Topic 2 - Salvation History PDF

UNIVERSITY OF LA SALETTE, INC. Santiago City College of Arts and Sciences Religious Education Department Course Number : GEC RE 001 Descriptive Title: God's Saving Actions In History, Our Story: From...

UNIVERSITY OF LA SALETTE, INC. Santiago City College of Arts and Sciences Religious Education Department Course Number : GEC RE 001 Descriptive Title: God's Saving Actions In History, Our Story: From Abraham To Jesus COURSE DESCRIPTION: This three-unit course introduces the students to the narrative of God's Saving Action in History told through the lens of the Old and New Testaments. Preliminary discussions center on the phenomenological reflection on religion as a universal phenomenon and on the initiative of God, who reveals Himself, His plan for and involvement in man's life through His creation and Sacred Texts. The story of God's saving actions presents the sequential events of the fall of the First Parents and God's offer of Salvation through the instrumentality of His Old Testament chosen people (the patriarchs), with whom He establishes His covenantal relationship and to whom he makes promises. The struggles of the people's faith journey to see God's promises fulfilled and establish their identity as God's chosen people and nation highlight the roles of the judges, kings, and prophets. The definitive revelation of God finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, whose Incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection constitute the economy of Salvation. Course Learning Outcomes: At the end of the course, the students will be able to: 1) Articulate their understanding of religion as a universal phenomenon that has common dimensions; 2) Articulate their understanding of God's plan of Salvation through divine revelation; 3) Explain the idea of God's covenantal relationships with his redeemed people from the patriarchs to Christ; 4) Illustrate the flow of Salvation from the creation of man until the coming of the promised Savior; 5) Explain the roles of the judges, kings, and prophets in the struggles of God's people's faith- journey; 6) Articulate their understanding of Christ as the definitive revelation of God; 7) Articulate their understanding of Christ's central role in God's plan of Salvation by His Incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection; 8) Practice reading the Bible every day; and, 9) Participate in the University's outreach programs that reflect the course's practical dimension.  TOPIC 2 SALVATION HISTORY SALVATION HISTORY Salvation History is the grand salvific design of God the Father fulfilled finally by God the Son and continued to be sustained in her holiness by God the Holy Spirit. Where do we locate the role of the Church in this grand design? First of all, Salvation history because it is history has its own stages to develop. We can distinguish 2 main stages: 1. Period of Creation 2. Period of Redemption which is further subdivided into:  stage of prefiguration  stage of preparation  stage of institution  stage of manifestation PERIOD OF CREATION This is the picture of Eden, Paradise. Here God created man in the state of original justice and integrity. Integrity means Adam's relationship with His Creator was transparent because in Paradise (Paradise means complete happiness. Why?) Adam was gifted with habitual or sanctifying grace, because of this man was made a partaker of the divine nature and gave him a supernatural end, namely to see God as He is, face to face, and ultimately to be united to Him as to His all- loving Father. In addition, man was gifted with certain preternatural gifts, which did not altogether transcend his nature, but nevertheless were not essential to it. Thus, we were free from the dread of suffering and even death; his bodily passions were all controlled properly by his clear intelligence. In this first major stage, God directly dealt with man directly. There was no need of any intermediary through and with which God would deal with man in his situation in Paradise. In this respect, we can state the first stage of Salvation History was totally different from the state after the Fall due to original sin. PERIOD OF REDEMPTION What makes this period distinct from the period of creation is this: this period needed one who would act as a visible Mediator = "the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a redemption for all" (1 Tim 2:6) In this period, appeared the Church in its initial form as the People of God, like a seed, not pure and simple, till has to grows as "the Body of Christ," a people whose vocation it would be to continue in time and space what Christ as begun: his salvific task on saving the world. Her being definitive and concrete would still come later after the Incarnation and exaltation of Christ, and the coming of the Holy Spirit in the great commissioning, the Pentecost. We can distinguish in this period the following stages:  State of Prefiguration: from Adam to Abraham. All the elect, before the time began, the Father "foreknew and predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that he should be the firstborn among many brethren," (Rom 8:29). God the Father did not abandon men after the fall of Adam, but still held out to him because of this original plan of "conforming the elect before time began to be conformed to His Son." These needs be expressed through faith in His Son. Faith is a necessary means to crate the bond that would tie the elect into one family. This family would have to develop in time until it would find corporeal expression. We have the traces of how this community of believers would eventually evolve, for example, in the Ark of Noah.  State of Preparation: from Abraham to Birth of Christ. From Abraham we can see the appearance of the history of the People of God, the people God had chosen to realize in the temporal order His plan of salvation. God endowed this Chosen people with religious instruction (for example, the giving of 10 commandments) intrinsically related with His will to save them. He guided its history in direct preparation for the coming of His Son in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  State of Institution: from birth of Christ to Pentecost. This is properly the Messianic period where Christ fulfilled 100% the will of His Father to save the world (creation and humanity), that is to say, to repair the damage introduced by original sin, to bring back Paradise once more but with a difference. The presence of God through Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, is the central figure of this period. The Church of Chris is found at this period in its initial stage.  Stage of Manifestation: from Pentecost up to our time. It was only after the coming of the Holy Spirit that God established the Church on earth in its temporal state bringing its visible mediation to its highest point of perfection. Jesus has already ascended into heaven and was glorified sitting now at the right hand of the Father, then the Holy Spirit was sent as promised in order to continually sanctify the Church of Christ. That was how the Church became truly the sacrament of Christ, continuing the redemptive mission of Christ of saving men because she participates in the power of the humanity of Christ. If Christ is the image or sacrament of the Father (through His body God has become visible), likewise, the Church, the Body of Christ has become the visible sign of God's presence, the sacrament of Christ, continuing the redemptive mission of Christ of saving men because she participates in the power of the humanity of Christ.  SCHEMA OF SALVATION HISTORY CREATION The Church 2024 Prefigurement (All came from the Triune God; all should return to Him) SANCTIFICATION Pentecost ORIGINAL SIN Manifestation New Testament REDEMPTION Institution Paschal Mysteries THE FALL OF MAN REFERENCES Bible Christifideles Laici Gaudium et Spes Sacrocanctum Concilium Dei Verbum Evangelium Vitae Evagelii Gaudium Catechism of the Catholic Church Declaration Concerning Sexual Ethics I Believe, A Little Catholic Catechism Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church CODEX IURIS CANONICI Bragado, E. and Monera A. Kaloob: Interweavings on the Christian Story. Dela Salle University Press, Inc. Malate, Manila Philippines, 1999 Catechism for Filipino Catholics. Philippines: Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. (2008). Flannery, A. Vatican Council II: More Post conciliar Document. (Vol. 1). Philippines: St. Paul Publications. (2007). Flannery, A. Vatican Council II: More Post conciliar Document. (Vol. 2). Philippines: St. Paul Publications. (2007). Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Manila: Episcopal Commission in Catechesis and Catholic Education. 2005 Knox, Ian., C.S.Sp. Theology for Teachers. Quezon City Philippines: Claretian Communication Publication. 2011