UNIT 1: CALLED TO SALVATION IN CHRIST
between God and man, that human beings can
Our DIGNITY is revealed in the very mystery of the
person of JESUS CHRIST who is the
image of the invisible God, and the Good Teacher.
Who is Jesus Christ?
A: Christ As The Image Of The Invisible God
What is our core?
- In Latin, COR means heart. And so, we ask the
question:“What is in our hearts?”
→ “You’ve got to figure out what you love…and its going
to bring you great joy.”
- Jeff Bezos
+ Founder CEO of Amazon
+ Richest man in the world.
ABRAHAM MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF VALUES
- Ranks or orders human needs according to
importance, immediacy, and level of difficulty in
terms of acquisition: at the bottom stands the
physiological needs, while perched at the
pinnacle is selfactualization.
In the Netflix documentary series, titled: the “The Last
Dance,” Michael Jordan was shown as the man who
obsessed himself with winning championship.
Why is that some people, even if they seemed to have
reached the top of the world, remain unhappy?
WHAT IS THE MEANING AND PURPOSEOF OUR
LIFE?
- Human beings, embark on a lifelong search for
that absolute good, which will lead them to the
happiness that never ends.
- It is natural for human beings to desire to be
happy.
Domine, Non Nisi Te.
How do we attain God?
Takeaways:
• By claiming that we are redeemed.
• The road that leads to
God is described as:
✓ “narrow”
✓ “passing through the eye of a needle.”
1. Jesus Christ, the Ultimate Revelation of
the Father
It is only through Christ, the only true mediator
reach God.
“No mission is activated and no identity is clarified apart
from Christ.” - PCP II
→ We look up to Christ as the ultimate revelation of the
Father, who calls us to communion, and as the good
teacher who leads us to the Father
a. God as our Personal Absolute
● “ God is a personal absolute in whom is found
the reason for our existence, and therefore, He
is a being who gives absolute meaning to our
lives.”
● Schillebeeckx, Edward. Christ the Sacrament of
the Encounter with God.
● London: Sheed and Ward, 1963.
● “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself, in
a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to
make himshare in his own blessed life. For this
reason, at everytime and in every place, God
draws close to man. Hecalls man to seek Him,
to know Him, tolove Him with all his strength.” -
Catechism of the Catholic Church
● “To be a human being means to come from God
and to go to God.” - YOUCAT
● God, as our personal absolute, gave Himself to
us through the incarnation of Christ, His only
Son our Lord.
b. Christ is God in a Human Way
● God did more for human beings than for any
other creature that He has created:
● He shared His life with them, which happened
perfectly through the incarnation of Christ.
● “In His Son and through Him, He invites men to
become, in Holy Spirit, His adopted children and
heirs of his blessed life.” CCC, 13.
● Through the mystery of Christ’s incarnation
people actually live with God, have a special
bond or relationship with Him, and most
importantly they feel or experience His love
everyday of their lives.
○ Matthew 14: 13-21
○ Matthew 5: 3-12
○ Mark 2:13-17
○ Luke 18:15-17
c. Christ is Human in a Divine Way
● God’s coming down to meet His peoplealso
means raisingthem up andliberating from their
sinful condition.
● By becoming human...
 ○ Christ became an example for all people
to follow because He manifested those
characteristics that make man perfect.
○ Jesus Christ, through His life, words,
and works, revealed how people should
live their lives.
○ Jesus corrected the false belief that
people are bad or helplessly sinful.
○ Jesus revealed what is true and good
about human beings: that they are all
invited by God to be perfect like Him
● When asked how many times we should forgive,
his response was: always! (Matthew 18:21).
Christ demonstrated that goodness is not give
and take. Doing good does not expect
something in return but is the habitual response
of someone who is created in the image and
likeness of God.
● When the woman caught in the act of adultery
was brought to Him (John 8:1-11), Jesus did not
show condemnation but only mercy and
compassion. When He lovingly told the woman
to sin no more, Jesus showed that people, by
the grace of God, can change for the better.
● In his encounter with Zacchaeus the tax
collector (Luke 19:1-10), he exemplified before
the crowd that an act of compassion can move
even the most hardened sinner. When He asked
to eat dinner with the tax collector, He
demonstrated that we are capable of seeing the
good in others.
