sj-filipino christian response

8/13/2019 Sj-filipino Christian Response

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CREATION

1. Creation means that the world and everything

pertaining to the world as its origin, ground and finalgoal in God. God is the efficient, and final cause andanalogously the material and formal cause ofcreation.

The whole existence of the world with its dynamismand activity is totally dependent on God everymoment. Creation is the description of the finitudeof nature and man and their total dependence on

God.


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2. Creation is not simply a onceupon-a-time event but

Gods continuing involvement in the world and itshistory.

Filipino faith in Gods divine Providence should not beidentified with the bahala na attitude or fatalism.

If creation looks to the future, then the unity of thehuman race is explained not in terms of one historicalorigin but in terms of one and the same destiny. Inmans creative activity, God is there creating with us.God and man together will build Gods Kingdom ofjustice and love.

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3. Mans responsibility for creation does not only mean

his liberation from the forces of nature but that manhas the serious responsibility of cooperating in Godswork in creation.

Science and technology show man as an active creator.

We cannot continue to blame God for the extremepoverty and injustice in this country. As Gods partnersin creation, we must do our part for everyone to have abetter quality of life and bring about a more just and

fraternal Philippine society.

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4. Creation involves not only material creation but also

the creation of new human person and man as tecommunity.

According to Vat.II (Gaudium et spes, #35) a morehumane and fraternal world is far more important

than material progress.Of what use are the rapid advances of science andtechnology and of the information revolution if in theend man becomes a computerized robot.

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5. The faith value of creation: the Christian doctrine of

creation adds a basic faith vision to human dignity, work,liberation and development.

Human Dignity: Man as the image and likeness of God isthe basis of human dignity (pagkatao) and human rights.But with the subhuman condition of the poor and the

marginalized, we could hardly recognize the Gods imagein them. Our creative task is to restore the image of God inman.

Secondly, through the Incarnation, human dignity as beenraised to adoptive sonship, we share in the divine life andare all children of one Father.

Homo vivens est gloria Dei the glory of God is man fullyalive. The more man builds a just and fraternal society, thebrighter the glory of God will shine in him.

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Human Work. First, work has dignity because it is a

participation in Gods creative work. Against themodern alienation of exploited workers, the subjectivevalue of the worker as a human person takes priorityover his objective value and productivity. (John Paul II,Laborem Exercens)

Secondly, Jesus Christ ennobled work by becoming theson of a carpenter and a carpenter himself.

We should not be ashamed to work no matter howmenial our work may appear.

Human Liberation. Means essentially liberation fromsin (original, personal and social). In order to beliberated from sin and become new creatures endowedwith divine life we need the redeeming grace .

Redemption or salvation is the new creation.

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Human Development. (Pope Paul VI, Populorum

Progressio #14) defines total integral humandevelopment as the good of every man and of thewhole man. It means to seek to do more, know moreand have more in order to be more of a human person

(PP #6). Development is not merely social, economicaland political but includes cultural, moral, religiousand spiritual.

Human development which is an effective process to

correct poverty, injustice, oppression and violation ofhuman rights, is the work of both God and man. Thisis a duty for all especially those who wield influenceand power.

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The Bible and Original Sin

OT: Genesis and the Wisdom Books.Genesis is not simply astory about every man; it is also an attempt to explain the originof death, suffering, toil, divisions and the universal tendency toevil.

Genesis 3, the story of the fall explains the cause of the sinful

history of mankind. The universal human condition of sin is dueto the misuse by man of his freedom. Sin is the power of evil at

work in the history of the human race from the start and itreaches out in every direction to touch all. Genesis attributes theentire history of human sinfulness to the first sin taken together

with the subsequent sins of succeeding generations.The Wisdom books (Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, Psalms) present astory of inherited evil consequences of sin, which the individualaggravates by his own sins . The wisdom books speak of manssolidarity in sin: they have all gone astray. They are all alike

corrupt. There is not one that does good, not one. (Ps 14:3)

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NT: St. Paul.The complete doctrine of original sin is foundin St. Paul whose primary focus in Roman 5 is the universal needof redemption and grace in Christ.

Rom 5:12-20 From Adam springs the old human race entered by

the power of sin and death, Paul presents Adam as the firstexample of sin which later generations follow and also the causeof the tendency to sin which all men inherited from him; FromChrist springs the new race, reborn in the power of grace andnew divine life, Paul Affirms human solidarity in the grace of

Christ who is the cause of the redemption for all human personsRom 7:15-25 Paul describes his own experience of the law of sin,the involuntary inclination to evil in everyone which we allexperience; he also reveals the universal need of he redemptionand grace of Jesus Christ and emphasizes humankinds solidarity

in grace.

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Experience-Myth-Dogma. Three stages.

1. The penitential experience of Israel: the personal andcorporate experience of the sinfulness of Gods

people2. The explicitation of this collective experience of sinin the form of the myth of Adam and Eve

3. The dogma of the Churchs articulation of the state of

sinfulness into which every person is born, deprivethe gift of grace, separated from God, by which heneeds the redemption and grace of Jesus Christ.

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Church Teaching on Original Sin1. The sin of the world (Jn 1:29) describing our sinful situation2. The heart of darkness in us which we experience in

concupiscence3. The close relationship between original sin and personal sin.The church clarifies that we do not inherit Adams personal sin, but

rather the sinful condition in the world with our weakened

human nature resulting from Adams sin. Concupiscence is thatdeep-seated disorder in our appetites and drives that is the rootcause of many of our personal sins. Through Gods redeeminggrace we are strengthened to overcome this disorder within us.

