Fundamentals of Faith 2 PDF

FUNDAMENTALS OF FAITH2 Trinitarian Dogma LESSON 1: I BELIEVE IN GOD 1. The Trinity is One. Using the natural light of reason, God can - As a Pure Spirit, the divine nature is eternal, be known by observing the natural...

FUNDAMENTALS OF FAITH2 Trinitarian Dogma LESSON 1: I BELIEVE IN GOD 1. The Trinity is One. Using the natural light of reason, God can - As a Pure Spirit, the divine nature is eternal, be known by observing the natural world: perfect, and ummitable. “Ever since the creation of the worls, God’s - There is no sharing of divine substance nvisible attributes of eternal power and among the three persons. divinity have been able to be understood - They are co-equal, co-eternal, and and perceived in what he has made.” consubstantial. (Romans 1:20) 2. The divine persons are really distinct from ”When an effect is better known to is [than one another. its cause from the effect], we proceed to the - Father: unbegotten; the origin w/o an origin knowledge of the cause.” - Son: eternally begotten of the Father; the Five Ways of God’s Existence origin of the origin 1. Motion - Holy Spirit: proceeds from the Father and - Whatever is in motion is put in motion by the Son another. But this cannot go on infinity. 3. The divine persons are relative to one - Prime mover or unmoved mover another. 2. Causation - Paternity (Pater” or father) - the relation of - There is an order of efficient cause. There is the Father to the Son no case known in which as thing is found to - Filiation (“Filia” or son) - the relation of the be the efficient cause of itself. And this Son to the Father cannot go on to infinity. - Passive Spiration - the relation of the Holy - First efficient cause or uncaused cause Spirit to the Father and the Son 3. Possibility and necessity The Act and Symbol of Faith: Fides Qua and Fides - There are things possible to be ans not to Quae be. That which does not exist only begins to Fides Qua exist by something already existing. But not faith is the assurance of things hoped for… all beings are merely possible. Faith is the essence/substance of what we - Necessary Being hope for (salvation/eternal 4. Gradation in Things happiness/eternal life) - Among being, there are some more and We define substance/essence as that some less good, true, noble, and the like. through which a person “is” and “acts.” The maximum in any genius is the cause of Ergo, faith is a free, personal, and ecclesial all in that genus act of submitting entirely to God in - Perfect being confidence 5. Governance of the World the substance/essence of how we believe; - Things that lack intelligence act for an end. Subjective Whatever lacks intelligence cannot move Example: Bible study, Mass, Acts of Charity towards an end unless directed by What I do something endowed with knowledge and Fides Quae intelligence. (faith) is the conviction of things unseen - Grand architect or Intelligent We did not come to believe on our own The Object of Faith: The Most Holy Trinity The Church from generation to generation …is the most fundamental mystery of the hands on the apostles’ confession of faith Catholic faith revealed by Jesus Christ: “For The apostles’ confession of faith becomes a [God] sent His Son, the eternal Word, who symbol preserved and transmitted to enlightens all human beings, so that [the deepen our faith. Son] might dwell among them and declare The conviction that what we believe is true to them the secrets of God.” and necessary; Objective  Ex. Trinitarian and Christological Dogmas, LESSON 2-1 : THE CREATION Liturgical Creeds, Decalogue and Creation is the first act of God’s revelation Beatitudes Creation is the Work of the Holy Trinity What I know - Although we say that the work of the Reminder: Creation is the Father’s, He did this I believe = We believe - Faith is not an indivisibly together with the Son and the isolated act. “We” connotes a singular Holy Spirit. identity or communion with what the Church God created the world believes Ex Nihilo Faith is a Relationship - “The believer’s act ❖ He did not need any previously of faith does not terminate in the existing materials or help from propositions but in the realities which they anyone: this shows his omnipotence express.” and his wisdom. God’s revelation - reaching out to us in ❖ Who? - God friendship Ex Amore Jesus is Jew ❖ God has no other reason for creating God created everything out of nothing than his love and goodness. Creeds “credo” = belief ❖ This love is natural to God. condensed formulas of faith that developed ❖ Why? - love over a course of time contemplated, passed on, celebrated, and The world was made for the glory of God lived out. The universe was created in Statu Viae makes I believe = We believe possible ❖ Everything that God created is in the examples: Apostles’ Creed and Nicene state of journeying, toward an Creed ultimate perfection yet to be Based on the number of apostles attained. handpicked by Christ, the number 12 ❖ Through his Divine Providence, God signifies “completeness” protects and governs all things Apostles’ Creed which he has made. - oldest authoritative doctrinal formulation of God the Creator is not like a watchmaker or the Church’s belief in the Holy Trinity an architect, who, after doing his work, - an ancient Roman baptismal symbol leaves it alone. - basis of catechumenical instruction and a God