Saint Andrew’s School

Quirino Ave., La Huerta

“The Nature of Human to be Untold”

A Partial Fulfillment for the

Submitted By:
De Leon, Angel Nichole F.

Grade and Section:

Date:
August 16, 2016

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 1ST QUARTER

For the very first quarter of our School Year 2016-2017 in Moral

Theology, our topic was about Conversion, Freedom, and Conscience.

As we go further on our topics, the discussions given by our

teacher - Sir Marvin Vinuya, became deeper and deeper but he was

able to unveil us the real significance of the lesson.

On our discussion about Conversion, we are taught and encouraged

to change ourselves for the better and to turn back away from our

sins and allow ourselves to get closer towards God. On our topic

about Freedom, we are taught about the real essence of freedom.

About when does an individual become free and unfree, and also,

the common misconceptions that humanity commit when it comes to

understanding the word freedom. For our topic about Conscience, it

allows us to reflect and understand the true meaning of it and

also, on how an individual’s conscience works in our hearts and

minds.

As a Grade 10 student, these topics should be discussed, understood

and applied. This is a serious matter. No games shall be played

when it comes to these topics because this is what reality looks

like. One should educate himself of knowing what is good and what

is evil. Of what is right and what is wrong. Of what is reasonable

and unreasonable.

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The first topic that we discussed was all about Conversion.

Conversion means change. Change, is related to the Greek word

“Metanoia” which means the change of mind, change of heart, change

of the inner man, and repentance. It is also the response to the

God – that calls, that reveals Himself, and that speaks to man in

various modes: Through His words, through the events of life and

through meeting with the person.

According to Bernarnd Lonergan, SJ, Religous Conversion means

falling in love unconditionally that leads us to surrender to the

transcendent and a gracious being in wholeness. Religious

conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that differ

from the convert's previous beliefs. It involves a new religious

identity, or a change from one religious identity to another.

Conversion requires internalization of the new belief system. It

implies a new reference point for one's self identity and is a

matter of belief and social structure—of both faith and

affiliation.

What is interior conversion? Interior conversion is a radical

reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God

with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with

repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed.

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According from the Catechism of the Filipino Catholic, “The human

heart is heavy and hardened. God must give a man a new heart.

Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes

our hearts reform to him: ‘Restore us to thyself O Lord, that we

may be restored.’”

There are several stages of conversion: (1)Relationship,

(2)Persons, (3)Sin enters, and lastly (4)Remorse and repentance.

The first stage is relationship. Relationship is the connection of

a person to another person. It can be relationships between family,

the persons you encounter in school or romantic relationship with

an opposite sex. In a relationship, all of us can’t avoid conflicts

to one another that are enabling us to commit sins. Also,

misunderstandings that allow us to do evil that are upon or against

our own will. The last stage is remorse and repentance. In this

stage, one who committed sin has now the feeling of guilt and

sadness of what he has done. He is now starting to realize that he

must change and should undergo reconciliation to allow himself to

move closer to God.

In order to obtain Conversion, one must undergo Reconciliation.

There can’t be true conversion without the admission, contrition

and penance for the sins we have committed.

There are several hindrances in conversion that a person may

encounter. The first one is Pride – to believe that there’s nothing

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wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with the things that you

have done. Next is Ignorance – to allow yourself to be unaware

with your own actions. To allow yourself to be unaware that you

are already committing sins and that you already need to change.

False belief – this is the wrong understandings of one’s religion.

That it is enough of being a Christian. Nothing more, nothing less.

The fourth one is Temptations – with these, we tend to forget that

we should change. Continuous temptations give us the chance of

committing sins, leading us to move farther away from God. Pre-

occupation – we tend to lose quality time with God. We feed

ourselves with tons of work. We should not forget to spare enough

time with Him. The last will be Fear. It is the smallest things

that make us unable to move closer to God.

There are several steps to achieve conversion. The process of

conversion based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes:

(1) Interior contrition and purpose of amendment. In this stage,

we are called to reflect on our sins, to seek the purpose of

conversion and to test ourselves if we are ready to change. (2)

The actual confession of sins and priestly absolution. This stage

is when we are done reflecting on our sins and it is now the time

to confess together with the seal of the priest. (3)Being restored

into the fellowship of the Christian Community. This is the last

stage where you are now restored and your sins are now forgiven.