Baptism graces the child with the gift of the Holy Spirit and a sharein divine life as a child of God by placing the child in a less sinfuland more favorable Christian environment where good examplesand Christian values and norms ca thrive and f lourish.

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Contemporary Understanding of Original Sin

1. The presence of original sin in the sinful situationaround us . As seen in the concrete effects in todaysPhilippine society. We are all born into a world markedby tension between sin and grace. So many times it

seems evil is rewarded with success while thosetrying to do what is right seem to fail.

2. The interior personal dimension of original sin. Theeffects in our disordered appetites, our concupiscenceare still very much with us.

3. The strength and power of original sins presence inthe world and within us. By our moral faults we leadothers into sin we constitute part of the sin of theworld.

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Original Sin and Social Theology1. The presence of original sin today can be seen in structures of

social sin.2. If original sin is both internal inclination to sin and external

sinful situation, then there is a need of a double liberation: acombination of both moral conversion and a change of unjuststructures of power to bring about the balance of freedom and

equality.3. Structures of injustice and gross inequality can be changed butonly through cooperation in community.

4. Christian realism reminds us of the fact that life is both good andbad, beautiful and ugly, characterized by grace-sin tensions.

5.A more mature understanding of original sin brings us to therealization that we would be totally subject to the power of sinand death if it were not for the liberating, healing grace of JesusChrist.

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Social Sin is the root of massive poverty and structural

injustice here and globally. Background of Social Sin

1. Historical the aftermath of WWII, the complicity

of the many good Christians in the face of theHolocaust. Religionless Christianity by Bonhoeffer.The emergence of the Third World only heightenedthe disparity and widening gap between the firstworld rich-developed countries and the Third Worldpoor underdeveloped countries.

On the one hand globalization leads todemocratization but on the other hand it also causes

marginalization and exploitation.

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2. Sociological (a) externalization is the process by

which one imposes order on the environment to makeit more meaningful, useful and efficient.

(b) objectivation is the process by which product ofexternalization and systematization is experienced as

an autonomous reality confronting the individual as anexternal and coercive fact.

(c) internalization is the process by which structuredreality is passed from one generation to the other in

the course of socialization.

As such these structures have tremendous humanpotential for good or evil.

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3. Theological act as sinful (particular choice) vs. ones

sinful orientation/ direction (fundamental option).The privatization of philosophy and theology madethem apolitical and isolated them from the life of thepeople.

4. Biblical Sin is a violation of the covenant (love)relationship between God and His people, Individualsins and unjust sinful structures reinforce one another.In NT, John and Paul state sin of the world (Rom 5-8)

today sin has become demonic (so overpowering,transcending individual malice and makes uspowerless captives.

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Three Types of Social Sin

1. Structures which systematically oppress humandignity and violate human rights, stifle humanfreedom and impose gross inequality between therich and the poor.

2. Situations which promote and facilitate greed andhuman selfishness.

3. The complicity of persons who do not take

responsibility for evil being done or who silentlyallow oppression and injustice.

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There are 2 incontrovertible facts in our contemporary

society (1) situations of inequality can be changed, wehave the technical know how to meet the problem ofsharing

(2) the only way an individual can work to meet theseproblems is by cooperating in community

The WB recommended twofold strategy to fightpoverty in the Philippines (1) productive use of thepoors most abundant asset; namely, develop thepotential skills of the large working classes

(2) provide the poor with basic social services likeprimary health care, nutrition, family planning, etc

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PCPII states No social transformation is genuine and

lasting where people themselves do not activelyparticipate in the process.

The solution to poverty lies in the education andorganization of the marginalized and powerless

sectors by what has come to be known today as people-empowerment.

We understand people power to include greaterinvolvement in decision making, greater equality in

both political and economic matters, more democracyand participation.

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Conversion Towards Social Justice

Conversion of the head seeing the world in a new way. (1) usingdifferent ideological positions in the analysis of poverty andinjustice

(2) Recognitions of the structural sin. Much of the pain in this

world is caused by world ordered by those who benefit from theordering

Obstacles to conversion of head (1) unexamined ideologicalpresuppositions, assumptions, values which do not call intoquestion the structures on which we depend for our privileged

position in life.(2) isolation from the pain and suffering of others. The vastmajority of the decisions which affect the poor are made by those

who have little idea of the problems and difficulties the poorface. It is difficult to be compassionate if one has neverexperienced the misery, powerlessness and despair of the poor.

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Conversion of the head cannot be done through reading but

through a new experienceThe need to share in some way the experience of the poor, theexperience of not being useful or not needed. the experiencemust be coupled with openness to questioning my own viewsand values.

Conversion of the heart means radical change in lifestyle,vocation or way of life (1) personal response. I change my valuesand priorities so that the poor are not excluded. I live simply sothat others will simply live.

(2) political response is needed. I must become agent of socialchange and try to subvert the unjust structures in society thatbrings suffering to so many. It involves commitment to politicalradicalism trough the democratic process. The agent of socialchange must be committed to challenge the status quo.

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The Church of the Poor

(PCPII) the promotion of justice and the preferential (option)love for the poor are a Christian gospel imperative incumbent onall Christians form whatever walk of life. Each one has the socialresponsibility to work together to build a society of justice andlove.

It makes no difference what profession, career or vocation eachhas to follow, as long as they are compassionate and understandthe plight of the poor (pro-poor)

(1) ano ang kayang kaya kong gawin

(2) ano ang gusto kong gawin(3) ano and dapat kong gawin

It is crucial to go where I am most needed and most helpful.

Preferential (option) love for the poor is an attitude, a

commitment a way of life a spirituality

SOCIAL SIN

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