THEOLOGY
CHRISTIAN VISION OF THE CHURCH IN SOCIETY
UNIT 1 LESSON 1: HUMAN DIGNITY IN THE
STORY OF CREATION
• HUMAN DIGNITY
✓ Core principle in Catholic Social Teaching.
✓ Man aims to achieve salvation through the
redemptive act of Jesus & ultimately destined to be
with God the Father.
✓ All human persons are endowed with inherent rights
and duties as inviolable and inalienable, as dignity
was bestowed by God.
• HUMAN BEINGS AS THE CROWNING GLORY OF
GOD’S CREATION
✓ The dignity of the human person is rooted in his
creation in the image and likeness of God. –
Catechism of the Catholic Church
✓ Human beings – masterpiece of His creation.
▪ Capable of self-knowledge
▪ Can freely give themselves & enter communion
with others.
✓ Genesis 1:26-27
▪ Tackles about origin and creation of human
beings.
✓ Human persons with divine image in them possess
significant quantities. (Imago dei)
▪ CCC 1702-1711
▪ Spiritual and Immortal Soul
o Human person, created in God’s image, is a
corporeal and spiritual being at once.
o The Church teaches that every spiritual
soul is created immediately by God.
 It is not “produced” by parents and is
immortal.
 It does not perish when it separates from
the body at death.
 Will be reunited with the body at the final
Resurrection.
▪ Intellect
o By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of
intellect and will, man is endowed with
freedom.
o God-given ability to learn things and
understand them through our intellect.
o Through our senses, we gain knowledge of
things around us.
▪ Freewill
o God created man a rational being, giving
them the dignity to initiate and control his
own actions - CCC 1730
o But the exercise of freedom does not entail
the putative right to say or do anything. –
CCC 1747
o God willed that man be left in the hand of his
own counsel, to seek his Creator in his own
accord and attain freely full, blessed
perfection.
o Only in freedom can man direct himself
toward goodness.
▪ Self-Determination
o Authentic freedom – exceptional sign of
divine image within man.
o Man’s dignity demands he act according to a
knowing and free choice that is personally
motivated and from within.
▪ “The State values the dignity of every human
person and guarantees full respect for human
rights.” – PH Constitution, Art. 2 Sec. 11
• HUMAN BEINGS AS STEWARDS OF GOD’S
CREATION
✓ True Freedom
▪ Essential requirement to human dignity.
▪ Power and right to do what is right and good.
▪ Rooted in reason and will.
▪ CCC 1731
✓ The more one does what is good, the freer one
becomes. – CCC 1733
✓ Choice to disobey and do evil is abuse of freedom
and one becomes a slave to sin.
✓ Exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say
or do everything - CCC 1747
✓ The earth, by reason of its fruitfulness and capacity
to satisfy human needs, is God’s first gift for the
sustenance of human life. – Pope John Paul II
▪ Earth does not yield its fruits without human
response to God’s gift.
▪ Through work, man uses his intelligence and
exercise of freedom, and succeeds in
dominating the earth and making it a home.
✓ The Bible contains a profound messaged about the
stewardship of material creation: God created the
world but entrusts it to human beings.
▪ Joyful Appreciation of the God-Given Beauty
and Wonder of Nature
o Protection and preservation of the
environment – stewardship of ecological
concern.
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 o Respect for human life – shielding life from
threat and assault, doing everything to
enhance this gift and make it flourish.
o Development of world through noble
human effort – physical labor, trades and
professions, the arts and sciences; Work is a
fulfilling human vocation.
▪ Reverence for the Creator is present and active
in nature.
o May serve as a ground for environmental
responsibility.
▪ Dwelling in the presence of God, we experience
ourselves as part of creation, stewards within
it, not separate from it.
▪ Stewardship
o Implies that we must both care for creation
according to standards not of our making,
and at the same time be resourceful in
finding ways to make the earth flourish.
o This requires both sense of limits and a
spirit of experimentation, all while keeping a
balance.
▪ World peace is threatened not only by conflict
and injustices, but also lack of due respect of
nature. – Pope John Paul II during Celebration
of World Peace, Jan. 1, 1990
▪ Preservation of ecological environment is
mankind’s joint responsibility, through respect
for life, and above all for human dignity.
o This should be the ultimate guiding norm for
any sound economic, industrial, or scientific
progress.
