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Additional Notes for CLE III:
PCP II SESSION 5
The new way of being a church is the one where people form Basic Christian Communities (BEC).
The BEC is in the heart of the new way of being a church in the modern world. PCP II 137-139 appropriately summarizes this point.
Our vision of the church as a communion, participation and mission, about the church as a priestly, prophetic and kingly people and as a church of the poor – a church that is renewed – is today finding expression in one ecclesial movement. This is the movement to foster BASIC CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES. (PCP II 137)
They are small communities of Christians, usually of families who gather together around the Word of God and the Eucharist. These communities are united to their pastors but are ministered to regularly by lay leaders, the members know each other by name, and share not only the Word of God and the Eucharist but also their concerns both material and spiritual. They have a strong sense of belongingness and responsibility for one another. (PCP II 138)
Basic Ecclesial Communities consciously strive to integrate their faith and their daily life. They are guided and encouraged by regular catechesis. Poverty and their faith urge their members toward solidarity with one another, action for justice, and towards a vibrant celebration of life in the liturgy. (PCP II 139)

Please take note: When we say the “old way” or “former way”, we don’t mean to say it was bad or wrong. Perhaps the “the former way” was the best at that time! What we simply want to stress is that our present times demand a “new way” of being a church. Remember this, we are not abandoning the former way. We are just enriching it with the new way of being a Church.

BELONGING:

In the former way of being a church, when do people say they belong to the church?
• When they hear mass
• When they belong to mandated organizations like Sodality, Legion of Mary
• When they celebrate the sacraments

In the new way of being a church, when can one say one is a member of the church?
• When one belong to the basic ecclesial community or BEC
• When the center of life of BEC is the eucharistic celebration
• When one serves others in response to God’s Word

Share a story about a man looking for The Church Of Saint Peter and who was led to a people meeting at a certain home. The point is the church is not the structure or building but the people gathered there.

Deepening: WEST Group discussion:
Ask the worship and education groups to think of situations or remarks where they can still see the old mentality of the church with regard to its relationship to the world. Ask them to write in acetates.
Some expected answers:
• We still hear statement: “Why does the church put her nose into this issue?”
• Groups in the parish whose major or sole activity is prayer
• People who continue to believe that it is okay to suffer and to be poor in this world. After all, the real reward is in heaven when we die.
Ask the temporality and service groups to write in acetates, situations or remarks where they can already witness and experience the new way the church looks at the world.
Expected answers:
• Church getting involved in justice and peace issues
• Church involvement in political issues that touch morality
• Analyzing social problems in the light of God’s word

SALVATION AND THE NEW WAY OF BEING A CHURCH
How is salvation understood in the two ways of being a Church?
OLD WAY
• Salvation is an individual concern.
• Salvation is mainly through prayers and sacraments.
• Salvation is mainly spiritual: salvation of souls.
NEW WAY
• Salvation is in and through the community. How does this happen? Ask volunteers to illustrate this. (Indeed God uses natural means to effect salvation. Do you think you can become a whole person without your parents, friends, school and church?)
• Salvation is being whole in every way! All the aspects of our life like political, relational, economic, socio-cultural, ecological, and spiritual become whole.
• Salvation is working on self and social transformation into the image and likeness of God.
Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God; he is the perfect model. The Holy Trinity is the perfect community of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Before you see it’s a very unfair analogy, consider human beings who have succeeded in realizing (though not fully yet), the image of God in them like Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Ninoy Aquino, and our own Mother Marie Eugenie. As to a near perfect human community, consider the early Christian Communities who loved each other and shared with one another everything that they had. To live with these people and communities is partly heaven on earth, isn’t it?
Note: Remember this: SALVATION IS TAKING PLACE HERE AND NOW IN THIS WORLD AND IN OUR MIDST, IN AND THROUGH OUR BASIC CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY.

SERVICE:
In the former way service was in the form of donations to the Church, cleaning the church, helping out the priest, participating in the liturgical ministries like altar and music ministries and other spiritual services. In the new way service is both spiritual and outreach type. They are given to the least of our society. In short service in the new way involves all the aspects of church life (worship, teaching, caring for the least etc.

