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D-REED004 BSM21 THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND OUR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 2nd Sem ( 2022-2023 )
Module 2: The Christian Concept of Salvation and Our Social Mission
Lesson Proper: Our Social Mission
Immersive Reader
Our Social Mission
By: Henry L. Bernardo
It is no less mistaken to think that we may immerse ourselves in earthly activities as if these latter were utterly foreign to
religion, and religion were nothing more than the fulfillment of acts of worship and the observance of a few moral obligations. One of
the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and their day-to-day conduct. As far back as the
Old Testament the prophets vehemently denounced this scandal, and in the New Testament Christ himself even more forcibly
threatened it with severe punishment. Let there, then, be no such pernicious opposition between professional and social activity on the
one hand and religious life on the other. Christians who shirk their temporal duties shirk their duties towards his neighbor, neglect God
himself, and endanger their eternal salvation. (Gaudium et Spes, 43)
All Christians, their pastors included, are called to show concern for the building of a better world. (Evangelii Gaudium, 183 )
The mission of the Church is the proclamation of the Gospel to the whole of humanity. It is centered on Jesus Christ as the Good
News and His Kingdom (Mk. 1:14). It involves proclaiming Jesus Christ as the savior and liberator who offers salvation to all. This is
the essence of evangelization. In the document Evangelii Nuntiandi, (EN) Pope Paul VI describes evangelization as “bringing the Good
News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new . . .” (EN, 18).
Integral evangelization “comprises the proclamation of the Word, the communication of divine life through the Sacraments, and the
prophetic manifestations – through Christian praxis – that the Kingdom of God has already begun (Gomez, 1988, p. 26). St. John Paul
II describes three different situations for evangelization in his encyclical Redemptoris Mission (RM) namely, mission ad gentes (to the
nations), evangelization in Christian communities, and the new evangelization. Mission ad gentes is the evangelization in situations
where “Christ and his Gospel are not known”. Evangelization in Christian communities refers to the ongoing evangelization of those
who remain “fervent in faith”. New evangelization refers to a situation between the first two descriptions. It is evangelization in a
situation where “entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of
the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel.” New evangelization is therefore, a kind of re-evangelization of
people.
Evangelization includes a two-fold dimension: the religious dimension and the social dimension (Gomez, 1988). The religious
dimension is manifested specifically in religious activities such as the proclamation of the Word of God, Bible studies, celebration of
the sacraments, and other liturgical activities. The social (or socio-political) dimension is “concretized in the promotion of integral
human development and liberation” which includes the promotion of justice and charity. (Gomez, 1988) Actions for justice and
charity are considered “constitutive” (essential, obligatory) element of evangelization. This is highlighted in the Church document
“Justice in the World” (JW): “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a
constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel” (JW, 6).
Thus, evangelization or the proclamation of God’s Kingdom to the whole humanity includes not only religious activities but
necessarily includes socio-political activities that promote justice, charity, and peace. The Church further teaches that
This is evangelization: the proclamation, above all, of salvation from sin; the liberation from everything oppressive to man;
the development of man in all his dimensions, personal and communitarian; and ultimately, the renewal of society in all its
strata through the interplay of the Gospel truths and man’s concrete total life. This is our task. This is our mission. (PCPII,
166)
The mission of the Church to the society is, therefore, rooted in the second dimension (socio-political dimension) of
evangelization. It can be described as the mission to bring about social transformation. It is the Church’s mission to help make justice
and love present in our society for the redemption of the total person, that is, all the aspects of human life, be it socio-political,
economic, cultural or spiritual, from all forms of oppression. Just like the mission of Jesus, the Church's social mission is three-fold:
Kingly, Priestly, and Prophetic.
This gives the Church (i.e., all of us members of the Church through the leadership of our religious leaders) not only the duty to
be missionaries who would lead people to God and inspire them to have a deeper spiritual life but also the duty to become
instruments of justice, peace, and development here and now. Peace here is to be understood as not simply an absence of war but as
the presence and reign of truth, justice, charity, and freedom. Development, on the other hand, is integral human development, i.e.
encompassing all the strata of the human existence, be it social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental. Pope Francis further
states that
The Church’s pastors, taking into account the contributions of the different sciences, have the right to offer opinions on all
that affects people’s lives, since the task of evangelization implies and demands the integral promotion of each human being.