▪ As God put humanity at the center of His
creation, man is tasked as stewards or care
takers of God’s created beings.
▪ As God bestowed dignity to human persons,
they should also recognize the dignity of other
creatures, a relationship of responsibility.
▪ Laudato Si
o Written by Pope Francis
o Presents current ecological problems our
world faces.
o Cited throwaway culture - ruthlessly
consumes, exploits, and discards human life
and natural resources as one of root causes.
o Urges responsibility as caretakers of
creation, as not just expressions of civic
mindedness, but fidelity to Christ, to love
our neighbor who we share a common
home with.
• HUMAN BEINGS AND TALKS ON GENDER AND
SEXUALITY
✓ Genesis 2:22-23
▪ God then built rib from man into woman.
▪ “Woman”, for out of man this one has been taken.
✓ CCC 371
▪ Man discovers woman as another “I”, sharing
the same humanity.
✓ CCC 2331-36: The Nature and Purpose of
Sexuality
▪ To be human is to exist either as male or female.
▪ We are sexual beings by nature, existing in one
of these two modes.
▪ Sexuality urges us out of isolation into the
company of others.
✓ CBCP’s Pastoral Moral Guidance on the Anti-
Discrimination Bill, Mar. 3, 2015
▪ Called on pastors to be solicitous of pastoral
welfare of all, regardless of sexual orientation
and gender identity.
▪ Zero tolerance in Catholic institutions of
bullying and badgering of persons in such
personal situations.
▪ If “gay rights” movements encourage free and
unbridled sexual relations between persons of
the same sex, the Church cannot lend support
due to it being a disservice to its members.
o What gay rights can legitimately champion is
justice for all, fairness that must extend to all
regardless of sexual orientation and
gender identity.
✓ CCC 2357
▪ Homosexuality – refers to relations between
men or between women who experience an
exclusive or predominant sexual attraction
toward persons of same sex.
▪ Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered
✓ CCC 2358
▪ They must be accepted with respect,
compassion, and sensitivity.
▪ Every sign of unjust discrimination in their
regard should be avoided.
▪ These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in
their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to
the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the
difficulties they may encounter from their
condition.
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✓ CCC 2359
▪ Homosexual persons are called to chastity.
▪ By virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner
freedom, at times by support of disinterested
friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace,
they can and should gradually and resolutely
approach Christian perfection.
✓ The Church teachings on sexuality, marriage and
family promotes a concept of human dignity
grounded on the very principle ordered by God
for the benefit of the society.
✓ Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 1986
▪ PCHP 7
o It is only in the marriage relationship that
the use of the sexual faculty can be morally
good.
o A person engaging in homosexual behavior,
therefore, acts immorally.
o To choose someone of the same sex for
one’s sexual activity is to annul the rich
symbolism and meaning, not to mention
goals, of the Creator’s sexual design.
UNIT 1 LESSON 2: HUMAN DIGNITY IN THE
REDEMPTIVE ACT OF CHRIST &
INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS ON MAN AND
SOCIETY
• PROTOEVANGELIUM
✓ First good news
▪ Jesus had saved/redeemed us from our sins.
✓ Genesis 3:15
▪ “I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers; He will
strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
✓ Promise of salvation is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
▪ Incarnated by the obedience of Mary.
▪ Preached the Gospel, suffered and died on the
Cross for the redemption of all.
▪ Testament to the dignity of human beings that
despite of the Fall and sinful nature, God affirms,
transcends the elevated nature of humanity.
✓ Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption.
▪ Redemption comes to us above all through the
blood of his cross, but this mystery is at work
throughout Christ’s entire life.
• IN HIS INCARNATION
✓ “Word became flesh” – St. John
✓ Church calls “Incarnation” the fact that the Son of
God assumed a human nature in order to
accomplish our salvation.
✓ Letter of Paul to the Philippians
▪ Cites mystery of the Incarnation
o Have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in
the form of God, did not count equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. And being
found in human form he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even
death on a cross.
• IN HIS HIDDEN LIFE
✓ Jesus shared the condition of most human beings:
a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life
of manual labor.
