get you to heaven, you probably won’t get there.  You have to do these things with sincerity, because you want to do them, not because it is a chore you have to do to get you to heaven.

Discuss why Lazarus got to heaven.  Was it because he suffered?  Was it because he was poor?  Or was it that he was so destitute that he had no friends and no other help to turn to that he could only turn to God and became God’s friend.  God love people like that.  Remember that no man can serve two masters.  God wants us to rely on him and him alone and nothing else.

Social justice

This is an important part of being Catholic and a key lesson in the faith of the Church.  In my experience, almost all facilitators for children’s Liturgy of the Word and most of the children attending are in the middle class, though I know there are many who are not.  And yet the Church of Jesus is called to be the Church of the Poor.  We need to reconcile the material wealth of the Church and of Catholics worldwide to the mission to and of the poor to which we are called.

If I ask children whether they are poor, there is usually a slight hesitation before some muttering of no – “I am not sure but, yeah, I guess I am not”.  If I then ask them whether they are rich, there will be an instant no – “No way I am rich.”  When I tell them that 99% of the world’s children consider them as rich and dream being like them, you see their eyes widen in disbelief.

Yet, this is true and we need to explain to the children where the poor among us are.  There are rubbish heaps in some countries that do not smell because all the food have been picked clean, with nothing left to rot – and the task of picking these rubbish often falls to children.  While child labour has declined world wide, there are still some 160 million child labourers, half of them involved in hazardous work.

I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man with no feet

- an  old Persian saying

I have no truck with those who say that we should not frighten the children with such facts.  Poverty and suffering are real and we should not desensitize children to it, more so when it is our Christian anointing as king that calls us to serve the poor.

Pope Francis took on the name of St Francis of Assisi, the son of a rich cloth merchant who gave away everything he had to love Jesus in the poor.  He calls us to minister to the poor among us, and where possible, face to face as St Francis did with lepers.

Talk to the children how we can minister to the poor.  It is more than just giving them money that we have left over.  What do we give if it was Jesus in front of us?  If Jesus was that tramp who turned up at our table in the restaurant?

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Twenty-sixth Ordinary Sunday

Images

Tolerance

Different people

Points to note

The word Catholic means universal.  It refers to the Church that is the Church of all peoples and in all nations.  It refers to a Church where people could speak different languages and be of different races but bound together by a common faith.  The most evident expression of this catholicity is seen in the masses held in international conferences of Catholic bishops or leaders.

The Catholic Church in some places is in some ways more Catholic than the rest of the world.  There are some parishes where we have masses in a different language every Sunday.  There are some parishes or chapels where only one Sunday mass is held, but in multiple languages. 

Our expression of catholicity is more than just in language, but also in our tolerance of different ways of praying.  Greek Catholics in Eastern Europe and Maronite Catholics in Lebanon, for instance, owe the same allegiance to the Pope but have masses that are very different.  Even within Roman Catholicism, there are very different ways of prayer:  a Charismatic renewal prayer session and a Latin language Tridetine mass are poles apart in atmosphere but neither can deny the Catholicism of the other.

Liturgy

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Your words are truth, O Lord,

consecrate us in the  truth.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Last Sunday, we saw how Jesus dealt with those who were arguing about who was the greatest of the disciples, while they were on the way to Jerusalem.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Mark

(Mk 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48)

John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw a man who was not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us, we tried to stop him.”  But Jesus said, “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me.  Anyone who is not against us is for us.

“If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.

“But if anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck.  And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.  And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.  And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fires go out.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

What languages do we speak at home?  List the languages used.  Highlight especially the more unusual languages encountered.  Are we able to say that just because some people do not speak the same language that we speak, God does not listen to them?  Discuss if God is limited to one language or one race.

Emphasise that most of us are different in one respect or another.  Some of us are quiet and some of us are exuberant.  Discuss if God prefers one type of people to another.  Discuss the difference between the apostles.  See if any of the children can identify the type of persons they are.  There is no right or wrong answer to this one but draw out the impression the children have of the personalities of the apostles from the stories they know.  For instance, I think Peter is brash, John is young, Thomas is tough, Andrew is trusting.  Discuss if God loves any of them more than others.

Go through the first part of the reading again and discuss the impressions of the apostles:  they went to another town and found other people casting out devils, when they thought that they and only they, being the friends of Jesus are able to do that.  Did Jesus think that they were right to think in that way?

