Unit 3 AOS 1 DP#9 : The relationship between ultimate reality and humanity Flashcards
General definition:
Religious traditions often see ultimate reality as being in relationship with humanity although they are not seen as equals. The relationship can be both immanent and personal. Depending on the religious tradition, the relationship can be likened to that of a parent-child, master-servant or spiritual guide.
In RCT
Catholic adherents understand their relationship with God through the Paschal mystery (life death and resurrection of Jesus) of Jesus.
Jesus’ Incarnation shows God’s solidarity with humanity. God did not create humanity and then leave it to its own devices, rather God created humanity and relates to it through Trinitarian love.
In this relationship, God is immanent and transcendent. The historical event of Jesus’ Incarnation leading to His death on the cross and his Resurrection shows that God calls all people to be with him in a loving and faithful relationship.
God cares for all of humanity and makes no distinction between people based on their race, social status, gender etc. Jesus’ death on the cross as God made man (The hypostatic union of his human and divine natures), was an act of forgiveness on God’s behalf for the sins of all people.
This death was an act of filial adoption in which God which allows human beings to share in the life of Jesus. God calls all people, by His love, to be in a loving, faith-based relationship in this life and for eternity. Human beings are called to know, love and serve God through the obedience of faith.
Texts: Scripture
Sacred Scripture
Gal 3:28 – How God views humanity equally:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
John 3:16 – Refers to the Paschal Mystery of Jesus and its role in the ‘filial adoption’ of humanity
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Texts: Catechism of the catholic church (CCC)
6 What does God reveal to man?
God in his goodness and wisdom reveals himself. With deeds and words, he reveals himself and his plan of loving goodness which he decreed from all eternity in Christ. According to this plan, all people by the grace of the Holy Spirit are to share in the divine life as adopted “sons” in the only begotten Son of God.
Sustained by divine grace, we respond to God with the obedience of faith, which means the full surrender of ourselves to God and the acceptance of his truth insofar as it is guaranteed by the One who is Truth itself.
#93 What does the heart of Jesus exemplify?
Jesus knew us and loved us with a human heart. His Heart, pierced for our salvation, is the symbol of that infinite love with which he loves the Father and each one of us.
The Resurrection is the climax of the Incarnation. It confirms the divinity of Christ and all the things which he did and taught. It fulfills all the divine promises made for us. Furthermore the risen Christ, the conqueror of sin and death, is the principle of our justification and our Resurrection. It procures for us now the grace of filial adoption which is a real share in the life of the only begotten Son. At the end of time he will raise up our bodies.
‘Filial Adoption’ is the term we use to describe the relationship Jesus bought for us with his death and resurrection.
Symbols:
The cross
