CFED: Catholic Foundation of Mission (Prelims)
Week 1
a. Diocesan is a term use for priests serving their local places;
b. Monks: started in the 3rd century AD in Egypt and in Syria with a life of
simplicity or asceticism.
INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN MORALITY IN OUR TIME
Monks who are composed of sisters (not priests) only came out later. Example of
few monks in Cagayan who are sisters are those at the St. Claire monastery in
Iguig.
God Created all things, (world and the human persons). They were in "paradise"
which means, there was harmony, justice, peace, and job. Despite the very good
conditions of life that they were in, the first human beings ("Adam" and "Eve") still
committed sin.
c.
Brief Historical Background of the Church
Sacrament: means channel, representative, visible sign of an invisible reality.
God -- Jesus -- Church
Missionaries are group/community of priests who really want to go to serve
remote places not yet evangelize. Examples of missionaries are the following:
1. The Dominicans who was founded by St. Dominic in Prouille, France in
1216. (Dominic was a Spanish priest).
2. The Augustinians which started in 1244 in Italy (groupor no specific
founder).
3. The Jesuits or called Society of Jesus who was founded in 1540 by
Ignatius Loyola, formerly a spanish soldier who became priest.
4. The CICM and other missionary groups only came out later. The CICM
was founded by a diocesan priest Theophile Verbist in 1862 in Scheut,
Anderlecht, Brussels, Belgium.
The Sacrament of God is Jesus and the Sacrament of Jesus is the Church (John
20:21, Acts 1:8). The Church started as a religious renewal "movement "/group in
Jerusalem, Israel by no other
than Jesus Christ. Jesus
grounded the Church on the
foundation of the Apostles and it
spread from Jerusalem to the
Roman Empire world until
throughout all the earth.
So what is a CICM?
It is just one of the missionary groups which is an arm of the Church for
evangelization. One of the many strategies for missionaries to evangelize people
especially the youth to prepare them to become also evangelizers in their own
ways in the future is too establish schools. With this, obviously, in the missionary
schools and even schools established by the local Church, the core of the
curriculum is the Christian Faith Education of the young (children to college); in a
wider sense, the Christian formation of the Community who are running the
school. The CICM established schools for such purpose. Here at the University of
Saint Louis, Our motto for us to always remember this is "Mission and Excellence"
and among the core values of our University's Vision- Mission, the first is Christian
Living.
The first "name" of the Church
was The Way (Acts 9:2), The
members of the Church were
called Christians in Antioch (Acts
11: 26). The Church was
persecuted by the Roman
Empire (which was still pagan) until the Conversion of the Emperor Constantine in
313 AD which paved the way for Christians to infiltrate Rome until Christianity was
declared as the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD by Emperor
Theodosius.
USL’s Vision, Mission, And Core Values
Way back in 45 AD, the first apostle who went to Rome and started the Church
there was no other than Peter. Later, reflecting on the mission of Jesus which He
passed on to the Church, the Church's official "name" or title evolved into: One
(John 17:21), Holy (Ephesians 1:4, 5:27, 1 Peter 2:9), Catholic (Matthew 28:1820, Acts 1:8, Gen 12: 3, John 3: 16-17) and Apostolic (Ephesians 2:20).
Vision
USL is a global learning community recognized for science and technology across
all disciplines, strong research, and responsive community engagement grounded
on the CICM mission and identity for a distinctive student experience
From the Church developed the Hierarchy (Bishops. priests, and deacons-with the
Pope as the overall head for the sake of division of work and maintaining the unity
of the Church while it spreads the Kingdom of God on earth. From the Church
comes the different"kinds" of priests according to spirituality or mission area.
Mission
USL sustains a Catholic academic community that nurtures persons for
community, church and society anchored on CICM's Missio et Excellentia.
