St. Joseph College-Olongapo, Inc.

Senior High School Department

S.Y 2017-2018

Christian Living
“Performance Task”

Submitted to:
Ms. Marife Tab

Submitted by:
Jewerly Mae B. Boholst

12- St. John Nuemann

 I. Freedom and Conscience
A. Freedom
Meaning:
 Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or
restraint.
 The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement orunder physical restraint:
 Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.

 The power to determine action without restraint.

 Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery

 Exemption from the presence of anything specified freedom from fear.

 The absence of or release from ties, obligations,

Freedom in the Old Testament:

Freedom was primarily a freedom from slavery. There was provision in the Law for the freedom
of Israelite slaves every seven years in the sabbatical year (Exodus 21:2ff). The previous
“owner” was to be generous in giving gifts that would enable these freed ones to set up a new
life (Deuteronomy 15:12ff).In a larger sense, freedom was precarious for Israelites. God by his
grace delivered them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 7:8). They repeatedly
needed to be delivered from foreign oppression by the Judges.Time and again, a generation came
along that didn’t know and follow the Lord and a foreign conqueror would make their lives
difficult until the Lord raised up a deliverer. When God’s people were disobedient, they often
lost their freedom.

The Assyrian conquest of the kingdom (II Kings 17:7-23) and the Babylonian captivity of the
southern kingdom (II Kings 21:10-15; 22:19f; 23:25ff) are illustrations of this pattern. In later
Judaism, freedom movements arose to gain political freedom in order to allow religious freedom
(among other things). The Maccabeans and the Zealots are only a couple illustrations of such
movements.

This freedom was often referenced in the prophets. Jesus’s inaugural sermon echoed this theme
(Luke 4: 18-19). Isaiah 61:1 said: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,Because the Lord has
anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted;He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To
proclaim liberty to the captives,and freedom to the prisoners. This proclamation of “liberty” and
“freedom” was a mark of the Messiah’s message.

Freedom in New Testament:

The predominant note of the New Testament is not political freedom but freedom in Christ from
bondage to sin, the Law, Satan, the old man, and death.

It is not that political freedom or freedom from slavery was unimportant, but that there was an
even deeper bondage that had to be overcome first of all. With the Greeks, the problem was with
the mind, but in the New Testament, the problem was the bondage of the will.

The problem is that even if you were politically free, you could still be in bondage. Human will
is not at this present time neutral, but it is captivated by sin. Humans by nature “love the
darkness” and “hate the light” (John 3: 19:20).

The Truth Shall Make You Free,

Jesus speaks about this freedom in the classic verses in John 8:31-32:

Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you abide in my words,
then you are truly disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free.’

The scribes and Pharisees immediately respond to this statement of Jesus by arguing that they are
Abraham’s offspring and have never been slaves, so how can Jesus say that “You shall become
free?”

Jesus responds that anyone who sins becomes a slave of sin, but “If therefore the Son shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Jesus’ death and resurrection graciously applied to our lives liberate us from bondage to sin so
that we can live a redirected life. Calvin points out that although we have freedom, it may not be
perfect:

Freedom has its degrees according to the measure of their faith; and therefore Paul, though
clearly made free, still groans and longs after perfect freedom (Romans 7:24).

It is the truth that will make us free.

 We are, in our natural sinful state, captive to lies.

  We don’t see reality as it is.

 We deny what we know deep down is true, “exchanging the truth of God for a lie”
(Romans 1:25).

 We live in a state of unreality. If truth is that which corresponds to reality, then throwing
off lies and deception frees us to see reality for what it is. We see our own slavery to sin
and can receive forgiveness and new power to live in accordance with reality. We can be
what we were created to be. Truth leads to freedom.

In Christ, we are freed from this bondage in order to say “Thy will be done.” We are headed
down a road away from God and have been turned around 180 degrees by God’s grace so that we
are now pursuing our Lord rather than running away from him.