✓ By virtue of his obedience to his parents; increased
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and
man.
• IN HIS WORD THROUGH TEACHINGS, PARABLES,
BEATITUDES, PRAYERS AND PROCLAMATION OF
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
✓ Not only as Kingdom as heaven, but as an
experience of love, justice, forgiveness, mercy,
family.
• IN HIS HEALINGS AND EXORCISMS
✓ Healings – of a leper, blind man, etc.
✓ Exorcisms – of the Gerasene demoniac, of a boy
possessed by a demon, etc.
✓ Even on Sabbath days.
• IN HIS RESURRECTION
✓ The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth
of our faith in Christ.
✓ Handed on as fundamental by Tradition.
✓ Established by the documents of the New
Testament.
✓ Preached as an essential part of the Paschal
mystery along with the cross.
✓ Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of
salvation through the putting to death of the
righteous one as a mystery of universal redemption
as the ransom that would free men from the slavery
of sin.
✓ Sacrament of Reconciliation – God imparts to the
sinner His love and conversion.
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 ▪ This grace brings about a true spiritual
resurrection, restoration of dignity and
blessing of the life of God’s children.
✓ Restoration of those who sinned and became
slaves of sin finds foundation in dignity of human
person and redemption by Christ through the
programs of the Church, government, and other
groups.
• REHABILITATION PROGRAM FOR CRIMINALS BY
THE STATE
✓ The Philippine government adheres and believes
that all persons have dignity where one is a
criminal or not.
✓ Bureau of Corrections – manifestation as a
rehabilitation program for law offenders.
▪ Functions are to:
o Safe keep prisoners convicted by courts.
o Prevent prisoners from committing crimes.
o Provide inmates basic needs.
o Ensure rehabilitation programs for physical,
intellectual, and spiritual development.
o Train inmates in livelihood programs.
▪ One of its core values is God centered.
o Personnel and inmates realize themselves as
a person of God.
▪ Logo/Seal – summarizes its goal.
o Features rehabilitated inmate (white) while
in custody of seven prisons and penal farms
(bars) through educational, therapeutic,
productive approaches and restorative justice.
o Inmate looks forward to a brighter future (rays
of the sun), but would need assistance from
his family and loved ones, the society, and the
church for him to completely undergo
transformation and re-integrate into the
community.
▪ Former name was “Bureau of Prisons” but
modified to match mindset that inmates can be
corrected or rehabilitated and given a change
to reform.
✓ Pope John Paul II recognized the dignity of all
people in his homily, “Jubilee in Prisons”.
▪ Dignity flows from God’s love for every human
person even of inmates and the penal system
should always be in conformity with human
dignity.
• REHABILITATION PROGRAMS BY THE CHURCH
✓ Sanlakbay – rehabilitation program for drug
dependents.
▪ Headed by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
▪ Launched in October 2016 as a response to
increasing drug surrenderees.
▪ Community-based drug rehabilitation program
which began at the height of the drug war.
▪ Aims to rehabilitate drug dependents and help
them lead sustainable lives after the program.
✓ Cardinal Tagle said that the drug surrenderers are
not mere numbers but people with lives, families,
rights, and dreams.
▪ “No one can say that you are a hopeless
case”
• INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS ON MAN AND
SOCIETY
✓ The human person is by nature a social being. They
are relational beings, who are free and responsible,
recognizes the necessity of integrating themselves in
cooperation with fellow human beings, and who is
capable of communion with them.
✓ They belong to various societies such as family, civil,
and religious communities, and are bound together
by a principle of unity and common good.
✓ Each community is defined by its purpose and
consequently obeys specific rules; but “the human
person … is and ought to be the principle, the
subject, and the end of all social institutions.” – CCC
1881
✓ A society is a group of persons bound together
organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond
each one of them. As an assembly that is at once
visible and spiritual, a society endures through
time… He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of
which he is part and respect to those in authority who
have charge of the common good. – CCC 1880
✓ Both the Church and the State recognizes family as
the most important unit of the society.
▪ It is the original cell of social life.
▪ A natural society in which husband and wife are
called to give themselves in love and in the gift of
life… The family is the community, one can learn
moral values, begin to honor God, and make
good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation
into life in society. – CCC 2207
▪ Thus, the family must be helped and defended by
appropriate social measures.