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Educational Philosophy and Core Values
human person's not following the order of everything as caused by pride and
following one's selfish goal and satisfaction. This was demonstrated in the Adam
and Eve's violation of God's command of not eating from the fruit of the tree in the
middle of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6).
a. Christian Living. We are witnesses to the Gospel values as taught and lived
by Christ thus making God's love known and experienced by all.
b. Excellence. We seek and maintain uncompromising standard of quality in
teaching, learning, service, and stewardship of school resources.
c. Professional Responsibility. We are committed to efficiently and responsibly
apply the learned principles, values and skills in the chosen field of discipline,
taking initiative and command responsibility in one's professional
advancement.
d. Social Awareness and Involvement. We engage ourselves with society by
listening to the prevailing issues and concerns in the society, thereby initiating
and participating in constructive and relevant social activities for the promotion
of justice, peace and integrity of creation and for people's wellness and
development consistent with the CICM charism.
e. Innovation, Creativity and Agility. We keep ourselves relevant and
responsive to the changing needs of our stakeholders by being flexible,
solution oriented, and having cutting-edge decisions and practices.
After this disruption of the order of creation by the human person who was
supposed to be the overseer of the progress of creation in accordance with the
will/plan of the creator/God, God did not give up on this plan and even the human
persons. God still gave them a chance to recover from their failure although with a
little change by making them work to achieve their needs and their progress or
development. Despite the chance given by God, the human persons would keep
on repeating this same failure in other ways. These were demonstrated by Cain
killing his brother Abel, which was caused by envy, the wickedness of the people
during the time of Noah which led to God's flooding the whole earth, and by the
building of the Tower of Babel which was motivated by the people's search for
fame.
This continuity of sins shows that people do not know how to use their different
gifts bestowed by God on them such as their intellect, conscience, freewill,
passions (emotional elements, and many others. There seems to be no way of
stopping this continuity and spread of sin among people. (This continuity of sin will
be technically called by the Church as original sin which means that we or people
inherited this weakness (kahinaan) of the person person, which is prone to commit
sin or the tendency to commit sin. We did not inherit the personal sin of "Adam and
Eve" or our fore parents but the human weakness of being prone to commit sin.)
With this seemingly unstoppable situation, God saw the need to directly intervene
in the history of mankind to restore His creation to its original state, if not, at least
to bring them to the same end as He conceived before their creation. Theologically,
this is generally called salvation.
Week 2
What caused God to go for a mission and what was this mission all about?
The Original State of Creation
All of us, even the elementary pupils are very familiar with the creation story in the
Bible. After God created everything, it was all very good. (Genesis 1:31). Many
would use the word “paradise" in describing the situation of the creatures in the
beginning. This means that there was goodness, love, order, tranquility, joy and all
the good elements that can be used to describe such a state.
The 12 Tribes of Israel
1. Reuben
2. Simeon
3. Ephraim*
4. Judah
5. Dan
6. Naphtali
For the human persons, God even created them in His own image and likeness
which means that we are like God or we mirror God in most of our traits as human
beings. He even entrusted His creation to the human person by making him/her
the steward since He gifted him/her with intellect, conscience and free will. With
this wonderful creation, God expected that everything would flow according to its
order and would come to an end which is the perfection of all. This was the plan
and will of God as greatly implied in the creation story. With this, the mission of
everything including the human person is to continue God's creation until its
perfection.
7. Gad
8. Asher
9. Issachar
10. Zebulun
11. Manasseh*
12. Benjamin
Though God already started saving the human persons immediately after they
committed sin (Adam and Eve) by giving them a chance to recover from their
failure, the continuity of sin in the next generations prompted God to really directly
intervene in the history of mankind to save them from this continuous virus called
sin. This started with the calling of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his
twelve sons. This is the foundation of the so-called chosen people of God, the
Israelites.
The Disruption of the Order of Creation (Sin): The Cause of God’s Mission
In the creation story, it was also shown how the plan and will of God was disrupted.
Despite the very good experience in “paradise" and the human person's being
gifted with intellect and conscience, the plan of God was disrupted due to the
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The Church as the Continuation/Renewal of the Old Testament’s People of
God
With what happened to the Israelites as discussed above, God through Jesus
Christ has to renew or reform His people so that His plan of making them the
instrument to spread salvation will be fulfilled through this new group of people.
