IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY COLLEGE – PARAÑAQUE

Forming the character….Reforming the will….Transforming the heart!

PAASCU LEVEL II

Basic Education Department

CHRISTIAN LIVING 8
School Year 2020 – 2021

LESSON 4.1
The Ministerial Priesthood of Christ and His Saving Presence

Appreciation is recognizing the valuable presence of other people and giving them the respect
and kindness due to them.
I. Objectives
✓ To compare and contrast God's presence to His people
✓ To discuss Jesus' saving presence
✓ To make Jesus present to others
✓ To describe the sacraments particularly the Eucharist revealing the Lord's
presence

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8
II. Key Understandings
o God never abandons His children whom He loves.
o Presence is a gift, a precious one to be shared to others.

The presence of the person we love is one of those we keep and long for. It is saddening when
he/she leaves and says goodbye. We feel the emptiness within, the lack that only that
person we know can fill in. In their absence, we sometimes come to realize their importance in
our lives. While with us, we are to love them and cherish the moments spent with them.

III. Listening Reflectively

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 24:36-48

While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you." But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing
a ghost. Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your
hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost
does not have flesh and bones as you can see, I have." And as he said this, he showed them
his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked
them, “Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and
ate in front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was
still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and
psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he
said to them, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the
 third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to
all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

The Gospel of the Lord... Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ!

Fear is a reaction to impending threat and things unfamiliar. The disciples of

Jesus got terrified thinking that He was a ghost. But how could they not know His
coming when He Himself told them that He would rise after three days? Their reaction
is a manifestation of their lack of faith. They were with Christ before death hearing
Him but not listening. They were with Jesus physically but not fully with mind, heart,
and spirit. Jesus reminded them "You are witnesses of these things.".

IV. Knowing Lovingly

What does Divine presence mean?

Divine presence is God being present with and in us.
In the Old Testament, when Moses asked God of His name, He said "I am who am"
(Exodus 3:14). God is a God who is. He is not only present but is Presence. In the New
Testament, Jesus is the Immanuel which means "God with us” (Matthew 1:28).
At this point of time, we may be puzzled understanding His presence for we do not
actually see, touch, and hear Him. "All the day long it is said to me: where is your God?"
(Psalm 42:4). "Where is He?" is the question of many of us. But this question is looking more
for a scientific answer rather than a faithful response.
From here, we have to understand that His presence is different from our being present.
Our presence is usually physical. It means to be bodily in front of a person whom the other
can see, hear, and touch. Inside the classroom, if the student is not seen by the teacher,
he/she is absent (not present). This is our practical understanding of presence. God is
Presence and definitely always present to us. We cannot see, hear, and touch Him because
our senses are limited to physical things. God has no physicality. He is by nature Pure Spirit.
But it does not mean that because we do not see, hear, and touch Him, He is not present.
We know God is present for there was never been a time He is not present. He is Presence.
However, this knowledge of His presence goes beyond the scientific way rather than the
personal one. Personal knowledge happens to people with intimate and close relationship-
may it be of parent and child, husband and wife, best friends, and others. There is a
mysterious connection that grows between them that goes beyond time and space. Take for
example the case of a mother who suddenly feels fear for her child who is in distress or danger
in other place. She does not see him/her but she knows. Though this does not always
happen, it is real. Though it cannot be proven, it is true. Indeed, it does not always have to
have proof in order to claim it true and real. For what is true and real, remains even in the
absence of proof.
God being the Presence is the most real and true. He is the one whom we can actually
experience without question. But we have to believe first and build a personal loving
relationship with Him. For from the very start, He has given us the gift to experience His
presence. He breathes on us His Life-giving Spirit. God blew into his nostrils the breath of
life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). He is in us. There is no point in our
lives when He was away from us. Having that gift, what we need is to nurture our relationship
and be united with Him in love. When Jesus said, "No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son" (Matthew 11:27), He was referring not to the
amount of knowledge He has of the Father but to the depth of their relationship in the Spirit
of Love. Jesus knows the Father because they have deep relationship. In the same way, if we
have deep relationship with God, we know and will experience His loving presence.
Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
Are we hearing His voice?