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“Sin divides. It hurts. Love unites. Love promotes the well being

of the person. To repent is to commit oneself once again to God’s

greatest commandment of love. With love, flow the virtues of

generosity, humility, patience, understanding, mercy and others.

All these are reflections of the interior experience of joy – a

fruit of the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son.”

The second topic that we discussed was all about Freedom. What is

freedom? Freedom is the capacity to act or not to act. The power

to perform or not to perform. To do or not to do. With this, we

have the power to determine the course of our own actions that we

commit. Also it may be enjoyed by individuals in any gender, age

or religion. There are times that we are asked to do things that

are against our will. Do these things prohibit you of having the

feeling of happiness, satisfaction and freedom?

According to the Catechism, freedom is the power rooted in reason

and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to

perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free

will, one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for

growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its

perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude. Beatitude came

from the word “beatitudo” which means happiness. Aside from the

fact that freedom is a power to act or not to act, freedom is also

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a power that directs us in pursuit of perfections, for good is the

object of the will and the truth is the object of the intellect.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “Agere Sequitur Esse” – To act,

follows to be. There is a possibility that this freedom may be

abused by choosing that is which is contrary to the natural object

of the will-good. There is the chance of choosing evil rather than

good.

As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its

ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing

between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of

failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human

acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

To avoid the abuse of freedom, we must be weary of our freedom as

exercised, though we have the power of choosing the evil. To choose

evil is to abuse freedom and not to exercise it according to its

nature.

There are several common misunderstandings that people encounter

when they talk about freedom. The first misunderstanding is that

a person believes that he can say all the things he wants – whatever

came to his mind, even though it is foul or below the belt, if he

has the feeling or the urge of saying it, he will speak. Second

misunderstanding is that one believes that no one can force him to

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do what he does not want. To speak for himself that anytime, he

can just say “No” to people who tells him to do things that are

against his own will. He does not allow himself to be dictated by

other people. Third misunderstanding is that he believes that he

can do whatever he wants without anyone bothering him. He believes

that no one can tell him what is right or wrong. He believes that

he does not need anyone to judge his actions, to tell that what he

is doing is beyond the limits of a human being. The fourth and

last common misunderstanding is that he believes that he can

express whatever he feels. In our generation today, social websites

have spread throughout the world such as Facebook, Twitter,

Snapchat, Instagram and more where you can express what you feel

anytime. But this is a wrong perception of humanity that we can

express ourselves in a place where anyone can see or read what you

have said. There will always be a person who will judge you what

you have expressed without you noticing it. This, makes us unfree.

All of us should be careful in saying what we feel. We don’t know

what other people might say. Generally, freedom in this sense is

saying and doing whatever one wants. This is a false

misunderstanding.

When does one become free? The more one does what it good, the

freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service

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of what is good and just. The choice is to disobey and do evil is

an abuse of freedom and leads to the slavery of sin.

Evil offers nothing but slavery. It appears I disguise of pleasure

and happiness. It makes itself with the face of the good. But time

reveals its true identity, one which brings nothing but suffering,

pain, sadness, anxiety and meaningless. It destroys relationship

with oneself, others, nature and God.

There are some misconceptions people commit when it comes to

freedom. The first misconception is, to believe that there is

nothing wrong with adultery and premarital as long as it is out of

love. Yes, we all know that Jesus taught us to love one another.

But in this case, we are using love in a wrong way. We are using

love as an excuse to attain what we want even though this is

against God’s will. Next misconception is to believe that to hurt

the offender is to bring justice to oneself and to his/her loved

ones. In today’s generation, people believe that in order to obtain

justice, one must receive equal treatment of the same matter of

loss. Others tend to believe that this kind of actions is what we

all know as karma. To live with this kind of perception is wrong.

It is better to forgive people and let yourself live in peace

rather than putting yourself in agony because of hatred. Third

misconception is to believe that money is all that we need to be

happy. No, we don’t need money in order for us to be happy. Others

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see money as an answer for their nonsense desires and these what

make them feel satisfied, happy, and contented. But don’t you see?

Sometimes, money makes us blind. Sometimes it allows to lift

ourselves up and gain power to do evil. For example, others tend

to make use of money in able for them to pay people and put things

under their control. Sometimes, people forget where they came from.

