chars of christian faith1

Our Christian FaithAng Ating Pananampalatayang Kristiyano

Saturday, August 3, 13

Faith in God•Bakit tayo may Faith kay God? -- Dahil si God mismo

ang nagturo sa atin sa pamamagitan ng Kanyang mga salita at gawa sa kasaysayan ng kanyang pagliligtas sa atin.

•Bakit nga ba kinailangan tayong iligtas? Iligtas saan? -- Review:•We were created to live with and for God for eternity. •We were not created to die.•Death is the result of sin. (Original Sin; Fall of Adam

and Eve, our first parents.)


Sin - Disobedience to God•Adam and Eve lived in purity and innocence.•They were tempted by the devil to seek knowledge and

greatness for themselves.•They disobeyed God and because of this, God banished

them from Eden.•Original Sin

•Sin that Adam committed•A consequence of this first sin, the hereditary stain

which we inherited from our first parents•Adam and Eve lost “sanctifying grace”•Sin separated man from God.


http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14004b.htm


http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01129a.htm

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01129a.htm



Salvation History


The Father’s Plan•Gal 4:4-6 But when the time had fully come, God sent

forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father!

•Incarnation of Jesus - pagkakatawang tao•Redemption - pagliligtas sa kasalanan at kamatayan•Adoption - we become sons and daughters of God

through the Sacrament of Baptism where we received the Holy Spirit.


The Father’s Plan•John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God.•2 He was in the beginning with God; •3 all things were made through Him, and without Him

was not anything made that was made. •4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. •5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness

has not overcome it.•Jesus, Second Person in the Trinity, Son of

God was with God, was God was THE WORD


The Father’s Plan• John 1:10-14 Jesus was born simply and in poor circumstances.

10He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not.

• Jesus was rejected by the Jews. 11 He came to His own home, and His own people received Him not.

• In Baptism we become children of God. 12 But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God; 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

• Incarnation of Jesus. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.


The Father’s Plan• Eph. 1:3-10 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

• The Baptized as predestined by God. 4 even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. 5 He destined us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,

• The Baptized are redeemed and forgiven. 6 to the praise of his glorious grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished upon us.

• Jesus, by His sacrifice, reunited us with God. 9 For He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.


Characteristics of Christian Faith(Mga Katangian ng Ating

Pananampalatayang Kristiyano)


Total and Absolute• Pangkalahatan at Ganap. • Psalm 146 tells us:

• We cannot put our total faith in people who are but creatures of God. 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.

• But we can and should put our total faith in an all powerful God. 5-6 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them

• We can put our faith in an eternal God. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.


Total and Absolute• Pangkalahatan at Ganap. • Jeremiah 17:5-8

• God condemns those who prefer human knowledge to the wisdom of God. 5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

• Futility of faith in human knowledge (unreliable). 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

• Fruitfulness of faith in God. (reliable) 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”


Total and Absolute• Therefore, on faith in God calls for total and absolute commitment.

CCC150• Kababawan (foolishness) ang ipagkatiwala ang ating sarili sa kakayanan

lamang ng mga tao at ang limitadong kaalaman ng mga tao.• Si God ay eternal (walang simula at walang katapusan). Siya ang dahilan

at may likha ng lahat. Kumpara sa tao na isa lamang likha ng Diyos. • Jesus - tunay na Diyos pero tunay na tao rin, ang pinakaperpektong

example ng total commitment to God na ipinakita Niya sa kanyang Passion, Death at Resurrection.


Trinitarian• We believe in a Triune God. - God the Father, God the Son, and God the

Holy Spirit.• Our Faith -- is our friendship with Jesus Christ, our friendship with God

the Father through His Son, and our friendship with their Holy Spirit.• Through Jesus, we have come to know the Father (Parable of the

Merciful Father, Parable of the Lost Sheep).• Through Jesus, we have come to know the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17)

16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

• Holy Spirit is in the Church. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, gives voice to the Church. It is the HS that directs our Church and that is why our religion is called “HOLY”.


Loving and Missionary• Our Faith is loving because God is love. 1 John 4:8 The one who

does not love does not know God, for God is love.• For Christians, loving God means loving our neighbor. This love

commands us to mission, to evangelize and bring to others the Good News. 1 Cor 9:16 For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

• Missionary Spirit, a test of a person’s true faith. - If we truly believe in Jesus, in the Kingdom of God, we should want to shout it to the world, and help others believe in Jesus and the Kingdom of God, too.