How did God make Himself present to the people in the Scriptures?
God has made His presence experienced through people, things, and events, through
His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit whom the Father and Son sent, guiding and
empowering the Church.
God spoke with our forefathers--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses.
He spoke with Abraham of His plan about Sodom and Gomorrah. "So the Lord said:
The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go
down to see whether or not their actions are as bad as the cry against them that comes to
me.I mean to find out...Then Abraham drew near and said: "Will you really sweep away the
righteous with the wicked?" (Genesis 18:20-21, 23)
He spoke with Moses, "Then God spoke to Moses, and said to him: I am the Lord. As
God the Almighty-I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but by my name, Lord, I did not
make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land
of Canaan, the land in which they were residing as aliens" (Exodus 6:2-4).
God spoke also to the prophets who served as His messengers. He spoke to Samuel,
"The Lord said to Samuel: How long will you grieve for Saul, whom I have rejected as king of
Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem,
for from among his sons I have decided on a king” (1 Samuel 16:1).
Jeremiah delivered God's message to the people: “Thus said the Lord: Go buy a potter’s
earthenware flask. Take along some of the elders of the people and some of the priests, and
go out toward the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; there proclaim
the words which I will speak to you: You shall say, “listen to the word of the Lord, kings of
Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am
going to bring such evil upon this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring.” (Jeremiah
19:1-3).
Through these chosen ones, the people felt His loving presence. They knew that God is
always there for them by giving them the leaders and messengers they needed to remain
faithful to the covenant.
Moreover, in the desert, after the Israelites complained of nothing to eat, the Lord said
to Moses, will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and
gather enough for that day" (Exodus 16:4). And when they had nothing to drink, the Lord
said to Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also
take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand
before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out
of it, that the people may drink" (Exodus 17:4-6). God provided them of their physical needs.
God did not also let His people down. In one occasion, He instructed Gideon in the
choice of good soldiers. "The Lord said to Gideon: There are still too many soldiers. Lead them
down to the water and I will test them for you there. If I tell you that a certain man is to go
with you, he must go with you. But no one is to go if I tell you, he must not" (Judges 7:4).
 Unfortunately, the people of God continued to break their covenant with Him. In spite
of His presence made felt, they became unfaithful to Him. He loved them so much that He
humbled Himself and became flesh. "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth"
(John 1:14). He made Himself visible to them. He took on human form. "Who, though he was
in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he
emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in
appearance" (Philippians 2:6-7). His Son, Jesus, did not only represent, but also made Him
present in history with the Holy Spirit. What He taught, did, said, and showed is what God
is and wills. And all that happened to Him reveals God's love for all. He said: "I and my Father
are one" (John 10:30). These words of Jesus can mean that first, He is one with God in the
sense of being equal to Him. Jesus is not merely a messenger or prophet of God, but of equal
power with God. Second, the Father sent Him: "one whom the Father has consecrated and
sent into the world" (John 10:36). He claimed His preexistence in the Father's presence. And
on the day before Jesus ascended to heaven, He said to His disciples "If you know me, then
you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him" (v7). Philip
did not get what Jesus meant and still asked, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be
enough for us" (v8). Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still
do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show
us the Father'? (V9) (John 14:7-9).
Even before Jesus died, He had promised and told His disciples of the Holy Spirit. "The
Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name-he will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit would teach and remind
them of everything He told them. Before He ascended to heaven, He said to them "you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth"(Acts 1:8). This does
not mean that the Holy Spirit was not present to them during the years with Jesus. He had
been present with them only that by this time, He was empowering them to continue the joint
mission of the Father and the Son. In John 14:16-17, Jesus told the disciples, "And I will ask
the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth,
which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because
it remains with you, and will be in you." So the Spirit of God was with the disciples, but He
(the Spirit) was going to be with them and in them in a new way.

How does Jesus' presence become saving?

