Kitab Suci dan Tradisi (Handout for Grade X, Chapter III)

Chapter III

Scripture and Tradition as a Source of Faith toward Jesus Christ

 As a believer in Jesus Christ, we want to improve ourselves based on the person of Jesus Christ. The person of Jesus Christ become the basic and example of our self-development, because in Him we find a greater human dignity that acceptable by God. He is the image of God that has been chosen as the way, truth and life. In Him we find the perfection of human being in the presence of God. In order to find Jesus as perfect figure, we need to improve our understanding through of the main source, which is the Holy Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, as well as the tradition of the Church. Holy Scripture become the source of our faith.

A.  Old Testament Scriptures

For the faithful (orang beriman),  Holy Scripture have very important role:

·         Became the main written source for human being to understand the saving work of God at all time.

·         Source of reference and inspiration to develop faith. Due to this reason every faithful needs to understand the Holy Scripture Correctly.

The Old Testament as the Christians have now been prepared through a long process, about more than Ten Centuries, since Eleventh Century BC until about the First Century AD (Ando Domine-BC).

The History of the Old Testament

At first, is in the form of a collection stories about the experience of the Israelites in their relationship with their history and at the same time in relationship with the role and the presence of God in their lives. The experiences of God's saving work throughout their history was told to their children and grandchildren throughout their generations. Until one day there are certain people, who have been inspired by the Holy Spirit write dawn into a whole book as we have today. Holy Scripture is not a history Book, athought there is historical elements.

The Contents of the Old Testament

About the Old Testament, the Second Vatican Council document on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), article 14 said:

Loving God with full attentition, plan and prepare the salvation of all humanity. God chose for Himself a people, to do His promises. Because after the agreement with Abraham (cf. Gen. 15:18) and with the Nation of Israel through Moses (cf.. Exodus 24: 8), with the word of God and His works, He revealed himself to the people that He chose to experience how God relate with humans.

For the prosess of salvation which is described and explained by the author as the True Word of God written in the Book of the Old Testament.

The Relation Between Old Testament and  New Testament.

Documents Vatican II about Divine Revelation = Wahyu Ilahi (Dei Verbum), article 16 said:

God, the author of the Books of the Old and New Testaments, in His wisdom acknowledged that the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament opens in the New Testament.Then what is the relationship of the Old Testament and the New Testament?

The meaning of the "Old Testament"

                                          The term "Old Testament"

                              is used to distinguish the "New Testament".

In the history of Salvation, the relationship between human and God assured(diikiat) by the Promises, which is in the Old Testament, all human being is symbolized by the Israelites especially through their leaders.

The Promises is a covenant of Love to save (Perjanjian Kasih yang menyelamatkan). In that covenant, God promised to always save the people and from human being, God challenge faithfulness.

Unfortunately the faithfulness of God is often rewarded (dibalas) by the infidelity of the Israelites. But God who is faithful continue to keep promises to save humanity by:

the renewal of the promises through His Son Jesus Christ. So the Old Testament is talking about the covenant between man and God before Christ.

The history in Old Testament is a history of Faith. Although the "Old Testament" is not perfect but its remains important. In Old Testament God reveals to human being about:

1.      How God interact with human.

2.      The awareness about the presence of  God.

3.      The great teachings about the wisdom of God.

4.      The life procedure of human life.

5.      The promises of the coming of Jesus Christ the Redeemer.

6.      The preparation of the kingdom of God.

The process of making the Old Testament Scriptures

Generally the Old Testament contains of two major parts, namely the Prehistory Book and History Book.

·         The Prehistory Book,

      

begin from the story of the Creation unti the Tower of Babel = menara babel Genesis 1-11.

The History Book

starting from Abraham who lived around the year 2000/1800 BC until before Jesus Christ.

The process of the writing of the Old Testament:

1.      Between the years 1800 - 1600 S.M:

the time of the Fathers of the nations = bapa-bapa Bangsa (Abraham-Isaac-Jacob).

This period was the beginning of Israel's history that starting from the call of Abraham to the story of Jacob. In this years the Fathers of the nations still alive.

