LESSON 4 OBEYING GOD’S LAW IS EXERCISING

AUTHENTIC FREEDOM
Path 12 Christ’s Law of Love

CONTEXT LOVE WORD WEB

ICON
Write a word or a phrase based on your understanding and
experience of what love is.

LOVE
LOVE

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 ICON –
EXPOSITION

Sacred Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He

said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with
all your soul, and with your entire mind. This is the greatest and the first
commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two
commandments.”

Jesus’ answer to one of the scholars of the law first brought out the two well-
known love commandments of the Old Testament. Second, He brought out the inner
bond between the two: Love of God and love of neighbor. Love of God truly is
exemplified in loving our neighbor. Third, Christ demonstrated what loving God with all
your heart, soul and strength means by His own teachings and life, especially His
passion, death and resurrection.
To love God with all our hearts (buong puso, loob, kalooban) means loving Him
with everything we have, our inner desires and longings. It is a love which is undivided.
They are those who sincerely seek God in everything they do and are always seeking to
follow God’s will. To love God with all our soul (buong kaluluwa) means obeying God
even at the risk of one’s life. This love was exemplified by the martyrs of the Church,
like St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his companions, Blessed Pedro Calungsod, Fr. Rhoel Gallardo,
CMF, who was killed by the Abu Sayyaf on March 20, 2000 and Sr. Paulina Santiago,
SPC, who offered her life by giving away her own life vest to someone else before the
ship sunk. To love God with all our strength (buong lakas) means loving with all one’s
resources of wealth, property and reputation. St. Ignatius of Loyola truly exemplified this
as he had given up everything for the sake of God.
Fourth, Christ gave a radically new interpretation to “neighbor.” The word
neighbor must be understood universally which include everyone; Those in need,
including our enemies.
Fifth, Christ reduced the whole law and the prophets to two love
commandments. The Ten Commandments are divided into (1) love of God and (2) love
of neighbor. “You shall love your neighbor.” The heart of each of these commandments
is Love. Love is the source of their value and origin.

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 Church Teaching: Lumen Gentium 42
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1
Jn 4:16). God has poured out His love to our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has
been given to us (cf. Rom 5:5); Therefore the first and most necessary virtue is charity,
by which we love God above all things and our neighbor because of Him.

We learned in our previous lesson that Jesus came not to “abolish the law and the
prophets… but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). Christ’s purpose was to help us overcome the
moral obstacles that impede us because of the stubbornness of hearts” (cf. Mt 19:8) by
proclaiming the commandment of love.
Jesus Christ invites and empowers us to follow Him along the path of love, by
which we give ourselves generously to our brethren out of love of God. God’s Spirit
inspires service to our neighbor. We, Filipinos have these natural qualities of sympathy
and compassion which truly motivates us to love our neighbors. In our own little ways
we can show this love as we imitate the lives lived for example, by St. Lorenzo Ruiz and
his companions, Blessed Pedro Calungsod, etc. “Ang pakikiramay (pagkahabag) sa
kasawian ng iba ay isang pagkakawang-gawa.” Our human love should be dynamic,
always going beyond itself, always aspiring to greater love. St. John reminds us in his
first letter: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and knows God. He who
does not love God does not know God; For God is love…Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another… We love because He first loved us” (1Jn 4: 7-8, 11,
19).

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INTEGRATION

Morals
Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with your entire mind. This is the greatest and the first
commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.

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 Make a Decree

I, ___________________________________________
(Name)

promise to love God and my neighbor through:

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

____________________________________________
(Student’s Signature)

___________________________________________
Teacher’s Signature
_____________________
(Date)

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 Doctrine
The law of love sums up the law and the prophets based on the truth of God our Creator
creating us out of pure love, for love.
Think or make a research of a person you know or have read about who has best
exemplified his/her love of God and neighbor. Share his/her life with your
classmates.

Worship
To love God and our neighbor, even our enemies, is possible because of the Holy Spirit
whom we have received in Baptism. He empowers us to love.
Compose a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to empower you to love even your enemies.

SUMMARY
There is no explicit limitation to our human loving. Limited love would not be genuine
love anymore. Love has a radical and unconditional aspect within it. Threfore our human love
reaches out to God Himself. This unity of genuine love of God and love of neighbor is seen in
the light of faith which thus deepens and radicalizes our human fellowship. Concretely, this
means that we never separate our daily dealings with one another from our relationship with
God (CFC 946).

VOCABULARY
Lumen Gentium- Dogmatic Constitution on the Church

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 ICON –
CHALLENGE

LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS CHRIST LOVES US. ONE THING IS

CLEAR: LOVE IS TO BE SHOWN IN DEEDS, NOT JUST IN WORDS.