Jesus as fully Human and Divine (God) will gradually discerned and fully
understood this Mission. As there were twelve (12) foundations of the chosen
people of God, Jesus started the renewal movement or re-formation of these
people of God by also calling the twelve (12) Apostles as the foundation of this
new group of people of God with Him (Jesus) as the main corner
stone/foundation/founder. Little by little, Jesus would teach them and let them
understand the kind of mission that they will be carrying out after Jesus will leave
them.
To guide His people as they grow into a community and eventually as a nation,
God called special persons and anointed them to do their role in leading the
Israelites. These persons were called “anointed” ones which is called “mashiah".
These were the prophets to function as His speakers, the priest to facilitate their
worship, and the kings to lead or serve His people. So, the plan of God for His
people was to make them the instruments to spread salvation for all as they
continuously grow as a big nation. This was the implication of the words of God to
Abraham when he said that “all the nations will be blessed through you”...
Genesis.........)
The Imminent Incarnation of God
The same with what happened with the first plan of God for the whole creation, the
Israelites did not become the people as God planned them to be. They were hard
headed people and also fell in the same temptations which were done by our fore
parents These was shown by their making of the golden calf in the desert, the
temptations which overcome their kings which led to the division of the kingdom of
Israel, their social injustices or abuses against their co-Israelites, the poor, the
slaves, women and strangers. Despite the coming of the many prophets like Amos,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others who strongly warned them for their
unfaithfulness to God and social injustices against the vulnerable ones, they did
not heed and insisted on their wrong judgements and mis-interpretations of the
words of God.
As expected, Jesus was rejected by the Israelites as the Messiah because of their
insistence on their views and misconceptions on the plan of God. Jesus always
met oppositions from the Jewish/Israelites religious leaders especially in the way
Jesus was carrying out His mission. Jesus ended up being crucified by the Roman
soldiers (since Israel was under the power of the Romans at that time) because of
the accusations and pressure from the Jewish/Israelites religious leaders.
The Apostles and the other disciples were all shocked with what happened to
Jesus since they could not understand that such can happen with the Son of God.
They were all scattered and some went back to their usual work. The event which
caused them to gather and reflect on what could be their mission was the
resurrection. With the resurrection event and the many appearances of Jesus to
them, they slowly understood what was the mission laid for them. Jesus’ final
appearance to them was their commissioning to go out and make disciples of all
the nation (Matthew 28:19-20). “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age.”
This led to their exile in Babylon around 586 B.C. God rescued them from the
Babylonian exile through Cyrus the king of Persia and allowed them to go back to
Israel and rebuild their nation. Despite the lessons they learned from their very
difficult life during their slavery in Babylon, they still insist on how they interpret the
words of God which led to their being divided into many religious groups instead
of becoming united as one people of God. Their groups were Sadducees, Scribes,
Pharisees, Essenes, and the Zealots. Although generally, they share the same
faith in their God YHWH, they had some differences in their way of living or carrying
out their identity as the chosen people of God.
In their dealings with the people of other nations, instead of sharing their faith in
YHWH to them, they became self-righteous and exclusive, avoiding people of
other nations and believing that they are the only chosen people of God, thus, the
only ones who will be saved.
Despite Jesus's many appearances to them and their commissioning to go and
preach the good news to all the nations, the apostles did not have the courage and
were hiding due to the fear of the Jewish authorities. They kept themselves in
closed doors until the Holy Spirit came down on them and empowered them to go
out and do the mission. This coming down of the Holy Spirit happened on the feast
of the Jews called Pentecost. This is why most would associate the Pentecost with
the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and their disciples. This was the time
when the Apostles came out and started to do the mission Jesus entrusted to them.
They were strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This was the beginning or some would
call the birth of the Church.
With the failure of the Israelites to understand the plan of God for them and for the
whole of creation, God saw the need for Himself to come down and be the one to
start and implement His plan for the salvation of all creation. This will be fulfilled by
His Incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Week 3
acclaimed Him as "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of
His glory!“.