PCP II SESSION 6: BECOMING A CHURCH OF THE POOR

“How did Jesus treat the poor”
• Lk. 5:1-11 Call of Simon the Fisherman
• Lk. 5:11-17 Cleansing of the Leper
• Lk. 6:20-26 Sermon on the Plain – Blessed and Woe
• Lk. 7:11-17 Raising the Widow’s Son
• Lk. 7:36-50 Pardon of the Sinful Woman
• Lk. 13:10-17 Cure of the Crippled Woman
• Lk.14:1-6 Healing on Sabbath of the Man with Dropsy
• Lk. 14:15-24 The Parable of the Great Feast
• Lk. 16:19-26 The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
• Lk. 17:11-19 Cleansing of the Ten Lepers
• Lk. 18:35-43 The Healing of the Blind Beggar
• Lk. 21:1-4 The Poor Widow’s Contribution

Ask them to write one or two attitudes of Jesus to the poor on the board.
Which of these attitudes of Jesus truly reflect or would you like to imitate?

Yes, Jesus has a PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR!

Display PCP II 127, 134

This special love is a love of preference for the poor. It is not an exclusive or excluding love in such a way that there is no room in a Christian’s heart for those who are not poor.
This is the Church of the Poor” where the entire community of disciples especially the rich and better off sectors of the community and its leaders and pastors, will have such a love of preference for the poor so as to orient and tilt the center of gravity of the entire community in favor of the needy.

What does preferential option for the poor really mean?

This PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR MEANS:
• They should not be discriminated against when it comes to the celebration of the sacraments (PCP II 128)
• Preferential attention and time should be given to the poor (PCP II 129)

But doesn’t Jesus glorify poverty when he said, “Blessed are the Poor?” = NO

It is not their poverty that is “blessed”. Nor are they blessed because they are “better Christians” than their prosperous brothers or sisters. But they are blessed because their poverty has been historically the privileged place of the gracious intervention of God’s saving grace.

This statement of Jesus “Blessed are the Poor”, should also be put in the context of the proclamation of the Kingdom Of God. Jesus said when the Kingdom of God’s love and justice is realized; the poor will be the first beneficiaries because they are the ones who suffer injustice.

Jesus has also very DEEP RESPECT FOR THE POOR

Jesus deeply respects the poor. He regards them with same dignity as he regards other people. We are also called to respect the poor just as we respect other people, to accord them the honor due them as creatures of God.
Our respect for them demands that we consider their opinions, experiences, and orientation every time we have to plan or decide. This means that we look at the world through the eyes of the poor.
Pastors and leaders should learn to be with, work with and learn from the poor.
Display PCP II 132
The “Church of the Poor” will also mean that the church will not only evangelize the poor, but that the poor in the church will themselves become evangelizers. Pastors and leaders will learn to work with, and learn from the poor. A “Church of the Poor” will not only render preferential service to the poor but will practice preferential reliance on the poor in the work of evangelization.

ALLEVIATE THEIR POVERTY
We can see in the Gospel that Jesus’ response to people suffering is to alleviate it or end it. We are also asked to respond in the same way to the suffering of our brothers and sisters.
Display PCP II 129, 130, 131
The “Church of the Poor” will mean that the pastors and other church leaders will give preferential attention and time to those who are poor, and will generously share of their own resources in order to alleviate their poverty.
The “Church of the Poor” is one that will be in solidarity with the poor. It will collaborate with the poor themselves and with others to lift up the poor from their poverty. She does all in her power to relieve their need and in t hem she strives to serve Christ.
Pastors and members of the Church will courageously defend and vindicate the rights of the poor and the oppressed, even when doing so will mean alienation or persecution from the rich and powerful.

THE SPIRIT OF POVERTY
It is said that there are not only two types of people in the “Church of the Poor”: the materially poor themselves and those who decide to be poor. We are all called to be poor; to live simply and not luxuriously and to live with poverty of spirit.
Display PCP II 125, 133
It means a church that embraces and practices the evangelical spirit of [poverty, which combines detachment from possessions with profound trust in the LORD as the sole source of salvation. While the Lord does not want anyone to be materially poor, he wants all his followers to be “poor in spirit”.
Pastors and leaders such as a “Church of the Poor” will not compete for the most prosperous parishes or offices, and will not ambition for titles and honors. Rather, they will live simply in order to share what they have with the needy. They will follow the example of Christ, and thus set an example for others.
RESPONSIBILITY IN THE MISSION
For a long time, we have regarded the poor as mere recipients of evangelization. PCP II documents, however, call on us to have a preferential reliance on the poor for the work of evangelization.
Display PCP II 132
The “Church of the Poor” will also mean that the church will not only evangelize the poor, but that the poor in the church will themselves become evangelizers. Pastors and leaders will learn to work with, and learn from the poor. A “Church of the Poor” will not only render preferential service to the poor but will practice preferential reliance on the poor in the work of evangelization.