Unit 4: THE ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST IS A CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP

Intersubjectivity, or other-awareness

• We want to know what it takes to experience the “other” as “the other”

• How the experience of “the other” may be needed for the development of self-awareness.

• The idea of intersubjectivity presupposes human subjectivity.

• It refers to the condition of man as a subject alongside other men.

• It also pertains to human relations.

Martin Buber’s Philosophical Anthropology

• Begins from lived experiences.

• The “I” cannot exist in isolation, and always exists alongside other “I’s.”

• The self always finds its fullness in the existence of other selves

• We must withstand the temptation to reduce other people to a means for us to use.

I-It (Ich-Es) Relationship

• “Monological” relationship

• Considers the other as a mere instrument to achieve a need

• Reduces the other to an object that is measurable and manipulable

I-Thou Relationship

• “Dialogical” relationship

• The “Thou” is not reducible to certain characteristics

• Views the other as a genuine person capable of feeling the same way as the self.

Other

• Sometimes capitalized, sometimes not, usually translates the French word autrui, which means “the other person,” “someone else” (i.e., other than oneself)

• Levinas more often uses the singular “other” to emphasize that we encounter others one at a time, face to face.

Face

By “face,” Levinas means the human face (or in French, visage), but not thought of or experienced as a physical or aesthetic object. Rather, the first, usual, unreflective encounter with the face is as the living presence of another person and, therefore, as something experienced socially and ethically

Discipleship

• Following Christ is the essential and primordial foundation of Christian morality. Jesus’ ways and words, his deeds and his precepts constitute the moral rule of Christian life.

  • We turn to Jesus Christ

  • We listen to His words

  • We follow His actions

Beatitudes

A set of precepts that utterly demonstrate the moral standards of our Lord and at the same time resonate His call to follow as His disciples.

Christ Crucified

• According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Christ crucified is the perfect exemplification of the beatitudes.

• Christ crucified: a picture of a happy man.

• To be happy, we must despise what Jesus despised on the cross: Wealth, Pleasure, Power, Honour

Love what Jesus loved on the cross, which is to accomplish the will of the Father:

• The Single-hearted One

• Hungers for righteousness

• Ultimate peacemaker

• Ultimate bearer of God’s mercy

Who is a disciple?

A disciple is a lover of Truth: Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

What makes one a disciple?

A disciple imitates Jesus, who gives primacy to the will of the Father.

What is expected of a disciple?

A disciple lives in loving service of others. Becoming like Christ is to live in communion with one another, just like what He did.

The Church: Willed by God to Make Possible the Encounter with Christ

• The church was instituted by Christ to perpetuate His presence on earth.

• She signifies in a Visible, Historical, and Tangible form the presence and redeeming activity of Christ offered to all persons of every age, race, and condition.

Sacraments

Encounters with God through Jesus Christ in the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit

The Seven Sacraments

1. Baptism: Birth

2. Confirmation: Maturity

3. Eucharist: Growth

4. Marriage: Relationship

5. Holy Orders: Service for Others

6. Reconciliation: Commit Mistakes

7. Anointing of the Sick: Sick and Death

The Church

• Wishes to serve this single end: That each person may be able to find Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each person that path of life (RH 13)

• The Church was instituted as the sacrament of salvation of all, not only of the explicit members but also those who share in the “theandric communion without explicit awareness of Christic foundation,”

• Therefore, Jesus entrusted to the Church the mission:

  • To make present in every time, in every situation, the encounter between the spirit and the flesh, God and mankind.

  • To promote and preserve, within the unity of the Church, the faith and the moral life

The Eucharist

• Ultimately, it helps us in becoming True Christian disciples

• In the Eucharist, when we receive the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion, we are invited to discover who Jesus is: Jesus is the one who loves fully

The Communion

• In communion, we become like Jesus, who is:

  • Friend of the poor, Comforter of those who suffer, One who proclaims the good news, and one who obeys the Father’s will

• Assisted by the Holy Spirit who leads her into all the truth, the Church has not ceased, nor can she ever cease, to contemplate the “mystery of the Word Incarnate”, in whom “light is shed on the mystery of man.” (GS 22)