The forget to think and realize that money is not the real

happiness. Money will bring you happiness if you will use it for

good. It will bring you genuine happiness if you will help people

with these. Have you ever experienced being thanked? Being thanked

because of the kindness you’ve done to them? Sometimes, those words

are the ones that will make you happy. It’s the feeling like “O

God, I feel so blessed helping these people.” Next is that to

believe power is a privilege to enjoy in expense of respect and

kindness. This misconception is connected to the previous

misconception we discussed about money. People tend to make use of

their power to do evil. They believe that if they have the power,

they will gain people’s respect. And with this, his will shall be

followed by those people who are underneath him to dictate what he

wants for he has the power above them all. Next misconception is

to believe that fame is the means to be recognized and respected

in the society. This situation is common mostly in our generation.

Students in school tend to do things that will call the attention

of other people for them to be respected. Let me just remind you,

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not all people who gained fame are respected. If you think that

you feel free because you are well-known, well you are wrong. Just

like what I have said earlier, there will always be a person who

will judge you without your prior notice. And that is not good.

And last but not the least, the last misconception is to believe

that to be free is to recognize no laws and boundaries. For me,

this is the most general misconception above all. People tend to

put in their own minds and believe that freedom is to do things

without limits. Always remember, all things are given with their

own limits. We should not abuse the nature of freedom. “To be free

is to do the good. This is what we call authentic freedom. This is

what freedom is truly for when God has given us the free will, the

will is ordered towards the good, and so with freedom.

What does freedom asks us? We are asked to be responsible and to

be respectful. All of us should be aware of all the things we are

doing. We must put our own actions prior to our own responsibility

and we should always be reminded that we must maintain our

limitations. “Freedom makes man responsible to his acts to the

extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of

the good, and exercise enhance the mastery of the will over its

acts.” – CCC 1734.

According to Pope St. John Paul II, “Freedom consists not in doing

what we like but in having the right to do what is right.” To

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conclude this topic, man is rational and therefore like God; he is

created with free will and is master over his acts. – CCC 1730.

The third topic that we discussed was all about The Law of Love

and Conscience. In this topic, are conscience is being tested.

Find out the real meaning of law and conscience.

What is Law? According to St. Thomas Aquinas, law is an ordinance

of reason, promulgated by competent authorities for the sake of

the common good.”

On the other hand, Natural law is the law of God that we know by

our reason. It is our knowledge and understanding of the law of

God which is known as the Eternal Law (God’s eternal plan and

wisdom to all) is a gift. As human persons, we naturally know that

something is good and evil. The natural law in this sense, provide

us basis on how to govern ourselves and live a moral life. It

proved the foundation for building our community in peace and

harmony. It serves as basis for all human laws. With the law

engraved in our hearts, we can discern and so choose the good and

avoid evil. Natural law is characterized as universal and

immutable. Meaning, that this law is applied for all and it cannot

be changed.

The greatest commandment in the law is the Law of Love – to God

and others. “You shall love the Lord you God with all your hearts,

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with all you soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest

and the first commandment. The second is like immutable-

unchanging, permanent it. You shall love hour neighbor as yourself.

The whole new law and the prophets depend on these two

commandments.” – Mt. 22:38-40

What is Conscience? Conscience is a practical judgment enabling

the person to recognize whether the concrete act in a particular

situation is good or evil. Catechism, also described Conscience as

a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the

morality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the

process of performing, or has already completed. (CCC 1778).

Conscience is practical. It summons us to choose and do the good

and avoid evil. It is the judgment of reason. Lastly, it is a

concrete act. Conscience can’t judge a human act as good or evil

unless it is done in a particular situation.

There are different types of conscience - Lax, Scrupulous,

Erroneous, True, Doubtful and Certain. Lax, according to Merriam-

Webster is not careful enough. We tend to lose effort of judging

the morality of our actions. These make our decisions to lack of

identifying what is right or wrong. Next one is Scrupulous. The

word scrupulous is defined as very careful about doing something

correctly. We tend to make use of our conscience in a wrong way.

We tend to judge those little things that we do to be evil, or

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lesser evil. It results to have the feeling of guilt for no good

reason. The third type is Erroneous. Erroneous means not correct.