✓ 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XV. The
Family
▪ Section 1. The State recognizes the Filipino
family as the foundation of the nation.
Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity
and actively promote its total development.
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 ▪ Section 2. Marriage, as an inviolable social
institution, is the foundation of the family and
shall be protected by the State.
✓ Where families cannot fulfill their
responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty
of helping them and of supporting the institution
of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity,
larger communities should take care not to usurp the
family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life. – CCC
2209
▪ The Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) has a mandate to take
custody of abandoned children:
o “In response to inquiries on cases of child
abandonment, the Department of Social
Welfare and Development (DSWD) stressed
that its primary mandate is to intervene on
behalf of abandoned children to ensure
their welfare and protection. This came at
the heels of cases of children being
abandoned in public places…” - “DSWD can
take custody of abandoned children,
foundlings.” DSWD Website. March 28,
2018.
✓ To promote the participation of the greatest
number in the life of a society, the creation of
voluntary associations and institutions must be
encouraged… This “socialization” also expresses
the natural tendency for human beings to
associate with one another from the sake of
attaining objectives that exceed individual
capacities. It develops the qualities of the person,
especially the sense of initiative and responsibility,
and helps guarantee his rights. – CCC 1882
✓ Our laws also support the formation of these
organizations:
▪ a. 1987 Philippine Constitution
o Article XIII. Section 23. The State shall
encourage non-governmental, community-
based, or sectoral organizations that
promote the welfare of the nation.
▪ b. Civil Code of the Philippines
o Article 32… (12) The right to become a
member of associations or societies for
purposes not contrary to law.
✓ Excessive intervention by the state can threaten
personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of
the Church has elaborated the principle of
subsidiarity, according to which "a community of a
higher order should not interfere in the internal life
of a community of a lower order, depriving the
latter of its functions, but rather should support it
in case of need and help to co- ordinate its
activity with the activities of the rest of society,
always with a view to the common good." - CCC
1883
UNIT 1 LESSON 3: HUMAN DIGNITY AS
INVIOLABLE AND INALIENABLE
• Human Dignity is the foundation of Catholic Social
Teaching.
✓ The permanent validity of the Catholic Church’s
social teaching admits of no doubt.
✓ This teaching rests on one basic principle:
▪ Individual human beings are the foundation, the
cause, and the end of every social institution.
▪ That is necessarily so, for men are by nature
social beings.
▪ The Church constructs her social teaching on
this principle which guarantees the sacred dignity
of the individual.
▪ Mater et Magistra 218-220
• Being in the image of God the human individual
possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just
something, but someone. – CCC 367
✓ Human life seen to be essentially social because
human beings have been created in the image of
God, who is Trinity and combines both unity and
relationship in self.
• The dignity of human person is:
✓ Innate – we were born with it.
✓ Inviolable – cannot be violated.
✓ Inalienable – cannot be taken away from us.
✓ Universal – encompasses all humanity.
• Persons sometimes exercises power which
dehumanizes other persons.
✓ Due to this, Christian ethical reflection has arrived
at the category of human rights.
✓ Human rights are a mechanism to control the
exercise of power so that it does not become
dehumanizing of persons.
▪ “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power
corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Emerich Edward
Dalberg Acton (1834-1902)
▪ “Political language is designed to make lies
sound truthful and murder respectable.” –
George Orwell
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• Human rights may be defined as those fundamental
rights of human beings which are essential to the
exercise of human dignity.
✓ These rights are possessed by human beings by
mere fact of their being human.
✓ They are inherent in their nature, and far from being
privileges by society or by state.
✓ Instead, society and the state have the duty to
defend and promote them.
• A BRIEF DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN DIGNITY IN
RELATION TO HUMAN RIGHTS
✓ Dignitas by the early Romans & Cicero
✓ Imago dei by St. Leo the Great
✓ Great Chain of Beings by St. Thomas Aquinas
✓ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
by the United Nations
✓ Pacem in Terris by St. John XXIII & other Church
documents on human rights
• Dignitas by the Early Romans and Cicero
✓ Dignitas – used by the Early Romans to refer to
people appointed to public offices and with higher
status in society.