● To be truly human is to be like God. That man
can love, forgive, show compassion, and set
aside prejudices toward others, shows that the
divine is truly shared with the human.
2. Images of Jesus in the Gospels:
● The Way, The Truth, The Life
● What is the meaning of life?
● Who am I?
● What must I do?
● It is only in the mystery of the incarnation of
Christ that people can understand who they are
and what their purpose in this world is.
● Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
● Before performing his mission or public ministry,
Jesus was led by the Spiritto the desert where
he wastempted by the devil (Mark 1:12,13;
Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13).
● The devil wanted Christ to follow or surrender to
His selfish desires. In other words, the
temptation was for Christ to use His powers for
his personal benefit, and consequently, disobey
or contradict the reason why the Father sent
Him, which is total surrender to the Father’s will.
● The very name of Jesus, which means “the one
who is to save people from their sins” also
means that Jesus is the greatest sign of God’s
love for his people.
Our Goal: Sequela Christi
We rise from the temporary setbacks of our lives and we
redirect ourselves back to Christ, “once we give up our
own wealth and very self.”
● In the responses of the Disciples whom Jesus
invited to follow Him as fishers of men (Matthew
4:19)
● Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus cast out
seven demons (Luke 8:2) and who later became
the apostle to the apostles.
● In Saint Paul who became the apostle to the
Gentiles.
● Following Christ entails radical conversion:
forgetting oneself and committing everything to
Christ.
○ Stripping the old self of that sinful life to
take on the new white garment of Christ.
○ It is dying to oneself but rising again as
a new person configured to Christ, no
longer
○ living one’s life for one’s own but for
Christ.
○ Being immersed in the waters of
baptism all over again and time and time
again
● As we praise God for the gift of discipleship, we
recall in thanksgiving those inspired moments
● when we triumphed over sin. Let us proclaim in
loving praise that we belong to Christ by
composing a short essay or a poem, with the
theme: “Surviving Mount Temptation: That One
Time when I said Yes to Christ and No to Sin.”
B: Jesus Christ As The Good Teacher
QUESTION: WHAT MUST I DO?
HOW DO I DISTINGUISH GOOD FROM EVIL? (VS, 2)
The following trends are pointed out as to why
nowadays, it has become increasingly difficult to answer
questions as fundamental as the ones asked above:
 ● certain currents of thought have gone so far as
to exalt freedom to such an extent that it
becomes an absolute, which would then be the
source of values (vs, 32).
● a radically subjectivistic conception of moral
judgement or individualist ethic is: where the
individual conscience is accorded the status of a
supreme tribunal of moral judgment which hands
down categorical and infallible decisions...
● a number of disciplines, grouped under the
name behavioral sciences, have rightly drawn
attention to many kinds of psychological and
social conditionings which influence the exercise
of freedom. vs, 33. (bf skinner’s operant
conditioning…behavior is determined by its
consequences, be they reinforcements or
punishments; s. freud’s psychoanalytic theory,
behavior is the result of interactions among the
three component parts of the mind: id, ego, and
superego)
● some theories, using scientific research about
the human person argue from a great variety of
customs, behavior patterns, and institutions
present in humanity, end up with an outright
denial of universal human values, with a
relativistic conception of morality (vs, 33)
John Paul II exhorts people of today to “turn to Christ
once again in order to receive from Him the
answer to their deepest questions” (VS, 8).
1. Jesus Opens Up The Faithful To The Sacred
Scriptures
● “If you wish to enter into life, keep the
commandments.” Matthew 19:17 Jesus brings
the question about morally good action back to
its religious foundation (VS, 9): THE
DECALOGUE.
● In the “first tablet” of the Law, Jesus teaches us
that God is the beginning and end of our life.
● Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;
You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
might. Deuteronomy 6:4-7
● Jesus definitively confirms the Decalogue and
proposes them as the way and condition of
salvation. VS, 12
● The “Second Tablet of the Law” commands us:
“you shall not murder; you shall not commit
adultery; you shall not bear false witness; Honor
your father and your mother; also, you shall love
your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 19: 18-19)
● These commandments are summarized by
Jesus’ command to His disciples: “you shall love
your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19; cf.
Mk. 12:31).
