ALVERO, Maria Mirella M.

1F
CHAPTER 6
The Apostles Creed affirms
God as the Almighty Father, Creator
of all things, with the divine Sonmade-man
Jesus
Christ,
and
the Holy Spirit, thus presenting the
Holy Trinity. By proclaiming belief in
God, the Father Almighty, the
Creed lifts us out of ourselves and
centers us on the one God who is
love, and not on our meager selves.
God enters our lives in our
experiencing: our own inner search
for meaning and happiness; the
beauty and goodness of nature and
our family, friends and neighbors
around us; our Filipino history and
culture; and especially, Gods public
Revelation in salvation history as
recorded in the Old and New
Testaments, and climaxed in Jesus
Christ.
God revealed Himself through
the Salvation History. First, He
made a Covenant with the Israelites
through Moses, so Yahweh revealed
Himself as the One God who is Truth
and
Love.
Second, through his
personal knowledge and intimacy,
Jesus, the only begotten Son, taught
us that God is our Father. Moreover,
the Father and Christ are present to

us by sending their Spirit into our

hearts.
There is also the Holy Spirit
who completes the Blessed Trinity,
which started with our Baptism in the
name of Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit; continues in every Christian
prayer begun with the Sign of the
Cross, marked by our Glory be. . .
and is strengthened in our Eucharist
or thanksgiving to the Father,
through memory of His Sons
Passion, Death and Resurrection,
made present through the power of
the Holy Spirit.
By calling God as Father, it
tells us that God is personal, close to
us, not an impersonal force, distant
and far off. He cares for us even with
motherly love. God the Father
therefore is not a patriarchal or
paternalistic
authoritarian
God.
Rather, He is a God who welcomes
and celebrates the return of every
son or daughter who was dead and
has come back to life, who was lost
and is found.
By calling Him Almighty we
affirm that God is all-powerful, first
as Creator, able to do all things and
Ruler of
all
things,
secondly
as Love shown in Christs Cross and
Resurrection, subjecting all other
powers to the ultimate sustaining
presence of His love.

We might be confused God

allows so much evil and suffering.
This is because, much evil in the
world, especially physical evil,
results
from
the
kind
of limited universe in which we live.
Much
courage,
generosity,
forgiveness, hope and sacrifice arise
from the worlds sufferings and evils.
Also, Christs Paschal Mystery
shows how God draws out of the
depths of evil the victory of the Risen
Christ and His transforming love.
CHAPTER 7
To create means to put and
keep something in existence. God is
Creator because He puts and
sustains everything in existence. He
is
the maker and final
goal of
everything that exists, all things
visible and invisible. The truth of
creation means that Gods loving
creativity builds into each of us
a meaning, purpose
and destiny,
which nothing can take away from
us.
God continues to create and
to sustain in existence the whole
world and everything in it. At every
moment of their existence, God is
the ultimate origin and source,
unifying center, and final goal of all
things. God freely creates out of
sheer love, to share His own divine
life and goodness. Creation is the
first step in Gods plan of salvation

for all through Jesus Christ. He

creates through a simple act of His
divine Word, the Son, in the power of
the Holy Spirit. Each divine Person in
the Blessed Trinity is active in the
one divine creative act.
Being created means all things
are equal in being totally dependent
on God for their very existence, and
therefore not to be feared or
worshipped, but respected for their
own God-given, built-in stability, truth
and goodness, with their own laws
and values.
God is personally present and
sustaining each of us now in our
daily lives. Moreover He calls each
of us to personal responsibility in
solidarity with others for the common
good of all and of the earth
itself. Scripture affirms that Gods
creation includes pure spirits, angels,
who serve God as instruments of His
Divine Providence for us. Angels
played an active role in the Old
Testament, in the life of Jesus and of
the Church. God entrusts each
human being to the guidance and
protection of a guardian angel.
God continues to sustain and
care for everything He created
with special Providence in drawing
sinful mankind back to Himself
through the redemptive sacrifice of
Christ and the grace of the Holy
Spirit.