It is no longer possible to claim that religion should be restricted to the private sphere and that it exists only to prepare souls
for heaven . . . . Consequently, no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life,
without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer
an opinion on events affecting society. (Evangelii Gaudium, 182 – 183)
The document “Justice in the World” teaches that the Church has received from Christ her mission which entails the right and
duty to proclaim justice on the local, national and international level, and to denounce instances of injustice when the fundamental
rights of a person and his very salvation demands it (JW 18). The Church, therefore, has a specific mission to the society – a social
mission. This mission is a constitutive dimension of the Church and interrelated with the Church’s religious mission. Specifically,
this mission gives the Church the duty and authority to teach and interpret the message of the Gospel to the present context and
thereby guide and assist all people in the pursuit of their total salvation (or kaginahawahan, as many Filipino theologians prefer to use
the term kaginhawahan as the more appropriate translation of the term salvation instead of kaligtasan). Consequently, this
understanding of the mission of the Church necessitates an examination of the constantly evolving problems that confront modern
human beings both as individuals and as social groups.
Gaudium et Spes speaks of the Church’s mission and says that out of the religious mission of the Church comes a function, a
light and an energy which can serve to structure the human community according to the Divine Law (GS,42). Only by remaining
loyal to this mission can we say that we have continued the work begun by Christ. We cannot remain neutral or remain deaf to the
cry of those who are victims of oppressions and injustices. As Christians we should follow the example of Christ and stand for what is
true and just in all the aspects of human existence.
Just like Jesus Christ, we cannot be neutral. We need to make a choice. The
expression of our faith must always be preferential, never neutral. And this faith can only be expressed and must be expressed
through our spiritual, social, economic, political, and cultural involvement here and now.
Christian Understanding of Salvation
The social mission of the Church maybe further understood as emanating from an understanding of the salvation promised by
Jesus Christ as “salvation of the total person”. This Christian understanding of salvation as “salvation of the total person” is
something that we must properly understand.
'salvation of the total person''
Holistic salvation....... Save persons life
We have been taught that Christ became a human person and he dwelt among us to fulfill His mission to save us. But what
does “saving us” mean and how did He do that? How did He save us? The immediate and most common answer is: Jesus saved us
by dying on the cross. Is this a correct answer? Yes. But then again, it is only half correct. Although we may read in 1 John 4:10 that:
“And this is love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins”, to believe that Jesus
Christ became human just to “die for our sins” is missing the whole point of incarnation.
In the life of Jesus, we can see that he was totally involved in the life-situations of the people around him. He cured the sick, he
fed the hungry and he forgave sinners. He laughed with them and cried with them.
Mk. 1:15 – He said, this is the time of fulfillment; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the
Good News.
Mt. 11:4-5 – Jesus said to them in reply, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
Mk. 2: 5, 11-12 – When Jesus saw the faith of these people, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven . . .
Rise, take up your mat and go home." The man rose and, in the sight of all these people, he took up his mat and went out.
All of them were astonished and praised God saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
Lk 4:16-21 – When Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath
as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus then unrolled the scroll
and found the place where it is written: ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the
poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to give new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the Lord’s year
of mercy.’ Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and sat down, while the eyes of all in the synagogue
were fixed on him. Then he said to them, ‘Today these prophetic words come true even as you listen.
Mt. 5:23-24 – So, if you are about to offer your gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something
against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back
and offer your gift to God.
To say that Jesus’ act of saving us entails only dying on the cross is an incomplete concept of His saving act. In between his birth
and his death, Jesus lived a life evident of his promised salvation. Evidently, Jesus did not come only for spiritual reason. He did not
say to the sick: “I have come only for the salvation of your soul. Pray so that when you die, your soul will go to heaven.” Nor did he
say to the hungry people: “Pray, when you die, you’ll go to heaven.” Instead he cured and fed them. The whole life and works of
Jesus, therefore, is a concrete expression of his mission to save us. His mission is a mission for liberation and his ministry is a liberating
ministry. He liberates people from forms of evil and oppression. This salvation that He offers - real, present, and concrete - was the
same salvation experienced by the Israelites which led them to profess God as the God who saves them from oppressions.
Exodus 3: 7-8 - But the Lord said, I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of
complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore, I have come down to rescue them
from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and
honey.
Exodus 6: 6-7 – I am the Lord, I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and will deliver you from their
slavery. I will rescue you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and
you shall have me as your God. You will know that I, the Lord, am your God when I free you from the labor of the
Egyptians and bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Christ’s mission of bringing salvation to us does not, therefore, entail only his dying on the cross but also proclaiming that the
Kingdom or Reign of God is here and to bring good news to the poor, the beggars, the slum dwellers; to proclaim release to captives
and to victims of injustices; to bring health to the blind, deaf, dumb, sick; liberty to the oppressed and announcing the jubilee year of
the Lord (which is understood as restoration of land, cancellation of debts and release of slaves-cf. Lev. 25). This was the mission of
Christ – the salvation he brought to us.