● Jesus brings God’s commandments to
fulfillment.
● Jesus shows that the commandments must not
be understood as a minimum limit not to be
gone beyond, but rather as a path involving a
moral and spiritual journey towards perfection
(VS, 15).
● The Christian moral vocation is precisely: to
commit ourselves through the power of Christ’s
redeeming grace to the progressive overcoming
of the evil of sin in and around us – a personal
human reaching out in loving service to others –
rather than simply avoiding sin or shrinking from
evil.
● Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines.New National Catechetical Directory
for the Philippines 2007. Manila: Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines, 2007.
2. Jesus Reveals The Father’s Will
● The three-fold yeses covering the three
dimensions of human life:
○ the intra-personal
○ the inter-personal
○ societal
● must be grounded on the fourth foundational,
integrating…
○ Yes to God.
● The Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among
you…was never Yes and No.
● With him it was always yes, and however many
the promises God made, the yes to them all is in
Him. That is why it is through Him that we
answer Amen to the praise of God. NNCDP, 285
● This demands a radical change of heart, a real
conversion, manifested in a triple yes to self,
others, and society, and grounded in the ultimate
yes to God, overcoming the “No” of sin.
3. Jesus Teaches About Moral Action
● People today need to turn to Christ once again
in order to receive from Him the answer to their
questions about what is good and what is evil.
● To go to the heart of the Gospel’s moral teaching
and grasp its profound and unchanging content,
we must carefully inquire into:
○ the meaning of the question asked by
the rich young man in the Gospel
○ the meaning of Jesus’ reply, allowing
ourselves to be guided by Him. Jesus as
the patient and sensitive teacher,
answers the young man by taking him,
 as it were by the hand, and leading him
step by step to the full truth.
4. Jesus Sheds Light On Man’s Lofty Vocation
● The first and ultimate vocation of man is
communion with God and there is only one way
to respond to this calling: JESUS CHRIST.
● The basic motivation for following Christ in moral
action is, of course the Blessed Trinity: The
eternal Father’s love for us, manifested
pre-eminently in Jesus’ Paschal Mystery, and
the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts who enables
us to fulfill Christ’s own command: Love one
another as I have loved you.
● Since God has loved us so much, we too should
love one another.
5. Christ Is Always Present To His Church
● Christ empowered the Church to proclaim,
without fear of error, faith and morals.
● The Church must always be deeply conscious of
her duty in every age to examine the signs of the
times and interpret them in the light of the
Gospel.
● The Church as the People of God among the
nations, while attentive to the new challenges of
history and to mankind’s effort to discover the
meaning of life, offers to everyone the answer
which comes from the truth about Jesus and his
Gospel. In your own way, you represent the rich
young man who is in searc for answers to his
most fundamental question about life. At some
point, confronted by difficult and trying situations
you asked, what must I do?
● As a conclusion to this lesson, retell the story of
the rich young man from your own point of view.
This young man/woman lives in your time, and is
confronted by the difficult questions about life
and earnestly looks for answers. The story ends
with a resolution where the young man/woman,
unlike in the Gospel, never leaves disappointed
but allowed himself/herself to be led by Christ
who is the good teacher.
•Required Reading:
•Veritatis Splendor
•Nos. 1-34
Link:
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals
/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor.ht
ml?fbclid=IwAR23go6sDmIV14IdoAuB1r3lFTPCg8aLc29
DkZyMHMKmzOuh8JGb2bw_P4Y
C: Jesus Sheds Light On The Mystery And Dignity
Of The Human Person
QUESTION:
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE?
● Together with the rest of humanity, the Church,
following Christ as her model, has made it her
mission to uplift the lives of everyone in this
world. To do this, the Church teaches that it is
only in knowing Christ that the human person
can arrive at a full understanding of who He
really is.
● Being in full solidarity with humankind, our Lord
showed us how to be fully human and fully alive.
● Christ primarily revealed how the essential
dignity of all persons is grounded directly on
their origin, meaning and destiny.
● In the light of Christian revelation, it was
understood that all persons, endowed with
inviolable dignity, are:
○ CREATED by God in His image and
likeness (cf. Gen 1:26) through our Lord
Jesus Christ, “through whom everything
was made and through whom we live” (1
Cor 8:6).