2.      Between the years 1600-1225 S.M:

The story of the Israelites run away to Egypt, slavery in Egypt, the liberation from Egypt to the Sinai Covenant. The stories also still be delivered orally. The short formulation of the 10 commandments has been written on this period as a way of life.

3.      Between the years 1225-1030 S.M:

The struggle (perebutan) for the land of Canaan and the time of the Judges (hakim-hakim). In this period, the people of Israel taken (merebut) the land of Canaan which is believed to be the Promised Land under Joshua's leadership.

4.      Between the years 1030-930 S.M:

King’s Period (zaman raja-raja).

In this period, the Israelites entered in a new era of their life. They began to embrace a structure of their life that begins with King Saul, later replaced by David and continued by King Solomon, David's son. At this time the Israelites became well-known and respected by other nations. At the time of King Saul, David and Solomon, the parts of the Old Testament Scriptures begin to be written.

5.      Between the years 930-722 S.M:

Kingdom of Israel and Judah.

After King Solomon died, Israel divided into two kingdoms, the North Kingdom (Israel) and the South Kingdom (Judah). Northern Kingdom lasted until 722 B.C. In this period began the preaching of the prophets like Elijah and Elisha, Hosea and Amos. At this time some parts of the preaching began to be written. We can read in Deuteronomy.

6.      Between the years 722-587 S.M:

The Kingdom of Judah still in progress after the failure of the kingdom of Israel.

The kingdom of Judah is still strong until they finally exiled to Babylon in 587 B.C. At this time some written traditions about the story of fathers of the nation began to be collected together

7.       Between the years 586-539 S.M:

The exile of the Istaelites to Babylon.

The people of Israel from the Kingdom of Judah lived in Babylon, for 50 years. The book of Lamentations (ratapan) was written. In this period also the priests (para Imam) write the laws that included in the book of Leviticus(imamat).

8.       Between the years 538-200 S.M:

After the exile, the Israelites were allowed to return to their homeland by the Persian king.

The Persia King overpower(mengalahkan) the kingdom of Babylon.

At this time the five books of the law (lima kitab taurat) has been completed. Also the history books of Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, and Kings already completed. The books of the prophets too many have finished and selected 150 psalms which we have received until now.

       The reason why we must read and study the Old Testament are:

1.      We will see how God continuously and faithfully reveals Himself to be known; and how the nation of Israel responded to the revelation of God. The quality of the relationship between God and the nation of Israel can be imitated by the people of today in building a better relationship with God.

2.      The Old Testament is the Word of God. Due to that humans must listen and do what is said to us.

3.      It contains predictions (Nubuat-nubuat) about the Messiah that God has promised. Therefore, understanding about Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of God's promises can be fully understood if we study the Old Testament.

4.      Jesus himself as a Jew (Yahudi) founding his teaching in Old Testament. He does not deny the Old Testament, but affirm and renew it.

A.     New Testament

                                   The content of the New Testament

                                    is the faith experience about Jesus.

Through the relationship and togetherness with Jesus, either direct or indirect, they finally believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior and the fulfillment of God's promise to save human being.

Basically, the authors have different faith experience about Jesus Christ,

it deepends on the backgrounds that they havewith Jesus. That is why the style, the way and the content of the faith experience that they proclaim and write has a different emphasis to one another.

In the midst of the difficulties to read and to understand the contents of the New Testament, the Holy Council(konsili suci) requests that all the faithful must often reading the Holy Scriptures again and again in order to have the knowledge about Jesus Christ (Dei Verbum Art. 25).

About the Holy Scripture, St. Paul in his Second Letter to Timothy says that all the writing that given by God are:

1.      Useful for teaching.

2.      To show the wrong action that done by humanity.

3.      To improve behavior (memperbaiki kelakuan).

4.      To teach the truth. "(2 Tim 3: 26).

                                                 St. Hironimus said:

"Ignore the Holy Scriptures means Ignore Jesus Christ."

Old book (PL) speaks about the covenant between God and the people of Israel; while the second book, named the New Testament, speaks about the covenant between mankind and Jesus of Nazareth. So both are seen as God's covenant with mankind. only in the old covenant(perjanjian lama), an agreement is still limited to the Nation of Israel, while in the second period named which "the New Covenant," the relationship was extended to all mankind.

So the essence of the word "Covenant"

               is more clear in the Old Testament, but deeper in the New Testament.