Discuss the implications of what Jesus said.  Are we able to say that just because some other people are different from us, God loves them less?  What about different ways of praying?  Discuss the different ways of praying that we encounter in the church:  youth masses, prayer meetings, rosaries, charismatic, etc.  Can we say that any of them is better than the others?

Discuss also people who do not belong to our church.  Are those people in other parishes any better than us or any worse than us?  We all still belong to the Catholic Church worldwide.  Explain the meaning of the word Catholic.

What about those Christians who are not Catholics?  Are they any less Christian than we are just because they are not Catholics?  What about those who are not Christians?  Are non-Christians bad people just because they are not baptised?

In this age of Ecumenism, we have to redefine the limits of tolerance.  It will be too advanced for the children to go into the intricacies of it all, but we aim to impart on the children that they are other ways of being praying to our God, and for Christians, many ways of expressing our Christianity.  That God loves us all even if we are different.

Say Amen

When you go up for communion, the communion minister says "Body of Christ" and you say "Amen" (which means 'I agree', not 'I believe'), have you ever thought about what exactly it is that you are agreeing to?  Yes, at one level, we are agreeing that the piece of bread is now the body of Christ.  But at another level, we are also agreeing to the two of us in that dialogue are in the same Body of Christ.  And for me something magical happens: two persons who never met and didn't know each other suddenly becomes one family, bound in the same faith by Jesus Christ, in whose body they were part of.  And so, I know wherever I am in the world, I say Amen and I know I am home.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Twenty-sixth Ordinary Sunday

Image

Self-righteous people

Points to note

This is a short and simple parable, aimed very much at the Pharisee in us.  Pharisees are still with us today, in some ways.  When I was wondering around the London district of Stanford Hill one Saturday, where many orthodox Jews live, a little Jewish boy (complete with skullcap and braids) came up to me and asked me to ring the doorbell for him.  To orthodox Jews who are not allowed to work on Saturday, touching something electrical is work.

Not just the Pharisee in us, but the children too.  For some children, it may hit to close to home for comfort.  Protracted quiet during the session may mean a great deal.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

If anyone loves me he will keep my word,

and my Father will love him and we shall come to him.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain to the children what a parable is.  Explain the situation in Israel at the time of Jesus.  There were Pharisees and priests who thought that because they knew God’s law and kept them, they were better than others who do not.  They also believed that as descendants of Abraham, they will automatically go to heaven whatever they do.

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 21: 28-32)

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, “What do you think?  A man has two sons.  He went and said to the first, ‘My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today.’  He answered, ‘I will not go’, but afterwards changed his mind and went.  The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, ‘Certainly, sir’ but did not go.  Which of the two did the father’s will?”  “The first,” they said.  Jesus said to them, “I tell you truly, tax collectors and Gentiles are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you as a model of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and the Gentiles did.  Even after seeing that, you refused to change your mind and believe him.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussions

Run through the story again and list all the different characters.  Point out whom the different characters are supposed to represent:  the father, God; the first son, the Pharisees; and the second son, the sinners.  Discuss how the Pharisees see themselves as people destined for Paradise and how they see others who do not measure up to their standards of righteousness.

Discuss the meaning of the terms ‘the letter of the law’ and ‘the spirit of the law’.  Give examples:  when Mom says ‘No cookies before dinner’, eating sweets but not cookies would be obedience to the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.  Explain that God does not expect merely that we observe the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law as well.  What he wants is that we do the right things for the right reasons.  Link this up with the second son in the story of the Prodigal Son.

Explain that in the parable, Jesus does not condone the sins of the sinners.  Nevertheless, he loves them because they repented.  Link this up with the thief who repented while on the cross next to Jesus.

Who are the modern day Pharisees?  Restrict the discussion to the types of situations where the children have encountered people who are self-righteous, and not the individuals themselves.  We do not want a litany of other people’s sins.  Do they find these people irritating? 

Among the examples could be those who scrupulously do all their own chores in the house but refuses to help in other chores as they are other people’s work; those who observe all the school rules but tell on others who do not without discussing with the offending person first; those who attend mass every Sunday and do good deeds because they think that that is all they need to do to get into heaven. 

Do we do these things?  There would normally be silence in addition to a few shaking of heads.  Leave it to them to think about it and discuss how others feel if they see us doing the things we just mentioned – exactly the same thing that we mention about others.

Note that in all these, God is not looking at what is done but the intention.  For instance, he does not want us to attend mass to chalk up a score for our eligibility for Paradise, but because we love him and his Church.  In all things, love and only love should be the motivation.