At-Home Lesson#7

Human Community

Topic 3: The Lonesome End [1]

Behind YOUCAT

Years ago, the Army football team used to run an offense with one wide out, way at the end of the line, just a few feet from the sideline. He never joined the team in the huddle. He just stayed out there and somehow learned his role in the play, though how he knew what to do, most fans never found out. He came to be known as The Lonesome End.

God designed us for fellowship. He wants us to “huddle up”, learn the play, and run it together as a team. No “lonesome ends” in his design (unless you want to count hermits). Since by God’s design we need one another, it’s of absolute importance that we “strengthen” the “brethren” (Luke 22:32), as Jesus commanded Peter.

We can’t successfully live this life alone; each person, inestimably valuable in himself, needs to live in solidarity with every other person, or it all falls apart. Unfortunately, we often experience things falling apart and breaking down because of our own sinfulness. But God does not abandon us; he has sent his Holy Spirit to bind us together in Christ.

Read YOUCAT

Read the content under YOUCAT# 321, 323~324, 329~330, 333~334, 337~339, and 342 (numbers in yellow circle) from YOUCAT p.180~p.189. [2]

What Does YOUCAT Say?

1. What are the four central principles of Catholic social teaching (p.181, margin and YOUCAT# 323~324)?

2. All justice is based on respect for each person’s human dignity, but are all men equal (YOUCAT# 329~330)?

3. What is natural law, and how can we know it (YOUCAT# 333~334)?

4. How are we saved (YOUCAT# 337)?

5. Discuss the mysterious reality of grace, and how it works in us (YOUCAT# 338~339)?

Answer the above questions [Click Here]

YOU Reflect

Blessed John Paul II said, “No one can claim, as Cain did, that he is not responsible for the fate of his brother.” Together we form a human family of individual persons. When those persons respect and love one another, then freedom, peace, and security are the outcome for all the members of the human family. Furthermore, according to St. Catherine of Siena, God says: “I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.

What Does the Bible Say?

1. Read Acts 5:29.  Do you think Acts 5:29 proposes a sound principle for social justice?

2. Read Matthew 25:40.  How is Matthew 25:40 the basis of all social justice?

3. Read Ephesians 2:8-10.  According to St. Paul in Ephesians 2:8-10, how are faith, grace, and good works related? Who made us for good works?

4. Read 1 Peter 1:14-16.  What does St. Peter in his first letter (1 Peter 1:14-16) affirm about the Christian calling? How can we sinners successfully answer that call?

        Answer the above questions [Click Here]

YOU Chat

1. What do you think is more important, society or the individual? Give reasons for your answer.

2. Why is personhood a foundational principle for all justice in society?

3. What is subsidiarity, and how can we practice it in our own lives and in society?

Answer the above questions [Click Here]

YOU Challenge

Love:

Do one good, but unannounced, act today for a member of your family.

Memorize:

Commit to memory these words of Pope Benedict XVI: “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary” (Homily for the Mass of Inauguration of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, April 24, 2005).

Learn:

Study the meaning of each of the four central principles of Catholic Social Teaching: personhood, the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity.

References / Citations

[1] Brumley, Mark, Kersting, Jack, and George, Paul . YOUCAT Study Guide. San Francisco, Calif: Ignatius Press, 2013, pp. 53-54.

[2] Miller, Michael J, and Benedict. Youcat English: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. San Francisco, Calif: Ignatius Press, 2011.

[3] BibleGateway (online bible). https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Good-News-Translation-GNT-Bible/