Conscience becomes erroneous when we tend to believe that our

actions are good even though they are evil just because they are

done for the good. Next is True conscience. Coming from its word,

true conscience is the correct judgment in one’s actions. To judge

an evil act as evil and also, to judge the good act as good. Under

this are another two types of conscience – certain conscience and

doubtful conscience. Conscience becomes certain if we are sure of

the judgment we have given to our actions whether it is right or

wrong. On the other hand, conscience becomes doubtful if we aren’t

confident with our judgments to our own acts if it is right or

wrong.

To end the discussion about The Law of Love and Conscience, let me

share you a line coming from Pope Benedict XVI. “Freedom of

conscience is the core of all freedom.”

So these are the topics that we have discussed for the first

quarter in our Moral Theology. Let God and His will reigns our

hearts for these will bring us genuine happiness. Let us allow

ourselves to see what is right or wrong, good or evil, reasonable

or unreasonable.

“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality

without faith.” - Alexis de Tocqueville.

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 2ND QUARTER

Last quarter, in my term paper entitled “The Nature of Human to be

Untold” - we’ve tackled about Conversion, Freedom and Love and

Conscience. Now for this second quarter, Sir Marvin Vinuya

enlightened our understanding about the meaning of truth and

justice. Within this term paper are the things that I have

understood in our topic.

We Filipinos value truthfulness. Most of us are willing to do

anything just to fill our curiosity. We won’t stop until we got

enough answers to those never-ending questions that keep us alive

in the middle of the night, and those explanations that will put

our mind in peace. We easily get discouraged with people who lie,

though they have been good to us. A lair for us means a person who

cannot be trusted with what he/she says and does. That even the

truthfulness of their present good deeds is being put to question.

This is one of the reasons why parents take the value of honesty

they want for their children seriously.

The word truth comes with the word trust. Trust? Big word. Yes,

the word “trust” is a big deal for us Filipinos especially when it

comes to sharing your secrets to another person. Have you ever

asked yourself if who’s the person you can trust the most? On the

other way around, who is the person you trust the least? He or she

can be anyone. He/she could be your friend, your sister, classmate

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or any other. Trust is very hard to earn. We tend to trust a person

if he/she was able to do good things to us and already proved that

he/she is the type of person whom you can be trusted upon. Those

people can be considered and can also be called trustworthy. But

how can we tell if the person isn’t worthy anymore? Once we earned

the trust of a person, we should take care of it. One lie could

ruin your relationship. One lie could change the way how others

see you. Lying can change your life. So with this word trust, we

will be able to see its capacities and limitations. If we should

keep a secret to remain secret or we should spill the beans,

whether to tell the truth behind those white lies or not.

What then is the truth? According to Merriam-Webster, truth is the

state of being the case – fact. It is the body of real things.

Also, the judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted.

There are two things to consider, thus to be achieved when we are

talking about truth. The first one is the Urgency and Importance

of Waking Up From Spiritual Stupor. But first, what is the meaning

of spiritual stupor? It is an act in which a person isn’t able to

think and evaluate well. It is also the point in which an

individual is already satisfied with how thing already are. Hence,

it is the lack of doing his/her own effort of making things better

beyond their own satisfaction.

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Under spiritual stupor are the following. (1) Many remain deaf to

the irresistible appeal of truth and justice. People tend to ignore

the truth not only by the sense of hearing, but also with the sense

of taste, touch, smell and sight. Ignorance of truth may be the

effect of an individual’s pride. They never allow themselves to

see, hear and accept the truth that is already in front of them.

In example, there’s a common quote that we always hear. “To see is

to believe.” Yes, sometimes it can be applied to the truth. Your

friend once told you that your partner is cheating to you. Of

course, you will not believe your friend first because you haven’t

seen it yet. But the day came when you, with your two eyes opened

wide, were already the one who witnessed your partner cheating.