▪ Cicero – redefined the term by referring to all
humans.
o Did so by making distinction against animals
where humans are governed by reason while
animals, by bodily pleasures and instinct.
o Dignity encompasses not only those who
had authority and wealth but included all
humanity.
• St. Leo the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas
✓ Also used dignitas as referring to the dignity of
human person.
✓ St. Leo – persons have dignity since man is
raised among other beings and made in God’s
image (Imago dei).
✓ St. Thomas Aquinas – adopted St. Leo’s concept
of elevated beings to his concept of great chain
of beings which means the higher the status of
a being, the more dignity it possesses.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by
the United Nations
✓ The United Nations was established in 1945 after the
horrors experienced during WWII from Nazi
Germany and Imperial Japan.
✓ Recognizes the dignity of every person through
the UDHR (1948).
✓ The Preamble and first three articles of the
declaration serve as its foundation of other rights.
✓ Preamble
▪ Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity
and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the
foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in
the world…
▪ … that human rights should be protected by
the rule of law.
✓ Article 1
▪ All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights.
▪ They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
✓ Article 2
▪ Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth of other
status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made
on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or
international status of the country or territory to
which a person belongs, whether it be
independent, trust, non-self-governing or under
any other limitation of sovereignty.
✓ Article 3
▪ Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and
security of person.
✓ As one of the signatories of the UDHR, our 1987
Constitution adheres to these freedoms through:
▪ The creation of the Commission of Human
Rights
▪ Directing the government to value the dignity of
all human persons through ensuring full
respect for human rights.
✓ 1987 Philippine Constitution
▪ Article XIII: Social Justice and Human Rights
o Section 1. The Congress shall give highest
priority to the enactment of measures that
protect and enhance the right of all the
people to human dignity, reduce social,
economic, and political inequalities, and
remove cultural inequities by equitably
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 diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good.
o Section 17. (1) There is hereby created an
independent office called the Commission
on Human Rights.
 The CHR was first established during
Marcos’ reign two days before the start
of People Power 1.
o Section 18. The Commission on Human
Rights shall have the following powers and
functions:
 (1) Investigate, on its own or on complaint
by any party, all forms of human rights
violations involving civil and political rights;
 (2) Adopt its operational guidelines and
rules of procedure, and cite for contempt
for violations thereof in accordance with
the Rules of Court;
 (3) Provide appropriate legal measures for
the protection of human rights of all
persons within the Philippines, as well as
Filipinos residing abroad, and provide for
preventive measures and legal aid
services to the underprivileged whose
human rights have been violated or need
protection;
 (4) Exercise visitorial powers over jails,
prisons, or detention facilities;
 (5) Establish a continuing program of
research, education, and information to
enhance respect for the primacy of human
rights;
 (6) Recommend to the Congress effective
measures to promote human rights and to
provide for compensation to victims of
violations of human rights, or their families;
 (7) Monitor the Philippine Government’s
compliance with international treaty
obligations on human rights;
 (8) Grant immunity from prosecution to any
person whose testimony or whose
possession of documents or other
evidence is necessary or convenient to
determine the truth in any investigation
conducted by it or under its authority;
✓ For the first time, the Papal magisterium presents a
relatively complete and systematic catalogue of
human rights, comparable to those in contemporary
declarations of human rights promulgated by
national or international entities.
✓ During the 60th Anniversary of The Declaration,
the Vatican reaffirmed its support to the goals of the
United Nations.
✓ “The Holy See celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the
UDHR, first, by recalling the great sense of unity,
solidarity and responsibility that led the United
Nations to proclaim universal human rights as a
response to all persons and peoples weighed
down by the violation of their dignity, a task that
even today challenges us.
✓ Then, it has promoted events, educational
programs, assistance initiatives worldwide, in
particular for children, women and vulnerable
groups, so that God, as His Holiness Pope
Benedict XVI said on December 10, 2008, "may
allow us to build a world where every human being
will feel accepted in his/her full dignity, and where
relations among persons and among peoples are
based on respect, dialogue, and solidarity.”