Threats to Freedom:

Free people are not having an easy time in the world today nor are we likely to in the decades
ahead ... We exist as a free people because we remain strong, because we have had the courage
to defend liberty and deter those who would deny it, and because while we seek friendly relations
with other nations -- we remain prepared against threats to our liberty.

The greatest threat to freedom in the years ahead will almost certainly come from the Soviet
Union, a nation which does not share our dedication to personal liberty and the God-given
rights of man -- a nation which possesses substantial military power and has shown an
inclination to use that power to the detriment of the freedom of others (Donald Rumsfeld,
Secretary of Defense, at the Naval Academy graduation, June 2, 1976)

The history of the Soviet Union is appalling. The invasions of Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the
gulag archipelago, the repression of Catholics and Baptists, the seizure of eastern Europe, the
restrictions on Jewish emigration -- such horrors justify Rumsfeld’s distress with Russia. No
country in history, including Hitler’s Germany, has perpetrated so many horrors. But what about
the U.S.’s “dedication to personal liberty and the God-given rights of man”? Most Americans
believe our dedication to liberty is absolute. But the facts support another conclusion

Dimensions of Freedom:

"Freedom is a three-dimensional phenomenon. The first is the physical dimension: you can be
enslaved physically. And for thousands of years man has been sold in the marketplace just like
any other commodity. All the Negroes that came to America were purchased like a commodity.

"Slaves have existed all over the world. They were not given human rights; they were not really
accepted as human beings, they were subhuman. And they are still being treated as subhuman. In
India there are sudras, the untouchables. One-fourth of India is still living in slavery: these
people cannot be educated, these people cannot move into other professions than those decided
by the tradition five thousand years ago, and to think of them as human is impossible..
Even to touch them makes you impure: you have to take a bath immediately. Even if you don't
touch the man, but only his shadow then too you have to take a bath. "So there is physical
slavery and there is physical freedom that your body is not enchained, that it is not categorized as
lower than anybody else's, that there is an equality as far as the body is concerned. But even
today this is not true. "The woman's body is not considered equal to the man's body. She is not as
free as man is. In China for centuries the husband had the right to kill his wife without being
punished because the wife was his possession.
Just like you can destroy your chair or you can burn your house because it is your chair, it is your house,
it is your wife. In Chinese law there was no punishment for the husband if he killed his wife because she
was thought to be soulless; she was just a reproductive mechanism, a factory to produce children.
"Mohammedans marry four wives, which is absolutely ugly because nature keeps a balance in the world.
There are an equal number of men and women, and if one man marries four women, then what about the
other three men? They are going to become perverts, homosexuals, sodomists, and they will create AIDS
and all kinds of diseases.

B. Conscience
Meaning:
 The inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives,
impelling one toward right action.
 The complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or
thoughts of an individual
 An inhibiting sense of what is prudent

Misconception Of Conscience:  The statement of " I think, therefore I am" 

This is a misconception, as the conscience does not exist of it's own accord. 
It had to be created, and the Creator, is the I AM. 

Humans think , But in judgements that suit each individual within a community, that is only
beneficial to their own kind. 
This is error, as the environment is what is controlling the group. 
not the other way around. 

Humans are severely controlled by the environment they find themselves in, and affirm that they
are in control of who and what they are. 
But forget that God put them there with one sole purpose, and that is 
to Multiply and fill the earth with humans who love the Lord. 

Humans forget they will die, and spend a lifetime in this agonising 
facade called life, they will manipulate their environment and 
cast out all who challenge the status quo' so that the balance of power remains with a minority. 

The conscience is aware of only 2 things, 

1. The physical 
2. The spiritual 

If the physical is followed, then the spiritual is rejected. 

If the spiritual is followed, then the physical is rejected. 
There needs to be a balance of the 2. 

And only with Salvation, can the separated consciences work in unison, as the Lord intended. 
The Physical conscience, by the way is very much alive and living gratuiously 
But the Spiritual conscience is dead, until the Salvation of the Lord awakens it...till then, it is
very dead.

