THY 1 U1 L2 - Jesus Christ as the Good Teacher'24-25.pdf

THY 1 U1 L2: JESUS CHRIST AS THE GOOD TEACHER 1. JESUS OPENS UP THE FAITHFUL TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURE 2. JESUS REVEALS THE FATHER’S WILL 3. JESUS TEACHES ABOUT MORAL ACTION 4. JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON MAN’S LOFTY VOCATION 5. CHRIST IS ALWAYS PRESENT TO HIS CHURCH TROLLEY CAR RIDDLE. You see a runaway...

THY 1 U1 L2: JESUS CHRIST AS THE GOOD TEACHER 1. JESUS OPENS UP THE FAITHFUL TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURE 2. JESUS REVEALS THE FATHER’S WILL 3. JESUS TEACHES ABOUT MORAL ACTION 4. JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON MAN’S LOFTY VOCATION 5. CHRIST IS ALWAYS PRESENT TO HIS CHURCH TROLLEY CAR RIDDLE. You see a runaway trolley moving toward five tied-up (or otherwise incapacitated) people lying on the main track. You are standing next to a lever that controls a switch. If you pull the lever, the trolley will be redirected onto a sidetrack, and the five people on the main track will be saved. However, there is a single person lying on the sidetrack. You have two options: Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track or Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the sidetrack where it will kill one person. Which is the more ethical option? Or, moresimply: Whatis the right thing todo? QUESTION: WHAT MUST I DO? HOW DO I DISTINGUISH GOOD FROM EVIL? (VS, 2) The following trends are pointed out as to why nowadays, it has become increasingly difficult to answer questions as fundamental as the ones asked above:  CERTAIN CURRENTS OF THOUGHT HAVE GONE SO FAR AS TO EXALT FREEDOM TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT IT BECOMES AN ABSOLUTE, WHICH WOULD THEN BE THE SOURCE OF VALUES (VS, 32).  A RADICALLY SUBJECTIVISTIC CONCEPTION OF MORAL JUDGEMENT OR INDIVIDUALIST ETHIC IS: WHERE THE INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE IS ACCORDED THE STATUS OF A SUPREMETRIBUNAL OF MORAL JUDGMENT WHICH HANDS DOWN CATEGORICAL AND INFALLIBLE DECISIONS...  A NUMBER OF DISCIPLINES, GROUPED UNDER THE NAME BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, HAVE RIGHTLY DRAWN ATTENTION TO MANY KINDS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONINGS WHICHINFLUENCE THE EXERCISE OF FREEDOM. VS, 33. (BF SKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONING…BEHAVIOR IS DETERMINED BY ITS CONSEQUENCES, BE THEY REINFORCEMENTS OR PUNISHMENTS; S. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY, BEHAVIOR IS THE RESULT OF INTERACTIONS AMONG THE THREE COMPONENT PARTS OF THE MIND: ID, EGO, AND SUPEREGO)  SOME THEORIES, USING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ABOUT THE HUMAN PERSON ARGUE FROM A GREAT VARIETY OF CUSTOMS, BEHAVIOR PATTERNS, AND INSTITUTIONS PRESENT IN HUMANITY, END UP WITH AN OUTRIGHT DENIAL OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN VALUES, WITH A RELATIVISTIC CONCEPTION OF MORALITY (VS, 33) John Paul II exhorts people of today to “turn to Christ once again in order to receive from Him the answer to their deepest questions” (VS Veritatis SPlendor, 8). THY 1 U1 L2 1: JESUS OPENS UP THE FAITHFUL TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURES “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17 Jesus brings the question about morally good action back to its religious foundation (VS, 9): THE DECALOGUE. In the “first tablet” of the Law, Jesus teaches us that God is the beginning and end of our life. Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 Jesus definitively confirms the Decalogue and proposes them as the way and condition of salvation. VS, 12 The “SecondTablet of the Law” commandsus: “you shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and your mother; also, you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 19: 18- 19). These commandments are summarized by Jesus’ command toHis disciples: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19; cf.Mk.12:31). Jesus brings God’s commandments to fulfillment. Jesus shows that the commandments must not be understood as a minimum limit not tobe gone beyond, but rather as a path involving a moral and spiritual journey towardsperfection (VS,15). The Christian moral vocation is precisely: to commit ourselves through the power of Christ’s redeeming grace to the progressive overcoming of the evil of sin in and around us – a personal human reaching out in loving service to others – rather than simply avoiding sin or shrinking from evil. Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. New National Catechetical Directory for the Philippines 2007. Manila: Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, 2007. THY 1 U1 L2 2: JESUS REVEALS THE FATHER’S WILL The three-fold yeses covering the three dimensions of human life: the intra-personal the inter-personal societal must be grounded on the fourth foundational, integrating… Yes to God. The Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you…was never Yes and No. With him it was always yes, and however many the promises God made, the yes to them all is in Him. That is why it is through Him that we answer Amen to the praise of God. NNCDP,285 This demands a radical change of heart, a real conversion, manifested in a triple yes to self, others, and society, and grounded in the ultimate yes to God, overcoming the “No” of sin. THY 1 U1 L2 3: JESUS TEACHES ABOUT MORAL ACTION People today need to turn to Christ once again in order to receive from Him the answer to their questions about what is good and what is evil. To go to the heart of the Gospel’s moral teaching and grasp its profound and unchanging content, we must carefully inquire into: the meaning of the question asked by the rich young man in the Gospel the meaning of Jesus’ reply, allowing ourselves to be guided by Him. Jesus as the patient and sensitive teacher, answers the young man by taking him, as it were by the hand, and leading him step by step to the full truth. THY 1 U1 L2 4: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON MAN’S LOFTY VOCATION The first and ultimate vocation of man is communion with God and there is only one way to respond to this calling: JESUS CHRIST. The basic motivation for following Christ in moral action is, of course the Blessed Trinity: The eternal Father’s love for us, manifested pre-eminently in Jesus’ Paschal Mystery, and the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts who enables us to fulfill Christ’s own command: Love one another as I have loved you. Since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. THY 1 U1 L2 5: CHRIST IS ALWAYS PRESENT TO HIS CHURCH Christ empowered the Church to proclaim, without fear of error, faith and morals. The Church must always be deeply conscious of her duty in every age to examine the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel. The Church as the People of God among the nations, while attentive to the new challenges of history and to mankind’s efforts to discover the meaning of life, offers to everyone the answer which comes from the truth about Jesus and his Gospel. As a conclusion to this lesson, retell the story of the rich young man from your point of view. This young man/woman lives in your time, is confronted by difficult questions about life, and earnestly looks for answers. The story ends with a resolution where the young man/woman, unlike in the Gospel, never leaves disappointed but allows himself/herself to be led by Christ, the good teacher.  Required Reading: Veritatis Splendor Nos. 1-34