✓ “The promotion of human rights remains the most
effective strategy for eliminating inequalities
between countries and social groups, and for
increasing security.” – Pope Benedict XVI, Address
to the United Nations, April 2008

• Pacem in Terris by St. John XXIII (1963) and Other

Church Documents on Human Rights
✓ Landmark encyclical in the acceptance by the
Catholic Church of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

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✓ The chart depicts the levels of rights and the
relationships between them according to the rights
theory found in the encyclical, Pacem in Terris.
Rights theory in the social tradition recognizes the
importance of the social nature of the person and
role that context plays in the promotion and
guarantee of rights.
✓ List of human rights cited from Church
Documents
✓ Tokhang Reloaded 2018 Version
▪ Philippine National Police (PNP) reminded
“Tokhangers” to “always adhere to the rule of
law and respect the human rights of the drug
suspects.”
▪ Chief Supt. Dionado Carlos, PNP
spokesperson, said that the aim of Oplan
Tokhang is to persuade the suspected drug
personalities to veer from illegal activities. He
also said that the intention is to reach out to the
drug suspects and give them a chance to
change.
UNIT 2 LESSON 1: THE SOCIAL MISSION OF
THE CHURCH
• FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE
CHURCH
✓ Purpose is to maintain the right relationship or
justice among people with Yahweh as their God,
toward a peaceful, orderly, just and humane
community.
✓ Judeo-Christian Tradition as Expressions of
Justice
▪ Sedakah – means ‘right relationship’
o Manifested by Yahweh in His relationship
with Israel and with all things He has made,
and by Israel, in her response of obedience,
reverence, and faithfulness to God.
o Also corresponds to Yahweh’s righteousness.
 Yahweh showed this through keeping the
covenant and being the source of
righteousness.
o May also be related to mercy, compassion,
and salvation.
o Identical with deliverance and salvation
when associated to a norm established by
God.
▪ Mishpat – ‘forensic nature of justice’
o Based on the context of the failure of the
right relationship.
o Where Yahweh refuses injustice because
the right relationship is violated.
o Also a court of law where accused is
punished, and victim is vindicated.
o Yahweh corrects wrong doings to restore
right relationship.
o The arbiter, the King-God secures order
through mishpat.
▪ Hesed – ‘loving kindness’
o Steadfast love, mercy and compassion.
o Expression of loving kindness in the
Kingdom of Yahweh.
o Manifested in His everlasting love for Israel
(Ps. 25:6, Jer. 31:3), remaining faithful
despite Israel’s unfaithfulness (Hos. 2),
showing compassion and mercy (Isa. 54:8).
o Yahweh is the epitome and example of doing
hesed to others.
▪ Dikaiosune – ‘righteousness or justice’
o Jesus’ invitation to strive first for the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness
(Mt. 6:33) is basically relational.
o Kingdom of God embodies the way God
relates with people.
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 o Manner by which God wants to be king or as
to be the divine will is followed.
✓ The Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes and Jesus’
Proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
▪ God reigns where the divine will is done.
o Depicted in the Lord’s Prayer where in Luke’s
version (11:2-4), merely petitions for the
coming of the Kingdom and doing for the
divine will.
o There is a right situation for humankind and
this is the one willed by God.
▪ Jesus’ initial proclamation of the justice of
God
o Bring good news to the poor;
o Proclaim the release to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind;
o Let the oppressed go free and announce the
Lord’s year of mercy/favor – Luke 4:18-19
▪ The latter proclamation resonates in Isaiah
60:21; 61:1-3’s announcement of God giving
justice to His people.
▪ Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God
also entails renewal and righteousness by
witnessing the Gospel.
▪ The Beatitude of Jesus – expressions and ways
to realize the right relationship in the Kingdom
of God (Matthew 5:3-10).
▪ Gospel shows in abundance that Jesus was not
indifferent or extraneous to the problem of
dignity and rights of the human person.
o His concern not limited to the forgiveness of
sins;
o He stressed a real solidarity with the poorest
and lowliest (Matthew 11:28-30)
o Took the description of the Suffering
Messiah as foretold by Isaiah.
• THE CHURCH CONTINUES THE MINISTRY OF
JESUS CHRIST
✓ The Church’s Social Mission rooted in the ministry
and mission of Christ to love & serve by promoting
and protecting the wellbeing of human persons.
