- In all that you read from this Church document and the instructor’s commentary, what did you find most helpful?
- What did you find most challenging? Why?
- What does it mean to you personally to believe that the Church is a “sacrament of salvation�
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June 17th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
In all that you have read from this Church document and the instructor’s commentary, what did you find most helpful?
I consider myself to be a beginner in the realm of answering theological questions, because even though I have been schooled about the Catholic faith, I don’t recall ever having to personally reflect on Church documents etc. I am glad that in my adulthood, I have discovered the necessity of reflection - thereby uncovering questions that concern a lack of knowledge about my faith in particular areas which most likely inevitably has caused my faith to “sway†in the past.
This document in particular has re-awakened and has also stressed the importance of it being a “necessity and responsibility as believers in Christ†to carry on the Mission of our Redeemer. The Mission has in fact only just begun. I have been able (as a result of reading this document) been able to ask myself how I am carrying out this Mission in my daily life. As a religious educator, I wonder about the importance of what I am doing, and how I will encourage children to carry on this mission today and everyday. I see a clear need for our children today to understand what a relationship with God truly is…How do we foster relationships amongst ourselves? This I believe is one of the root questions that we need to answer for ourselves so that all are able to get a better understanding of the greatness of knowing God as our best friend. If we foster this relationship, we will naturally see the good in it and will want to share this with others.
What did you find most challenging?
I get a little “lost†when in the document John Paul II discusses how a non-believer who lives a life in the image of Christ (in their daily actions, words and deeds) possesses a certain grace that will in turn help them in their Final Judgement. (I’m almost feeling like I am missing something here…and understanding of some sort…or I am looking at this incorrectly, since I am having trouble even formulating the words to express these thoughts.) I am not sure that I grasp how †the gift of overcoming our fallen nature to become fully alive in our true nature…Only Jesus through the Holy Spirit makes this possible. No other religion offers this gift.â€, if non-believers possess a special grace, how then could this be unique only to Christians (Actually at this moment in time, I am beginning to see the answers to my own questions - it’s funny how that happens)? If I can put this in simplest terms, I guess that this would mean that God is revealed to us by Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. I guess that before I was thinking of Catholics in isolation, but this is true for all Christians. Correct? If anyone would like to shed some light here…I think that these are the thoughts that perhaps a lot of lay people have…If non-Christians have that certain grace that also does not make them formal members of the Church, but allows them to enter heaven, then people may ask what is so special about Catholicism?…But I get it…the answer to that question is all about the gift of Jesus Christ!
What does it mean to you personally to believe that the Church is a “sacrament of salvation�A sacrament is a sign instituted by Christ to give us grace. We are the hands of Jesus Christ. We (the people) make up the Church. It is our job therefore to do the work that Jesus wants us to do - fulfill our missionary role. By knowing God, we are able to achieve salvation. We come to know God through Jesus Christ who revealed Our Father to us. Jesus is God manifested in human form. Jesus also died on the cross in order to save us from sin and told others about this special gift that we have received. His dying, made salvation possible again.
As the hands of Christ (the Church) we continue his work, thereby being a vehicle through which his mission may be achieved.
June 17th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Correct! “God is revealed to us by Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit”. This is true for all Christians, not just Catholics.
Non-believers (i.e., non-Christians, anyone who does not believe in Jesus as Savior) have the grace of God available to them, but they do not receive the grace unless they open themselves to it by believing in Jesus and following him and living according to his teachings. Non-believers will not get to heaven without Jesus. However, that being said, the question really is whether or not they rejected Jesus. Non-believers who never heard of Jesus but would have believed in him if they had the opportunity to will probably see him, at the moment of their death, and embrace him joyfully and follow him to heaven. This is covered thoroughly in my Catechism course on Life After Death. See catholicdr.com/e-Classroom/Catechism/index.html
March 20th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
1. The most helpful point was to share your faith with others. This does not mean shoving something down someone’s throat, but to show love to your neighbor who does not know Christ.
2. The most challenging point was to live a holy lifestyle. This can only be accomplished by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to live holy.
3. I believe that the Catholic church has an unique role in salvation. I do not know a lot about Catholic teaching on the sacrament of salvation. I personally believe that the Catholic church goes all the way back to the original 12 apostles so the Catholic faith has a lot to bring to the Christian faith.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:22 am
read what others have written, at the Good News Digital Classroom discussion forum.
1. In all that you read from this Church document and the instructor’s commentary, what did you find most helpful?
I thought it was helpful to get a better understanding on the truth that salvation is offered to ALL and the emphasis on the accountability being so individual. It reinforces how we CANNOT judge anyone AT ALL as we don’t know the depth of their circumstances.
2. What did you find most challenging? Why?
The term “urgency” is somewhat a startling reminder to our role as Christians.
I think the most challenging part was the emphasis on evangelizing nonbelievers. I think I have really been stuck in the idea that I can’t evangelize nonbelievers and do not even have opportunities to do so. Also, I am so overwhelmed at the number of Catholics that are not practicing their faith, as well as, the number of poorly catechized Catholics. I so desperately yearn for Catholics to want to know their faith I get lost in the “total” mission and am blinded by one component of the mission.
3. What does it mean to you personally to believe that the Church is a “sacrament of salvation”?
Part of me thinks as humans we are so inadequate. It only makes sense to have something “bigger” to guide and direct. It’s not realistic to think one person by themselves can bring their faith life to the same depth that the Church can. It’s like with anything else in life, one person can lift only so much, produce only so much, read only so much, etc. It’s the same in your faith life, alone you can only do so much. Why would you not see the Church as a sacrament of salvation?
