GOD

a) Fundamental Rights
b) Fundamental Obligations
c) Divine life
d) Prayer
e) Brotherhood
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a) Rights

        Until this point, we have seen how all humans, because we are children of God, always have dignity and freedom which no one can take away from them, except God himself.

        A series of own rights corresponds to this dignity, which are not just mere concessions of authority. The main human rights were dictated by the UN in 1948 and they are the following:

1st Life. Everyone has the right to be born, grow up and die with dignity, without being physically or psychologically mutilated.

2nd Law. Everyone has the right to live securely, where there is a law that allows them to live in order, with equality and possibilities for the future, to be innocent until proven guilty, to have medical assistance and to have security in their old age.

3rd Family. Everybody has the right to choose his/her own way of life, no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. We can all marry whoever we want, and have freedom of residence and movement within the borders of each state. We have the right to own property, to have as many children as we want and to educate them as we see fit.

4th Freedom of thought. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion, religion and conscience, and association to achieve any lawful end (be it economic, political, cultural….), and to just and favorable remuneration and freedom in his work and the right to periodic rest and leisure.

b) Obligations

        All of the constitutions worldwide must include the 4 fundamental rights. However, everyone must also correspond with their personal obligations which are based on building together a common good.

        These obligations are:

1st Honor God and your country. Everyone must respect and love God the Father, doing this within our own culture, language or religion, and to serve our own mother country whenever and in whatever form needed.

2nd Work. Everyone must earn their daily bread, obey their boss, and favor a healthy work atmosphere. The boss must pay his/her workers and let them have a private or family life and give the workers paid vacations.

3rd Educate our children. Everyone has the obligation to feed, give medical care and send to school all of their children which are not of legal age, and to keep their marriage intact.

4th To be fair and honest. Everyone must tell the truth, give everyone what is theirs, pay their taxes, respect other people’s property and help the neediest.

c) Divine life

        Every parent gives life to his/her child. They transmit their own genes, way of being, intelligence and will, their defects and peculiarities, their education…. even their inheritance.

        Also, we as children of God receive him freely. No one can take this away from us, this being or image of God: The spiritual or soul part, the artistic or intellectual capacity, the freedom to do good or bad… and even his inheritance of the eternal kingdom for those who deserve it. This is the highest hope for mankind, "becoming like God" or having divine life implies:

-human fulfillment. We become perfect new people, cured from all of life’s wounds and being strong when there are hardships;
-happiness on earth. This gives the true sense of things, knowing that we are enjoying them, and that we are above them;
-inheritance of heaven. This
lights our path on earth, always looking towards the future and ending our life on earth with a good preparation for heaven.

d) Prayer

        We have been looking at everything a parent does for his/her child, and also what God does for us. So now it’s the child’s turn to give back to his/her parent, and our turn to correspond before God. If what a parent most cares about is his/her child’s life, God also likes us to love him and to enjoy what he has given us. This is what prayer is about.

        Prayer consists in talking to and being with God in order to:

-give thanks, trusting him, placing our future in his providence, recreating the beautiful moments we live in our lives;
-asking for forgiveness, being humble, recognizing our miseries, examining all the times which we have falling and discovering his eternal mercy;
-asking for help, be
ing constant, asking him for good luck in our jobs, for our families or studies, commending our loved one to him.

        We pray to God, as our Father, to the Virgin Mary and to the saints which have been commended by the Church.

e) Brotherhood

        In this world which God created, a universal brotherhood should exist among all of mankind. If we are all children of God, then we should all act like brothers and sisters, because god loves us and we should love each other.

        Socially, people need other people. Brotherhood can be:

-interior, getting along well with everybody,
-exterior, help
ing the neediest.

        All human brotherhood and all collaboration with the most needy require 3 necessary steps:

-vocation, receiving the call of God, who asks me to help others, his neediest children;
-preparation, mentally transforming, and training one’s self to the best of one’s ability in order to commit oneself for life to this mission;
-mission, giv
ing up much as is needed materially as well as spiritually, giving up one-self and showing the way so that others can follow.

 

Mercaba Eds 
Diocese of Cartagena-Murcia 
General Diagram of Mercaba's Youth Catechism