In the NT God deals with mankind no longer through a letter of an agreement (naska perjanjian), but through His own Son Jesus Christ.

The process of writing the New Testament (27 books) is a long process that is about 100 Years.

When Jesus was still alive, no one of his Apostles take notes about what he did or what he said, or anything about his life. They just want to be the Apostles of Jesus who follow Jesus wherever He went, stayed with Jesus, learned to listen to his teaching, and witnessing the actions of Jesus. Only after the resurrection of Jesus, they began to feel how important is the presence of Jesus in their lives, and for many people who had been following Jesus. Then after Jesus' resurrection, the Apostles began to realize that Jesus is Lord and Savior.

Pentecost

is a moment for them to be brave to proclaime to many people about who Jesus really is.

                                                   Pentecost is a Blessing moment

They are brave to preach the life of Jesus. And they started coming out from their hiding place, and go to different places to teach about the life of Jesus. Then many people believe in Jesus and give them to be baptized. They are scattered in different cities, until outside of Palestine. The apostles can’t present in their midst, so sometimes communication is done through letters. The letter could contain advice to resolve issues or teaching or stories about the life of Jesus.

Only after the disciples died and the people who believe in Jesus Christ more and more, then at that time comes the need to write about the life of Jesus, his work, his words and the end of his life. Because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they wrote the story of Jesus based on their eye witnesses (saksi mata). His followers are already spread in the middle of the World(read Luke 1: 1-4). And through writing they can already proclaim their faith (and the faith of the church) about Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

The Period of the Life of Jesus Until the New Testament.

1.    Between the year of 7/6 before Christ (BC) - 30 AD (M)Jesus was born around 7/6 SM *, grew up in the village of Nazareth, the Galilee area. His spiritual life is so deep and obey the law strongly (cf. Mt 5:17).

2.    Around the year 27/28 AD Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River         

                       by John the Baptist.

Then he went throughout all Galilee and Judea to proclaim the Kingdom of God. When Jesus was born, and appear in public, Palestine was under Roman colonizer  led      Caeser Augustus  and at that time the Palestine was led by King Herod.

3.    In the situations like this there is an hatred atmosphere among the Jews against the Roman colonizer.

The Jews believe that their God is a faithful God and always present in their life.

In this conditions their hopes on God become stronger that God will free them from suffering through a figure called the Messiah.

4.    After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus continue the mission that has been proclaimed by John. Jesus reveals God's intervention to human being through:

  

                                 His Life, His Word and His Work.

5.    In proclaiming His mission as the Messiah, Jesus use

      Parables to be easily understood by people.

Jesus delivered with divine authority(penuh wibawa). That is why Jesus always said: "I tell you ... (Mark 1:27).

6.    The hatred of the Religious Leaders and the Pharisees could be seen to test Jesus because they want to kill him, (Mt 12:14). In the end, they used the opportunity to arrest him during the Easter  Celebration.

7.    Since the arrested of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Apotles who always together with Him seems very scare of afraid. Peter deny, the other disciples scattered every where. Jesus must face agony alone even carrying the cross without any body. Until finally Jesus died on the Cross.

8.    The resurrection of Jesus

is to strengthen their faith.

Finally they believe that Jesus is:

Messiah, the Son of God, Lord and Savior. They are more and more convinced of everything that has been proclaimed by the Old Testament about the Messiah, and it was seen as accomplished in Jesus.

In the year of 367 Saint Athanasius collected a list of the Holy Scripture, including the New Testament. The Catholic Church recognizes that the number of writings or books in the New Testament  are 27 books. The essence of the New Testament:

·         About the life of Jesus Christ

·         About the work of Jesus.

·         About Word of Jesus.

·         About the struggle of Jesus

Although New Testament  focus on Jesus, but there are also the life of the first Church.  Generally the form of the New Testament is about Parable, Teaching, Letters and Prediction.

The four writings in New Testament is called GOSPEL.

·         The Gospel of Mattew,

·         The Gospel of Luke

·         The Gospel of Mark

·         The Gospel of John.

Their writing stop with the story of Jesus appeared after Resurrection from the dead. Seeing from the contents (isi), the four Gospels consider as the most important book.

