B JESUS CHRIST AS THE GOOD TEACHER

1. IS ALWAYS PRESENT IN THIS CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD

It is to the Church that Christ entrusted the task of proclaiming the message of
salvation to all peoples. To fulfill this task, Christ empowered the Church to proclaim,
without fear of error, faith and morals, in the hope of leading people to the realization
or actualization of the kingdom of God here on earth. In embracing this divine
mandate, the Church confronted bravely the changes as well as the challenges that
each generation brings, holding on to the promise that Christ will be with his people
until the end of time (Matthew 28: 16-20). In this regard, it behooves the Church to
uphold the twin task of preserving the integrity of the teachings of Christ and at the
same time, the equally difficult responsibility of proclaiming it in such a way that it
remains relevant regardless of who is on the receiving end. In other words, the Church
must always be deeply conscious of her duty in every age to examine the signs of the
times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel so that she can offer in a manner
appropriate to each generation replies to the continual human questionings on the
meaning of this life and the life to come and on how they are related. 1 The Church has
taken in stride with Christ, the “Light of the nations”, who shines upon the face of His
Church, which sends forth to the whole world to proclaim the Gospel to every
creature (cf. Mk. 16:15). Hence the Church as the People of God among the nations,
while attentive to the new challenges of history and to mankind’s efforts to discover
the meaning of life, offers to everyone the answer which comes from the truth about
Jesus and his Gospel.

2. OPENS UP THE FAITHFUL TO THE BOOK OF THE SCRIPTURES

The return to our moral foundations in Scripture is the first step toward a more
balanced, authentic catechesis of Christian moral life in family, school, and parish.
The very name of Jesus means “the one who is to save people from their sins.” the
Christian moral vocation is precisely to commit ourselves through the power of
Christ’s redeeming grace to the progressive overcoming of the evil of sin in and
around us – a personal human reaching out in loving service to others – rather than
simply avoiding sin or shrinking from evil. It is a question of conversion, a radical
change of heart that, once begun in baptism, must develop 2 into an ever more
profound personal renewal and holiness.3

3. REVEALS THE FATHER’S WILL

The three-fold yeses covering the three dimensions of human life – the intra-
personal, the inter-personal, and the societal – must be grounded on the fourth
foundational, integrating yes to God. The only way we could possibly develop an
integral saying “yes” to the fullness of human life by our total committed “yes” to
God, as disciples of Jesus Christ. “The Son of God, the Christ, Jesus that we

1
Ibid., 2.
2
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, New National Catechetical Directory for the
Philippines 2007 (Manila: Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, 2007), 272.
3
VS. 2. GS, 4.
proclaimed among you…was never Yes and No: with him it was always yes, and
however many the promises God made, the yes to them all is in Him. That is why it is
through Him that we answer Amen to the praise of God.4

Nothing less than the love of the Blessed Trinity – the love of Father,
Incarnate Son, and the Holy Spirit – is the ground for Catholic Morality. Thus,
catechesis must stress that Christian life means bearing witness to God revealed by
Jesus Christ. This demands a radical change of heart, a real conversion, manifested in
a triple yes to self, others, and society, and grounded in the ultimate yes to God,
overcoming the “No” of sin.5

4. TEACHES TRUTH ABOUT MORAL ACTION

People today need to turn to Christ once again in order to receive from Him
the answer to their questions about what is good and what is evil. Christ is the teacher,
the Risen One who has life in Himself and who is always present in His Church and
in the World. It is He who opens up to the faithful the book of the Scriptures and, by
fully revealing the Father’s will, teaches the truth about moral action. At the source
and summit of the economy of salvation, as the alpha and the omega of human
history, Christ sheds light on man’s condition and his integral vocation.6

If we, therefore, wish to go to the heart of the Gospel’s moral teaching and
grasp its profound and unchanging content, we must carefully inquire into the
meaning of the question asked by the rich young man in the Gospel and, even more,
the meaning of Jesus’ reply, allowing ourselves to be guided by Him. Jesus as the
patient and sensitive teacher, answers the young man by taking him, as it were by the
hand, and leading him step by step to the full truth.7

5. SHEDS LIGHT ON MAN’S CONDITION AND LOFTY VOCATION

The first and ultimate vocation of man is communion with God and there is
only one way to respond to this calling: Jesus Christ. The basic motivation for
following Christ in moral action is, of course the Blessed Trinity, the eternal Father’s
love for us. The Father’s love is manifested pre-eminently in Jesus’ Paschal Mystery,
and the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts who enables us to fulfill Christ’s own
command: Love one another as I have loved you. The meaning of love for Saint John
is: “not our love for God, but God’s love for us when He sent His Son to be the
sacrifice that takes our sins away. My dear people, since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.”8

4
Ibid., 285.
5
NCDP, 290.
6
VS, 8.
7
Ibid., 8.
8
NCDP, 282.