CHAPTER 8
The Bible teaches that sin and
evil come not from God who created
everything good, but from the willful
disobedience of man who abused his
God-given freedom at the dawn of
history.
One kind of sin is the Original
sin, which can refer to two
things: the first is originating sin
which brought evil and brokenness
into the world; and the other one
is originated sin, or the actual
sinful state into which we are born,
the essence of which is the privation
of sanctifying grace, and some of
whose consequences are evident in
the outside sinful situation (sin of the
world), and the inner effect of
disordered desires we all experience
within us.
Genesis
narrates
the
primordial account of the originating
sin of Adam and Eve and its
consequences for them as well as in
the spread of evil in order to account
for the evil which we all experience
today.
The Church clarifies that we do
not inherit Adams personal sin, but
its consequences, that is that as
members of the human race, we are
born deprived of sanctifying grace,
into the sinful condition in the world

with our weakened human nature

resulting from his sin.
St. Paul teaches us, just as
through one mans disobedience all
became sinners, so through one
mans obedience all shall become
just
The Church clarifies that we
do not inherit Adams personal sin,
but its consequences, that is that as
members of the human race, we are
born deprived of sanctifying grace,
into the sinful condition in the world
with our weakened human nature
resulting from his sin.
Original
sin
essentially
consists
in
the
privation
of
sanctifying grace, the condition in
which all human beings are born.
Baptism takes away original sin by
bringing to the baptized the gift of the
Holy Spirit, Gods saving, sanctifying
presence. The indwelling Holy Spirit
in the baptized makes them adopted
sons/daughters of the Father,
coheirs with Jesus Christ, and
incorporates them into his Body the
Church.
Baptism is to grace a child
with the gift of the Holy Spirit, within
the Christian community of parents,
sponsors
and
neighbors,
to
effectively symbolize the Christian
atmosphere needed for growing up
as a disciple of Christ in faith, hope
and love.

CHAPTER 9
The Old Testament gives us
the living Word of God that brings
Gods promise of salvation to us.
Salvation is not a material thing, but
a spiritual reality only gradually
understood through its promise.
It provides the background for
interpreting our own experience as
well as the words, example, and
presence of Christ our Savior. Gods
Promise of salvation is found in all
three parts of the Old Testament:
the Law,
the Prophets,
and
the Writings.
The Covenant Law was Gods
great gift to His people, offering them
a special vocation and way of life as
a community heritage.
The
Law
reveals
a
God for and with His people, whose
commandments
are
meant
to liberate His people, despite their
infidelities toward Him.
The prophets interpret the
present situation as viewed by God.
They constantly call for conversion of
heart worked within His people by
God Himself.
The messianic
prophecies foretell a Messiah King
who brings salvation to his people
precisely as a Suffering Servant.
They call the people to radical

conversion, to turn back to Yahwehs

Covenant by renouncing evil and
doing justice.
The Wisdom books remind us
how to be faithful to God in daily
actions and events.
The Church has adopted the
Psalms, the prayers Christ used, to
express the New Covenant created
by the Triune God. The Psalms are
song-poems of praise, lament,
thanksgiving, and repentance arising
from the deepest longings of the
human heart and drawing on Gods
saving acts among His people. They
express total personal commitment
to God, the Savior of His people, in
daily obedience to His Law.
CHAPTER 10
The thirst for a personal
relationship with Christ our Savior
and for Christ the Liberator among
the
oppressed
and
exploited
indicates a strong yearning for Christ
among many Filipinos today.
Getting to know Christ is a
gradual, life-long, ever-deepening
personal relationship with the Jesus
of the Gospels, present to us now in
multiple ways as the Risen Christ.
Moreover, knowing Christ means
being committed to him, being his
disciple.

We come to know whom

Jesus is, from what he did and
continues to do. Therefore, it is
important to know the historical life
and work of Jesus through constant
contact with the Gospels, in order to
know in faith that Jesus Christ is
Lord
God the Son became one of
us for our salvation, that is: to save
us from the slavery of sin; to reveal
to us Gods unending love for us; to
be our model, as the Way, Truth and
the Life; to actually share His divine
sonship with us.
Jesus, the Beloved Son of
the Father and filled with the Holy
Spirit, perfectly fulfilled the task of a
prophet to proclaim the Word of God;
support it by signs and wonders, and
seal it with his own blood.
Jesus
proclaimed
the
Kingdom of God, already present
and at hand through him, but not
yet realized fully, as it will be at the
end of time.
This Kingdom summarized
all the blessings of Gods presence
among
His
people,
liberating
them from sin, for loving service of
one another.
Jesus preached and taught
with: certainty, because he taught
only what he heard from his Father;
authority, because he spoke in his

own name, of what he knew

personally;
power because
he
claimed a unique filial relationship
with God, his Abba, Father.
Through the miracles, Jesus
called all to faith in Him and
to discipleship which
consists in
following him in building the Kingdom
through loving service of others.
Jesus saves by making it
possible for us to work throughout
our lives against sin, the spiritual root
of all the evils which we experience.
He calls us to embrace and exercise
his liberating grace in all our moral
actions, especially by working for
justice and peace.
Sacred Scripture grounds
three fundamental truths about the
person of Jesus. He is: truly
human, like us in all things but
sin; truly divine, Gods eternal Word,
the only Son of the Father, full of
grace and truth, ever at the Fathers
side, who has revealed Him to us;
one, the one mediator between God
and men. He cannot be divided.
The Gospels clearly teach
that Mary was chosen by God to
conceive and bear a son, Jesus, who
will be called Son of the Most
High. Mary is the mother of God
because she is the mother of Jesus,
the God-man. Her virginity manifests
both Gods free initiative in effecting
the Incarnation of His Son, and
Marys complete gift of self to