Jesus: The Sacrament of God
The word “Sacrament" can be understood as a channel, representative or in the
context of the teachings of the Catholic Church, a visible symbol of the reality of
God. This is its great implication when we refer to Jesus as the Sacrament of God.
Jesus is the personification of God. God becoming a human person is a mystery
but it is a need for the sake of our salvation. Therefore, the nature of Jesus is that
He is both a God and a human person. Are there Biblical passages for us to justify
this teaching of the Catholic Church?
For the nature of Jesus being a human person, the Bible would often call Him the
Son of God like during His baptism, and many other instances. He also called God
“abba” which implies a very deep intimate relationship.
The discussions above really have pointed to us that it is really God who is in the
person of Jesus is the one doing the mission He intended for the well- being of all.
This is why Jesus Christ is Himself both the mediator and the fullness of God's
revelation. (CC 65, CFC 70)
Jesus and The Father are One
The divine nature (Jesus as God) is one of the most debated issues among the
Jews and even to some Christians as of this day. The Jews/Israelites had been
waiting for a Messiah whom they expect as a God and the highest Kings who would
wipe out all their enemies and establish His kingdom on earth with the Israelites
as His people. Many of them expected this with Jesus in the early stages of Jesus's
life. When Jesus started to question how they interpreted their scriptures and the
way they implemented it, they rejected Jesus and began to accuse Him as a
blasphemous one who is claiming to be the son of God. Aside from this, the
difficulty of understanding Jesus being both divine (God) and human is also making
it un-acceptable to some that Jesus is really the personification of God.
Jesus and The Kingdom
As we've pointed out in our past discussions, the mission of God after people
committed sin is to restore back creation to its original state which was characterize
by order, love, joy, tranquility and the many other good elements. Coupled with the
Israelites' experience of slavery in Egypt, their exile in Babylon, and the imminent
coming of the ruling of the Roman empire as a result of their unfaithfulness and
social injustices towards their neighbors, the hope for the coming of God to save
His people from all these oppressions was really strong. They really expected the
coming of the messiah to restore order to His creation and His people. However,
this Jewish's concept of a messiah is too limited since it was only seen from the
point of view of their socio-political situations during their time. Their view of a
messiah was in the form of a military person and salvation or liberation will only be
limited to the Israelites. They could not understand that as God is the creator of all,
the salvation or liberation or well-being that God intended is also for all. What is
this salvation all about which God is pursuing for all His creatures?
Even among the Apostles, their silence about this issue also broke down when
they asked Jesus to show them the Father Whom He always said that it was His
(Father) will whom He is doing. Philip, one of them asked Jesus, "Lord, show us
the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you,
and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father;
and how do you say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me?" (John 14:8-10). Jesus also said, "He that has
seen me has seen the Father; ... I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John
14:910). “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
This salvation is not only in the form of liberation from one's political enemies but
it is a liberation from all the oppressions which can manipulate or even ruin the life
of a human person or a community or society. Based from the socio-political
situation during His time, Jesus used the term “Kingdom" of God in place of the
word “salvation". So, the term “salvation" is sometimes interchanged by some with
the word "liberation” and with Jesus' word, is called Kingdom”. Our next question
is, what are the things that oppresses the human person/people which we should
be freed/liberated from? There are many starting with our personal life or
experiences and extending it to our social life, our relationship with nature and
many others.