For you love him very much, you tend to ignore the fact that you

saw him with another girl. You keep on telling yourself that what

you have seen is just a scenario that was misunderstood. (2) No

longer arouse us from apathy to perform deed or profound

consequences, simply because truth and justice of a sudden become

suffused with irresistible appeal. What is apathy? It is the lack

of effort and interest. People tend to lose effort and interest to

act or to think of knowledgeable consequences because we keep on

blinding ourselves towards the truth. (3) Right now, they evoke

nothing more than a faint and muted echo. There are people who

know the truth. But, they don’t have the confidence nor the urge

and power to speak for the truth causing the other’s opportunity

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in knowing the truth to lose. “Fear is not in the habit of speaking

truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be

allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the

truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.” – Tacitus

If truth is already presented and is already being fed to us, what

should be the appropriate approach? What must we do in times like

this? How are we going to be able to identify a statement if it is

true or not? First one is that, we should secure ourselves in

avoiding discursive thinking. Discursive thinking is the capacity

of a person to depend to those ancient or well-known philosophers.

People tend to rely to the beliefs of other people. We don’t allow

ourselves to think and stand on our own. We don’t allow ourselves

to create our own philosophy in identifying things between what is

right or what is wrong. Between truth or lies. Gathering from the

works of the scholars (past or present), their considerations about

justice or truth, and then in a work similar to their manipulated

findings so as to present some sort of resounding consensus – the

general agreement to the beliefs of the majority. The second way

to judge a statement is that, we should judge according to our own

personal experiences and on something abstracted from our

experiences. It should be existential. “Experience is the best

teacher.” Yes, this is true. We can never define a particular act

or statement is true as long as we have not experienced it yet. In

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example, your friend brags about his meal last night on a fancy

restaurant. On the other hand, you who haven’t tried that fancy

meal is just listening to all of his bragging and all. Knowing

that you haven’t tasted the meal yet, are you able to tell if his

telling the truth? If the meal was really that delicious,

mouthwatering and satisfying? Yes, it may look like the said

restaurant serve impressive set up of meals. But it is just the

partial truth. You are only able to see the picture in its

advertisements but you haven’t tasted it yet, nor a single bite

from it. Hence, you are not able to prove if your friend tells you

the truth because what you have is only part of the entire truth.

The second thing to consider when it comes to the truth is

Insidious Devaluation of the Important Concepts of Truth and

Justice. Insidious Devaluation is an act in which an individual

lessens the important concepts of truth and justice. In our

generation today, we are not aware that we are already reducing

truth and justice without knowing its dangers. We tend to reduce

authentic truth to partial truth. Thus, we are only able to have

apparent justice not total justice. Partial truth leads to apparent

justice. Hence, we can never achieve authentic justice without us

knowing the authentic truth.

In our society nowadays, people tend to perform such notions

against truth. (1) Justice Equated With Partisan Interest. What is

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partisan interest? The word partisan means to be biased. Also, it

is to be in favor to a particular side over another. Therefore,

the needs and demands of a particular interest of a particular

group that are more or less acute are very important, urgent and

even justified. In other words, justice for some is reduced,

equated, associated with the just demands and needs of a particular

group. The understanding of justice becomes cheap. We tend to

lessen our standards when we talk about justice. All we want is

that justice must be served with or without knowing the truth. How

can this be fair? Justice is said to be obtained when the just

demands and needs are obtained.

According to a famous philosopher named Gabriel Marcel who was

born on December 7, 1889 in Paris, is also a dramatist and a critic

who firmly believe that truth shall be judge by the own experiences

of man. It is what we called existentialism. For him, humans must

always be involved as a matter of basis. He stated that “Isolated

demands are not necessarily prompted by love or concern for others

and do not lead necessarily to genuine justice.” It says that if

we are only going to choose a partial demand that we only need

from a demand as a whole and we are trying to separate the entirety

of it, it is not already because of love or concern for those

people around us. Separating the chosen from the whole brings us

to biased truth, which will also lead us to partial truth. He also

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stated that “Authentic and an integral justice is not a matter of

granting an explicit demand of a particular group.” An explicit

demand of a particular group. What does it mean? Most of us tend

to confirm our decisions based on the opinion of others – on what

the majority needs or wants. Is this right? It doesn’t mean that

if the majority is saying the truth, it is already the truth.

Sometimes, a group of people tend to unite to cover up the

authentic truth and create new statement for them to get their own

demands. This is not right. In example, we always hear this story

from others or even see the visualization of this inspirational

photo about making decisions. Showing two roads, the first one is

a zigzag road with lots of people but the end point is towards a

dark place we could not even imagine. On the other hand, the second

road is illustrated as a straight road with only few people and it

is directly towards God. What does the picture wants to portray?