God. Besides being the virgin mother

of Jesus, Mary was given by Christ
on the Cross to be the spiritual
mother in grace of all his disciples.
Chosen to be the Mother of
Jesus our Savior, Mary was
conceived in her mothers womb
preserved free from all stain of
original sin, otherwise known
as Immaculate Conception. At her
death, she was taken up body and
soul into heaven, which we know
as Assumption.
Both graces are
not exceptions separating Mary from
us, but privileges of perfection and
completion that enable Mary to fulfill
her unique role in Gods plan to save
all through Christ, the one Mediator.
CHAPTER 11
The Cross is the symbol of
Christs Paschal Mystery - dying to
rise to new life and Christian
discipleship:
Christ saved us not by the
physical sufferings taken separately,
but by his perfect love for his Father
and for us which was expressed in
his sufferings and death for us.
Jesus freely and consciously went to
his death to fulfill the mission he had
from his Father. He saw himself
fulfilling
the
Old
Testament
prophecies by giving his life in
ransom for the many.

The Creed describes five acts

of Jesus redeeming sacrifice:
he suffered, was crucified,
died,
was buried, and descended to the
dead.
Christ redeems us in two
basic acts:
He removes our
subjective guilt by bringing us Gods
pardon
and
forgiveness,
and
He restores the objective
moral
order broken by our sins through his
loving act of reparation. Because of
his corporate
solidarity with
us
sinners, Jesus could take away the
sin of the world as the suffering
Servant foretold by the prophet
Isaiah.
Christ died because of our
sins, and to overcome our sinfulness
and its effects in the world. Thus he
made possible our own repentance
and sacrifices, to share in his
redemptive work.
Christs redemptive Death is
different from all others in that its
effect is: a) universal, touching all;
b) eschatological, reaching to eternal
life; and c) empowering us to share
in his redemptive work.
It is the Father who sends His
only begotten Son to redeem us from
our sins, and to give meaning and
purpose to our lives through the
fellowship inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Thus our redemption, like our

creation and sanctification, is a work
of the Triune God: Father, Son and
Spirit.
Jesus leads us to: basic trust
in God as our heavenly Father,
deeper,
more
authentic
selfrespect; acceptance of others as His
beloved children, and authentic
hierarchy of values in everyday life.
When He descended to the
dead, this means that Christ really
and fully entered into the human
experience of death, that his salvific
ministry is universal, extending to all
who had died before him, and that
he is truly the Savior of all, including
even those who have never heard of
his Good News.
CHAPTER 12
The Risen Christ is the key to
our salvation and all authentic
knowledge of God. If Christ is not
risen, our faith is worthless
Christs
resurrection
is not simply a fact of information,
but rather, together with the
Incarnation, the most significant
event of the Christian Faith. It
confirmed all Christ had done and
taught
during
his
public
ministry; fulfilled the Old Testament
prophecies; confirmed Jesus as the
only Son of the Father; enabled
Christ to share his new life with us as

adopted sons and daughters of the

Father; and will be the principle and
source of our resurrection.
Christs Resurrection is not only
the proof of the Gospel message.
It is the central Gospel message
itself.
The New Testament testifies
to Christs Resurrection in four
ways, namely,
in
its:
Easter
proclamation and apostolic mandate;
descriptions of the Risen Christs
appearances to
his disciples;
narrative of the tradition of the empty
tomb; and account of the early
Christian communitys experience of
the Risen Christs presence in the
Holy Spirit.
The Ascension means that
the Risen Christ ascended to heaven
to take his place at the right hand of
the Father. The Ascension is a
salvific event for us since Christs
return to the Father was necessary
for sending the Spirit among us, and
for Christs continued mediating on
our behalf as well as for grounding
our hope in our own future
resurrection.
The Risen Christ will come
again at the Parousia to judge the
living and the dead. Christ clearly
affirmed that no one knows this,
except the Father. It is useless,
therefore, to speculate on this
when.