Types of Conscience:

 A true conscience speaks the truth; it tells what is truly right and truly wrong. It is a
genuine Echo of the voice of God.
 A false or erroneous conscience tells us that something really wrong is right, and
something that is really right is wrong. We may be to blame for this error or not; if we
are to blame, our conscience is said to be culpably erroneous; if we are not to blame, it is
said to be inculpable erroneous.
 If our conscience, whether it speaks the truth or not, speaks with assurance, without a
suspicion of error, and its voice carries conviction, we are said to have a certain
conscience.
 If our conscience has nothing definite to tell us about the goodness or badness of an
action, it is called a dubious or doubtful conscience. To doubt is to suspend judgement.
Hence a doubtful conscience is one that does not function.
Different Dimention of Conscience:
Conscience as capacity - also known as the antecedent conscience. This shows our general
hunger for the good—our capacity to recognise the good. Thus it is the state of our moral selves
before we confront a problem.
Conscience as process - also known as actual conscience. This is the actual process of moral
reasoning when confronted with a problem. It shows that conscience is a search for what is right
through accurate perception, a process of reflection, and analysis. This is achieved through the
following steps.
Gather relevant information - who is involved in the decision? who should be involved? what are
the relevant circumstances? Are there any options? What are its short-term consequences? Long
term?
Identify the moral choice to make - What are the actual issues involved?
Seek Counsel - Consult the "experts" or those who have gone through similar circumstances.
Likewise, one should look at scripture and tradition.
Reflect and Pray - Jesus himself reflected and prayed when he had to make big decisions. If
conscience is a sanctuary then if we truly want to meet God, it is through prayer that we find out
what His will is.
Evaluate alternatives - Using the information gathered, the consequences of each option are
weighed. Which is the most loving way?

Conscience as judgment - also known as command conscience. This follows the search when one
actually decides to act. It is a concrete judgment of what one must do in the situation. This makes
the decision my own. We must obey our conscience then above all other voices in order to be
true to myself. Our judgments thus help form (or deform) our antecedent conscience.
We are thus obliged to follow our conscience. If conscience is our search what is right, not
following your conscience is tantamout to choose to do wrong.
Our judgments are good as the ground it was built on. Good judgments assume a well-formed
antecedent conscience.
It always a fruit of hard labour. Judgments should not be haphazard, but the result of prayer and
discernment.
Forming Our Christian Conscience:
The Respect Life Committee of Saint Joseph Catholic Church would like to help our parishioners
and friends review Catholic Social Teaching on several topics of great concern. Each of us has a
responsibility to develop a well-formed conscience, which allows us to recognize and seek the
good and avoid evil.
We have summarized several sections from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on these
topics. The Guide was compiled for the Saint Joseph Catholic Church weekly bulletins prior to
the 2014 elections; what the Catechism teaches on these issues is important not just politically,
but in how we live our lives each day, so we are reprinting it here for your continuing reference,
guidance, and inspiration. Also, one of the best resources on the Web for living as a faithful
Catholic in public life is the Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship page by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.faithfulcitizenship.org
You can read documents and watch videos, in English and en español, that help us to understand
these difficult and challenging issues in ways that make sense and help us to live moral lives, in
seven key areas of Catholic Social Teaching
Most of the teachings of the Catechism in the Respect Life Ministry’s Guide are adapted from
Part Three: Life in Christ; Section Two: The Ten Commandments. Why is this important? “The
Ten Commandments belong to God’s revelation. At the same time they teach us the true
humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties, and therefore, indirectly, the
fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person.” (2070)

Each entry in the Catechism is supported by Scripture, papal and apostolic documents, or
interpretation by great Catholic philosophers. You can be confident that these teachings are
faithful to two-thousand years of sustained reflection on the humane, just, and merciful
revelation of God. After you read these teachings, it is important that we talk with our clergy, our
fellow parishioners, our family and friends, and experts in these social issues, as we develop a
fuller understanding of what it means to live our lives to great fulfillment with a well-formed
Christian conscience.

