MARASIGAN, Mary Remie Jane T.

1N Chapter 6 Summary: God the Father Almighty The central focus of our faith is God which is why it is very important how we perceive and picture Him. An accurate and personal understanding of God is needed today now more than ever. One thing that is prominent about Filipinos is our spontaneous relationship with God. It is taken for granted that God is the center of our community life and welfare as well as the family and individual interests. The Creed is presumed to be the unofficial source for clarifying who God is and how we are related to Him. The opening line of the Creed gives us three descriptions of God which are: God the Father, the Almighty, and the Creator of Heaven and Earth. The first point of these descriptions is to lift us out of ourselves and focus on God, and second is the proper identity if God described in these terms. The five basic reasons as to why God is our Father is that one: He is our creator, two: He is our Provider, three: He is our Redeemer, four; He sends His Spirit to share with us and lastly: God as our Father grounds our identity. The Old Testament presents us with the story of God forming His own people and establishing a special relationship with them. This is how God revealed Himself as the Father in the Scripture. The covenant was a call to a fuller life and salvation. The calling of Moses portrays as even more distinguished picture of God liberating His people. The subsequent history of the Israelites showed the same infidelities which we ourselves today experience in our daily relationship with God. Yet despite their stubborn unfaithfulness God remained faithful. Jesus taught that God is the Father of all. Proclaiming God as Father is to realize Gods place in our own self-identity. Our deepest self is to be His adopted son or daughter. God the Father is described as Almighty and His powers and universal, loving and a mystery. Chapter 7 Summary: Creator of Heaven and Earth The most spontaneous Filipino image of God is that of Creator. But today, the Filipino Catholics belief in God as Creator faces new challenges. Such difficulties indicate the urgent need for a better understanding of what the Creed means in proclaiming God as Creator and stressing His creative action, describing what He created as Heaven and Earth and in proposing this as not something proven by scientific reasons but as basic convictions in our personal act of faith as Christians. The Catholic doctrine of creation basically affirms that the world and everything in it comes from the loving power of God who is the ultimate Origin, Ruler and Goal, all created things and human history have a meaning purpose and destiny, and the life of every person is not a private possession but is created, sustained and guided now by the created saving will and love of Almighty God. Creation is the foundation of Gods saving plan and the beginning of Salvation History which culminates in Christ. Creation is the most fundamental image we can have of God. It sets apart from all created this as the only Uncreated Reality. At the same time, it relates to Him every person, place, thing as their Primary Cause for existing. Thus God is transcendent. Gods creative action is His commitment to us by His free creative activity. There are two descriptions of creation in Genesis, one, God appears as the sovereign Lord who establishes creation in a formal six-day pattern and the second presents God in a closer relationship with human beings. The difference between these biblical accounts and a scientific explanation of creation can be compared to two ways of describing a work of art. The how is the scientific method which focuses on the materials used and the why is the interpretation of the artists motivations and intentions. Both types of explanations are valid and necessary as they complement each other to give a fuller understanding.