Jesus' presence becomes salvific for He revealed the liberating truth, gave examples,
and redeemed us ultimately in His Paschal Mystery.
Jesus revealed to us the truth about the Kingdom of God. Though not yet fulfilled as
He taught with the use of parables, He made it known through His words and deeds. The
Second Plenary Council describes "The Kingdom of God is the Good News preached to the
poor, the gift of God, our "Abba," (Father) who is sensitive to the needs and sufferings of every
human being. It is the seed quietly sown, the offer of pardon to sinners, the banquet of table
---fellowship and joyful communion with the Lord and our fellow men and women, the gift of
salvation, eternal life. But it is a gift we must seek, demanding vigilance and active use of
talents-a task and project as well as a gift” (PCP II 39-47).
Jesus revealed to us God as our Father. Jesus said "Pray to your Father in secret. And
your Father who sees in secret will repay you... This is how you are to pray: Our Father in
heaven..." (Matthew 6:6,9). In the parable of the prodigal son, He showed us that this Father
is loving and compassionate: "While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him,
and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him” (Luke
15:20). This, John preached in his letter "God is love" (1 John 4:16).
Jesus revealed also our identity. We are no more slaves but friends of Jesus. "I have
called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." Through
Him in the Spirit, we become adopted children of God, "For you did not receive a spirit of
slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry,
"Abba, Father!” The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and
if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so
that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:15-17).
By Jesus' presence in history, we have heard, we have seen, and we have come to the
knowledge of truth. These truths free us from illusions, deceptions, and meaninglessness. As
Jesus said, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).
Jesus said and did what the Father had told Him to give us an example to follow. In
His childhood years, He was obedient and respectful to His earthly parents. During His public
ministry, He showed love and mercy to the poor, needy, sick, sinner, oppressed, and outcast.
He forgave the sinners. He healed the sick. He ate with the sinners and believed in their inner
goodness. He hated hypocrites. He washed the feet of the disciples. He prayed. This He all
did that we may have a perfect example hor to live as God’s children. “I have given you a
model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (John 13:15). By His
example, He said "The Son of Man has come not to be served but to serve – to give his life in
ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). And He called each one to atone that we may be made worthy
through His grace. "I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and
dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12:24
All sin is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4) and its consequence is eternal death. As
all has been deprived of His glory due to sin, God sacrificed Himself on our behalf that we
may be saved from the infinite and eternal punishment (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:2).
Jesus laid down His life (John 15:13), and took the punishment that we deserve. He
accomplished our redemption on the cross, exchanging our sin for His perfect righteousness
(2 Corinthians 5:21). And He was then resurrected, showing that His death was indeed
sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).
"...we are saved by Jesus' perfect self-giving love for his Father and for us, a love lived
out to the death." In John's Gospel Jesus declares: "The Father loves me for this: that I lay
down my life to take it up again. No one takes it from me: I lay it down freely" (John 10:17-
18). Paul quotes an early liturgical hymn: "He humbled himself, obediently accepting even
death, death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:8); (CFC 558).

How can we grow more fully as Christian in God's presence?

We can grow more fully as Christian in God's presence by having a discerning heart to
every moment of our lives.
Prophet Isaiah says, "You see many things but do not observe; ears open, but do not
hear" (Isaiah 42:20).
Indeed, many people get so busy and rush on so many things that they do fall short
being mindful and aware of each moment than what they want to accomplish. They
sometimes live in the future, to what will be rather than the present. For example, a person
might attend to a birthday party, to a wake, or to a fantastic concern. But instead of
 experiencing God's loving presence by reflecting on those, he/she may just add them to his/
her pile of experiences.
Every day is a day to be with the Lord. What we need is a discerning heart, an attitude
to believe and have conviction that God is in us and with us. God is not someone who hides
and presents Himself when we call Him. He is the Immanuel, "God is with us" When we pray
and call Him, it is not to make Him present rather than to make ourselves aware of His loving
presence.
This is one of the promises of the Lord that we hold close. "I am with you always"
(Matthew 28:20). He will never leave nor abandon us. There is nothing we can do that will
turn Him away, or give up on us. He never walks away from us. He's not more present when
we pray, nor when we are in church. He is faithfully with us at all times. The only reason we
know that He dwells within us is because God's inerrant Word says so. It has been revealed
to us in God's Word.
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because
of righteousness.
Romans 8:10

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
Galatians 2:20

... and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded
in love.
Ephesians 3:17

... to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.
Colossians. 1:27

Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves. Do you not
realize that Jesus Christ is in you? -unless, of course, you fail the test.
2 Corinthians 13:5

"Remain in me, as I remain in you."

John 15:4

You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is
greater than the one who is in the world.
1 John 4:4

V. Integrating Holistically

Jesus Christ, becoming visibly present to us, taught us the truth, gave us perfect
example, and saved us from eternal punishment. He laid down His life that all might be
saved. At the cross, He offered Himself as a living sacrifice. This we pray in the Mass
particularly during Easter season. In the 5th Easter preface, we join the priest praying:
Father, we praise you with greater joy than ever in this Easter Season
When Christ became our Paschal Sacrifice.
 As He offered His body on the Cross,
His perfect sacrifice fulfilled all others.
As He gave himself into your hands for our salvation.
He showed Himself to be the priest, the altar, and the lamb of sacrifice.

Today, it is our mission to make God visibly present to other people. We are called
to be Sacraments of God. We are to make Him present, felt, and experienced so that
through us, others may come to the knowledge of Him and of His love.
The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it,
confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess
Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the
persecutions which the Church never lacks" (CCC 1816). "Our duty toward God is to
believe in him and to bear witness to him" (CCC 2087).

References
Aviles, A. F., & Frando, E. A. (2016). Signs of the Times: Jesus, God's Prophet, Priest, and Servant King. Quezon City: Rex
Book Store, Inc.