The "Acts of the Apostles" tells

about the beginning of the first Christian community and its development for more than 30 years with the two main characters, namely Peter and Paul.

Last Revelation is the Revelation of Saint John.

This book contains about the life of all Christians and the whole world. The book is directed to the future or the end of time, and the affirmation of God's work of salvation.

St. Paul in his letter to Timothy asserts (menegaskan)

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, reveal the wrong deeds, correcting attitudes and guide people to walk in righteousness"(kebenaran) (2 Tim 3: 16-17)

C. Tradition

Traditions in the Church

is an expression of the experience of the Church's faith in Jesus Christ, which is received, proclaimed, celebrated, and accepted through out the generations.

The Tradition have a future orientation and at this time is very precious because there is the time of Jesus and the Apostles.

The New Testament is the center and source of all the tradition, because it reveals the experience of the faith of the Early Church. The Catholic Church believes that the Scriptures (the Bible) with the tradition are declared by the Church as "the highest point of reference of the faith of the Church" (Dei Verbum Art. 21).

                                    "The Truth of the Faith"

Is Direct to the reality of faith and the disposition of heart in responding to the God’s revelation.

To preserve Tradition, the early Church collected and compiled the sacred writings which were recognized as Faith of the Apostles. The canonization of the Scriptures became very important especially to distinguish the wrong teachings from the original teachings. The early church also developed the formulation of the creed as a form of normative confession of faith. In that way, God's revelation is maintained and expressed in the life of the church.

Church traditions maintained by the Church, especially traditions that grow and are carried out in a special period of time, namely

the times of Jesus and the Apostles, called

the age of the Early Church.

The tradition was built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets with Christ Jesus as the Cornerstone (Eph 2:20). Then the formulation of the experience of the faith of the Early Church, called the New Testament Scriptures written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

 is the center and source of all Tradition. Because the New Testament Scriptures teach steadfastly and faithfully and without error, truths that God wants included in them for the sake of salvation.

Manusia Mahkluk Otonom (Handout for Grade X: Chapter II)

Chapter II 

Autonomous Human Beings

As autonomous creature, human beings have the freedom to determine attitude, with freedom. Etymologically, Autonomy comes from Greek(Yunani) which is"autos" means alone, and "nomos" means law or rule, so the concept of autonomy is the representation of oneself. 
It means to stand-alone independently. So everyone has the right and power of determining the direction of his own actions. He/she must be able to become the master of oneself.

Talking about the human being is not that easy and simple, because human being is unique. The uniqueness is expressed as human nature. It is difficult to understand and to be understood as a whole but deep with in man thare are a lot of spiritual power that motivate a person to work independently and to be developed.

Independent autonomous is a capacity to determine his/her will, and to decide his/her own actions in the achievement of his will. God is already gave the intellect that makes human being know what to do and why to do something. With the capability that they have, man is able to distinguish between good and bad and make decisions based on conscience and able to be critical of a variety toward life decision.

A. Conscience

Conscience is a moral consciousness (kesadaran) that grows in human heart. Narrow conscience can be understood as an application (penerapan) of moral consciousness in concrete situations, that evaluate the bad or the good action of man. Conscience appears as good and honest judges, although they could be mistaken.  Inner voice or conscience is a power or special ability to distinguish good deeds or bad deeds, as well as to measure the action was based on the intellectual capacity. Conscience is the result of our deepest personal dialogue with God when we face and respond to the situations of everyday life - today.

St. Paul tells us that within us there are two laws, namely the Law of God and the law of sin. Both laws were contradictory(bertentangan). God's law leads to goodness, while the law of sin leads to crime. St. Paul realized that there is always a struggle between good and evil in human heart (cf., Rom 7: 13-26). While in his letter to the Galatians 5: 17 St. Paul says that we should give ourselves led by the Spirit. We must try to win our conscience and our tendency that misleading(menyesatkan). We must be sensitive to listen to the invitation and the grace of God.

Church through the Second Vatican Council, especially in Gaudium et Spes Art. 16, said, "It is not uncommon, that conscience is wrong because of our ignorance. With the help of God's Spirit we are able to win the powerful of our conscience.