These are some of the Biblical passages which strongly point to the nature of Jesus
being a divine/God. This strongly tells us that Jesus is really the personification of
God who made an initiative to come down among us for the sake of the salvation
of all. This is a mystery which a limited human mind could not fully understand
without God's grace/aid. There are also other passages which reminds us of this
nature of Jesus. In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul said in Jesus Christ “the
whole fullness of God dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
These are sickness, or virus like the Covid19 which is paralyzing even the whole
world, one's bad attitude, addiction to drugs, being temperamental, being
kleptomania, and others. On the social aspect, the oppressive one's are abuse of
power by people in authority, going for fame at the expense of the effort or life of
others, implementing the law above the well-being of people, even physical abuse
Another way to explain this nature of Jesus is to look at His traits like His being
called the "the Holy One of God" (John 6:69). This also points to His divinity since
God is also a very Holy Being as being described in Isaiah 6:3, when the angels
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by the mighty or rich against the weak like sexual abuse, giving poor salary to
workers, even some parents pressuring their children to pursue a course which
may not be in line with their talents and skills. Others are of course obvious like
killing because of grudges, money, which also includes abortion, stealing like in
the form of graft and corruption, and many others.
(civil law) or religion (religious laws) should always be for the well-being of people
and not the other way around.
This was His point when He said that man is not made for the sabbath but the
sabbath is made for man (Mark 2:27). Huwag mong pahirapan o patayin ang tao
dahil sa batas, ang batas ay ginawa para sa kabutihan ng tao. So, we need to
question our government and even our school and churches if they might be doing
these mis-implementation of rules and regulations which can make our lives
miserable. Since the people were also hard up in understanding the point of Jesus
especially in explaining the Kingdom / reign of God, Jesus had to use many
symbolic ways like analogy, allegory, sayings, parables and many others. Most
often, Jesus would use parables (imaginative story) related to people's situations
for them to understand the kingdom that He is working out. The third way of Jesus
moving people to conversion was the table-fellowship.
These are the realities which can make the life of a person miserable or can even
ruin one's or society's life. In one word, most if not all of these falls into the category
of what we call sin. So, these are the realities which we should be freed from. This
is why we often hear preachers saying that we should be freed from the slavery of
sin, and freedom from all these is called salvation and when we are freed then we
restored our so-called well-being. This is where we can see the totality of the
meaning of the word salvation or well-being or liberation. What shall we experience
on the other way around when we achieved this salvation or well-being or
liberation?
As we all know, table fellowship is one very effective way of gaining friendship or
closing the gap among people. We always see table-fellowship (having meal with
others) during even small dating up to many several big occasions. In most, if not
all occasions, there is always a meal where people will face or have a time to be
in fellowship with others. Most often, these is where people meet and gained new
friends, making relationship close or closer, and establishing harmony in a
community. So, Jesus was also using this method (table fellowship) to gain people
and a chance for them to undergo change or conversion. One good example of
this was when Jesus entered the house of the tax collector Zacchaeus who
immediately got converted (changed) just by the presence of Jesus. (Luke 19:110). So, these were the three ways on how Jesus carried out His ministry to work
for the Kingdom during his time based on His context.
Of course, when we are free from all the bad realties which can control or even
destroy our lives, there will be an experience of love, justice, truth, joy, freedom,
peace and other good indicators of the total well-being of people. These are the
ones that will reign in our lives, in our community and our whole society. This is
why the Kingdom is difficult to be imagined as a place but as a situation where we
can experience all these good qualities of existence. This is why the Kingdom of
God is most often described as the reign of God. (hindi yung ulan ng Diyos (joke
lang) pero yung pamamahala ng Diyos) where all these good qualities of existence
will also rule our lives. So, these are the states in the Kingdom of God. These are
the things that one can experience in the presence of God or in the active reign of
God. It is in this context where we should understand the ways on how Jesus
carried His ministry to promote the Kingdom of God.
After describing the state in the Kingdom of God and the ways on how Jesus
worked for its fulfillment, what are its other essential characteristics?