It shows that we don’t need to go with the flow. We don’t need to

follow the majority just because society deals with it. Not all

things that are accepted by our society are right. It may seem

right to the eyes of the majority, but never to the eyes of God.

The second notion is (2) Justice Equated with Equity. What is the

difference of the word equity and equality? Equity is an act in

which people are being judged according to their needs, capacity

or abilities. In example, there are three of you in your circle of

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friends. You have different heights – Your first friend is the

tallest among the three of you, your second friend followed next

and it comes out that you are the shortest. Three of you are

watching a concert but were only able to buy tickets for the

General Admission section. A guy offered you and your second friend

a platform to stand up on so that you can see the stage better

knowing that you’re standing behind tall people. The platform given

to you was taller than the platform of your second friend. This

shows equity. The guy gave you different heights of platform so

that the three of you will be able to sight the performer equally.

Sometimes, equity is being consumed in a wrong way. For example,

you and your older brother were given a cake that was supposed to

be distributed equally by your mother. But knowing that your

brother is your mother’s favorite and he is older than you, he was

given credit. He received a larger piece of cake than yours. This

is an example of a wrong understanding and application when it

comes to equity. Thus, for Gabriel Marcel, justice and equity have

to be kept separated and have to be distinguished. On the other

hand, what is the meaning of the word equality? It is an act of

judging an individual regardless of his/her own needs, abilities

and standards. Let’s go back to my previous example about the cake.

For you to be able to obtain justice, you and your brother should

be given the same amount and size of cake regardless of your

mother’s favoritism and regardless of your age value. In this way,

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being fair is showed. But like equity, equality can be also

performed and understood in a wrong way. Another example is that,

half of your class failed on the exam and the other half passed.

In order for everyone to pass, your teacher gave additional points.

Knowing that others were able to perfect the test, they were still

given additional points. Hence, whether you don’t need it or you

barely need it, additional points were distributed accordingly and

equally without judging other’s needs. Do you think it’s fair? In

short, we can say that both equity and equality have its own good

and bad side depending on the scenario. It isn’t equity that is

right all the time nor equality. Both of these has to be controlled

and should be balanced properly.

“True Authentic Justice as the Beginning of Love”. We can only

come to an authentic understanding of justice in the context of

love, not in the context of: (1) Partisan interest, (2) Equity,

(3) Tariff of Legal System.

Let us put this in our minds. Each and every judgment should be

guided all the time. There are times that we are being carried

away by our emotions, causing us to think languidly and forget the

fact that we should set our minds and hearts together. Failure of

putting our hearts on the path we are taking can cause false

judgments, unbiased truth, and an apparent justice. Think of it.

In accordance to Denis Diderot’s statement which is “We swallow

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greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little

at a truth we find bitter.” Sometimes, we are so angry towards a

person, we tend to be unaware of what we are saying. Worse comes

to worst, we are becoming too desperate of setting false truth

just to get the justice that we think that is for us, when the

reality is, it isn’t really for us.

Albert Einstein, a very well-known scientist and philosopher once

stated that “In matters of truth and justice, there is no

difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning

the treatment of people are all the same.” Let us consider the

state of others. Think for them, not for ourselves. All of us have

the right of knowing the authentic truth that leads to authentic

justice.

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can

be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is

to bring them the real facts.” - Abraham Lincoln

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the

point is to discover them.” – Galileo Galilei

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter

who it's for or against.” - Malcolm X

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 3RD QUARTER

Last quarter, in my term paper entitled “Truth in a Nutshell”,

we’ve successfully opened our minds about truth and justice. Now,

for this quarter, we shall encounter the message of the movie that

we recently watched which is entitled “Romero”. And also, we will

tackle about the true meaning of the word Anawim. On my entire

term paper, we will try to connect some of the eight beatitudes of

Jesus.

The movie was about an introvert priest named Oscar Romero. As the

unexpected events come to his life, he then started to realize

that he must make a move for his people.

Oscar Romero was born on August 15 in the place of El Salvador. He

was a simple man who learned to be a carpenter, making tables,

chairs and doors for a living. At the age of 14, he started to

gain interest on becoming a priest. At that age, he goes to junior

seminary and then again leaves the seminary for three months and

works in a gold mine for his ill mother. Years later, his dreams

came true and he was ordained as a priest and sooner became a

bishop of Santiago de Maria.

