Sub-Topic: Collaboration Effort to Uplift the Dignity of People From Poverty Due to Unjust Social Structures (Dec.1-7)
Introduction
The Church’s social teaching, then, is based on the intrinsic dignity of every human person (PCP II 299). Moreover, we are called to recognize a human solidarity that takes on specifically Christian dimensions; “awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of all in Christ –the children in the Son” –and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit”. (SRS 40; cf, PCP II 295, 313)
Christian moral life is simply the call to become loving persons in the fullness of life-with-others-in-community before God. The key to moral life, then, is the human person, considered in the light of both reason and faith. All human rights, personal and social, all moral duties and responsibilities, all virtues and moral character –all depend directly on the answers we give to the questions; who am I as a person in community? As a disciple of Jesus Christ, in his Church in the words of PCP II: “How to live as Filipino Christians in our situation of shadows?”(cf. PCP II 35, CFC 638)
Word of God
“”When you give luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours incase they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. Bu when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:7-14)
Values
Humility Equality Hospitality Justice
Doctrine
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” (CCC 355) Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.” (CCC 357)
The Second Commandment also reminds us on taking advantage of the poor. The economic or social exploitation of the poor for profit harms the dignity and natural rights of the victim. It is a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance.
Moral
” if there is no friendship with the poor and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.” -Gustavo Gutierrez The humility of incarnation speaks on how God loves us so much through his son our lord Jesus Christ. Thus, through Jesus Christ himself we learned that the oppressed, the marginalized and the poor must be uplifted. Besides, the salvation that Jesus Christ proclaimed is liberation from all forms of oppression (Evangelii Nuntiandi), that the poor must be cared for (Rerum Novarum) and every human being has the universal, inviolable, inalienable rights and dignity (Pacem in Terris) that must be valued. Thus, to liberate the poor from all forms of oppression is to uphold their rights and dignity because man must be prioritize over capital (Laborem Ecercens) and not just an object for development and progression, but because human beings was, is, and will always be created through the image and likeness of God.
Worship
“I, the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides Me…you shall not bow down before them or worship them.” (Dt. 5:6-7,9)
Faith Response
Affirmation: All of us are created in the image and likeness of God and therefore possess equal human dignity.
Commitment: Not to choose places of honor, but places where we can be in solidarity with the poor and ordinary people.
Celebration: God of compassion, your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus, whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross: we hold before you those who are homeless, suffering from different injustices and cold especially in bitter weather. Draw near and comfort them in spirit and bless those who work to provide them with shelter, food and friendship. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Sources:
Poverty: sign of our times, Aloysius Schwartz, U.S.A. Pauline Fathers and Brothers, 1970.
Compendium of the Catholic Church , Libreria Edittrice Vaticana 00120 Citta del Vaticano, 2005.
Gaudete Et Exsultate, Pope Francis, Word and Life Publicatons, Manila, 2018
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Libreria Edittrice Vaticana U.S.A., 1997.