But still, some people tend to believe that Jesus’ mission was purely religious and that he did not involve himself in economic,
political and socio-cultural matters. For better clarity, let us look into the Scripture and see how Jesus criticized the religious people of
his time (cf. Gonzales & Gutierrez, 1994 p. 3).
Jesus
1.
criticized cultic worship, divorced from love of God and neighbor (Mt. 5:23-24).
Jesus
2.
criticized a legalistic understanding of the relationship between God and man (Mk. 2:27; Mt. 21:13).
Jesus
3.
criticized the religious elite of his time – the pharisees, doctors of the law, and priests who used religion for their own
selfish reasons. The strongest words of Jesus were certainly directed to them (Mt. 23:23).
It is clear therefore, that Jesus’ mission is very much relevant and related to the economic, political, social, and cultural realities.
He is offering a salvation that is concrete and must be experienced by people “here and now”. It is not simply the kind of salvation
that promises freedom of the soul from sin so that a person will experience eternal life with God after death. That is just one aspect of
that salvation. Jesus said that he came “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to give new sight to the
blind; to free the oppressed and announce the Lord’s year of mercy” (Lk. 4:18). His promised salvation is not only spiritual but also
a concrete one. He wants us to experience God as a saving God in the same way that the Israelites concretely experienced Him when
He saved them from misery and oppression in the hand of the Pharaoh of Egypt. The Israelites professed that God saves because He
“saved” them from Egypt. He is a God who gives salvation to a hungry person, a deprived person, an oppressed person, an insecure
person, a suffering person. God therefore, saves the total person not only from sin but from all human evils and oppressions. The Old
Testament prophets taught this same idea of salvation when they preached God’s promise of salvation from war, oppression, hunger,
etc. for abundance, security, new heart, peace and new paradise (cf. Is. 2:2-5; Amos 9:11-15; Exequiel 36:22-32; Is. 11:5-9). For them
God offers a salvation that is concrete and can be experienced here and now. Likewise, Christ’s promised salvation entails
proclaiming that the Kingdom or Reign of God is here; bringing good news to the poor, the beggars, the slum dwellers; proclaiming
freedom to captives and to victims of injustices; bringing health to the blind, deaf, dumb, sick; liberty to oppressed and announcing
the jubilee year of the Lord (which is understood as restoration of land, cancellation of debts and release of slaves (cf. Lev. 25).
Hence, salvation should not be too spiritualized. It is not only a salvation of the soul from sin. It is the salvation of the living
person from oppressions. One should not remain on the understanding of salvation as “salvation of the soul from sin” only. This
“spiritualized” idea of salvation is the reason why some Christians tend to dichotomize their faith and their way of life. They are
devout Christians only during Sundays. They attend the Eucharistic celebration and receive the sacraments and that’s all. In their
day to day life one will not see a trace of being a Christian. As a result, religion becomes unrealistic and over-spiritualized. It involves
only the spiritual aspect of human life and excludes efforts to bring the Christian identity into all the strata of human life – economic,
social, political and even cultural. Thus, there are members of the Church who call themselves Christians and yet do not see the
relevance and connection of their faith to their economic, social, political, and cultural life.
This idea of salvation as concrete is the very foundation and reason for the existence of a body of teaching in the Church that
we now commonly call as social teaching of the Church or STC. It is founded on a concept of salvation that is more of Kaginhawahan
rather than Kaligtasan. The term kaginhawahan more accurately captures the idea of a salvation that brings life, peace, joy, health, the
Spirit of God in and among human beings, resurrection, glory, and a reborn and transformed cosmos.
In Evangelii Nuntiandi, Pope Paul VI speaks of this idea of salvation as “liberation from everything that oppresses human beings;
but specially liberation from sin and the evil one; in the joy of knowing God and being known by Him" (EN, 9). This liberation in the
framework of the Church’s specific mission cannot be contained in the simple and restricted dimension of economics, politics, social
or cultural life; it must envisage the whole person, in all aspects, right up to and including the openness to the absolute, even the
divine absolute (EN, 33).
The bishops of Latin America also speak of the same two elements of salvation: “The first is liberation from all forms of
bondage from personal and social sin, and from everything that tears apart the human individual and society . . . the second element
is liberation for progressive growth in being through communion with God and other human beings: this reaches its culmination in
the perfect communion of heaven, where God is all in all and weeping forever ceases” (Puebla Document 480-483).
