Church

and
Sacraments

Main Reference:
Discipleship in Community by Fr. Lode Wostyn, CICM
 Course Outline
• Jesus and the Church
• The Church’s Pilgrimage
• Imagining the Church Today
• Sacramental Basics
• The Eucharist
• Understanding and Appreciating the Other
Sacraments
These criticisms certainly affects the credibility of the
Philippine Church. Inevitability, we raise questions.
Are we the true Church? If we are, what is our basis
for affirming the Church’s truthfulness?
We need to remember that Jesus never preached
about the Christian Church. The theme of Jesus’
preaching was the Kingdom. The Church and the
Kingdom are not totally the same.
In CL 102, we did not read that Jesus was the founder
of the Church. He was presented instead as “the
initiator of a Jewish renewal movement.” Jesus
preached the Kingdom, and what evolved is what we
now call the Church. Was this a historical mistake?
The many positive and good things, does not mean, however,
that young people are perfectly happy with what happens in
the Church.
For many, the Church already appears as an old, wrinkled
grandmother or lola, who needs a facelift and some makeup
to be attractive on the modern world.
Some authors have focused on this negative side of the
present day Church. They have called the Church a
dysfunctional organization, likening it to a dysfunctional
family.
The Church needs us to be critical young people who
will witness for our faith and help build a new Church
that is open to the challenges of our modern world.
Let us look into a few of the issues which affect
Church life.
Issues which affect Church Life

1.Creeds, Codes, Cults

2.Clerical
3.Rich and powerful
4.Foreign
• A creed can degenerate
into the reproduction of
formulae, which are not
understood, yet are
repeated ad infinitum or
without end.
• A code can lead to a
legalism, or insisting on a
law, without a heart.
• A cult can be caught in the
performance of rites that
seem to work as magic yet
do not address real life
issues.
 The church seems to be
led by a fearsome group
of men, who are dressed
in a clerical garb and
who have some sort of
absolute and sacred
power.
Clerical

They preach, perform sacraments and rule over the flock, while the laity
listen, receive sacraments or pray and pray, and obey whatever the
patriarchs say.
Most priests and religious live a comfortable middle-class life and do not
seem to be disturbed by the poverty of so many of our people.
The church seems to side with the powerful and the rich.
 The Church is an imported entity within our Filipino culture.
Our present-day Church continues to be dependent on Rome and on the
Western world.
• Based on your experiences in your parish, in
school, or in the youth organization that you
belong to, share with your seatmate which of
these criticisms against the Church do you
agree or disagree with. Explain.
• The Church . . .
- promotes terrifying 3C’s.
- is clerical.
- is rich and powerful.
- is foreign.
Positive Experiences of the Church
1.Catechism for Filipino Catholics
2.Basic Ecclesial Communities
3.Church not only for the poor, but
also of the poor.
4.Misa ng Bayang Pilipino
• The Philippine Church
has produced her
own Catechism for
Filipino Catholics
(CFC).
• Some efforts are
made to develop a
more participatory
and experience
liturgy.
• Efforts have been made to democratize the
Church and to invite lay people to fully
participate in the life of the parish.

• In some parishes,
Basic Ecclesial
Communities (BECs)
have been started
and are sustained
by an active laity.
• The Church has made an option to be present in
the world of the poor and to transform herself
into a Church, not only for the poor, but also of
the poor.
• The process of inculturation was introduced after
the Second Vatican Council.
• Efforts were made to arrive at an authentic
Filipino liturgy, among them the Misa ng Bayang
Filipino.
• The imported
leadership have
already been
replaced by a
Filipino leadership
in diocese and
religious groups.
• Comment on the developments in the Church.
Do you see these things happening in the
Church?
• What are the developments that you have
experienced in your parishes or Christian
Communities? Share them with your
seatmate.
 Some persons who enjoy digging up dirt about the Church
can be very unjust, But we have to agree that our Church also
has a dark side. That dark side cannot be corrected, unless we
encourage open criticism and dissent.
 Conservative
Christians often
wallow in pious
spiritual ideas and
activities that totally
disregard reality.
We need to realize
that our Church is,
at the same time,
holy and sinful.
“The Church must always be living and always young,
which feels the rhythm of the times and which in
every century beautifies herself with new splendor,
radiates new light, achieves new conquests, while
remaining identical in herself, faithful to the divine
image impressed on her countenance by her spouse,
who loves her and
protects her, Christ
Jesus.”
- Pope John XXIII.
College of the Immaculate Conception – Cabanatuan