Shalom
• Yahweh is a righteous God in the Old Testament so
He encourages His people as well to become just
and righteous in order to realize place or shalom
(over-all) harmony in His kingdom.
• Over-all realization of peace
• Fully experienced when Justice is fully realized
• Sedakah
o Right Relationship
o Cardinal virtues= Cardo, hinge
§ Fortitude, Temperance, and
o Way we relate to people
o Finding or trying to understand the person in
front of you
o Enables us to understand that justice can be
achieved If we understand the relationship
that we are in
o At the right time, at the right place and
circumstance
o It is manifested by Yahweh in His
relationship with Israel and with all things He
has mad, and by Israel, in her response of
obedience, reverence and faithfulness to
God.
§ Abraham: Patriarch of Israelites
• Covenant with God:
agreement
§ David
§ Moses
o Shabath: commemoration of passover
o The right relationship that God has
established demonstrates the way of justice
for human beings in dealing with one
another
o The word sedakah also corresponds to
Yaweh’s righteousness. Yahweh shows his
righteousness by keeping the covenant and
being the very source of righteousness
o Righteous: be saved
o Some terms related to Yahweh’s sedakah
are mercy, compassion and salvation
o Salvation for all people
o It is identical with deliverance and salvation,
describing it as associated to a norm
established by God
§ Norms
• Mishpath
o It depicts the forensic nature of justice
§ Analyzing the context
o It is justice based on the context of the
failure of the right relationship
§ How to live
o “If sedakah is right relationship, mishpath
tries to understand the failure”
o Manifestations of violations
o This is where Yahweh refuses injustice
because the right relationship is being
violated
o It is also a court of law wherein the accused
is punished and the victim is vindicated
§ Equitable to the acts done
§ The innocent should be vindicated
o Yahweh is a judge who punishes the wicked
one and rewards the righteous one. Thus,
He corrects wrongdoings in order to restore
right relationship
o Restoration of relationship: restoration of
justice
o The arbiter, The King-God, secures order in
the community by applying the mishpath. It
implies deliverance for those who are just
and innocent, but harsh for the wicked and
sinful
• Hesed
o It is often translated as loving kindness.
Other translations are steadfast love, mercy,
and compassion
o Jesus Incarnation of the love of God
§ Absolute expression of God’s love
for humanity
§ Ultimate expression of kindness,
mercy, and compassion to a
wretched humanity
o Hesed’s the expression of loving kindness
in the Kingdom of Yahweh.
§ Repent and Believe in the Gospel
o Yahweh’s hesed is manifested in His
everlasting love for Israel, remaining faithful
in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness, and
showing compassion and mercy for her sins
§ Hosea and his wife: God and
Israelites
o Yahweh is the epitome and example of
doing hesed to others
• Dikaiosune
o Jesus’ invitation to strive first for the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness is
basically relational
o Seeking Kingdom of God: Order
o Compassion, Peace,
o The Greek Word dikaiosune can be
rendered righteousness or justice
o The metaphor of the Kingdom of God
embodies the way God relates with people
and sheds light on the word dikaiosune as
the manner by which God wants to be—king
or as to be the divine will is followed
In the new testament, Jesus Christ proclaims that the
Kingdom of God is already at hand and the Beatitudes are the
ways to attain its fullness
• Beato= blessed; happy
God reigns where the divine will is done
• The Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2-4) are petitions for the
coming of God’s Kingdom and for all the doing of the
divine will
o One family: Commonality
o One faith in One God
• The right situation is doing justice to humankind for it
is the one willed by God.