C. Relationtship between freedom and Conscience

Freedom of conscience is something we take for granted these days, but, though it has
always been at the heart of our Catholic tradition, the notion of freedom of conscience has had a
chequered history in the teaching and practice of the Church, as a brief overview will show.
In the Jubilee Year 2000 the late Pope John Paul II called the Church to an examination of
conscience and a ‘purification of memory’ because of past failures to live authentically as
followers of Christ. In his Apologies he listed among the mistakes made by the Church over the
preceding 1000 years the many violations of conscience and other rights of the human person
perpetrated in the name of the faith in religious wars, the courts of the Inquisition, the Crusades,
anti-Semitism and other expressions of grave intolerance. During that long period inadequate
notions of conscience, of human freedom and even of faith held sway among some, often
influential, members of the Church.
For four hundred years following the Council of Trent handbooks of moral instruction were used
in seminaries to prepare priests for the ministry, especially the ministry of the sacrament of
penance. They were practical manuals, with a pastoral orientation and only minimally
theological in presentation. It is interesting that typically the first and fundamental treatise was
devoted in these manuals to conscience. However, although this is a measure of the importance
accorded to it, as time went on the full meaning of freedom of conscience was lost and
conscience was given only a limited and restrictive role in the conduct of moral life. In some
quarters this was pushed to extremes.
 II. Sin and Forgiveness

A. Definition of Sin:
A definition of sin is doing what is wrong or not doing what is right according to God's rules (1
John 3:4). If God says "Do not lie" and you lie, then you have sinned. If God says "Do not steal"
and you steal, then you have sinned. According to God, sin separates you from Him .The Bible
says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about
God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature
- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him,
but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to
be wise, they became fools..." God has a moral law and has given every man a conscience. The
conscience acts to accuse or excuse us, compelling us to remain within the bounds of God's
moral standards of conduct.
Nevertheless, the conscience, much like a human muscle, though it remains strong if exercised, it
atrophies with disuse. At one point, while morality still exists, one no longer feels constrained by
it. After continually ignoring the urging of the conscience for a period of time, the conscience no
longer functions as it should.

B. Kinds Of Sin:
1 Sins of Attitude -include false pride, unjust anger, bitter envy, malicious hatred, and
that sort of thing. The legalist makes a picnic of confusing various normal and perfectly justified
feelings with these sins of attitude.
For example you might dislike somebody, or wish you were in someone else's shoes, or feel
indignation at something someone said, or want people to notice and compliment you on
something you've achieved. None of those attitudes are "sins". Of course such feelings
uncontrolled might develop into sins of attitude. But don't confuse those feelings with sins.
 2.Sins of Action -are simply things we might do to displease God, such as getting drunk,
committing adultery, stealing, blaspheming.
The legalist will stretch words like "drunkard" or "fornicator" beyond the sensible use of
language.
For example a man might touch a woman friend tenderly when he greets her, or a girl might
wear a dress that does not entirely cover her pretty legs. A man might have a glass of beer with
his mates, or say "Blast it!" when his tyre goes flat.
The legalist will link these acts with fornication, drunkeness, and blasphemy. But that is
unfounded.
The examples above are not "sins". They are normal behaviour. They may not be the best
behaviour, and one may prefer not to do them. One may not recommend or approve of such
things. They might conceivably even lead to sin if one were careless.
Furthermore, One might refrain from such behaviour so as not to set a misleading example to
weaker persons in one’s company, or so as not to offend people who have scruples about such
things.
But it is abhorrent to characterise such things as "sins" or matters for guilt. It is legalism to add
prohibitions of such things to God's law. It is not legalism, of course, but perfectly right and
often very sensible and necessary to make a prohibition for oneself.
3. Sins of Neglect -consist of failure to do things we know God has commanded us to do
(Jame s 4:17). Missing the Lord's Supper when you should have been there, or letting a needy
person go hungry whom you ought to have fed —that is the sort of thing we mean by "sins of
neglect".
The legalist will confuse such sins with the ordinary oversights, inadequacies, and choices that
are part of our everyday behaviour.
There will be days when we are too tired or preoccupied to pray. There will be moments when
we forget our manners. There will be days when we choose to prune our roses, not carry them to
the sick and sorrowful.
Omissions of that sort are not "sins". We must necessarily forgo a great many opportunities to do
good, if we are to lead a balanced and bearable life. God is happy and willing for you to do many
things, but God's will is not that you should do them all.