✓ Mission of the Church to the society is threefold like
Christ’s:
▪ Kingly – one’s commitment to serve others
through active participation in integral human
development.
▪ Priestly – capacity to pray for one another and
our ability to establish a deeper relationship
with God through prayer and worship.
▪ Prophetic – proclaiming peace founded on
truth, built according to justice, integrated by
charity, and practiced in freedom.
• THE CHURCH AND THE QUESTIONS OF ‘JUST
RELATIONS’ AMONG PEOPLE
✓ Respect versus Discrimination
▪ The Church in the Philippines is expected to be
the advocate of impartiality that shuns any
form of discrimination, conflict, and pollical
animosity.
▪ The Church is also called to promote respect for
races, genders, religions and point of views so
that national unity and healing are attainable.
▪ Discrimination and neglect are obstacles to
the full development of persons and of society
as a whole.
▪ Everyone has a role and needs to take the
opportunity to improve themselves so that
they can take their place in society and
participate fully in the community they find
themselves in.
▪ This aspiration can only be achieved through the
recognition of people’s capacities, potentials,
and rights as well as in ensuring that the
structures in the communities and in society as a
whole support this goal.
✓ Duc in Altum (Put out into the deep – Luke 5:4)
▪ Each Catholic is a missionary.
▪ They are immersed and conscious of the signs
of the times making them capable of bringing
people closer to the Kingdom of God.
✓ As Agent of Hope and Transformation
▪ It is through baptism that members of the
Christian community “are called to a holiness
of life in the world befitting disciples of Jesus.”
▪ “Discipleship is the fundamental vocation in
which the Church’s mission and ministry find full
meaning.”
▪ As disciples of Jesus, we are called into
communion with both God and others and are
sent in mission to proclaim the Good News of
the Kingdom.
▪ As disciples, all members of the Church should
everywhere on Earth bear witness to Christ and
give an answer to everyone who asks a reason to
hope.
• RESPONDING TO THE DEMANDS OF OUR
CONTEMPORARY COMMUNITIES
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 ✓ The Fact of Religious Pluralism
▪ The Church recognizes and defends the
fundamental dignity of man to be free from
coercion in matters religious.
▪ “All men are called in freedom to Jesus Christ
and to his Church, which has a divine mission…
to evangelize the whole world… so that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bend… and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…”
– Phil. 2:10-11
✓ Truthful Tolerance
▪ Dignitas Humanae states: … the human
person has a right to religious freedom. This
freedom means that:
o All men are to be immune from coercion on
part of individuals or social groups and of any
human power.
o No one is to be forced to act in a manner
contrary to his own beliefs.
o Not to be restrained from acting in
accordance with his own beliefs, whether
privately or publicly, whether alone or in
association with others, within due limits.
▪ The right to religious freedom has its
foundation in the very dignity of the human
person, as this dignity is known through the
revealed word of God and by reason itself.
✓ Fidelity to Proclaim the Kingdom of God
▪ The Church, endowed with the gifts of her
founder and faithfully observing his precepts of
charity, humility and self-denial, received the
mission of proclaiming and establishing
among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of
God, and she is, on Earth, the seed and the
beginning of that Kingdom.
▪ The Church’s mission to the same as it was
yesterday, today, and tomorrow: to evangelize
the whole world.
o It is the duty of the Church, therefore, in her
preaching to proclaim the Cross of Christ
as the sign of God’s universal love and the
source of all grace.
UNIT 2 LESSON 2: BUILDING CHRISTIAN
COMMUNITIES THROUGH RENEWED
INTEGRAL EVANGELIZATION
• THE VISION-MISSION OF THE 2ND PLENARY
COUNCIL OF THE PHILIPPINES
✓ “We, as church in the Philippines, with total trust in
God’s love, envision ourselves as the community of
disciples, who firmly believe in the Lord Jesus and
joyfully live in harmony and solidarity with one
another, with creation, and with God.
✓ Following the way of our Lord, we opt to be a Church
of the Poor, which demands evangelical poverty
of us all…
✓ …we shall embark on a renewed integral
evangelization and witness to Jesus Christ’s
Gospel of salvation and liberation through our
words, deeds, and lives.