not only gives us existence but baptismal confession of faith since 2nd sustains us at every moment. century Genesis: gignesthai “to be born”; “origin” Nicene Creed - The first book of the Jewish and Christian - pinahaba yung apostles’ creed and naging Scriptures. nicene creed para i-explain lahat but they - It does not give scientific explanations on both have the same meaning. the origin of the world. - arose out of a defensive struggle against - Uses the literary form of religious myth to the heresy of Arianism speak about reality => Heresy of Arianism - Jesus is not divine, Two Accounts of Creation hindi siya Diyos kasi tao lang First Account: Priestly Account - arose out of a defensive struggle against 1. God is the origin of everything especially the heresy of Macedonianism that of life 2. Creation is orderly and good 3. Humankind is the summit of God’s creation 4. Humans are stewards over all creation  5. Human sexuality and procreation belong to world) is evil, the product of a fall, and is the divine order of creation thus to be rejected or left behind. 6. Rest is Godly Materialism - others reject any transcendent Second Account: Yahwist Account origin for the world, but see it as merely the 1. We are connected to earth - we are related, interplay of matter that has always existed. parehas tayo ng ginagalawan sa mundo (ex. Evolutionism and Big Bang Theory. 2. The Human being is both body and soul - Deism - Some admit that the world was The soul gives meaning and life to our body made by God, but as by a watchmaker who, 3. Eden is the original locals of human beings - once he has made a watch, abandons it to Eden is a perfect world, it is paradise. The itself. humanity and the world is in harmony and The Human Person peace Imago Dei 4. Humans have the Vocation to care and - the image of God cultivate the world - stewardship - care for it - because we have body and soul. We have as God will do it spiritual capacity. 5. Man and woman complement each other - Body: material composition of the person. It men and women shouldn’t be seen as rival is corruptible but partners that will complete each other Souls: principle of vivification. It is immortal. 6. Human love and marriage are divinely Three elements of Human soul ordered - that’s why God created marriage - It is only the Human Person who possesses to create humanity (it is God’s design; the rational capacity that makes him/her United and in love through marriage and free. open through procreation) 1. Vegetative - responsible for nutrition and Challenging views on God as Creator growth, and which is also found in plants Atheism and other animals. - Total rejection of the existence of God. Even 2. Rational - further divided into the scientific Catholics can become atheist in the sense element, which enables us to contemplate of praxis. You believe in God, you profess or engage in theoretical activity, and the your beliefs in Him, but your practically think calculative or deliberative element, which and do something evil right after you go to enables us to engage in practical or political the mass activity - You can be atheist if your fides qua and 3. Appetitive - responsible for perception, fides quae doesn’t match imagination, and movement, and so is Pantheism present in other animals too, but not in - Everything is God, that the world is God, or plants. This sort of soul lacks reason but, that the development of the world is the unlike the vegetative, can be influenced by development of God it. - everything is God so parang pati yung The Dignity of the Human person pagiging imperfect natin naka-ano na rin - “Man cannot live without love” kay God Freedom Dualism/Manichaeism - Others have said - “God created man a rational being, that the world is a necessary emanation conferring on him the dignity of a person arising from God and returning to him. Still who can initiate and control his own others have affirmed the existence of two actions.” eternal principles, Good and Evil, Light and - ”…Man is rational and therefore like God; Darkness, locked in permanent conflict. he is created with free will and is master Gnosticism - According to some of these over his acts.” conceptions, the world (at least the physical - The power, rooted in reason and will - Makes man responsible for his acts  - The person can only be free if he/she 3. Impassibility - Immunity from all suffering subordinates his/her freedom to truth and misery. to direct knowledge of God to Angels” A truth of the faith the world. “Angelos” - messenger Man’s First sin - They are personal, free, and spiritual beings Man, tempted by te devil, let his trust in his who do not have a body like ours. creator die in his heart, and abusing his - Angels play a major role in the history of freedom, disobeyed God’s command God’s dealing with human beings. Self-deification - God placed over each of us a Guardian - Constituted in a state of holiness, Angel under whose protection and vigilance man was destined to be fully we may not be enabled to escape the "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced snares of our enemy. by the devil, he wanted to "be like God did not spare the angels when they God," but"without God, before God, sinned, but condemned them to the and nothing in accordance with God. chains… and handed them over to be kept Self-idolatry for judgement. (2 Peter 2:4) - In that