○ REDEEMED by the blood of Christ (cf.
Eph 1:7; Col 1:14); and are sanctified by
the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. Rom
8:14-16; 1 Cor 6:19).
○ CALLED to be children of God (cf. 1 Jn
3:1), destined for eternal life of blessed
communion with the Father, His
Risen-Incarnate Son, and their Holy
Spirit.
1.Created in the Image and Likeness of God
● Man is the only creature on earth that God has
willed for its own sake, and he alone is called to
share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life.
It was for this end that he was created, and this
is the fundamental reason for his dignity. CCC
● The doctrine that man is created in the image
and likeness of God provides the theological
grounding that upholds the sacredness of the
human person and guarantees the respect to be
given him.
● a. Able to Know and Love his Creator
○ He is an image of God by virtue of
his/her possession of the distinctive
 faculties of intellect and freewill, that on
account of which, he/she is capable of
self-determination.
○ Because of the spiritual character of
his/her soul, man possesses freedom,
an eminent sign of divine image.
○ Man’s reason enables him/her to know
the voice of God compelling him/her to
do good and avoid evil
● b. Willed by God for His own Sake
○ Every human being is an irreplaceable
and nonsubstitutable person, a kind of
good that cannot be treated as an object
of use or as a means to an end.
○ As a subject, he/she is the one in
charge of his/her life as he/she can act
according to his/her conscience, in
freedom and with sufficient knowledge.
Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility
(New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux,
1981), 41.
● c. Called to be Stewards of Creation
○ The companionship between man and
woman is not of dominance but
solidarity, not inferiority but
complementarity, equity and not
equality.
○ As stewards of creation both man and
woman were equally ordered to
"subdue" the earth as His stewards.
○ This sovereignty is not destructive
domination. God calls man and woman,
to share in his providence toward other
creatures; hence their responsibility for
the world God has entrusted to them.
CCC, 373
● d. Called to Communion
○ As images of the self-giving love of God,
human beings are capable of self-giving
love as well.
○ As products of a divine self-gift, human
beings should respond to God by giving
themselves to others.
○ To give oneself to others as much as
possible in imitation of the selfgiving of
God in the Trinity is the concrete living
out of our being an image of God.
● Therefore, being created in the image and
likeness of God is both a gift and a task.
● The challenge to be true to who and what we
are is an endless task – it never expires.
● We always look at Jesus Christ and strive to
always model our lives to his, for we are not just
any slave or servant who follows the will of
his/her master but we are raised to the status of
being adopted sons and daughters of God
2. Redeemed by the Blood of Christ
● God elevated man to participation in the divine
life and live in communion and belongingness
with the Trinity.
● But with the entry of sin, this communion and
belongingness was shattered, as well as their
communion among themselves.
● Yet God did not abandon man altogether;
instead, He held out the means of saving them
by gathering men together to counter the chaos
which was the consequence of sin.
● “That all of them maybe one, as You, are in Me,
and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that
the world may believe that you sent me. I have
given them the glory You gave Me, so that they
may be one as we are one.”
● Man's sins, following on original sin, are
punishable by death.
● By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in
the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin,
God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the righteousness
of God
● “For in Christ and through Christ, we have
acquired full awareness of our dignity, of the
heights to which we are raised, of the
surpassing worth of our humanity and of the
meaning of our existence.” CCC, 602.
● “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the
heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in
Christ. For He chose us in Him before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in
His sight. In love, He predestined us for adoption
to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with His pleasure and will—to the praise of his
glorious grace, which He has freely given us in
the One He loves. In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
Ephesians 1:3-7.
● Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit
renews us interiorly through a spiritual
transformation. He enlightens and strengthens
us to live as "children of light" through "all that is
good and right and true." CCC, 1695
3. Made Holy by the Presence of the Spirit
● When God touches man's heart through the
illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not
inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he
 could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he
cannot by his own free will move himself toward
justice in God's sight. CCC, 1993.
● The merit of good works is to be attributed in the
first place to the grace of God, then to the
faithful. Man's merit itself, moreover, is due to
God, for his/her good actions proceed in Christ,
from the predispositions and assistance given by
the Holy Spirit. CCC, 2008
● Being a witness of Christ, as in leading a life
worthy of the Gospel of Christ is made capable
of doing so by the gift of his Spirit which we can
obtain through prayer, though the impulse to
pray is still permeated with the promptings of the
Holy Spirit.
● Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit
renews us interiorly through a spiritual
transformation. He enlightens and strengthens
us to live as "children of light" through "all that is
good and right and true.
4. Christ as the One who Sheds Light on the
● To understand man as a person is to point out
that man is created by God with inviolable
dignity.
● The Human Person in the Aristotelian-Thomistic
Hierarchy of Beings The Aristotelian-Thomistic
hierarchy of beings (scala naturae) provides a
backdrop for the Christian understanding of
man. It gives is a view of human beings both in
relation to God (as creator) and other created
beings.
○ In the ecology of the visible world, only
human beings possess rationality, i.e.,
intellect and freewill, while possessing
altogether the excellent traits of the
beings in the lower strata of the
hierarchy, to wit: motion (animals), and
life (plants).
○ Hence, we define human beings as
individual substance of rational nature
(Individua Substantia Naturae
Rationalis).
The Human Person
→ According to the Catechism for Filipino Catholics
CFC, 687-692.
● Open and Relational. Persons are open and
relational by nature. No one exists by oneself,
but only in relationship with others. Human
existence does not precede relationship but born
of relationship and is nurtured by it. We grow
into ourselves as persons only in relating with
others.
● Being a person means being by others (our
conception, birth, upbringing), being with others
(our family, friends, neighbors, business
associates), and being for others (love, service).
● Our Trinitarian origin infers that this is how we
have been created by God — as social beings.
This is how we have been redeemed by Christ
— as a people. This is how the Holy Spirit works
not only within but among us as the people of
God, journeying towards our common destiny in
God. CFC 687.
● Conscious Beings. Persons are conscious
beings, aware of themselves in their outgoing
acts. We possess this self-awareness through
our knowing and free willing. By his reason,
human beings: o Know the order of things
established by God;
○ Understand how and what things should
be.
○ Is imbued with the instinctive awareness
of the unwritten decree inscribed in his
heart.
○ Recognizes this as the voice of God
constantly urging him to do the good
and avoid evil. CFC, 688.
● Embodied Spirits o This stresses the unity
between our “body and soul.” o This substantial
unity of our body and soul is known as
“hylemorphism.” o Our body is an essential part
of our being human and not merely an
“instrument” we “use” as we please.
The Body
● Christian Faith regards the BODY as “good and
honorable since God has created it and will raise
it up on the last day” (GS 14).
● God the Son further dignified the body through
his Incarnation: “the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14).
● St. Paul admonishes us: “You must know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is
within — the Spirit you have received from God.
. . . So, glorify God in your body” (1 Cor
6:19-20).
The SOUL
● Serves as the form (the nature or essence of a
thing that makes it what it is) of the body.
● Functions as the unifying principle that forms the
one unique human being.
● Needs embodiment, i.e., assistance of the
senses for the fulfillment of the soul’s vital task.
Historical Realities
 ● As Persons, we are:
○ Pilgrims on-the-way, who gradually,
through time, become our full selves.
○ Free to decide for ourselves and form
ourselves; in this sense we are our own
cause.
○ Developing in discernible stages,
described in great detail by modern
psychology. CFC, 690.
○ Integrating our past to our present
existence to makes us move into our
future with a sense of integrity and a
coherent sense of direction. R. M. Gula,
S.S.
Unique yet Fundamentally Equal
● All men are endowed with a rational soul and
are created in God’s image; they have the same
nature and origin and, being redeemed by
Christ, they enjoy the same divine calling and
destiny; there is here a basic equality between
all men.” GS, 29
● But despite sharing common features of
humanity, we do things differently. This implies
therefore that we seriously consider each
person’s uniqueness and originality. Each of us
is called to “image” God in a unique way — no
one can “take our place
Lesson D: The Encounter With Jesus Christ Is A Call
To Discipleship
QUESTION: What do we care about the most in this life?
EMMANUEL LEVINAS: NOTION OF THE OTHER
Egocentrism
- The struggle for life or the desire to persevere in
being, heightens egoism, which is characterized
by the desire for enjoyment or happiness.