The following Works of Mercy are ways and means of loving others. Think of ways
which you can do at your own level of how you can live them out.

CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY

Feed the Hungry.

Give drink to the Thirsty.

Clothe the Naked.

Shelter the Homeless.

Visit those in Prison. SPIRITUAL WORKS OF

MERCY

Visit the Sick. Instruct the Ignorant.

Bury the Dead. Admonish the Sinner.

Counsel the Doubtful.

Comfort the Sorrowful.

Bear Wrongs Patiently.

Forgive all Injuries.

Pray for the Living

and the Dead.

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 ICON – VOCATION
SERVANT LEADER STORY

The vocation story we are about to read depicts the life of a nun who followed truly
her conscience despite the big factors that may have impede her entering the convent.

Nenita Maria Asuncion U. Faypon is the third child and the only girl of four children. Her
father is a Protestant, a very good man, and her mother, is a devout Catholic. All the children were
brought up in the Catholic faith. Sunday Mass was a regular practice, as was the daily recitation of the
rosary before going to bed.

Nita was in Grade VI at St. Paul College of Tuguegarao when she thought of becoming a
Sister. She was fascinated by the goodness, kindness and concern of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartes
to those entrusted to their care. The thought of religious life was nourished by attending daily Mass
with her two older brothers who used to serve the 6:00 A.M. Mass at the Ermita, the church just
outside the school.

As she was the only girl, her brothers were very protective of her. She was the apple of her
parents’ eye. Her father called her his “little queen.”

In school, she was very active in extra-curricular activities like the SPCT Glee Club,
Dramatic Guild and Dance Troupe. She was Archdiocesan President of the Student Catholic Action
and an officer of the Sodality.

In her sophomore year in college, she met someone who became special to her, a young man
who was a senior in college. He proposed that they get married after her college graduation since he
already had a stable job. In spite of the fact that they were going steady and they loved each other, the
thought of entering the convent kept coming back in her thoughts and dreams. They talked about it
openly, but the young man was seriously preparing for their future together.

When Nita was a college senior, she sought the help of a spiritual directress, Mother Marie
Alexis Pacis, SPC, to help her discern what the Lord really wanted from her. She prayed and
reflected over the matter. The Christmas before her college graduation, she asked her parents for a
unique Christmas gift: Their consent to enter the convent after the commencement exercises in
March. Her father firmly told her, “Over my dead body!” She also wrote her boyfriend explaining to
him why she was breaking up with him, ”not because she loved him less, but because she loved the
Lord much more.”

Nita’s eldest brother, a major seminarian who had always been supportive of her entering the
convent, promised to ask their parents to respect her decision. Deep within her she was determined to
enter the convent, whether her parents would give their blessing or not. She was even ready to
escape. She had taken a double course, AB-BSE, but she completed her BSE first, and needed only
one more subject to finish her AB. She asked to take up summer school, though she was preparing to
enter the convent that summer. When she was about to leave the house for summer school, her father
approached her and gave her two important documents that she needed to enter the convent, her
parents’ marriage contract and her baptismal certificate. He said: ”We cannot give you your

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happiness. If you think you will find it in the convent, we will give you our blessing; But, keep in
mind, if the convent is not for you, the door of the house is always open for you to come back.” He
took her in his arms and it was the first time that she saw him cry. Then the man who had proposed
marriage visited her and said; ”There is only one condition that I ask. You have to assure me that it is
not because of another man that you are breaking up with me. I cannot compete with God”

She was 19 years old when she entered the convent. She changed her name to Sr. Mary
Rosella in honor of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, her model and mother, She lived a meaningful
and fruitful life forming young Paulinian professionals in her Congregation’s Education Ministry,
helping in the spiritual development of teachers, office staff, maintenance personnel and students in
her Retreat apostolate and in the catechetical formation of SPC Junior Sisters. Being able to follow
the dictates of her conscience and the call of the Lord freely and completely is the best gift that she
received from the Lord who has blessed her a hundredfold!

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LESSON SUMMARY

ACRE CONNECTION

What is the relationship between conscience and objective moral laws?

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Closing Prayer:

Your word, Lord is a lamp for my steps

and a light for my path.
I beg You for the grace to obey Your
decrees.
As I go through life, help me to remember
Your law.
If the wicked try to ensnare me, help me
to be faithful to Your precepts.
Accept, Lord, the homage of my lips and
teach me Your decrees.
Your will, Lord, is my heritage forever,
the joy of my heart.
I set myself to carry out Your will in
fullness forever. Amen.

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