sin man preferred himself to The angels too, who did not keep to their God and by that very act scorned own domain but deserted their proper him. He chose himself over and dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in against God, against the gloom, for the judgement of the great day. requirements of his creaturely status The fallen angels were naturally good but and therefore against his own good. became evil by their own doing. Sin is destructive. It ruined man’s harmony The irrevocable character of their choice with God and with the rest of creation made their sin unforgivable. Original Sin The sin by which the first human beings LESSON 2-B:THE FALL OF MAN disobeyed the commandment of God, Man’s Original State in Paradise (before the fall) choosing to follow their own will rather than Original Justice God's will. - The inner harmony of the human person, As a consequence, they lost the grace of the harmony between man and woman, and original holiness, and became subject to the finally the harmony between the first couple law of death; sin became universally and all creation, comprised the state called present in the world. "original justice. Although it is proper to each individual, Original Holiness original sin does not have the character of a - Sharing of the human person to the divine personal fault in any of Adam's life. descendants. It is a deprivation of original - when God created us the “why?” is always holiness and justice, but human nature has answered ”love” not been totally corrupted Preternatural Gifts - Elevates to higher state of Concupiscence existence As a result of original sin, human nature is 1. Integrity - Perfect control of the passions to weakened in its powers; subject to reason; subject of the body to the soul. ignorance, suffering, and the domination of Ensured Adam and Eve’s passion and death; and inclined to sin. This inclination is desires are perfectly aligned to God’s called "concupiscence.” reason and will; prevented them from Temptations around us makes it easier to sinning for us to choose what if wrong 2. Immortality - Non-subjection to the painful not a sin, but a situation where we are separation of the body and soul in death. called to pray to choose what is good assuring continued existence Personal Sin  This type of sin arises from the free and children; degrading conditions of work which deliberate choice of an individual to do what treat laborers as mere instruments of profit, is morally evil in the sight of God. and not as free responsible persons This is when a man chooses to voluntarily Sinful Structure/Social Sin and willfully disobey the law of God A sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a revealed to us. responsibility for the sins committed by Venial Sin others when we cooperate in them. - Sin which does not destroy the divine life in - By participating directly and voluntarily in the soul, as does mortal sin, though it them diminishes and wounds it. - By ordering, advising, praising or approving - Venial sin is the failure to observe them; necessary moderation, in lesser matters of - By not disclosing or not hindering them the moral law, or in grave matters acting when we have an obligation to do so without full knowledge or complete consent - By protecting evil-doers. Mortal Sin Thus, sin makes men accomplices of one - A grave infraction of the law of God that another and causes concupiscence, destroys the divine life in the soul of the violence, and injustice to reign among them. sinner (sanctifying grace), constituting a turn Sins give rise to social situations and away from God. institutions that are contrary to the divine - For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must goodness. be present: grave matter, full knowledge of Structures of sin" are the expression and the evil of the act, and full consent of the effect of personal sins. They lead their Will. victims to do evil in their tum. In an The mystery of evil and suffering analogous sense, they constitute a "social NO, God is not the source of evil,because sin." He cannot contradict Himself and He will The protoevangelium of salvation never oppose His own love. Rather, God The protoevangelium permits evil: only for the sake of higher First Announcement of Redemption through good, not only of a person’s individual good, the Victory of the Woman and Her Offspring but the good of the entire creation. protos = first ; evangelion = Gospel God allows the defect of sin in order for Him Genesis 3:15 to be able to manifest His Goodness and Mary was conceived without Original Sin the reality that He is our Savior. and did not commit any personal sin during Intrinsically Evil acts her earthly life, hence she was never under actions that are inherently wrong, the dominion of Satan. regardless of its circumstances. Sin and Grace Actions that violate God’s laws and are “THERE IS NO SAINT WITHOUT A PAST; considered morally reprehensible in NO SINNER WITHOUT A FUTURE” -St. themselves. Augustine of Hippo Whatever is hostile to life itself - homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and voluntary suicide Whatever iolates the integrity of the Human person - mutilation, physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit. Whatever is offensive to Human dignity - subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution and trafficking in women and