✓ As bishops, priests, religious, and laity, we together
commit ourselves to implement the spirit and
decrees of the second plenary council of the
Philippines in order to inculturate gospel values in
our milieu by this shall kaayusan (order in
harmony) be achieved through persons who are
maka-Diyos, maka-tao, makabayan and maka-
buhay.
✓ A. Community of Disciples
▪ Whose faith in Jesus is expressed in a Church
in mission that includes Asia and the whole
creation.
▪ Patterned after the Holy Trinity where the three
divine Persons: unique, equal, and united are
in constant sharing and in mission.
▪ It also approximates the early apostolic
Christian communities.
✓ B. The Church of the Poor
▪ Our priority must be programs for the
conscientization, evangelization, and
organization of the marginalized poor.
o First, into small communities of faith and
discernment.
o Second, into sectoral groups to attend to
specific needs in cultural, political, economic,
and religious institutions.
▪ This is empowerment of the laity especially the
poor for active participation and leadership in the
Church’s life and mission.
✓ C. Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECS) as
Community of Disciples
▪ BECs are small opportunities whose members
are in unity and solidarity with one another and
with their pastors.
▪ Patterned after the Domus Ecclesia or House
Church which was the Church known to the
early Christians.
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 ▪ The members have a strong sense of
belongingness and responsibility for one
another.
▪ They share the Word of God and are guided by
regular catechesis. They gather around the
Eucharist and have a vibrant celebration of life
in the liturgy.
▪ They share not only their spiritual concerns but
also the material concerns.
▪ Their poverty and their faith lead them to
involvement in action for justice and social
transformation.
• THE NINE (9) PASTORAL PRIORITIES OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES
✓ Integral Faith Formation
▪ Must have integral faith to fulfill our vocation and
mission.
▪ It has to be a faith that does justice and
liberates.
✓ Empowerment of the Laity toward Social
Transformation
▪ Promote and support exercise of God-given
gifts and charisms of lay people.
▪ Lay people must take the lead in social
transformation.
✓ Active Presence and Participation of the Poor in
the Church
▪ Learn from the poor and seek to liberate
ourselves from values, behavior and lifestyles
that discriminate against the poor.
✓ The Family as the Focal Point of Evangelization
▪ Family is the basic cell of the Church and
society, the Gospel has first to be shared in the
family.
✓ Building and Strengthening of Participatory
Communities that make up the Parish as a
Community of Communities
▪ Support the growth and strengthening of Basic
Ecclesial Communities and other forms of faith
communities as vehicles of renewal.
✓ Integral Renewal of the Clergy
▪ Ensure deeper dialogue of life between the
clergy and the poor
✓ Journeying with the Youth
▪ Youth are the most numerous in our population.
✓ Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue
▪ Strive to eradicate prejudices, grow in deeper
understanding and appreciation of other faiths,
and religious traditions, especially Islam.
▪ Encourage dialogue among all sectors of
society as a way of healing, reconciliation, and
national unity.
✓ Animation and Formation for “Missio Ad Gentes”
▪ Ensure the mission animation and formation
will be integral to religious formation in family,
schools, and other institutes of formation.
• NEW EVANGELIZATION
✓ Technical term used by Pope John Paul II in his
encyclical Redemptoris Missio in 1992.
▪ Used in order to revitalize the faith, give
dynamism to the building up of the Church and to
draw people to unity.
✓ New evangelization is doable through:
▪ Evangelization by Attraction
o Communities show a Christ-like love
characterized by joyful unity as exemplified by
the first Christian communities.
▪ Evangelization in a digital world
o The Church has to enter this world and use it
to communicate the Good News to all
peoples.
o To neglect the use of these means is to
neglect one of the most potent communicative
instruments the Lord has given to all of us.
▪ Evangelization and Conversion
o The first response that is expected of those
who heard the preaching of the Good News is
repentance.
o Metanoia – Greek word used in the New
Testament for ‘repentance’.
o To respect is to change.
 Involves a triple change amounting to a
change in life direction
 First, is a change of mind, change in way
of thinking, or “pananaw”.
 Second, is a change of heart, change in
our attitude or “kalooban”.
 Third is a change of behavior, or
“pagkilos”.
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