The struggle of Conscience In Everyday Experience

 Human life is very different from God's creation, such as animals or plants. There was a time in which men should undergo a struggle when we try to perform an action, especially when we have to make a decision ex.  whether their actions are possible or not, whether it's done right or wrong, whether such action would harm others or not. That ability doesn;t possessed by other God's creation, because their actions be directed by instinct. The ability to struggle  before and after, it was due to human have a conscience, or inner voice or conscience that given by God ".

The struggle of Conscience 

The teachings of the Church and the Scripture about Conscience

      The Teachings of the Scripture: Romans 8:31-38. 9:1; Romans 13:1-7

      The Church's teaching of Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes Art 16

"In the depths of his/her conscience, man discovers the laws, that comes from God and must be obeyed. Conscience always call us to love and carry out what is good and avoid what is evil. Because in our hearts we discover the law that written by God.

Conscience is a human center which is very sacred; in that place we human being stay alone with God, with the message of God echoed in our heart. With the fidelity to conscience, the Christians are join toghether with another Christian, searching for the truth and that truth will help us to solve many moral issues, which arise both in individual lives and in the life of the society. "

The conscience itself can be understood generally and closely.

Broad sense: In the widest/broad sense means the awareness of moral conscience that grow and bloom in human heart.

Narrow sense: Conscience is a moral consciousness in concrete situations as experienced by the Boy in the earlier story. Conscience evaluate a human action is it right or wrong, good or bad. Conscience appears as good and honest judges, although they could be mistaken. Conscience is the voice of God, if against conscience means against God. To be faithful to God's will we need to be united with the Holy Spirit and rely on his strength.

Work of conscience can be viewed from various aspects:

Aspect of time

1.      The conscience can play a role before an action is made. Naturally, the conscience will tell if it's good deeds and prohibit if it's bad deeds.

2.      The conscience can play a role at the time when the action is performed. He will continue to tell if the action is good and forbid if it is bad or evil deeds.

3.      The conscience can play a role after an action is made. The conscience will "commend" if the action is good and conscience will make us nervous or regret if the action is bad or evil.

Aspect of right and wrong

1.      True Conscience if our conscience matches(cocok)with the objective norms. For example: helping people who are experiencing disaster.

2.      Wrong Conscience if our conscience does not match with the objective norms.

Surely or not(segi pasti tidaknya)

1.      Conscience is sure if morally(secara moral)our conscience is not mistaken.

2.      Hesitant conscience, means there are still doubts.

Following are the causes of our dull(tumpul) conscience:

1.      The person concerned is ignore his conscience.

2.      People who always hesitant or confused.

3.      The influence of education within the family or other environment.

4.      The Influence of mass media.

How the conscience works:

·         Before acting, he/she must know thata there are good and bad. Indeed, this moral consciousness has been held by every adult.

·         In the moments before acting, he/she act as a judge who told us to do good and forbid / avoid what is evil.

·         After the action is completed, our conscience will state whether our actions were proper or improper. If we do it right, he/she will feel calm, but when wrong then he will give penalties, which make us feel guilty and uneasy.

Through a clean conscience, everyone is called to work together to solve the problems in society, so that the problems in the community should be solved first of all through dialogue, which is based on conscience, because conscience is the voice of God. Do not directly approached using religions or law. Example: when to catch the person who stole a banana just a few seeds, shall be punished according to law. But it can be if approached using conscience, it would appear that the thief was forgiven. Another example: when there are young couples of different religions want to marry, according to state law prohibited marriage, but when obey conscience maybe people will think why love should be limited by the rules?

How to develop a conscience:

·         Someone who always act according to his/her conscience, the conscience will be more bright.

·         Someone who always follow the promptings of conscience, confidence will be healthy and strong. They will be trusted by other people, because they have a pure heart and loving God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Matthew 5: 8).

·         By reading: Scripture, Church Document, and other books that can provide values.

·         By asking people who have knowledge / experience and trustworthy

·         Participate in spiritual activities, such recollections, retreats, etc.

·         Correct yourself or self-introspection

·         Maintaining the purity of heart by releasing the emotions and as well as the self-sacrificing, which appears in three ways:

1.      Straight purpose straight or recta intention(maksud yang lurus) it is consistent with what was planned.

2.      Setting emotion or ordinario affectum(pengaturan emosi): it does not determine the decision emotionally.

3.      Purification of the heart or purification cordis(pemurnian hati): no personal interest or specific intentions behind the decision.

