christology.pdf

WE DEVOLOP SELF-AWARENESS AND COMMUNITY ORIENTATION Sing and Reflect on the excerpt of the song “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson Man in the Mirror Michael Jackson I’m gonna make a change For once in my li...

WE DEVOLOP SELF-AWARENESS AND COMMUNITY ORIENTATION Sing and Reflect on the excerpt of the song “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson Man in the Mirror Michael Jackson I’m gonna make a change For once in my life It’s gonna feel real good Gonna make a difference Gonna make it right As i turn up the collar on My favorite winter coat This wind blowing my mind  I see the kids in the streets With not enough to eat Who am i to be blind? Pretending not to see their needs A summer disregard A broken bottle top And a one man’s soul They follow each other on the wind you know Cause they got nowhere to go That’s why i want you to know Chorus I’m starting with the man in the mirror I’m asking him to change his ways And no message could’ve been any clearer  If you want to make the world a better place Take a look at yourself, and then make a change I’ve been a victim of a selfish kind of love It’s time that i realize That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan Could it be really me, pretending that they’re not alone A widow deeply scarred, somebody’s broken heart And a washed-out dream They follow the pattern of the wind, you’ see ‘Cause they got no place to be That’s why I’m starting with me  Repeat Chorus I’m starting with the man in the mirror I’m asking him to change his ways And no message could’ve been any clearer If you want to make the world a better place Take a look at yourself, and then make a change Oh no, no no I’m gonna make a change It’s gonna feel real good! Come on! (Change) Just lift yourself I’ve got to make that change, today! Stand up! Stand up! Stand up! (Yeah! Make that change) Stand up and lift yourself, now! (Man in the mirror) You know it! Make that change  Guide Questions 1. What feeling did the song elicit in you? Why so 2. Who is the man in the mirror? 3. What did the man discover about himself and about the outside world through the mirror? 4. Why did he say that he was a victim of a selfish love? How did his awareness of himself led him to do something for the world he lives in? 5. Why is there a need to look into who we really are to be able to bring about change in the world? 6. In what way can we develop awareness of self so that even in the midst of our individual differences, we can foster community orientation and be able to live in communion with others? Social media today promotes a kind of culture that focuses on "Me, Myself, and I" mentality featured in selfie posts. In the midst of this situation, the human person can hardly see the persons next to his/her door or those in his/her community. Some people have considered themselves to survive even apart from his/her neighbors. Hence, there is a tendency to develop an attitude of insensitivity toward those who are in need. Thus, the person's search for meaning in life within the context of community living is gradually losing its place without knowing that our nature as a human considers the connectedness of self to the community we belong.  Trinitarian Love as the Origin and Goal of the Human Person Each person is created in the image and likeness of God. This truth about the human person is very clear in the Scriptures, In Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His image; in the divine image He created Him; male and female He created them." Significantly, as God's image, human beings participate in the divine life of God who is a loving community of persons. Hence, being an image of God is the basis of man's dignity and rights which cannot be violated even by the world's system or finality. Rooted in man, being made in the image and likeness of God is his sovereignty within the cosmos, his capacity for social existence, his ability to know his Creator and the gift of being loved and being loving to others.  DEVELOPING SELF - AWARENESS AND COMMUNITY ORIENTATION We are made in God's image and likeness, whose essence is a loving communion of persons. Hence, we were created in love and for love. Created in the image of the Divine Giver, we are called to live in a communion of persons in love toward community orientation. Some reflections of this image are the following: 1. FamIly as CommunIon of Person The family which is given life in love is a community of persons composed of husband and wife, of parents and children, and of relatives. In God's plan of love, the family constitutes a very important role. This is the reason that God, man, and woman are called to grow in communion with one another. Matthew 19:4-5 Matthew 19:6  2. Church as a CommunIty of DIscIples There have been a lot of images being used to refer to the Church. Today, one interesting image is the Church as a community of disciples. The word "disciple" literally means "follower“.Hence, as Christians, we are followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. One in their belief in Jesus, the early Christians were one in the Eucharist, one in prayer, one in love and concern for one another. As today's Christians, therefore, we are called to be a community of disciples who are one in faith, love, and care in the spirit of our common Baptism. By virtue of our Baptism, we are asked to live out the call to be a community of disciples in our faith in Jesus just as St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians 4:4-6 reiterates this truth, "as you were also called to the one hope for your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."  3. SolIdarIty of the Human The story of creation in Genesis 2:8-24 reveals that every person was not created in isolation. God gave the human being the garden, a symbol of his freedom; the trees for sustenance; the work from the command to cultivate; and most of all the community having given the gift of someone who is like Himself. Endowed with all these gifts, God made sure that man is provided with all the things he needs for growth, self-expression, work, and human relationships. God envisions the human family to be in solidarity with one another under one Lord. This kind of unity should be one that fosters a life-giving relationship that is patterned after the life- giving relationship of the Trinity, thereby creating a community of human family that respects the value of life, dignity, equality, unity, and one that promotes the common good. Significantly, all people are called to contribute to the building up of an authentic human family which can be made possible when everyone regards every person as the image and likeness of God regardless of race, color, belief, nationality, gender, or age. CHURCH TEACHINGS  The International Theological Commission published in 2004 a document entitled "Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God" to emphasize the identity of the human persons being an image of God as "persons in communion." The Commission stresses that by nature, human beings are both body and spirit, men and women, persons oriented toward communion with God and with one another. It also points out that human beings are in need of salvation having impaired by sin, yet are called into the likeness of Christ, the perfect image of the Father, through the grace of the Holy Spirit.  The human person is a distinctive creation of God. To understand the nature of each person, the Commission further explains the points surrounding the human person's identity in this manner: 1. Body and Soul 2. Man and Woman 3. Person and Community 4. Sin and Salvation in Christ 1. Body and Soul. God willed the human person to possess a physical form which is animated by the spiritual form. The biblical account of creation expresses this truth in the passage, "then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." (Gen. 2:7) Humans deal with all other physical creatures in the world using their intellectual, emotional, and social capacities. In doing so, persons do not leave behind their body; hence, the physical world creates the opportunity for each human person to relate with one another. On the other hand, the "soul" does not only refer to human life but also to the innermost aspect of man, that which he is most especially in God's image.  