It may be concluded that this kind of salvation or kaginhawahan is not only a salvation or liberation from something but also it is a
salvation for something new – a human life that is open to God and to fellow human beings as expressed in their relationship and in
their collaboration in bringing about the realization of the Kingdom of God here and now.
The Spirituality of Social Transformation
The social mission of the Church to bring kaginhawahan to the society demands a life-long process of social transformation.
Decades of Church social action apostolate and social work by different organizations have helped improve our social condition but
still a great deal must be done.
The PCP II offers us suggestions on how to effectively respond to the demand for social transformation. It teaches that
The most basic and effective response . . . come [sic] only from the very depths of our being as disciples of the Lord, in our
attentiveness to the Holy Spirit whose movements are also to be discerned in the events and situations of our day, in our
following of Jesus, in our fidelity to his Gospel of Justice and Love and thus, in our spirituality (PCP II, 262).
The PCP II suggests a way of life, a spirituality which may be labeled as "spirituality of social transformation" as the means
towards attaining the kind of community that we envision.
Spirituality may be understood as the inspiration within a person to live a particular way of life based on his beliefs or religious
conviction. It may also refer to a person's religious or ethical values that serve as the foundation for his actions and decisions.
Christian spirituality, on the other hand is defined by the CBCP as the "call to all the members of the Christian community to live and
think, to make judgments and always discern in relation to God, in the light of the Gospel, and the teaching of the Church." In other
words, it is an expression of our fidelity to Jesus' Gospel of Justice and Love. It demands a "radical living of what we preach, a
witnessing to the radical demands of the Gospel" (PCP II, 282). PCP II (275-282) further describes Christian spirituality as a following
of "Jesus-in-mission" or journeying in the Spirit of Jesus. This kind of spirituality as it is being lived out by the Filipinos may be
labeled as Filipino Christian spirituality.
Social transformation, on the other hand, may be described as the effort to bring harmony or kaayusan (PCPII) in our society. It is
a process that seeks to heal and liberate the society from its social problems and injustices and transform it into a more humane
society.
Hence, Christian spirituality of social transformation is a life-long task of responding to the challenge of Jesus' Gospel of Justice
and Love by committing oneself to the mission of adjusting the social order to the "radical demands" of the Christian faith.
Elements of Spirituality of Social Transformation
PCP II (278-282) enumerates the following major elements of the spirituality of social transformation:
1. Enduring and intimate commitment to Jesus
Commitment to Jesus entails following his example of commitment to love not only those who love us but even our enemies. An
important characteristic of this love is its preference for the poor and marginalized and the recognition of Jesus' presence among them.
2. Seeking of the Kingdom of God
Spirituality of social transformation is characterized by continuous effort to make justice present and eliminate the different forms
of oppression that hinder the realization of the Kingdom of God in the society.
3. Sharing the Good News joy
Jesus' Gospel is good news of hope that brings contentment and joy to those who believe. It gives us the assurance that in the end,
goodness will prevail over evil. It gives us the joy in the realization that Jesus, the "God-with-us" remains with us in the midst of
sadness and joy, laughter and tears, victories and defeats.
4. Heeding God's Word
To live the spirituality of social transformation is to discern and follow the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures, in the teaching
of the Church and in the experience of the faithful gathered together as a Church.
External Manifestation of Spirituality of Social Transformation
Christian spirituality of social transformation (SST) may also be called "Christian discipleship". Living out our Christian faith
in our society should necessarily entail a social dimension that will eventually transform the society into a just and humane society.
The Gospel has a social dimension. It is impossible to be a real disciple of Christ while being at the same time unmindful of the
injustices and oppressions happening in the society or worse while being the cause of injustices and oppressions. Externally,
spirituality of social transformation is manifested in two ways:
1. Social Service
Social service is commonly understood as helping someone in need. It is an action rooted in charity and compassion with the
intention of alleviating the misfortune and suffering of another person. The corporal works of mercy comprises the list of actions for
social service though it is not limited to it. Thus, social service is a response to the effects of a social problem.
2. Social Action
Social action includes efforts to correct the social structures and help solve the problems that perpetuate the need for social
service. Some call it social justice, action for justice or Christian social praxis. It begins with an analysis of and reflection on the
human experience through the lens of the Gospel and proceeds to finding and providing general suggestions to solve the different
social problems. Unlike social service that responds to the effects of the problem, social action responds to the cause of the social
problem.