 Kingdom of God

 The Kingdom of God

o Foundation of the social mission of the church
o must be an important phrase
o appears almost a hundred times in the Gospels
o Specific during the time of Jesus
 Matthew 7:21 – katong Lord Lord
o St. james
 Matthew 5:3 – blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God
o As long as we help
 Matthew 16:19 – whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven
 The Kingdom of God
o Ruling activity of God over people and the whole of creation
 God's reign over creation
o means a transformed world
o reflects and expresses the characteristics and nature of God:
 freedom and joy
 equality and justice
 fullness of life and human well-being
o present not only in the depths of our human hearts
o also in our community relationships and social structures.
o God's goodness and love reign over all these spheres of human existence
 Jesus did not only preach what the Kingdom is but also showed what the Kingdom means
o Healed, fed people, touched lepers, talked w/ prostitutes, dined w/ tax collectors
 Prophet Isaiah
o His scroll was read by Christ
o His scroll said that a person is anointed to bring the good news
o Jesus said that the moment he read the scripture, it has been fulfilled because He is the
anointed one
 Spiritual and Bodily, Personal and Socio-Political
 people tend to think that God deals with us in spiritual terms
o salvation – Jesus will save us from our sins
o spiritual graces
o spiritual gifts
 God does not save our souls but gives salvation to the TOTAL PERSON
o Total human well-being --- mind, body, spirit
 When we aim for KOG we aim not just spiritually but also bodily
o Considers the sins of thoughts, deeds, and words
 Integral salvation - God does not want people to suffer but to experience total human well-
being: mind, body and spirit
 Integral Evangelization - preach the Good News of God's salvation
 St. Vincent de Paul once said: "You don't preach the Gospel to an empty stomach"
 The Kingdom of God is not only personal
o Not only in our hearts
o Not only between me and my God
o It is SOCIO-POLITICAL
 social relationships
 economic-political structures
 to transform the world is to preach the Good news
 Present and Future
 Kingdom – which people call heaven
o Comes in the future
o Death
 o End of time
 Present
o But Jesus also said, "In fact, the Kingdom of God is among you"
o Do not to look for it elsewhere or at some future time.
o When we do good things, the Kingdom has already come
o When we follow the way of Jesus, Kingdom is being gradually established
 Future
o With the sufferings we experience, we know that the full experience of the
Kingdom is not yet here
o We await for it in God’s time
 Present and Future
o the Kingdom of God is already but not yet
o Present – must rejoice and celebrate
o Future – there is a need to struggle and pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom

Catholic Social Teaching and God's Kingdom

 The church is not the Kingdom of God

 Church experiences problems never be an experience of the Kingdom in its fullness
 the Church points to some directions where the seeds and hopes of the Kingdom are found
o CST is a pointer
 Through this prophetic social tradition, the Church leads us to claim and
possess the Kingdom values:
 solidarity and the preferential option for the poor and the excluded
(laborers, women, persons with disabilities, etc.)
 peace-building,
 principled political engagement
 stewardship of creation
 and many others.

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 spirituality of CST
 CST proposes a scientific method in coming up w/ a decision
o Path to discernment
o not just a doctrine
o way of life
o method
o process
o we do not memorize the teaching but learn the process
o we live the way
o CST is an unfinished project because the people continuously decide what to do
 Also grows and evolves

 See-Judge-Act Process: Spirituality of Young Christian Workers
o Way of life
o Followed by the CST
o An expression of Christian Spirituality
o It is our way of asking what God wants us to do in particular situations
o and specific contexts of our lives in society.
o began as a process of reflection for the members of a movement
o the members are under the leadership of a Belgian priest and later Cardinal Joseph
Cardijn
o 1920 – the priest worked among young people in the factories
  He taught them how to examine their situation in the light of basic principles so
that they can act responsibly as Christians
o His method threatened the factory owners and capitalists
 They did not want their young workers to become critical and responsible
 Socialists also
 Communists lost their dominant control over the labor force
o He present the See Judge Act to Pope Pius XI in 1924
o He asked Pope John XXIII (23) to issue an encyclical letter about labor
 Mater et MAgistra
 PROCESS OF SJA
o See – analyze the situation – cause and consequence
o Judge – reflect on how the values of the gospel and the teaching of the church can
address thos
o Act – decide what appropriate actions should be done
 Series of Local Reflections
o CST is a set of universal teachings--a body of doctrines but it is valid for all times
 It is a process of continuous local reflections in different contexts
 It is hard for us to formulate a single solution when there are different
circumstances
 It is upon the Christian communities to analyze problems appropriately in light
of the gospel to discern and act from the CST
 According to the encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI called Octogesima Adveniens,
(1971) Local communities should reflect using the gospels and the magisterium
 The product for this continuous reflection is OUR RESPONSE TO GOD’S CALL IN
OUR LIVES
 Spirituality in the World, a Worldly Spirituality
o Spirituality is NOT
 Not a way of holiness - that encourages people to escape from the challenges of
the world
 not a faith that does nothing
 it is not a reflection and action that is merely a product of ideology
o Spirituality is
 Immersed in the world
 Signs of the times
 Rooted in the word of God
 Reflection of the church
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CST
 DIGNITY OF HUMAN PERSON
o The human person is created in the image and likeness of God
 Needs to be respected regardless
o Human Dignity is not only founded on creation but also in redemption
o Human person is so important that God became human in Jesus and was
present through the Holy Spirit.
o To respect human rights is the best way to recognize the value and dignity of
the human person
o Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
 economic development has no meaning when the rights of human
beings are trampled upon and neglected.
 GOAL: AUTHENTIC DEVELOPMENT
 We respect the rights of each and every human being.
 RIGHT TO PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE COMMON GOOD
o Every human being has the right to private property
 Part of human freedom
  This right is not absolute and fixed
o Principle of common good demands that property be not only owned by a few,
it should be for the benefit of all
o Common good: benefit all
o Since we are part of the society
 Duty to contribute to its welfare
 Right to benefit from all its goods
o Duty of authority
 Promote the common good
o Does the common good contradict right to private property?
 No, only subordinate
o Pope paul II
 The right to private property," writes Pope John Paul II, "is subordinate
to the right of common use, to the fact that goods are meant for
everyone"
 RIGHT TO EQUAL PARTICIPATION AND SUBSIDIARITY
o EQUAL PARTICIPATION
 WE HAVE A right and duty to equally participate in all areas of our
social life
 We all have qualities that will contribute to the common good
 Form groups
 Participate in decision making and action
 In order to ensure that everyone participates, the church endorses the
principle of SUBSIDIARITY
o Subsidiarity
 It is evil to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and
subordinate organizations can do
 what can be solved in the lower levels should never be taken over by
higher bodies because human and social issues are best handled by
those who are most affected by them.
 SOLIDARITY AND PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR
o Solidarity
 founded on
 the social nature of human beings
 the equal dignity of persons
 the aspiration toward unity among peoples
 Solidarity is thus necessary to affirm our commitment to the common
good,
 but more particularly to empathize with the victims of injustice
and inequalities in the world
o preferential option for the poor
 central emphasis in the Bible and the teachings of the Church.
 most concrete expression of the spirit of solidarity.
 Church of the poor
 Life of Jesus revolved around the poor
 Church must do the same
 Who gives a concrete description of this calling
 Pope paul VI
 St. Ambrose - You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor
man, but you are giving him back what is his