Therefore, according to the Commission, "If the soul created in God's image, forms matter to constitute the human body, then the human person as a whole is the bearer of the divine image in a spiritual as well as a bodily dimension." This conclusion is strengthened in reference to the mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus, who by becoming a human person with a human flesh who suffered, died, and glorified brings to light the final destination of the human person and that is union with the Creator, both body and soul. 2. Man and Woman. The Scriptures tell us, "in the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them." (Gen. 1:27) The Commission reiterates what Pope John Paul II affirmed in the document "Familiaris Consortio" that human beings' vocation to love and communion is "realized in a distinctive way in the procreative union of husband and wife, the difference between man and woman is an essential element in the constitution of human beings made in the image of God." Being different in gender, man and woman complement each other, enabling each one to grow in greater communion with each other as one sees, thinks, feels, and in the world with other human beings who are also defined by their own sexuality.  Moreover, this difference in gender is to be viewed as a way by which man and woman can reciprocate each other and not to look at one gender as superior to the other. In fact, even with different genders, God intended man and woman to be equal in dignity, being both created according to His image and likeness and equal in gifts and responsibility, having both received blessings and command when in Genesis 1:28, "God blessed them saying, 'Be fertile and multiply: fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth." Thus, as caretakers of the world God has created, man and woman will need each other with the view of being in communion toward all other human persons and creature in the world.  3. Persons and Community A person is a bodily being created by God in His image and likeness who possesses the qualities of the Three Persons of One God relating in loving communion with each other. The Commission points out that "when one speaks of the person, one refers both to the irreducible identity and interiority that constitute the particular individual being, and to the fundamental relationship to other persons that is the basis for human community." It follows that persons are social beings as well. According to the Commission, the "human being is truly human to the extent that he actualizes the essentially social element in his coristitution as a person within familial, religious, civil, professional, and other groups that together form the surrounding society to which he belongs."  While affirming the fundamentally social character of human existence, Christian civilization has nonetheless recognized the absolute value of the human person as well as the importance of individual rights and cultural diversity. There may be disagreements between the individual person and the demands of society, but in the Blessed Trinity, there is a perfect harmony. As Christians, we believe that our personal identity is one that is at once an orientation to the other as it is founded essentially on the Trinity of Divine Persons.  Our Christian belief tells us that God is not a solitary being, but a communion of Three Persons. Constituted by the One Divine Nature, the identity of the Father is His paternity, His relation to the Son and the Spirit; the identity of the Son is His relation to the Father and the Spirit; the identity of the Spirit is His relation to the Father and the Son. Thus, no person lives in isolation in the universe, but is dependent on others and lives always in relationship with others, hence called to form a community with them-a kind of community where all persons regardless of race, status, and culture are united with one another and with the Creator; a kind of community where every person finds his identity as human being created in the image and likeness of God  4. Sin and Salvation in Christ God has gifted human beings with freedom to enable him to choose the communion which God offers him, then becoming an image and likeness of God who is free. However, human beings, instead of choosing to be in communion with God, can and do turn away from it. According to the Commission, "sin is precisely this failure of freedom, this turning away from the divine invitation to communion." With sin, the human person as an image of God is impaired. From the perspectives that as image of God man is relational, man is historical, and man is social, sin affects all these perspectives.  In view of man as relational, sin causes division within himself between the body and spirit, alienation with others and with God. Just as human beings are historical beings, so as sin which entered from the very beginning of human history as St. Paul points out in his letter to the Romans 5:12, "just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death and thus death came to all" (Rom. 5:12). Sin also affects man's physical existence making him vulnerable to sickness, suffering, and death. Moreover, the effect of sin goes beyond the personal and historical aspects of the human person but it can go as far as permeating the systems in the society making sin so structured that no one sees it anymore as something wrong, hence blocking the realization of the image of God not only in every human person but also in the entire society.  However, sin can only go far as to impairing the image of God in every man but this image cannot be destroyed by sin. According to the Commission, exegetes today from both the Catholic and Protestants agree that the Imago Dei in every person cannot be totally destroyed by sin since it defines the whole structure of human nature. Though not destroyed, this image needs restoration, hence God's offer of salvation for the human beings. It is for this reason that God became human being in Jesus who is the perfect image of the Father. John 3:16 expresses God's loving plan of salvation, "For God so loved the world that He sent Jesus so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life." Indeed, Jesus won for us our salvation through His passion, death, and resurrection.  He Commission expounds that in Jesus "salvation is nothing less than a transformation and fulfillment of the personal life of the human being, created in the image of God, and now newly directed to a real participation in the life of the Triune God, through the grace of the Incarnation of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit." Through this saving transformation of the human person, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, everything in the universe is also transformed and comes to share in the glory of God (Rom. 8:21). Hence, the effects of salvation for man, created in the image of God, are obtained through the grace of Christ who, as the second Adam, is the head of a new humanity and who creates for man a new salvific situation through His death for sinners and through His resurrection (cf. 1 Cor. 15:47-49; 2 Cor. 5:2; Rom, 5:6 ff). In this way, man becomes a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17) who is capable of a new life of freedom, a life "freed from" sin and "freed for" a new life in Christ sharing in the divine life of the Triune God.