- The primordial tendency of the ego is to live for
itself and secure any means available and
attainable in order to maintain a happy
existence.
- The “I” in its inwardness becomes the origin of
meaning and determines whether or not
something is valuable, i.e., usable or
consumable.
Alterity
- The Other stands at the top of my hierarchy of
values, I am beholden to it before anything else
as “the other is characterized by height or
highness.”
- The absoluteness with which the Other’s
existence transcends the claims of my
selfcentered universe by more radical demands,
is what Levinas calls infinity…we must be the
servant of our neighbor.
- our existence is affirmed or validated not by the
mere fact of persevering in being but by our
liberation from our own constricting egotism. In
other words, we are liberated by our ethical
response when we encounter the Other who
reveals its face to us.
● This Other deposes me and imposes itself upon
me as my priority.
● Ethics, for Levinas, is the radical interpretation of
the formula of etiquette: apres vous (after you,
please!). Moreover, the Other, as it reveals its
face to me, puts me under a basic obligation or
command to be at its service before myself,
which Levinas underscored using the phrase:
me voici (Here I am!).
● “We are all guilty of all and for men before all,
and I more than the others.” Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
1. Christian Discipleship is Counter
Cultural and Radical Alterity
Tale of three trees. Three young trees each want to do
something great: One tree wants to be a big boat that is
fit for a king; another wants to hold a lot treasure; and
the last one wants to be the tallest tree. When they are
felled, it seems as if all their dreams are over. One tree
is turned into a dinky little fishing boat that smells of
rotten fish; another becomes feed box for animals; and
the last was cut into beams and left in a lumberyard. But
each is destined to play an important part in the life of
Jesus, in this, their dreams are more than fulfilled.
1 st Tree: To be a treasure chest
2 nd Tree: to be a mighty ship
3 rd Tree: To be a tall tree
→ our plans
1 st Tree: A feed box → cost
2 nd Tree: A fishing boat → test of faith
3 rd Tree: A beam stored in a lumber yard → obedience
1 st Tree: Became a manger for the baby Jesus 2. The Church: Willed by God to Make Possible the
2 nd Tree: Witnessed the power of Jesus Encounter with Christ
3 rd Tree: Symbol of God’s love for humanity ● The Church was instituted by Christ to
→ God’s plans perpetuate His presence on earth. She signifies
in a visible, historical and tangible form the
● Following Christ is the essential and primordial presence and redeeming activity of Christ
foundation of Christian morality. Jesus’ ways and offered to all persons of every age, race and
words, his deeds and his precepts constitute the condition.
moral rule of Christian life. ● The Church have always wished to serve this
● What does discipleship entail? single end: that each person may be able to find
○ Come follow me and I will send you out Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each
to fish for people. At once, they left their person the path of life. RH, 13.
nets and followed him. Matthew 4:19 ● As the sacrament of salvation of all, not only of
○ If you want to be perfect, go sell your the explicit members but also those who share
possessions, come follow me. Matthew in the “theandric communion without explicit
19:21 awareness of Christic foundation,” She is
○ If anyone should come after me, let him mindful of her task to make present everytime, in
deny himself and take up his cross and every situation the encounter between the spirit
follow me. Matthew 16:24 and the flesh, God and mankind.
● Who is a disciple?
○ A disciple is a lover of Truth:
○ Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life
● How does one become a disciple?
○ A disciple imitates Jesus who gives
primacy to the will of the Father.
● What is expected of a disciple?
○ A disciple lives in loving service of
others.
● A set of precepts that utterly demonstrate the
moral standards of our Lord and at the same
time resonate his call to follow him as his
disciples.
● CHRIST CRUCIFIED: Brutal, Anguish, Terrible
Wounds According to Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Christ Crucified is the perfect exemplification of
the Beatitudes.
● TO BE HAPPY: Despise what Jesus despised
on the Cross.
● 4 things that make us happy: Wealth, pleasure,
power and honor
● Love what Jesus loved on the Cross.
○ Doing the will of the Father:
○ The single-hearted one
○ Hunger for righteousness
○ Ultimate peacemaker and
○ Ultimate bearer of God’s mercy.
● CHRIST CRUCIFIED IS:
○ A picture of a happy man.
○ Freedom and joy: when all our
expectations are turned around.