LESSON D:

THE ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS

CHRIST IS A CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP

1. Christian Discipleship is Counter-

Cultural and Radical Alterity
2.The Church: Willed by God to Make
Possible the Encounter with Christ
Life is Like a Cup of Coffee
 
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit
their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints
about stress in work and life.
 
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned
with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic,
glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling
them to help themselves to the coffee.
 
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If
you noticed, all the nice-looking expensive cups have been taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want
only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more
expensive and, in some cases, even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was
coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing
each other’s cups.
 
Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups.
They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor
change the quality of life we live.
 
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee,
not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best
of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
Life is Like a Cup of Coffee. Accessed last 3 August 2019 from
https://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-short-story-106-life-is-like-a-cup-of-coffee/
 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 self-
centered 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
LESSON D:
THE ENCOUNTER WITH
JESUS CHRIST IS A CALL TO
DISCIPLESHIP

1. Christian Discipleship is
Counter-Cultural and Radical
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.
1st Tree: To be a treasure chest
2nd Tree: to be a mighty ship OUR
3rd Tree: To be a tall tree PLANS

1st Tree: A feed box COST

2nd Tree: A fishing boat TEST OF
3rd Tree: A beam stored in a lumber FAITH
yard OBEDIENCE

1st Tree: Became a manger for the baby Jesus

GOD’S
2nd Tree: Witnessed the power of Jesus
PLANS
3rd Tree: Symbol of God’s love for humanity
 We go back to the questions:
• What must I do?
• How do I distinguish good
from evil?

We turn to Jesus Christ:

• We listen to his words.
• We follow his actions.

Following Christ is the essential and primordial

foundation of Christian morality. Jesus’ ways and
words, his deeds and his precepts constitute the
moral rule of Christian life.
What does
discipleship entail?

 Come follow me and I will

send you out to fish for
people. At once, they left their
nets and followed him.
Matthew 4:19

 If you want to be perfect, go

sell your possessions, come
follow me. Matthew 19:21

 If anyone should come after

me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow
me. Matthew 16:24
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.
LESSON D:
THE ENCOUNTER WITH
JESUS CHRIST IS A CALL TO
DISCIPLESHIP

2. The Church: Willed by God to

Make Possible the Encounter with
Christ
The Church was instituted by Christ to perpetuate His presence on earth. She signifies in a
visible, historical and tangible form the presence and redeeming activity of Christ offered
to all persons of every age, race and condition.
The Church have always
wished to serve this single end:
that each person may be able to
find Christ, in order that Christ
may walk with each person the
path of life. RH, 13.
As the sacrament of salvation of all, not only of the explicit members
but also those who share in the “theandric communion without explicit
awareness of Christic foundation,” She is mindful of her task to make
present everytime, in every situation the encounter between the spirit
and the flesh, God and mankind.
Compose your personal “Desiderata”
where, envisioning yourself as a
Thomasian Doctor, you strive to
become a Disciple of Christ in the
midst of daunting challenges and
promising opportunities.
Required Reading:

•Veritatis Splendor
•Nos. 1-34