THEOLOGY 104

LESSON 2
C
The Social Teaching of the Church
Prayer to St.
Anthony of
Padua
Prayer Leader: St.Anthony of Padua our Patron Saint
Response: Pray for us
Prayer Leader: Lead us to know and love Jesus
deeply
Response: and follow Him in the loving service of our
neighbors.
Let us Pray: O gentle and loving St Anthony, you
whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, whisper
our prayers into the ears of the Infant Jesus, who loved
to linger in your arms. One word from you and our
prayer will be granted. O, speak but that word and the
gratitude of our heart will ever be yours!Amen
Prayer Leader: Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit
Response: as it was in the beginning, is now,and will be foreverAmen.
LESSON 3
For God so loved the
world that he gave his
only Son, so that
everyone who
believes in
him might not
perish but might
have eternal life.

God created the

world out of his
overflowing love. He
would like us to love
him as
he loves us. He
wants to gather us
into the great
family of his
Church.
(DOCAT 5)
You love all things that
exist, and you loathe
none of the things that
you have made, for you
would not have made
anything if you had
hated it.
Wis 11:24
All created things and
generosity of the Creator; the sun
sheds light, the fire heat, every tree
extends its arms, which are its
boughs, and yields us the fruit
which it produces, and the water
and the air, and all nature shows
forth the liberality of the Creator. It
is because of avarice, I say, that
we who are His living image do not
represent Him, but by our unloving
selfishness- ness deny Him in our
actions, although with our mouth
we confess Him.
ST. PHILIP NERI (1515-1595)
God created the
world as
something good
in itself. But
man fell away
from God,
deciding
against God's love
and bringing evil
into the world.
in the story of the first sin
and fall of Adam and
Eve. Human beings
the story about the Tower of
Babel explains - wanted to
be like God. Since then
there has been a flaw in
the fabric of the world, a
destructive principle. Since
then nothing is quite as
God planned it to be.
Our present
decisions also
contribute to the fact
that there is
injustice,
oppression, and
suffering in this
world. Many wrong
decisions can
sometimes coalesce
into structures of evil
and sin.
therefore live within a
system that on the whole
is evil and unjust, and it
is not at all easy to
distance oneself from
it, for example, when a
soldier is obliged to
participate in an unjust
war.
Sin is the
prison in
which we are
all born
St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
Founder of the Jesuits
God created man to love. One
cannot be forced to love,
however, love is always
voluntary. If a human being is
really to be able to love, he
must therefore be free. If
there is genuine freedom,
however, there is always the
possibility also of deciding in a
way that is fundamentally
wrong. We human beings can
even destroy freedom itself.
 Full power to
sin is not the
key to freedom.
Free will is not
the
independence
of the creature,
 but rather his self
realization in perfect
dependence.
St. Catherine Of Siena (1786-1859),
Third Order Dominican, mystic, and theologian
Sin is a failure to genuinely love
God and neighbor because of a
perverse attachment to certain
goods
It could be an utterance /word we
speak, a deed, or a desire, that is
contrary to the eternal law.
It is an offense against reason,
truth, and right conscience.
- CSDC1849
 ✔Personal-it
destroys the
person (self
and others)

✔Social-it
 destroys
communal life

It is a sinful
structures,
institutions, or
situations that
promote sinful
attitudes and
behaviors
 - these are
structures that step on people's
dignity and prevent people from
exercising their rights. These are
habitual patterns of human
interactions infected by sin,
selfishness, injustice, pride, greed,
and hatred.
injustices of the contemporary
world consists precisely in
this: that the ones who
possess much are relatively
few and those who possess
almost nothing are many. It is
the injustice of the poor
distribution of the goods and
services originally intended
for all! (SRS 28).
Examples:
a) Graft and
corruption,
cronyism and
nepotism;
b) Unjust trade relations
between the first world
and the third world
countries. In this trade
relations, third world
countries sell cheap
from the advanced
countries. Resources are being
sucked up by agricultural products
and raw materials, and, buy industrial
goods wealthy nations at the
expense of the suffering ecology of
the poor nations.
- these are
situations that lead people
to become greedy and
selfish. Examples are: a
culture of graft and
corruption, bribery vote
buying, drug trafficking, a
justice system that fails to
convict rich people of their
crimes, and tax evasion.
Sinful Attitudes
are attitudes and
behaviors of people that
allow or directly
participate in the evil that
is being done against
others. Sins of omission,
the conspiracy of silence,
and apathy are concrete
examples of sinful
attitudes.
...(T)he actions and attitudes
opposed to the will of God and the
good of neighbor, as well as the
structures arising from such
behavior appear to fall into two
categories today: on the one hand,
the all-consuming desire for profit,
and on the other, the thirst for power,
with the intention of imposing one's
will upon others. In order to
characterize better each of these
attitudes, one can add the
expression: 'at any price.“
(CSDC 119/SRS 37)
 In the past, salvation
was understood as the
salvation of souls, a
salvation which was
attained only in the
afterlife. What
was stressed was the salvation
of the individual soul. Today,
there is a more comprehensive
understanding of salvation, an
understanding which goes
back to its biblical root.
The salvation of the total person (it includes
one's life experiences) from slavery, hunger,
suffering drought, lack of land,
discrimination, oppression, death, etc.,
through their collective struggle for
abundance, grapes, rain, promised land
flowing with milk and honey (economic);
freedom, independence (political); children,
peace, security, good relations (socio
cultural). (Dt. 6:21-23, Dt. 26:2-13, Jos. 25:2-13,
Lev. 26:4- 13, Dt. 28:2, Ps. 136, 105-106, 135, 78.)