Jesus’ initial proclamation of the justice of God—to bring good
news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and
announce the Lord’s year of mercy/favor (Luke 4: 18-19)
resonate the prophet Isaiah’s announcement of God giving—
justice to His people (Isaiah 60: 21, 61: 1-3
• Anawhim
o Widowed or Divorced
o Abandoned or Orphans
o Ostracised
• Jewish
o Kronos
o Kairos time: anytime
§ Celebrate thanksgiving
§ Express gratitude
o Shabath/Sabbath day:
§ Both the master and the slave are
equal
§ No master slave relationship
• Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God also
entails renewal and righteousness by witnessing the
Gospel
o Connects to witnessing the Gospel
o Witnessing Gospel: Witnessing Jesus
• The Beatitudes of Jesus are also considered as
expressions and ways to realize the right relationship
in the Kingdom of God
o 3 pillars
§ Torah: law
§ Nebiim: 12 prophets
§ Ketuvim: wisdom
o Beata, us, um
§ Blessed, Happiness from God
o Beatitudes
§ Means/ways, Norms/standards that
everyone must observe according
to the kingdom of God
• The Beatitudes of Jesus Christ according to Matthew
5: 3-10
o Blessed are you Poor, for yours is the
Kingdom of God
§ Kenosis: emptying
§ Poor in spirit
o Blessed are you Hungry, you shall be
satisfied
§ Hunger for holiness
§ Grace of the Holy Spirit
§ Every person who seeks the
kingdom of God already practice
holiness
• Lifelong Process
o Blessed are you that Weep, you shall laugh
§ Grief, despair
§ You will receive the reward from
God
o Blessed are those Mourn, they shall be
comforted
§ God will always be with you
o Blessed are the Meek, they shall inherit the
earth
§ Follow God’s will and humility to
recognized as God as the creature
and he as a creation
§ Ability to see beyond what this
world can offer not just satisfying
yourself
§ Always looking beyond: Beatific
mission
§ Not everything is given and
provided by human capacities
o Blessed are the Merciful, they shall obtain
mercy
§ All-knowing, all-just, and all-
merciful
§ Mercy as compassion and loving
kindness
o Blessed are Pure in heart, they shall see
God
§ Singularity of mission
• Serve God through serving
the people
§ Unselfish to share life without
thinking the cost and the price
o Blessed are the Peacemakers, they shall be
called children of God
§ Peace would also mean if you have
food on your table
§ Food security
§ Enough goods and resources
§ Material things for future
reservations
§ It is not only connected to war
§ Development and Progress
§ Not his own welfare
§ Serenity of the Spirit and Tranquility
• The Gospel shows in an abundance of texts that
Jesus was not indifferent or extraneous to the
problem of the dignity and rights of the human
person, nor to the needs of the weakest the neediest,
and the victims of injustice
o Process of Conversion
§ Realization
§ Asking Forgiveness/Repentance
§ Forgiveness of Sins
§ Reconciliation with God
§ Restoration of Justice/ Right
Relationship
§ Communion With God
§ Mary of Magdala, Parable of Good
Samaritans
• Helping each other
§ Social and Political Icon for Social
Justice
• Jesus’ concern was not limited to the forgiveness of
sins: At all times He stressed a real solidarity with the
poorest and lowliest (Matthew 11: 28-30). He cured
the sick, lepers and blind man, and many more. He
fed thousands of hungry people. He personally took
upon Himself the description of the Suffering Messiah
as foretold bu Isaiah
o Healer of the soul and physical ailments
o Jesus brought Integral Salvation
• The Church continues to struggle for the realization of
the Kingdom of God through ongoing renewal and
consistent propagation of the Gospel through words
and deeds
o Think good thoughts
o Say good words
o Do good deeds
• The social mission of the Church is rooted in the
ministry and mission of Jesus Christ to love and
serve by promoting and protecting the wellbeing of
the human persons
o Divine mandate: Baptism
• Just like the mission of Jesus Christ, the mission of
the Church to the society is threefold: Kingly, Priestly,
and Prophetic
o King: One’s commitment to serve others
through active participation to integral
human development
o Priest: Our capacity to pray for one another
and our ability to establish a deeper
 relationship with God through prayer and • As agent of Hope and Transformation
worship o Discipleship is the fundamental vocation in
§ We pray for one another which the Church’s mission and ministry find
o Prophet: Proclaiming peace founded on full meaning
truth, built according to justice, integrated § As disciples of Jesus, we are called
by charity and practiced in freedom into communion with both God and
§ teaches and refers to the people others and are sent in mission to
§ Evangelization proclaim the Good News of the
§ Charity: the fundamental Kingdom
expression o The Synod of Bishops spoke about the
• The Church and the Questions of ‘Just Relations’ relation between the Gospel and justice:—
among people Action on behalf of justice and participation
o The Church in the Philippines has been in the transformation of the world fully
known as the forerunner of truth and justice appear to us as a constitutive dimension of
among the Filipinos regardless of ethnicity the preaching of the Gospel
gender, and religion § The Church fulfils her mission of
o It is not to be identified with any political preaching the Gospel when it
partisan in order to become a credible teaches the demands of justice
herald of peace, justice and truth; and
proponent of understanding, mercy, deeds,
among people particularly the marginalized
• Respect vs Discrimination
o The Church in the Philippines is expected to
be the advocate of impartiality that shuns
any form of discrimination, conflict and
political animosity
§ The Church is also called to
promote respect for races,
genders, religions, and point of
views so that national unity and
healing are attainable
o Discrimination and neglect are obstacles to
the full development of persons and of
society as a whole
§ Everyone has a role and needs to
have the opportunity to improve
themselves so that they can take
their place in society and
participate fully in the community
they find themselves in
o Discrimination in the Philippines is unlike
compared to other countries
o This aspiration can only be achieved through
the recognition of people’s capacities,
potentials, and rights as well as in ensuring
that the structures in the communities and in
society as a whole support this goal
• Duc in Altum (“put out into the deep” Luke 5:4)
o Each Catholic is a missionary
o He/she is immersed and conscious of the
signs of the time making him/her capable of
bringing people closer to the Kingdom of
God
o Like the apostles of Jesus Christ, we are
also fishers of men by witnessing our faith
• As agent of Hope and Transformation
o John The Baptist: Herald of the Good News
o Christ commanded his disciples: “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”
(Matthew 28:19)
§ It is through baptism that members
of the Christian community—are
called to a holiness of life in the
world befitting disciples of Jesus