Preliminary Examination in GEC RE 002

GOD IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH, IN THE SACRAMENTS AND BEYOND

2nd Semester, S.Y. 2020-2021

Answer the following questions comprehensively, substantially, clearly, and logically.

Express your answers in a minimum of FIVE SENTENCES. Any answer below five
sentences will not be credited. Do your best to express your answers in your own words.
Answers that are copied from the internet are easily identified. (65 pts)

Rubric for Checking:

1. Sentences with correct grammar, punctuation, comma, and period. (30%)

2. Clarity of thoughts, coherence, and consistency of ideas. (35%)

3. Essay content, smooth flow of ideas, and validity of thoughts. (35%)

1. Give a summary of how your church got its name. (10 pts)

The origin of the Catholic Church is the tragic compromise of Christianity with the pagan religions that
surrounded it. Instead of proclaiming the gospel and converting the pagans, the Catholic Church
“Christianized” the pagan religions and “paganized” Christianity. By blurring the differences and
erasing the distinctions, the Catholic Church made itself attractive to the idolatrous people of the
Roman Empire. One result was the Catholic Church becoming the supreme religion in the Roman world
for centuries. However, another result was the most dominant form of Christianity apostatizing from the
true gospel of Jesus Christ and the true proclamation of God’s Word.

2. What makes the Catholic Church a universal Church? (15 pts)

Catholic Church is a Universal Church because of the words , One, holy, catholic,
and apostolic that are often called the four marks of the Church. One: the Church is one. This
means that it is a single, united and global Church that has its basis in Christ Jesus. Holy: the
Church is holy because it is the Body of Christ with Jesus as the head. This does not mean that
all members of the Church are sin-free. It means that the Church and her sacraments help to
make the faithful holy. Catholic: the word catholic literally means ‘universal.’ The role of the
Church is to spread the Word of God universally across the world.Apostolic: the origins and
beliefs of the Church started out with the apostles at Pentecost.

The number of Roman Catholics in the world (nearly 1.1 billion) is greater than that of
nearly all other religious traditions. There are more Roman Catholics than all other Christians
combined and more Roman Catholics than all Buddhists or Hindus. Although there are
more Muslims than Roman Catholics, the number of Roman Catholics is greater than that of the
individual traditions of Shiʿi and Sunni Islam.
 We are whole because its members are bound as one to our one Universal God by the
Eucharist and the Faith of the Apostles. We are all baptized into One faith, One body of Christ.
This is why the scriptures call it the church of the living God. Broadly, Roman Catholicism
differs from other Christian churches and denominations in its beliefs about the sacraments, the
roles of the Bible and tradition, the importance of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and the papacy.

3. If the Church is Holy, why is it full of sinners? (15 pts)

The church is the laboratory of sinners the church is indeed holy but it does not mean that the people
that go to church are holy. The church is a place for us to pray and ask forgiveness for wrongdoing that we
have done in the past or our daily lives. Because the church is not only for the holy, the majority that attends
mass or goes to church is sinners that is why the church is full of sinners. The church is full of a sinner
because all of us are sinners, and people go to church to confess, pray, and reflect. in this generation many
of us commit so many sins by the influence of devil online that is why church is full of sinners but still the
church is holy.

4. Being a member of the Church’s hierarchy, what particular problem of our Church you are to give attention and
solution? (10 pts)

One challenge the Roman Catholic Church faces today is the fact that young people are poorly catechized.
The challenge the church faces is how to reintroduce the concept of the continuity of Jesus Christ and the church
to younger generations who feel that they already learned this and don’t have anything more to learn. In
reintroducing these concepts, the church has to teach the fundamentals of the faith. Being a member of the
Church’s hierarchy, I would prefer to give attention and solution to this problem thru catechism to the young
people on the truth about the church and our faith. We need to educate youth like me to understand what is the
deeper meaning of being a catholic and having a Christian faith.

5. Why there is a need for Mary in our history of salvation? (15 pts)
Mary is the daughter of The Father, the spouse of The Holy Spirit, and the mother of our Savior,
Jesus. Mary is The Blessed Virgin Mother, The New Eve, and The Arc of The New and Everlasting Covenant.
Mary is to be honored and loved because she is our Mother, our Queen, our Advocate, and our Intercessor. It is
through Mary that salvation (=Christ) came to us but she is not salvation. She is the first redeemed person
through Jesus. The Catholic faith does not obligate us to believe in Mary as the mandatory way to or source of
salvation. Mary's contribution to the Incarnation was to provide the Son of God with a human body, with flesh
and blood. In becoming the human mother of God, Mary performed her concretizing function: she enabled God
to become accessible to our senses, as she allowed God to become tangible. Roman Catholic views of the Virgin
Mary as refuge and advocate of sinners, protector from dangers, and powerful intercessor with her Son, Jesus are
expressed in prayers, artistic depictions, theology, and popular and devotional writings, as well as in the use of
religious articles and images.