Solemnity of Christ the King

LSW children

Year B

Solemnity of Christ the King

Images

A different type of king

Points to note

The Solemnity of Christ the King, which falls on the last Sunday of the liturgical year (the following Sunday starts off the season of Advent), is a rather recent feastday, having been instituted in 1925.  Pope Benedict XVI wanted to remind Italians that their allegiance was not to the dictator Benito Mussolini, who was in power at that time, but to Jesus.  He drew contrast between Mussolini and Jesus in the way they exercised their kingship: Mussolini by violence and Jesus by love.

Actually, kings are getting to be a rather rare breed. There are 42 reigning monarchs in the world today, of whom 8 are Christian kings (excluding the Pope), all in Europe.  There are two Queens, the Pope, two Africans, four Buddhists, and the rest Muslims.   So really, only eight men in the world today fit our conventional image of a king.  

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

(Jn18: 33-37)

‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?’ Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.’ ‘So you are a king then?’ said Pilate. ‘It is you who say it’ answered Jesus. ‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Have you ever met a king before? Very few of us have ever met kings.  So, you can always extend it to queens and presidents.  But, best to keep to kings and queens because children like the pomp and ceremony.

Discuss how the kings, queens and presidents are welcomed when we meet them.  They come in a big huge limousine.  There are lots of people around them, to serve them.  They don’t have to lift a finger to do anything and I bet they do not have a wallet.  The Queen of England may go around with a lovely handbag but it probably doesn’t have any money in it.

Discuss how you are supposed to behave when you meet kings, queens and presidents.  There are certain protocols when meeting royalty. You address them as Your Highness or Mr/Mrs President or Your Excellency.  You know, you are not supposed to touch the Queen: you bow (for boys) or curtsy (if girl) instead.  You speak politely and cannot munch your food loudly.  Later, someone will come and usher you away.

They also have security guards around them because of the danger that someone could shoot them. After all four American presidents have been shot and many kings of England murdered (ok, the last one was beheaded in 1649).

Contrast it with Jesus.  How did Jesus get around?  How did he enter Jerusalem?  Ask the children to imagine, their king, queen or president arriving to visit them on a donkey.

Discuss how people treated him when he visited.  They were respectful but not overly deferential – nobody bowed or curtsied to him. In fact they expected him to do work: heal them, feed them, teach them. At times, he had to show people where to fish, he washed their feet.  Also, he had no bodyguards because he ruled by love and not in fear.  If anyone wanted to kill him, he would have let them do it willingly.  Which he did.

Explain that nobody was deferential to him and he didn’t expect anyone to be.  This is because he was a king who came to serve.  A Christian king is not supposed to be lording over everyone else. Christian kings and Christian leaders are expected to be humble and help anyone who need help in any way.

Explain that when we were baptised, we were anointed priest, prophet and king.  The role of the king that we take on is the kingship of Jesus, the kingship of service.  

Today is the feast of Christ the King.  It is the feast day of all of us as kings together with Jesus.  But it is not a day when we show our power to everyone.  It is a day to remember to serve in humility everyone who needs help.

If you have time, link it up last year’s reading of the Last Judgement and who Jesus is whom we see around us.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Year A

Solemnity of Christ the King

Images

Following Jesus as King

Points to note

There are many aspects to the concept of Christ as King.  We will explore the various aspects in the three times that this feast is celebrated over the cycle.

This year, we deal with the king as a judge in two ways.  The common view is held of judges as those who passes judgements and sentences on the guilty.  Initially, kings would pass judgements personally.  Then gradually as kingdoms get bigger, other able persons were co-opted to assist the king in this role until today, kings no longer personally pass judgements but have professional judges to do so in their name.

But there is another facet to judging. In monarchies until this day, kings (and queens) judges persons who are worthy (normally, they have a panel to assist them in making the selection) and these worthy people get an award or a title (in republics, presidents only hand out awards but not titles).

Today, we explore Jesus’ role as king in both facets of a judge.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that today is the last Sunday of the Church year and next week we start the season of Advent.

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 25:31-46)

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.

  

‘Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you; sick or in prison and go to see you?” And the King will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”

  

‘Next he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink; I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, naked and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me.” Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?” Then he will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.”

And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.’

This is the Good News of the Lord

Dialogue

Today, we celebrate Jesus as King.  What do kings in olden days do?  (Let’s not look towards the kings of today – most of their work has now been outsourced to others!!).  They may need to refer to the role of lords and kings that they see in movies and TV programmes of olden days.