Chapter 8 Summary: The Fall from Glory God is infinitely good and all His works are good yet our daily experiences manifests in us what is not good or our sinfulness. Our happiness in goodness and virtue is countered by the misery of evil and sin. The evil that we experience is not just our own individual sin but rather sinful social structures. These are habitual patterns of human interaction which are affected by sin. The most fundamental aspect of the Churchs doctrine of original sin is not so much universal sinfulness as universal salvation. The sinfulness is the tragic background needed to understand Gods loving plan to save all men. Only in the light of this revelation of Gods incredible love for us can we clearly see the reality of sin. The book of Genesis presents to us the story of the Fall of the Human race within Gods plan of creation and redemption. Genesis describes to us how man and woman turned away in disobedience and pride. In addition to the Genesis account of the Fall, St. Paul insists strong on the fact that All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God and that Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will come again to life. The Church teaches us that Adam including his descendants transgressed God and lost the holiness and justice and drew upon him death. The universal sinfulness is confirmed by the clear Gospel proclamation that all are redeemed by Christ. In describing original sin today, we speak of sin of the world which means the polluted atmosphere in which we are born second there is personal interior dimension of original sin, the heart of darkness within us which in all men proper to each and third, there is the ratification of original sin by our personal sinful thoughts, words and deeds. The reality of original sin is brought home to most Filipinos by two prominent aspects of our Catholic life, the first of which is the practice of infant baptism and the second is the devotion to Mary, the Immaculate Conception. The Catholic doctrine on original sin naturally goes with creation since it modifies the believers view of reality. Chapter 9 Summary: Promise is one of the key words of love. The Old Testament story of Gods love for His people centers on His promise of Salvation. With the covenant of Noah after the Flood, the book of Genesis shows Gods concern for all of mankind immediately after narrating the Fall and the spread of wickedness in the world. His love encompasses all nations in spite of their sinfulness and divisions. His plan is to gather them all in one holy people and He begins to actualize His plan with the call of Abraham and the threefold promise of land, descendants and a mission. The Old Testament is the living Word of God. It penetrates and divides soul, spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart. The promise of salvation is an important because salvation is not a thing, a material gift, but the living transforming presence of God within us. The Old Testament is the three-part presentation of the saving acts of God. First there is Torah, the historical books revealing God in the history of His Covenant and Promises to Israel. Second, the prophets Word of the Lord, promises deliverance from slavery and exile. Third, the writings of the sages, the poets and the visionaries offer inspired means for discerning Gods saving presence in daily life. The Old Testament serves with the New as the major source of all three dimensions of the Catholic Faith: doctrine, morals and worship. Each major parts of the Old Testaments contains all elements of all three dimensions of our Faith.

Chapter 10 Summary: The center of our Christian Faith is Jesus Christ. The chief aim of this Cathechism is to put Filipinos not only in touch but in communion with Jesus Christ because only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity. This chapter takes up the mission and identity of Jesus Christ. First, we must realize that to really know Jesus Christ is a life long task. This is the experience of all those who believe in him. Second, knowing Jesus is a living, changing, growing and deepening experience. Third, the Jesus we come to know is both the historical earthly Jesus and the Risen Christ of Faith. One cannot be separated from the other. Fourth, to know Jesus means being committed to following and becoming His disciple. And the fifth basic principle is that we come to know Jesus from what he did, his salvific mission. The irreplaceable starting point for knowing Jesus is the historical Jesus, because we proclaim in the Creed that the Son of God came down from heaven for us and for our salvation. The Father sent His Son as Savior of the world. It has four meanings: first, that God sent His Son as an offering for our sins; second, He came to reveal to us Gods love that we might have a life through Him; third, that he came to be our model for sanctity and fourth, so that we could share in his divine sonship. Christ is described as prophet, priest and king. In terms of Jesus as the prophet, His pattern of ministry that could be found in the Gospel of Mark is that the vocation of a biblical prophet often embraces three typical tasks, one is to proclaim the word of God with authority, two, to accompany this word with signs and wonders and three, to suffer a martyrs fate, death. Here, Jesus is a prophet equal to any of the prophets. Jesus Himself spoke of His own experiences in terms of a prophet in the rejection by His own people and compared His own fate as to a prophets death in Jerusalem. The teaching and preaching of Jesus centered on the Kingdom of God, a dynamic symbol of Gods presence among His people. His method of communicating His word about the Kingdom was by way of parables. Another characteristic is the peculiar use of Amen. The faith, which Jesus praised throughout His ministry, was not the self-righteous, legalistic faith of the Scribes and Pharisees, rather, for those who knew their helplessness, it was open acceptance of Gods free gift of loving, healing presence among them in Christ. More than being a prophet, He was proclaimed Savior/Redeemer even before His birth. Both Scripture and liturgy invite us to see Christ our Lord in the terms of his saving work. There are two insights as to what Christ saves us from. Christ saves us by touching the spiritual roots of all these evils experienced today and the salvation that Christ has won for us is not yet complete. It must be accepted, embraced and acted in the free lives of believers today.