Understanding God’s Forgiveness and Mercy
This unit explores God’s forgiveness and mercy, presenting God, through the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” as a Father always willing to forgive. We explain the meaning of repentance and what asking for forgiveness involves, drawing a parallel with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We establish the relationship between forgiving and being forgiven as two attitudes that must coexist in every person.
Objectives
- Knowing the Bible: reference, structure, and meaning, identifying some basic texts as the Word of God.
- Discovering God’s action in nature and in people as the foundation and source of basic human values.
- Identifying key figures in the History of Salvation and their response of faith, discovering the central value of Jesus Christ and the faith response of the Virgin Mary.
- Assessing the novelty of God’s love that saves us from sin and death through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through the life and saving work of the Church, the Body of Christ.
- Analyzing the hierarchy of values, attitudes, and norms that shape a Christian and applying them to different life situations.
- Knowing, appreciating, and respecting the religious heritage, arts, and culture manifested through symbolic language and iconic architecture, painting, literature, music, and liturgy as an expression of Catholic faith and other religions.
Referential Content
- The meaning of Jesus’ life as personal dedication and commitment to all people.
- The sin of humanity as a break with God, with others, and with oneself.
- The forgiveness of God and His mercy. Miracles of Jesus.
- The faith and monitoring response to Jesus Christ. The “commandment of love.”
- Comparison between artistic expressions of major monotheistic religions. Identification of the author’s faith and community.
Evaluation Criteria
- Identify actions and words of Jesus, showing God’s love for humanity.
- Understand that sin breaks our relationship with God, that Jesus Christ restored it through His death and resurrection, and that God’s love lasts forever.
- Explain that faith and works are responses to God’s love manifested in Jesus Christ.
- Distinguish and relate the Sacraments of Initiation, Reconciliation, and Eucharist.
- Implement artistic and liturgical gestures, the basic content of Christian faith, and other religions.
In relation to faith, a believer receives God’s forgiveness when they repent of their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. This includes past, present, and future sins, big or small. Jesus died to pay the penalty for all our sins, and once they are forgiven, all is forgiven. However, when we stumble, we are expected to confess our sins. A Christian life should be a changed life.
Anthropological Perspective
The human person is, in essence, constituted bodily. Its specific realization is, in many ways, dependent on physiological, economic, sociological, cultural, and psychological conditions. Conversely, guilt and sin also take shape in the organizations and structures created by humanity and human society, which, in turn, are internalized by people living in such concrete structures and organizations, and so may tax the freedom of people and lead to sin. Such structures, guilty and struck by sin, may therefore act in a humane, alienating, and destructive manner. God is indeed the Father of all people, for under God, humanity is a single family. Reconciliation with God has to lead and help reconciliation with our brothers and sisters, entering a civilization of love, of which the Church is a sacrament, that is, a sign and instrument. Only love can open us to experiencing love for God and others. Penance, therefore, cannot be understood as purely internal and private.