Of the long lists that emerge, select the role of the judge.  What would you like to do if you were a king judging for one day?  Let the children talk about what they would do to those they don’t like – but spare the gory details.

Would what you do be different if Jesus was doing the judging and you were helping him?  A judge like Jesus has to be fair and a judge only decides based on evidence and not on personal feelings.

Who does Jesus judge?  Lead the children to understand that judging is not only for the guilty but also to reward those who are worthy.

Jesus was judging as a king would.  A judge calls for witnesses to find out what happens because a judge must make a judgement based on evidence.  Would Jesus need witnesses?  No, because Jesus was there when good and bad happened.  All good and bad done to anyone was done to him.  So, he knows what happened without any need for witnesses.

Discuss what this means - that whatever good & bad that was done was done to Jesus.  Have we ever stopped to think about it whenever we do anything good or bad – or hesitated to do anything good or bad.  Maybe, it is something we should do.

There was once a village with three rich brothers.  The first had a huge house with many servants keeping it clean and comfortable.  The second had a huge kitchen with many chefs cooking delicious meals.  The third had a huge workshop with many tailors making beautiful clothes. 

One day, Jesus came to the three brothers in the dream to tell them that he was coming to their village the next day.   When they awoke, the three brothers jump out of bed and ordered their servants to get to work.  The first wanted Jesus to lay his head on the most comfortable bed in the whole country.  The second wanted Jesus to taste the most delicious roast lamb in the whole country. The third wanted Jesus to wear the most beautiful cloak in the whole country.

So, the whole village was hard at work – cleaning, cooking and sewing.  At noontime, an old man, poor, tired with only tied up cloth for shoes came into the village.  He knocked on the door of the first house to ask for some hay to lay his tired head but was turned away by the first brother because his servants were busy preparing the most comfortable bed in the whole country for Jesus.  He then knocked on the door of the second house to ask for some water to quench his thirst but was turned away by the second brother because his servants were busy cooking the most delicious meal in the whole country for Jesus.  He knocked on the door of the third house to ask for some leather to make some sandals for his bleeding feet but was turned away by the third brother because his servants were busy sewing the most beautiful cloak in the whole country for Jesus.

So, the poor old man left the village more tired, hungry and bleeding feet than when he first came.  The village continued to clean, cook and sew until finally the comfortable bed, delicious meal and beautiful cloak for Jesus were all ready but no one came.  That night, the three brothers met Jesus in a dream and they all asked why he didn’t turn up.  Jesus said, “I came and asked for some hay but you didn’t give it to me. I came and asked for some water but you didn’t give it to me. I came and asked for some leather but you didn’t give it to me.”

 

Solemnity of Christ the King

Year A

Solemnity of Christ the King

Images

Kingdom of Christ

Points to note

In every Catholic church in the world, there is that big crucifix in the middle.  A crucifix differs from a cross by having Jesus on it.  Catholic crucifixes also have that little note containing the letters “INRI” at the top.  It stands for “Iesu Nazarene Rex Idumea”, which means “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” in Latin.  This was what Pilate wrote as the crimes to Jesus, to be nailed on top of the cross.  It is ironic that Pilate in putting up what he thought is the false assertion of a condemned man, has spoken a truth that echoed through the centuries since.

In Year A, we have discussed Jesus role as a judge (one of the roles of a king) and in Year B, the nature of kingship.  So, in Year C, we reconcile our membership in both our secular country and our spiritual kingdom.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that today is the last Sunday of the Church year and next week we start the season of Advent of a new cycle.  This reading takes place when Jesus was dying on the cross.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Lk 23:35-43)

The people stayed there before the cross watching Jesus. As for the leaders, they jeered at him. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

One of the criminals hanging there abused him. ‘Are you not the Christ?’ he said. ‘Save yourself and us as well.’ But the other spoke up and rebuked him. ‘Have you no fear of God at all?’ he said. ‘You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus,’ he said ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ ‘Indeed, I promise you,’ he replied ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’

This is the Good News of the Lord

Dialogue

What country do we belong to?  Discuss your country and you may want to take the opportunity to impart a bit of civil knowledge, particularly if the country and the nation are different for you.

How did you become a citizen of your country and how do you prove that you are a citizen?  Most of us were citizens when we were born in the country but some were naturalised (meaning, changed citizenship from another country). Many countries have identity cards but at minimum all countries have passports that you can use to show which country you are from.  (NB: citizenship documents are sometimes too complicated to explain to children).