In the movie, there are some scenes that showcased the reality of

being a Catholic. The movie showed different kinds of hardships

and sacrifices that Oscar did for him to serve his helpless people

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in El Salvador. The government and the church seemed to have

different kind of principle. They seemed to fail to meet in the

middle of the intersection. As a result of their misunderstanding,

those days became unfair. They treated Catholic people

differently. Catholics were discriminated and they get to be

treated badly by civilians. Thousands of people were persecuted

because of this battle.

Despite of the excessive abuse that they encountered against the

government, their faith never stopped. Oscar Romero as their church

leader didn’t lose hope for his people in El Salvador. He continued

fighting, continued speaking and shouting the truth.

In this movie, we are taught to open our eyes. We are taught to

make use of our hearts in understanding the reality of being a

Catholic. Thus, let us not allow the government to fill our world

with this so-called word “injustice”. Our faith is being tested

here whether we are going to fight on what we truly believe, or we

will just let other people’s power reign to invade our own

understanding and principle in life.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for

they shall be satisfied.”

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For the second part of my term paper, we will showcase the meaning

of the word Anawim. The word Anawim is also connected to our

previous topic about the movie “Romero”. Anawim is a Hebrew term

that refers to those people who have nothing to do but to depend

on God. Anaw in Hebrew means poor, humble and afflicted. Commonly,

they are the ones who could not trust in their own strength so

they have to rely in utter confidence upon God for they know that

God is their only last resort for hope. They have nothing. In

short, the word anawim is known to be the poorest of the poorest

of the poor. These people are the “outcasts” of this society.

According to the Old Testament, they are the poor people who

remained faithful to Yahweh and who continued to hope for salvation

in spite of everything. In the movie “Romero”, El Salvador was

filled with anawims, poor people. Regardless of their poverty,

they continued fighting for their faith and didn’t allow themselves

to be swallowed by the system of their government’s unruly acts.

Why do we have this so called “Anawims” in our society? Anawims

are victims of man’s injustice; the failure to receive man’s

privileges. They are the ones who weren’t able to receive the

things they need because of other people’s selfishness. The

simplest example is about food. Most of the poor suffer from

hunger. Aren’t we seeing this? We are so fond of buying food that

will satisfy our cravings and sometimes we won’t even finish it.

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When I was I child, I used to waste food for some reasons. There

are times that I get to think that I can finish a plate full of

food then ending up losing my appetite. I used to leave my food on

my plate, unfinished. My parents kept on telling me: “Oy, ubusin

mo yang pagkain mo. Maraming batang katulad mo ang nagugutom.”

(Hey finish your food. Lots of kids out there suffer from hunger.)

At first, I keep on asking myself: “Kung mauubos ko ba to,

mabubusog sila?” (Does that mean that if I finish my food, they

won’t suffer from hunger anymore?) Yes, I admit, what I acted when

I was a child was a selfish move. I never imagined that I was lucky

enough to receive food that will satisfy my stomach. I felt guilty

the moment I grew up. Now, tables are turned. Whenever I’m seeing

a kid wasting his or her food, I am the one now who keeps on

reminding them that they should value the things that they receive.

What is the opposite of anawim? They are the ones who are proud

and self-sufficient and the ones who showed no need of God. They

are also the ones who are full of pride, who doesn’t know how to

recognize that all things which are good came from himself and not

from God. I pity these kinds of people. They don’t know the art of

appreciation. Their hearts are drowned by their own pride and

boastfulness.

On the eyes of other people, anawims are the unlucky ones for we

all know that they are called poor because they don’t have money

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or any material things that will show signs of being rich. But

let’s gather ourselves and let’s come to think of it. Aren’t they

the real “lucky ones”? Like I told you, they have nothing and they

only have God as their last resort. This makes them lucky. Their

faith becomes stronger that make them closer to God. Remember what

the church taught us? Lucky are those who are closer to God for

they have the greater chance to enter His kingdom. Jesus was born

poor. He was born in a manger, simple as that. Even though He is

the Son of God, He was humble enough to step down to the level of

the poor. He wasn’t afraid to accept the life of the poor. Hence,

Jesus knows how to get along with His people. Haven’t we noticed?