It can be trained to examination of conscience such as to reflect our words and actions the whole day, praying before doing the activities. 

Conscience as the guidelines to make the decision.

Conscience is the place where God whispering what we should do and what we should not do. So, obey your conscience is obey God alone. Obedience to conscience is necessary to be trained from small things. Many people know that lying is not good but a lot of people have the custom to lie. If the habit is not stop from the beginning, then these habits will carry over a lifetime.

Read the following story: "The Store of Conscience" page 39

St. Paul, when he was arrested and imprisoned in public proudly said: "Brothers, till this day I still live with a clear conscience before God." (Acts 23: 1) more he said: "Therefore I always try to live with a clear conscience before God and man". (Acts 24:16) Think, what custom that  we leave so that the voice of your heart remains pure. Say it in front of God, and ask the strength so that we will be able to abandon the bad habit.

B. Be Critical and Responsible Against Mass Media Influence

Media communication of today is growth very fast. As a result, the information that goes into everyday life is not persisting(tdk bisa dibendung). The problem is, there are good informations and there are also bad informations. In general, the teenagers are tempted to receive the media presence. They just swallow what is provided and does not digest. In connection with that teens need guidance so that they can be critical in choosing the media and is able to process them to improve their quality of life. We are required to be critical with what ever  the information we get.

Being critical does not mean totally rejected the media, but we try to clean it and is able to account for what we choose and we believe. The critical attitude supposes maturity of thought, capable of considering the good-bad thing, selective and able to make a priority in determining the life choices. Thus, we will be able to put mass media in its proper place for the development of ourselves.

The Various Media Influence In Everyday Life.

 "Teenagers become the victims of Media, really?" The media has a big role in people's lives as well as teenagers. Media is a tool to convey ideas, about what we feel, we can share experiences, knowledge and so on.  The media also foster mutual understanding, mutual sharing, mutual compassion among the people. Now a day media technology can present many forms and make opened easily and more to present an information. Therefore the media is something that can not be avoided, even though the role of the media is so dominant and complete but also carry a very significant influence.

Like two sides of different changes, the mass media have positive and negative effects, which can be benefit the society and at the same time can also loose the objects of the media itself, both in behavior, moral and intellectual. Media can change the attitude of the people, control the feelings and behavior of the society through the offered image. For teenagers, who are still in the process of growing can experience the affect the mental, behavioral and intellectual. Well when watching TV, reading a magazine or tabloid, and when listening to the radio. It can be seen from the change in mindset, behavior and mental health. For example, many young women are willing to spend money to buy beauty products because of the advertisement on tv and other media in order to appear attractive. Similarly, young men feel macho if he smoke, as shown in cigarette advertising that gives the image of a real man, so one might think "if a man smoke.. And many more examples of behaviors that are victims of the image generated by the mass media. In this point, the teenagers have high curiosity, want to experience something new, and want to be like what he saw, because at this time the teenager does not have a mature self concept.

According to some specialists who observe the impact of the mass media, said that the role of a parents as the close people are expected to accompany the youth on how to use the of both electronic and published media. Then the parents need to have a dialogue educative and creative with the youth, about the imitations that they consume, so they can still take the positive values ​​of the media, and the negative infuences of media can be minimized.

The perspective of the Church about Media Social Communications

Declaration on Social Communications, the positive team and negative team.

Both groups read the following article: "Dare to Take Attitude!" "You have to dare to take a stand! Make media as a tool not a master! The confirmation chairman of the Social Commission of the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI Komsos) Mgr. Hilarion Lega datus Pr. Said that "Media is not everything else that should go beyond conscience, healthy mind and concrete needs of the people who are using the media. This affirmation must be taken by anyone, including young people and parents who want to educate their children in facing the overflow of media. "The negative implications of the media can not be avoided. Whether we like it or not media brings bothe influences

Read and reflect the Gospel (Mk 2: 23-28).