What does the country do for you and what do you need to do in return?  The country protects us all & our rights and provides an environment for us to live our way of life with our family, community and church.  In return, we have to pay our taxes, follow the laws of the country and are obliged to defend it, our identity and our way of life (way of life, not necessary our government, our food or our football team).  This is known as the social contract.

Do you know we are citizens of another country?  A country whose king is not of this world.  Explain that we are citizens of God’s kingdom.  Explain that Jesus is a king and what Pilate wrote on the cross.  Show the children a crucifix with the INRI on it.

What does God’s kingdom do for us and what do we do for God’s kingdom?  Just like our country, God’s kingdom also protect us but in the afterlife.  It also provides faith for us to understand ourselves, love to live with our neighbours and hope for the peace in God’s kingdom in the afterlife.  At the same time, we have to be willing to defend God’s kingdom and our right to our way of life as Christians.

How do we join God’s kingdom and how we prove we are citizens?  You may want to spend a bit more time here.  We join God’s kingdom when we get baptised.  But our baptism has to be sincere and God may not accept our membership in his kingdom if we do not mean it.  So our conversion and our acceptance of Jesus as King has to be true.

In a way unlike out country, you can never be born into God’s kingdom but will always be naturalised.  We will always have to apply to join and our membership is always dependant on whether he thinks we have been true to the values of the kingdom or not – it is never a sure thing unlike our citizenship of our country, which can never be taken away.

Also sometimes like the Prodigal Son, we wander out of God’s kingdom and we lose God’s protection.  We get upset and are no longer calm until we return to God’s kingdom.  And until we return, we will not be under God’s protection.

We prove that we are citizens of God’s kingdom by the way we live our lives.  We show that we are Christians by loving each other and forgive anyone who offends us.  What other ways can the children come up with?

As with anything else, draw the parallels with the secular examples so that the children can identify with it.

Solemnity of Christ the King

LSW children

Year B

Solemnity of Christ the King

Images

A different type of king

Points to note

The Solemnity of Christ the King, which falls on the last Sunday of the liturgical year (the following Sunday starts off the season of Advent), is a rather recent feastday, having been instituted in 1925.  Pope Benedict XVI wanted to remind Italians that their allegiance was not to the dictator Benito Mussolini, who was in power at that time, but to Jesus.  He drew contrast between Mussolini and Jesus in the way they exercised their kingship: Mussolini by violence and Jesus by love.

Actually, kings are getting to be a rather rare breed.  There are 42 reigning monarchs in the world today, of whom 8 are Christian kings (excluding the Pope), all in Europe.  There are two Queens, the Pope two Africans, four Buddhists, and the rest Muslims.   So really, only eight men in the world today fit our conventional image of a king. 

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

(Jn 18: 33-37)

‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?’ Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.’ ‘So you are a king then?’ said Pilate. ‘It is you who say it’ answered Jesus. ‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Discussion

Have you ever met a king before? Very few of us have ever met kings.  So, you can always extend it to queens and presidents.  But, best to keep to kings and queens because children like the pomp and ceremony.

Discuss how the kings, queens and presidents are welcomed when we meet them.  They come in a big huge limousine.  There arelots of people around them, to serve them.  They don’t have to lift a finger to do anything and I bet they do not have a wallet.  The Queen of England may go around with a lovely handbag but it probably doesn’t have any money in it.

Discuss how you are supposed to behave when you meet kings, queens and presidents.  There are certain protocols when meeting royalty.  You address them as Your Highness or Mr/Mrs President or Your Excellency.  You know, you are not supposed to touch the Queen: you bow (for boys) or curtsy (if girl) instead.  You speak politely and cannot munch your food loudly.  Later, someone will come and usher you away.

They also have security guards around them because of the danger that someone could shoot them.  After all four American presidents have been shot and many kings of England murdered (ok, the last one was beheaded in 1649).

Contrast it with Jesus.  How did Jesus get around?  How did he enter Jerusalem?  Ask the children to imagine, their king, queen or president arriving to visit them on a donkey.

Discuss how people treated him when he visited.  They were respectful but not overly deferential – nobody bowed or curtsied to him. In fact they expected him to do work: heal them, feed them, teach them.  At times, he had to show people where to fish, he washed their feet.  Also, he had bodyguards because he ruled by love and not in fear.  If anyone wanted to kill him, he would have let them do it willingly.  Which he did.

Explain that nobody was deferential to him and he didn’t expect anyone to be.  This is because he was a king who came to serve.   A Christian king is not supposed to be lording over everyone else. Christian kings and Christian leaders are expected to be humble and help anyone who need help in any way.