• When we have faith in God, it means we have the Spirit of God within us, the Holy Spirit.

• One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is spiritual joy. • When you are very happy, you cannot help but share your joy.


Informed and Communitarian• When we are informed, and so we believe. Means we know the

events of Jesus’ life, we know Jesus’ words and teachings and we accept that the Lord has “the words of eternal life”. John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

• Catholics, sacramentalized but not evangelized. • Why is our Church called Catholic when this word is not in the

Bible? Are all faiths equal?• Why do we Holy Communion? Why do we go to confession?• Does God know me? Does God love me?

• Communitarian: Holy Spirit is in Our Church. God teaches us through the Holy Scripture and the Church’s living tradition or Holy Tradition, handed to us from the Apostles through “Apostolic Succession”


True, but cannot be known completely• Tiyak, ngunit nakatago (Certain, but obscure). We live in an age

where people think that if it cannot be proven through scientific evidence, it cannot be true. Where science can only observe and find out some things that are true, science is very limited. Science cannot explain God because God is much bigger than science.

• Miracles - hindi maipaliwanag ng Science; miraculous healings, Jesus raised the dead to life, made the blind see.

• Odor of Sanctity - saints said to emit a pleasant fragrance• Love, Peace, Hope, Joy - These can not be explained or produced

by science. It cannot be observed by science. What we can observe is the effects of love, peace, hope and joy, but these are not objects that we can touch. (abstract)

• Faith can only be founded on firm ground/unshakeable truth. Word of God; Holy Tradition that tells us how God intended us to worship and love Him.


Free, but we must follow• Tayo ay may kalayaan (free will). God gave us free will not to use it

to commit sins but so that we may love and serve Him of our own will.

• There can be no love without free will.• In giving us free will, God gave us the ability to choose the opposite

of good, to choose evil, to disobey. Yes we can! (sabi nga ni Obama)• But what are the results of disobeying God?

• Jesus’ teaching about final judgement (separating the sheep from the goats) Matthew 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”


An Act, but also a Process• Faith as an Act. When we learn about God, when we get to know

Jesus, God draws us to Him and the Holy Spirit inspires us to follow. We then make the decision to believe in the Triune God.

• Faith as a Process. It is not one single act or decision. Faith is a life-long commitment. God wants us to persevere in following God’s commandments to love, honor and obey Him, to love our neighbor because we love God ---up to the end of our life. (Pagtitiyaga sa pagsunod sa mga utos ng Diyos, pagmamahal sa kapwa, paggawa ng mabuti, etc).


A Gift, yet our Doing• Faith as God’s Gift to us. Do you have a birthmark or balat? We

were born with our birthmark. It is part of us just like our hand is a part of us, or our nose is a part of us. Faith is like that. God gave it to us in Baptism when we are “born to God”/born to God’s family which is the Church. We have only to “wake it up.”

• “Wake Up” Call - The alarm clock wakes us up from sleep. When we are born, our faith is sleeping. We learn about God, we read Holy Scripture and we pray. Then through our experiences, God awakens us from our sleep and activates the faith that we already have in our heart. We encounter God.

• Faith as Our Doing. We cannot just wait for God to give us faith. God wants us to want faith, to want Him. God wants us to do things in order to find faith-- example, reading the Bible, reflecting on the life of Jesus, going to Mass and praying. God rewards our faith-seeking behavior.


Personal, but Ecclesial• Faith is personal. We received the gift of Faith during our Baptism. It

is a personal gift from God. • Faith is Ecclesial. Ecclesial comes from the Latin word “Ecclesia”

which means church. We live our faith as part of the Church. • Our Family Unit. We are also part of our domestic Church-- our

Family. It is through our family that we first learn about God. • Catechesis. It is through Catholic teaching that we are able to

learn more about our faith in God. Knowing Him, we learn to love Him.

• Holy Scripture. Listening to the Word of God during Mass and hearing the sermons of the priest helps us to know God more.

• Sacraments. It is through the Church that we receive the sacraments. God gives us graces through the sacraments. We need this grace in order to grow in holiness and love for God.


Personal, but Ecclesial, cont.• Our Parish Community. When we participate in parish

activities, we are able to help each other grow in holiness. Our faith is strengthened by other people’s experiences and realizations. In turn, we also strengthen others by sharing our faith with them. Our parish is like our big family.


chars of christian faith1

Spiritual