Both groups answer the following questions:

·         What do you understand from the statement: "Make media as a tool not a master! Media is not everything. Media should go beyond conscience, mind healthy and concrete needs of the people who are using it. "

·         “Mgr. Hilarion Lega datus Pr. Also stressed the need to be critical of the media. By the way how that attitude manifested?

Summary of ideas that you get in a motto, for example: "No Signal, Life Go On!"

We must have a critical attitude towards all the information that we receive. The critical attitude means it can chose what is right and what is wrong; where the good and bad; which are positive and which are negative. So, we have to be critical of the positive and negative influences of media that serves a variety of information.

There are reasons of positive influences of the media because:

1.      Technology media bring people closer to each other. Our mind and our relationship became more open to others, to other nations and other cultures, etc.

2.      The media technology can make us involved in all the occeans. Ex. We are involved in an earthquake in Algeria, on SARS in China, in the World Cup, etc.

3.      Technology media presents quality and attractive reporting. The news via satellite and internet networks are more animated.

The negative effect as a result  from media technologies, :

1.      Media has built an empire and a very strong power. Those who owns the media means they are strong and powerful. They are overpower to each other. Media creates a new culture, the local native culture will slowly eliminated.

2.      The media is a business. Through the media can be built false perception of well-being. Welfare means having the material as much as possible. Humans are no longer judged by the character and dedication, but from what they had (house, car, money, etc.)

3.      Through the media can be created stereotypes or the labels about the figure of beauty, fashion, etc.

4.      Through the media can be created sensation challenge of sex, violence, and horror may be very loved by the audience.

5.      The owners, authorities and media sponsors can perform a variety of business and behaviors for the sake of business and politics.

6.      Live Schedule and work becomes irregular. More time is using to watch and hear the media programme. Interpersonal communication in families is reduced.

7.      Addiction and involvement in violence often happened because of TV or chatting on the Internet or HP (SMS).

8.      Flow urbanization is often caused by imitations glamor of city life.

C. Be Critical to the ideology and Lifestyle now a days.

Basic thought

In today's modern life, we can not escape the various environmental influences. Moreover, as experienced by many young people of today, regardless of its form trends from fashion, music, movies, to the various other lifestyle, until the general life style influence can not be avoided. Levels of influence depends on our maturity in making choices. The hope is that we must be critical.

During his life, Jesus met with various people who hold a variety of ideology. for example, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots. In facing the ideology, understanding, Jesus already had a critical attitude. Jesus remained on His choice (His option) which is the kingdom of God. Jesus has also been faced with various offers, such as social guarantee economy, power, and choice, but he decided not to accept. (cf., Matthew 4: 1-11). Options (option) Jesus remained in His option about proclaiming the kingdom of God.

In today's modern life, we can not escape from the various environmental influences, or ideology that exist today. Lifestyle is the behavior of someone who is shown or display in their activities, interests, and their opinions with regard to image and social status.

The Bible teaching of the Need to Be critical of Lifestyle, Trends and Evolving Ideology

(Luke 4: 1-13) Jesus was tempted in the wilderness

1.      What proposal that offer by the devil to Jesus?

2.      What is the attitude of Jesus deal with the proposal?

3.      What message do you get from the story

The devil tempted Jesus by offering things (cf., Lk 4: 1-13). First: Bread, sustenance, social security economics. Second: The status and power. Third: The pleasure and enjoyment.

The temptations that offer by the devil to Jesus is so that Jesus will no longer proclaim the Kingdom of God, and so that Jesus will concern with social security, economy, power, and pleasure. Jesus rejected, because there is something more fundamental, which is the Kingdom of God! Jesus was critical of ideology and the movement that happen in His time.

When Jesus lived in Palestine there have been many groups for example: PHARISEES (from the Hebrew word Pharesees = 'separate') The group of Pharisees is a group of serious Jews(Yahudi) who received the written and oral law and carefully obey to all the obligations. They criticized Jesus because forgives the sinners, breaking the Sabbath rules, and interact with the sinners. Jesus against their attitude. They work closely with the Sadducees (their opponents) to kill Jesus. SADDUCEES, Sadducees Group is one of the Palestinian political groups in the time of Jesus. They have a big influence in politics. They are closely related to the High Priest, the nobles, and the conservatives. In religion connection, they rejected the oral tradition, the resurrection of the dead, and the angels.