Explain that when we were baptised, we were anointed priest, prophet and king.  The role of the king that we take on is the kingship of Jesus, the kingship of service. 

Today is the feast of Christ the King.  It is the feast day of all of us as kings together with Jesus.  But it is not a day when we show our power to everyone.  It is a day to remember to serve in humility everyone who needs help.

If you have time, link it up last year’s reading of the Last Judgement and who Jesus is whom we see around us.

Christ the King

Year A

Solemnity of Christ the King

Images

Following Jesus as King

Points to note

There are many aspects to the concept of Christ as King.  We will explore the various aspects in the three times that this feast is celebrated over the cycle.

This year, we deal with the king as a judge in two ways.  The common view is held of judges as those who passes judgements and sentences on the guilty.  Initially, kings would pass judgements personally.  Then gradually as kingdoms get bigger, other able persons were co-opted to assist the king in this role until today, kings no longer personally pass judgements but have professional judges to do so in their name.

But there is another facet to judging. In monarchies until this day, kings (and queens) judges persons who are worthy (normally, they have a panel to assist them in making the selection) and these worthy people get an award or a title (in republics, presidents only hand out awards but not titles).

Today, we explore Jesus’ role as king in both facets of being a judge.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!

Alleluia!

Gospel
Explain that today is the last Sunday of the Church Year and next week we start the Advent season.

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 25:31-46)

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.

  

‘Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you; sick or in prison and go to see you?” And the King will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”

  

‘Next he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink; I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, naked and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me.” Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?” Then he will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.”

  ‘

And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.’

This is the Good News of the Lord

Dialogue

Today, we celebrate Jesus as King.  What do kings in olden days do?  (Let’s not look towards the kings of today – most of their work has now been outsourced to others!!).  They may need to refer to the role of lords and kings that they see in movies and TV programmes of olden days.

Of the long lists that emerge, select the role of the judge.  What would you like to do if you were a king judging for one day?  Let the children talk about what they would do to those they don’t like – but spare the gory details.

Would what you do be different if Jesus was doing the judging and you were helping him?  A judge like Jesus has to be fair and a judge only decides based on evidence and not on personal feelings.

Who do Jesus judge?  Lead the children to understand that judging is not only for the guilty but also to reward those who are worthy.

Jesus was judging as a king would.  A judge calls for witnesses to find out what happens because a judge must make a judgement based on evidence.  Would Jesus need witnesses?  No, because Jesus was there when good and bad happened.  All good and bad done to anyone was done to him.  So, he knows what happened without any need for witnesses.

Discuss what this means - that whatever good & bad that was done was done to Jesus.  Have we ever stopped to think about it whenever we do anything good or bad – or hesitated to do anything good or bad.  Maybe, it is something we should do.

There was once a village with three rich brothers.  The first had a huge house with many servants keeping it clean and comfortable.  The second had a huge kitchen with many chefs cooking delicious meals.  The third had a huge workshop with many tailors making beautiful clothes. 

One day, Jesus came to the three brothers in the dream to tell them that he was coming to their village the next day.   When they awoke, the three brothers jump out of bed and ordered their servants to get to work.  The first wanted Jesus to lay his head on the most comfortable bed in the whole country.  The second wanted Jesus to taste the most delicious roast lamb in the whole country. The third wanted Jesus to wear the most beautiful cloak in the whole country.

So, the whole village was hard at work – cleaning, cooking and sewing.  At noontime, an old man, poor, tired with only tied up cloth for shoes came into the village.  He knocked on the door of the first house to ask for some hay to lay his tired head but was turned away by the first brother because his servants were busy preparing the most comfortable bed in the whole country for Jesus.  He then knocked on the door of the second house to ask for some water to quench his thirst but was turned away by the second brother because his servants were busy cooking the most delicious meal in the whole country for Jesus.  He knocked on the door of the third house to ask for some leather to make some sandals for his bleeding feet but was turned away by the third brother because his servants were busy sewing the most beautiful cloak in the whole country for Jesus.

So, the poor old man left the village more tired, hungry and bleeding feet than when he first came.  The village continued to clean, cook and sew until finally the comfortable bed, delicious meal and beautiful cloak for Jesus were all ready but no one came.  That night, the three brothers met Jesus in a dream and they all asked why he didn’t turn up.  Jesus said, “I came and asked for some hay but you didn’t give it to me. I came and asked for some water but you didn’t give it to me. I came and asked for some leather but you didn’t give it to me.”