Salvation is
anchored on the
very person of
Jesus Christ, in His
public ministry (words
and deeds), and His
dying on the Cross.
 The Beatitudes (Mt.
5:3-9)
• 1) Blessed are
you poor, for yours
is the kingdom of
God. • 2) Blessed
are you that
hunger, you shall be satisfied. • 3) Blessed are
you that weep, you shall laugh.
• 4) Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be
comforted. • 5) Blessed are the meek, they shall
inherit the earth. • 6) Blessed are the merciful, they
shall obtain mercy. • 7) Blessed are the pure in
heart, they shall see God. • 8) Blessed are the
peacemakers, they shall be called children of God.

(Mt.
11:4-5)
•"Go and tell John what you
hear and see: the blind
received their sight and the
lame walk, lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear
and the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the good
news preached to them."
 "Then He took a
cup, gave thanks,
and gave it to them
saying, 'Drink from
it, all of you, for this
is my blood of the covenant
which will be shed on behalf of
many for the forgiveness of sins."
(New American Bible, Mt. 26:
27-28)

A salvation offered in its

fullness to men in Jesus
Christ by God, the
Father's initiative, and
brought about and
transmitted by the work of
the Holy Spirit, is
salvation for all people and of the whole
 person: it is universal and integral
salvation. It concerns the human person
in all his dimensions: • PERSONAL AND
SOCIAL,
• SPIRITUAL AND CORPOREAL,
• HISTORICAL AND TRANSCENDENT.
(CSDC38)
A salvation offered by God to His
children requires their FREE
RESPONSE AND
ACCEPTANCE. It is in this that
FAITH consists, and it is through
this that "man freely commits his
entire self to God, responding to
God's prior and
superabundant love with concrete
love for his brothers and sisters,
and with steadfast hope in God."
(CSDC 39)
It is
KAGINHAWAHAN: Experience of
life, peace, joy, health, material
and economic independence,
prosperity, contentment,
forgiveness -EXPERIENCE OF
GOD IN ITS TOTALITY IN THE
HERE AND NOW. Salvation
begins in this life now, though it
finds fulfillment only after our
earthly life.
 •This is our vision: that
all Filipinos may have
life in its fullness, we
need to bring forth a
free nation, nurturing a
civilization of life and
love-
•Where human dignity and solidarity
are respected and promoted;
where moral principles prevail in
socio-economic life and structures;
where justice, love and solidarity
are the inner driving forces of
development.
• We shall have to build a sovereign
nation: •where every tribe and faith
are respected; •where diverse
tongues and traditions •work together
for the common good; where
membership is a call to
participation and development,
and leadership a summon to
generous service.
• Ours will have to be a people in
harmony with one another through
unity in diversity; in harmony with
creation and in harmony with the
Creator.
 Salvation is the
business of the Church.
Participation of
Catholics in any
activity that brings
about any form of liberation
and salvation in the temporal
order, i.e., political activity, must
be motivated by a fuller
understanding of the Church's
mission of Salvation.
This is the reason why, as
Filipino Catholics, and as
members of the Church, we
are called more than ever
today, to get involved, to
participate to bring about the
renewal and
perfection of the temporal
order (all areas of temporal
life).
Renewing the temporal order
is a constitutive dimension of
preaching the Gospel, the
message of salvation.
On the other hand,
Catholics shirk from
or fail in their mission
of perfecting the
temporal order with
the gospel message
of Christ. salvation if
they don't get
involved/participate, in
penetrating and
perfecting the temporal
order with the gospel
message of Christ.
Mary's "yes" to God's
plan is seen as a model
of faith and obedience.
Catholics believe that
through her cooperation,
she became a vessel
through which the Son of
God took on
human flesh. This
event is known as
the Incarnation.
While Jesus is the one
who offers redemption and salvation
through his life, death, and
resurrection, Mary's role is seen as
instrumental in the unfolding of God's
salvific plan.
•Heir to the hope of the
 righteous in Israel and first
among the disciples of Jesus
Christ is Mary, his Mother.
•By her “fiat" to the plan of
God's love (cf. Lk 1:38), in the
name of all humanity, she
accepts in history the One
sent by the Father, the Saviour
of mankind.

In her Magnificat
 she
proclaims the advent
of the Mystery of
Salvation, the coming
of the "Messiah of the
poor" (cf. Is 11:4;
61:1).
whom the Virgin of
Nazareth praises in song
as her spirit rejoices, is the
One who casts down the
mighty from their thrones
and raises up
the lowly, fills the hungry with
good things and sends the
rich away empty, scatters
the proud and shows mercy
to those who fear him (cf. Lk
1:50-53).
Looking to the heart of
Mary, to the depth of her
faith expressed in the
words of the Magnificat,
Christ's disciples are
called to renew ever
more fully in themselves
"the awareness that the
truth about God who
saves, the truth about
God who is the source of
every gift, cannot be separated from
the manifestation of his love of
preference for the poor and humble,
that love which, celebrated in the
Magnificat, is later expressed in the
words and works of Jesus".
Mary is totally dependent
upon God and
completely directed
towards him by the
impetus of her faith. She
is "the most perfect
image of freedom and of
the liberation of humanity
and of the universe”.
Prayer to St. Michael
the Archangel: (+sign
of the Cross +)

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in a battle. Be our
protection against the
wickedness and snares of
the devil. May God rebuke
him, we humbly pray and do
thou O Prince of Heavenly
Host. By the Divine power of
God cast into hell Satan and
all the evil spirits who roam throughout
the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.