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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

God comes to meet man


PART ONE
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE
"I BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE"
CHAPTER TWO
GOD COMES TO MEET MAN
50 By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another
order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine
Revelation.1 Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This
he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the
benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit.
ARTICLE 1
THE REVELATION OF GOD
I. GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF LOVING GOODNESS"
51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of
his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in
the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature."2
52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he
freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son.3 By revealing himself God
wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond
their own natural capacity.
53 The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which are intrinsically
bound up with each other"4 and shed light on each another. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God
communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural
Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God and
man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God dwelt in man and became the
Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man,
according to the Father's pleasure.5

II. THE STAGES OF REVELATION
In the beginning God makes himself known
54 "God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of
himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation - he
manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning."6 He invited them to intimate
communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice.
55 This revelation was not broken off by our first parents' sin. "After the fall, [God] buoyed them up
with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to show his solicitude
for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in
well-doing."7
Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the power of
death. . . Again and again you offered a covenant to man.8
The Covenant with Noah
56 After the unity of the human race was shattered by sin God at once sought to save humanity part by
part. The covenant with Noah after the flood gives expression to the principle of the divine economy
toward the "nations", in other words, towards men grouped "in their lands, each with [its] own
language, by their families, in their nations".9
57 This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is intended to limit
the pride of fallen humanity10 united only in its perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel.11
But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten
this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism.12
58 The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the universal
proclamation of the Gospel.13 The Bible venerates several great figures among the Gentiles: Abel the
just, the king-priest Melchisedek - a figure of Christ - and the upright "Noah, Daniel, and Job".14
Scripture thus expresses the heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live according to the
covenant of Noah, waiting for Christ to "gather into one the children of God who are scattered
abroad".15
God chooses Abraham
59 In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and
his father's house,16 and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a multitude of nations". "In you all
the nations of the earth shall be blessed."17
60 The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs,
the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity
of the Church.18 They would be the root on to which the Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to
believe.19
61 The patriarchs, prophets and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be
honored as saints in all the Church's liturgical traditions.
God forms his people Israel
62 After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt. He
established with them the covenant of Mount Sinai and, through Moses, gave them his law so that
they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true God, the provident Father and just
judge, and so that they would look for the promised Savior.20
63 Israel is the priestly people of God, "called by the name of the LORD", and "the first to hear the
word of God",21 the people of "elder brethren" in the faith of Abraham.
64 Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new
and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts.22 The prophets proclaim a
radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will
include all the nations.23 Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. Such holy
women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith and Esther kept alive the hope of
Israel's salvation. The purest figure among them is Mary.24

III. CHRIST JESUS -- "MEDIATOR AND FULLNESS OF ALL REVELATION"25
God has said everything in his Word
65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days
he has spoken to us by a Son."26 Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and
unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John
of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:
In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at
once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the
prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person
questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish
behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with
the desire for some other novelty.27
There will be no further Revelation
66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass
away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord
Jesus Christ."28 Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it
remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.
67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been
recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is
not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a
certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to
discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints
to the Church.
Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which
Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects
which base themselves on such "revelations".
IN BRIEF
68 By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive,
superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his
life.
69 God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and in
words.
70 Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in created things, he manifested himself to our first
parents, spoke to them and, after the fall, promised them salvation (cf. Gen 3:15) and offered them his
covenant.
71 God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings (cf. Gen 9:16). It will remain
in force as long as the world lasts.
72 God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God
formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared
them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity.
73 God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established his covenant for
ever. The Son is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him.
1 Cf. Dei Filius:DS 3015.
2 DV 2; cf. Eph 1:9; 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4.
3 1 Tim 6:16, cf. Eph 1:4-5.
4 DV 2.
5 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3,20,2:PG 7/1,944; cf. 3,17,1; 4,12,4; 4,21,3.
6 DV 3; cf. Jn 1:3; Rom 1:19-20.
7 DV 3; cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 2:6-7.
8 Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118.
9 Gen 10:5; cf. 9:9-10, 16; 10:20-31.
10 Cf. Acts 17:26-27.
11 Cf. Wis 10:5; Gen 11:4-6.
12 Cf. Rom 1:18-25.
13 Cf. Gen 9:16; Lk 21:24; DV 3.
14 Cf. Gen 14:18; Heb 7:3; Ezek 14:14.
15 Jn 11:52.
16 Gen 12:1.
17 Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8.
18 Cf. Rom 11:28; Jn 11:52; 10:16.
19 Cf. Rom 11:17-18,24.
20 Cf. DV 3.
21 Deut 28: 10; Roman Missal, Good Friday, General Intercession VI; see also Ex 19:6.
22 Cf. Isa 2:2-4; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 10:16.
23 Cf. Ezek 36; Isa 49:5-6; 53:11.
24 Cf. Ezek 2:3; Lk 1:38.
25 DV 2.
26 Heb 1:1-2.
27 St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel 2,22,3-5 in The Collected Works of St. John of the
Cross, tr. K. Kavanaugh, OCD, and O. Rodriguez, OCD (Washington DC:Institute of Carmelite Studies,
1979),179-180:LH, OR Advent, week 2, Mon.
28 DV 4; cf. 1 Tim 6:14; Titus 2:13.

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