The legalist will labour amongst the things you leave undone, and find "sins of neglect" to spoil
your satisfaction in the good you chose to do. Isn't that stupid!
4. Sins of Intent - is simply a sin committed in wish but not in reality. For example the
adultery committed in a man's heart which Jesus described in Matthew 5:28. The man does not
commit adultery, but would, if he could. He is not guilty of adultery. But he is guilty of the
intention to commit it.
By distorting this principle, the legalist conjures some dark and terrible "sins".
Staying with our example, we all know that men, when they are not half asleep, or in a hurry, or
on their death bed, will occasionally feel, shall we say "charmed", by the voice, hair, eyes, legs,
smile, smell, or other attribute of a woman in proximity.
Here the legalist has the makings of a guilt trap. Simply lead a man to think that his normal and
harmless feeling is fornication in heart. Never mind that the poor devil never entertains the
slightest wish for even a brief flirtation, let alone an affair. Just convince him that his feeling is
lust, and gotcha!

C. Sacrament of Penance
The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic
Church, in which the faithful obtain absolution for the sins committed against God and
neighbour and are reconciled with the community of the Church. By this sacrament Christians
believe they are freed from sins committed after Baptism. The sacrament of Penance is
considered the normal way to be absolved from mortal sin, by which one would otherwise
condemn oneself to Hell.
As Scriptural basis for this sacrament, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "The words
bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from
communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome
back"
The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is also known as "Penance", "Reconciliation", and
"Confession".
The sacrament has four elements: three on the part of the penitent and one on the part of the
minister of the sacrament.

Catholics distinguish between two types of sin. Mortal sins are a "grave violation of God's law"
that "turns man away from God". Someone who is aware of having committed mortal sins must
repent of having done so and then confess them in order to benefit from the sacrament. Venial
sins, the kind that "does not set us in direct opposition to the will and friendship of God", can be
remitted by contrition and reception of other sacraments. but they too, "constituting a moral
disorder", "are rightly and usefully declared in confession".
Every sin involves "an unhealthy attachment to creatures", purification from which is called the
temporal punishment for .The satisfaction required of the penitent is not an essential part of the
sacrament, because the primary effect of remission of guilt and eternal punishment is obtained
without it; but it is an integral part, because it is required for obtaining the secondary effect of
this purification or remission of temporal punishment.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law states: "A priest alone is the minister of the sacrament of
penance." While in the English language, the term priest usually means someone received into
the second of the three Holy but not into the highest, that of bishop, the Latin text underlying this
statement uses the Latin term sacerdos, which comprises both bishops and, in the common
English sense, priests. To refer exclusively to priests in the more common English sense, Latin
uses the word presbyter. In order to be able to be absolved validly from sin, the priest must have
the faculty to do so granted to him either by canon law or by the competent Church authority.

III. Justice And Truth

A. Understanding Justice:
The word "justice" is on everyone's lips nowadays, and may signify almost anything. We hear
the cry "Peace and Justice!" from folk who would destroy existing societies with fire and sword.
Other folk fancy that perfect justice might readily be obtained by certain financial
rearrangements -- as if anything in this world ever could be perfected. One thinks of the
observation of William James: "So long as one poor cockroach suffers the pangs of unrequited
love, this world will not be a moral world." At the end of the twentieth century, the liberal
mentality demands justice for roaches, too.

B. Social Justice
Social justice is a concept of fair and just relations between the individual and society. This is
measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal
activity and social privileges.