Author: D. Sader

The Importance of Love

Soon after Jesus’ death, his followers started to teach about his life and deeds. One such man was Paul. Paul was a Jew who had a spiritual conversion on the road to Damascus and spent the rest of his life traveling and teaching about Jesus. Paul believed that all people sin and all people can receive the grace of God. According to I Corinthians, one of the books of the New Testament, Paul said that love is the greatest thing.

How might love be the “greatest thing”?

Doing Good Works

Not long after Jesus’ death, the apostle Peter was speaking to a group who knew nothing about Jesus. He needed to summarize what Jesus had done. Part of his summary was simple: “He went about doing good works.”

How do you imagine Peter’s audience might have responded to this description of Jesus?

Distributive Justice

  1. What does it mean to say that distributive justice exists in a society?
  2. Describe how the story of Lazarus and the rich man is a parable of global distributive injustice today.
  3. How does omission play a role in the creation and maintenance of distributive injustice?
  4. Describe three avenues by which individuals can affect distributive justice.
  5. Find an article that points out the gap between rich and poor people in Canada. Write a brief response to the article.
  6. List some types of omissions by privileged people that can cause injustice to flourish for poor people.
  7. Research and compare government spending on military versus the needs of children.

Concern for the Common Good

  1. Define the “common good.” How does it differ from simply the good of the majority?
  2. What service opportunities exist for teenagers in your community? Write a brief description of three of them.
  3. Choose a public policy decision that is being debated in your community: municipal, provincial, federal. Write about how that decision could affect people one hundred years from now.

Seven Key Themes of Social Justice

Write an essay explaining which of the seven key themes of social justice is most important to you and why?

A Matter Of Conscience

  1. Reflect n writing on a time you chose to pay attention to your conscience versus a time you chose not to. Describe your feelings in each case.
  2. Research and write about an immoral practice other than slavery that was once considered morally right by most people.
  3. Corruption in business or government usually involves laxness of conscience. Focus on one instance of such corruption from a past scandal covered in the news. Write about how lax consciences may have played a role in the corrupt practices.
  4. Give three examples of cases in which a rule or law could be broken in good conscience.
  5. What do you think about the use of nuclear weapons today?
  6. What does the phrase “listen to your conscience” mean?

Jesus’ Moral Vision in the Parables

  1. Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
  2. Parable of the Talents
  3. The Sheep and the Goats
  4. Parable of the Mustard Seed
  5. Parable of the Good Samaritan
  6. The Rich Fool
  7. the barren fig tree
  8. Parable of the Prodigal Son
  9. The Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus
  10. the Pharisee and the tax collector

Two options for exploring these parables follow:
Option 1:
Read each parable and answer the following three questions about each parable:

  1. What has been taught by the parable?
  2. Can you think of a situation to which the parable applies today?
  3. What kind of person most needs to take this parable to heart?

Option 2:
Form a small group and select one parable from the list to produce as a short film. Try one of the following approaches

  • make up a script that closely follows the words of the gospel passage with a narrator telling what is happening.
  • make up a script that is a contemporary version of the parable or that shows the parable applied to a contemporary situation.

Society and Christian Teachings

  • What are four moral principals that are considered universal?
  • What are three examples of what could be considered violations of natural law?
  • What is a Christian approach to deciding whether to obey or disobey civil laws?
  • Detail an account of civil disobedience. Write about what prompted the civil disobedience, the rationale of the dissenters, and whether you agree or not with their action.
  • List the Beatitudes
    • What are four other moral guidelines for living the law of love from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?
  • Rewrite the Ten Commandments so that they express only positive ideals. For example, “you shall not kill” could be expressed as “protect human life.”
  • Rewrite as a contemporary story the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the good Samaritan.