October 21st, 2009 at 5:45 am
Eucharist
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and they are life” John 6:51-3, 63.
Jesus Christ is the “rock of our salvation” (Psalms 95:1). He alone is the foundation of the church, for “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11), “neither is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12). Closely associated with Jesus Christ is “the chief corner stone” in the foundation of the church are “the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20). In the same sense that Christ is the Rock, “a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God,” all who believe in Him, “as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:4, 5), “fitly framed together… an holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21). But Jesus is ever and only the “Rock” on which the entire structure rests, for without Him there would be no church at all. Faith in Him as the Son of God makes it possible for us also to become sons of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1, 2
REALLY IM APPRECIATED THIS COURSE WHICH HELP US TO BE A GOOD CHRISTIAN AND THE LOVE OF CHRIST IS ALWAYS HELPS US NO MATTER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES WE FACED.
THAT WE NEED TO EVANGELIZE THE UNBELIEVERS ND LET OUR LIFE MUDT A ISPIRATION WITH THEM.
THAT OUR FAITH MUST PUT INTO ACTIONS…………AMEN.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
1. In all that you read from this Church document and the instructor’s commentary, what did you find most helpful?
Most helpful for me is the reiteration and clarification for this generation of the need for EACH OF US to cooperate with the grace of salvation, and to BE MISSIONARIES OF THE GOSPEL. It is in passing on the Truth that we become ever more committed to it, as this missionary activity “renews the Church, revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive.” Even more clearly, the Holy Father states that “Faith is strengthened when it is given to others! It is in commitment to the Church’s universal mission that the new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support…” This eliminates all of our reservations about sharing what we do not know fully – as we are challenged by our lack of knowledge, we are impelled to learn more, to explain more clearly. This is our responsibility: “The Church, and every individual Christian within her, may not keep hidden or monopolize this newness and richness which has been received from God’s bounty in order to be communicated to all mankind. ‘
2. What did you find most challenging? Why?
Most challenging for me is the statement: “Mission is an issue of faith, an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ and His love for us.” The call to evangelize, the share the Good News, is always a challenge to how I am living my life and whether I am doing all in my power to communicate and bear witness to the Christian life. I “may not keep hidden or monopolize” the newness and richness of life in Christ; it is received in order to be communicated!
3. What does it mean to you personally to believe that the Church is a “sacrament of salvation”?
The Church is not only “A” sacrament of salvation; it is “THE” sacrament of salvation, the universal sacrament of salvation. Because Christ is the one mediator between God and man, and the Church is the instrument of distributing the grace won by Christ, the Church is NECESSARY for salvation. All are called to the unity of the Church, though they may be “Catholic faithful or others who believe in Christ or finally all people everywhere who by the grace of God are called to salvation.”
Christ is necessary for salvation, and He established the Church as necessary for salvation. There is ONE salvation, which is the gift of the Spirit. The Church is “the instrument of salvation for all…sent on a mission to the whole world.” So even those who have not explicitly entered the Catholic Church receive grace through “a mysterious relationship to the Church.” The grace comes from Christ. It is the result of His Sacrifice, which is perpetuated within the Church, in the Mass, daily.
To me, this heightens both the dignity and responsibility of my belonging to the Church. This is a gift of grace and I must correspond with this grace by living the fullness of the faith – I must “respond to this grace in thought, word and deed” – and bear witness to the faith I profess.
March 17th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
1. What helped me most is to know that Christ’s Mission of redeeming mankind is far from over and that we are called to continue with it to the end of age. (Mt.28:19-20). But for us to continue with this mission of Christ, we have to ask and allow the Spirit of God to impel us and to take charge of our lives. Since our Baptism and Confirmation God gave us his Spirit and made us priests who can take the missionary activity to the nations “ad gentes”.
2. The most challenging part of the document in lesson one is “the Roformation of the Church”. I have seen it here in Kenya that through condemnationand critism we lose more faithfuls to the rising Pentecostal Churches. Again if we allow evil and fail to critisize the wrongs, then we have a judgement awaiting us during the second coming of Christ (i.e. if we fail to separate the evil from good ; just like Jesus’ parable of separating sheep from goats judgement is on our side). We can renew the Church by evangelization , revitalizing the faith and teaching Christians what the true Christian ideals (identity) really is. We may lose many but those who remain through their actions and behaviours can still attract more fathful who are ready to share in the Body of Christ.
#. The Church is the “Sacrament of Salvation”-TRUE. This is because the Church as a sign and an instrument of Reconcilliation and Justice is the source and distributor of the Seven Sacraments of the Church. The all purpose of these Sacraments is to lead us towards eternal salvation and eternal life in the kingdom of God. Since Christ is the initiator(giver) of all the sacraments, and we are the receiver of the said sacraments, and Jesus himself started the Church then I conclude that salvation MUST start in the Church NOT at the roadside or in the streets by announcing through the mouth that you have been saved. I have heard people say, “I was saved on …….(dd/mm/yy) and since then I have been strong and avoided sin” I ask myself whether this person is sincere because to me salvation is a process whish ends once someone dies. Sin is with us every day and that is why Jesus instituted the sacrament of Reconcilliation. To us Catholics, Glory to God for giving us all the tools of Salvation.