Majority of His miracles favored the poor. In example, He cured

the ill, He made a lame walk, He gave sight to the blind and more.

God can be anywhere, especially in the midst of the poor person.

Now what is the real challenge for us Catholics? How can we be the

church of the poor?

First of all, the gospel calls Christians to put the needs of the

poor first. Secondly, our primary concern will always be those who

live on its margin. Third, we firmly believe in the equal dignity

of all. These are just some of the reminders that we should

understand and we should never forget. We are taught to put our

upmost concern to those people who are in need. Hence, it is our

duty to help one another instead of pulling other people down. We

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are not called to do such things that may harm other people and

create more anawims. We are called to rise up and help one another

without forgetting the real reason why we live here on earth – our

God.

Before I end this term paper, I must also remind all of you that

this lesson didn’t teach us to only remember God whenever we are

in the times of need. Thus, let us not cut our bonds with God even

though we are at our most fruitful and successful times. Let us

all remember that He is always the reason on what we have and who

we are now.

“They were not materially poor. They were also poor in spirit.”

“I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could

get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand; pounds;

yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.” – Mother Teresa

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of

heaven.”

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 EPILOGUE

In this entire school year, we’ve tackled several topics. On our

first quarter, we discussed about Conversion, Freedom, and the Law

of Love and Conscience. On our second quarter, we discussed about

Truth and Justice. Lastly, on our third quarter, we discussed about

The Life of Romero and Anawim.

But of course, there will always be a topic that will stand out

and will catch our attention. For me, the topic that caught my

attention was the topic about Authentic Justice in Relation to the

Truth.

I connected this topic to our current issue about the extrajudicial

killing. According to Inquirer.net, a total of 3,257 extrajudicial

killings were committed during the Marcos dictatorship. In

contrast, there were 805 drug-related fatalities from May 10 (when

Rodrigo Duterte emerged winner of the presidential election) to

Aug. 12. If the current rate continues, the total number of

extrajudicial killings for the six years of the Duterte

administration will end up about 700 percent more than the killings

committed during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship. Rodrigo

Duterte was the newly elected President of the Philippines last

2016. He won because lots of people were astonished and his plans

for his country were admired. He wanted to cut the increasing

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number of drug addiction. He wanted to discipline people. He wanted

to stop crime. We all know that it is a good idea because it is

for the betterment of our country. But are we all aware on how he

will put this so called “goals” into reality? Some people aren’t

aware of that of course. They were blinded by the fancy words of

Duterte. All that they can see were the goals but never the process

behind it.

To define truth, truth is the Urgency and Importance of Waking up

From Spiritual Stupor. Spiritual stupor is an act in which a person

isn’t able to think and evaluate well. It is the lack of doing

his/her own effort of making things better beyond their own

satisfaction. It is a complacent feeling or condition of a person.

Hence, truth is the extreme demand of waking up within our own

boxes.

Let us go back to the issue. What is extrajudicial killing?

Extrajudicial killing is a way of executing an individual by the

government authorities without the sanction of any legal process.

See? Majority of the people who were killed without any legal

process are those people who were wrongly accused, thinking that

they were engaged to any drug practices. Meaning, the moves of the

government are very insufficient. Partial truth doesn’t lead to

100 percent justice. Killing people without the right judgment is

just a mere proof that we are disobeying one in God’s commandment,

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the fifth one which is – “Thou shall not kill.” It is an example

of an immoral and unjustifiable act. Also, none of us has the right

to take one’s life. Only God has the power to decide. He’s the

creator and He will also be the one to take.

According to Archbishop Socrates Villegas, “To kill a suspect

outright, no matter how much surveillance work may have

antecedently been done on the suspect, is not morally justified.

Suspicion is never the moral equivalent of certainty, and

punishment may be inflicted only on the ground of certainty.”

The problem with the war on drugs is that it is a war, and like

all wars, a lot of innocent people are going to die. This is an

unequivocal example of injustice. We can never obtain justice

without us knowing the authentic truth.

It is true that our current justice system is notoriously

imperfect. But we do not improve our way of life by marching back

to the Dark Ages where justice is made synonymous with violence.

We improve our defective justice system by fixing it, not by

abandoning it. Let us not allow ourselves to be blinded by great

promises but has a dark contrast in it. Bittersweet it is.

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