Jesus’ Ways (Ministry) of Promoting the Kingdom
Based on the socio-economic and political situation during His time, (the ones
being discussed above) there were three basic ways on how Jesus carried out His
mission of promoting the Kingdom. These are healing, preaching, and table
fellowship. As pointed out above, sickness whether physical or emotional or what
so ever is one of those which can cripple or paralyze the life of a person. It can
even make one suffer for his/her whole life if this is not cured. This is why we have
heard many stories about Jesus healing the sick, and doing exorcism to free
people from sickness and from the possessions of evil spirits. Jesus had to perform
such out of compassion for the people. In His preaching ministry, Jesus always
asked people for conversion (change of view, attitudes). He attacked the political
and even the religious leaders for their mismanagement of people resulting from
their misinterpretation and mis implementation of the laws (even religious laws)
which resulted to the oppressions of people. Jesus always emphasized that politics
Some Characteristics of the Kingdom of God/Salvation:
The Kingdom of God is Good News
This are the words or terms that we often hear from many preachers during homily
and this is also the words that is being used as titles of the four books written about
Jesus (Gospel). The translation of the word Gospel (from the Greek word euaggelion, which is being pronounced as eu-angelion and translated in Latin as
Evangelion) is Good news-tidings. (eu means good and aggelion means tidings or
news). But What is this good news all about? Connecting it with our discussions
above, the Good News simply refers to the Coming of Jesus to give us the
Kingdom of God or Salvation or Total Well-being. The wellbeing of the totality of
the human person, good bf the body, mind, and spirit.
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The kingdom of God is a “fullness of life" or "life to the full”. “Jesus said I have
come that they may have life ... and to the full.” (John 10:10). So, the good news
is not the words or books but the total-well being or fullness of life that Jesus is
giving us. As discussed above, it is a life with no sickness, problems, political and
social oppressions and many others that makes the life of people miserable.
elements of the kingdom of God like joy, peace, love, truth and many others are
already being given to us or being experienced in this life.
While we can experience all the elements of a total-well being in this life, why do
we still say that it is also a future? This is simply because they are not yet fully
stable. They just seem to come and go in our lives. There are still many people
who do not live these gifts of the Kingdom by following their own visions in life
which are often motivated by human limited views and desires. In short, we can
say that the Kingdom of God on earth is not yet perfected. When its perfection will
come, that will also be our full experience of the Kingdom. So, at present the
Church/preachers is still working for it. This was Jesus' vision for the end of all,
which is the perfection of all, and the salvation of all. This is how other theologians
view the "end" of the "world".
The Kingdom is a Gift and a Mission
Gift is not something that we worked for and not something that we earned. It is
something that is freely given, given out of love. This is the same with the Kingdom
of God. It is primarily a gift from God. Just like our lives/ life love, peace, our health
and many others are gifts of God to us, we only have to live them or apply them in
our lives and sustain them. These are freely given to us by God and we will just
live them in our lives with God's grace. Since it is a free gift from God, our mission
is just to live and sustain them. It is in this aspect where people or we are failing.
That is why Jesus had to come to illustrate to us how we should live them and to
be able to do this mission, like Jesus, we always need to be connected with God
or else we will again be governed by our selfish desires and motives.
The Kingdom is Inclusive/Offered to all
Contrary to the view of the Israelites that they are the only chosen people of God,
and so, they are the only ones who will be saved, Salvation or the Kingdom of God
is inclusive or offered to all. It is offered to all kinds of people regardless of who
and what we are. Remember when God called Abraham, God said, “all the
people/families of the earth will find blessing through you". (Genesis 12:3). John
also said “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. (3:16).
So, these Biblical texts are clearly contradictory to the claims of the Jews and even
some sects/religions at present that they are the only ones who will be saved. This
claim is also making God choosy or selective or being "narrow minded".
Salvation/The Kingdom is offered to all. This is why Jesus was dealing with all
kinds of people even among sinners like the tax collectors, prostitutes, the wicked
shepherds and the likes. Jesus never practiced exclusivism in terms of classes in
society or racism if ever. He was always inclusive in His approaches to people.
The Kingdom is both Present and Future
You might have heard many people and even some preachers saying that
Salvation or the Kingdom will only be experienced after our life on earth, but in the
teachings of Jesus, the Kingdom is also an experience of well-being in this life, this
was clearly shown in His healing ministry. This was reflected in Jesus' reading the
texts of the prophet Isaiah in the Synagogue “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed
go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19). This was
Jesus' vision of the Kingdom as also prophesied by the prophet Isaiah. So, all the
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