God Comes To Meet Man

GOD REVEALS HIS “PLAN OF LOVING GOODNESS” CCC #50-53

Alvin Pena - La Nueva Alianza

I. READ CCC #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. 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.

A. What does it mean to know God by natural reason?

1) On the 2nd week of class, we spoke about ways of coming to know that God exists through creation, as stated in paragraphs #31-35 of the Catholic Catechism.

2) As we noted on that day, in paragraph #31, it states, these "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world and the human person.

a) We spoke about the World, and how it's order and beauty gives testimony of God the Creator.

b) We also spoke about how the Human Person “questions himself about God's existence with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his longings for the infinite and for happiness, and the voice of his conscience.” (CCC #33)

c) In speaking about this on the 2nd week of class, we spoke about how creation gives testimony of God. Tonight, we will speak about how God had decided not to depend only on the testimony of creation and of the prophets, but to give the perfect testimony of Himself.

B. This other order of knowledge of which we will speak about is called Divine Revelation.

1) What is the meaning of the word Revelation? (“To make known something that is hidden.”)

2) Now, how can we define Divine Revelation? - The glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it as, “God's communication of himself, by which he makes known the mystery of his divine plan, a gift of self-communication which is realized by deeds and words over time, and most fully by sending us his own divine Son, Jesus Christ (50).”

3) READ Genesis 3:8-10; 3:14-15

a) Here, we see that even since the beginning, God not only gave witness to Himself through creation , but revealed Himself to Adam and Eve, who are our first parents.

b) As we can see in Genesis 3:8, it was the custom of LORD God to move about in the garden.

c) In verse 15, the LORD God begins to speak of His Divine plan, which will consist of sending His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who will be born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

d) So, as we can see, here God begins to slowly reveal His Divine Plan of heavenly salvation.

4) I should like to point out here that, as we speak of Divine Revelation, we should make an effort to read the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation “Dei Verbum”, by Pope Paul VI (November 18, 1965) This document is second of importance after Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)

5) God slowly begins to reveal this great mystery, as He calls Abraham to make of him a great nation, then, afterwards, “through the patriarchs, and through Moses and the prophets, God teaches His people that He is the One Living and True God.” (DV)

C) READ Hebrews 1: 1-4

1) This reading tells us that God revealed Himself in many ways, but only partially, to our ancestors through the prophets. However, it was God's desire and plan to reveal Himself fully through His beloved Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ our Lord.

D) What is God's plan of loving goodness of which we read about in CCC #50?

1) READ Ephesians 1: 3-9

a) Before He created the universe, God chose us in Christ, to be before His Divine Presence for all eternity (in holiness and sinlessness)!

b) Because of His great love for us, it was His desire to plan to adopt us to Himself through Jesus.
c) Christ came to redeem us by His precious Blood, through His passion, death and resurrection, through which we obtain grace for the forgiveness of our sins.

d) In Christ, God makes perfectly known the goodness of His mercy, desiring to save us all through Him.

E) READING From DV: Chapter II Handing on Divine Revelation (Paragraph 7):

“7. In His gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what He had revealed for the salvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations. Therefore Christ the Lord in whom the full revelation of the supreme God is brought to completion (see Cor. 1:20; 3:13; 4:6), commissioned the Apostles to preach to all men that Gospel which is the source of all saving truth and moral teaching,[1] and to impart to them heavenly gifts. This Gospel had been promised in former times through the prophets, and Christ Himself had fulfilled it and promulgated it with His lips. This commission was faithfully fulfilled by the Apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by observances handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The commission was fulfilled, too, by those Apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing.

“But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors, "handing over" to them "the authority to teach in their own place." This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2).”

1) As we see from this reading, it clearly states that the full revelation of the supreme God is brought to completion in Christ the Lord. Also, Christ commissioned the Apostles to preach to all men that same Gospel He Himself preached.

2) The Apostles were faithful in this commission, handing on what they had received - from Christ's words, life and actions, and what the Holy Spirit had taught them - through their oral preaching, their example, and their observances. The Apostles cooperated with Christ in this Divine Revelation.

3) We also see here the importance of the Church's existence. The bishops are the Apostles of today - they are the Apostles' successors - and through this sacred tradition, continue to teach with the same authority Christ gave to the Apostles, transmitting orally what has been received from Christ (see section E #2 above)

4) With the death of the last Apostle (St. John) came the completion of Divine Revelation. However, the Holy Spirit is to help the Church, through time, to come “to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” (SEE CCC #66-67, and #73)

II. READ CCC #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."

A. READ Ephesians 3: 1-12.

1) Looking at verse 3, St. Paul says that there is a mystery that is made known to him by revelation. What is this mystery?

2) This mystery of which he speaks about “was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” (verse 5)

3) So, what is this wonderful mystery of God's will? As we read in verse 6, it is“that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”

4) St. Paul, who is considered an apostle, stated that to him this grace to be God's minister was given, “to preach to the Gentiles,” to you and to me, and to all, “the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things.”

a) As was stated earlier, in the past, God had only revealed Himself, and the mystery of His will, partially, though in many different ways, to the patriarchs and prophets, and so we can understand why it could have been believed that only the people of Israel can obtain salvation. The plan of this mystery was hidden, but now made known through Christ and His Apostles. The mystery of God’s will is salvation not just for the Jews, but for all gentiles, for all people. God wishes all to be saved.

B. READ 2 Peter 1:1-4

1) St. Peter stated that “His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and power.” The Full Revelation of God, made public to all in Christ and through the Church, grants us everything that makes for life and devotion, all that is needed in order to live a holy life pleasing to God.

2) God desires for us to share in the divine nature. It was part of the mystery of God's Will that we be not only His creatures, but that we be His very own children in Christ. This gift of becoming His children is given only in the Sacrament of Baptism.

C. In Pope John Paul II’s message for 6th WYD, he says: “The deepest mystery of the Christian vocation: [is that] in the divine plan, we are indeed called to become sons and daughters of God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

III. Read CCC #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.

A. Not only does God want to communicate His own divine life in order to make us His children, He gives us His Spirit to make us capable of responding to Him, of knowing Him, and of loving Him. Only through His grace can we do this, for without Him we are not capable of this through our own strength.

IV. Read CCC #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 other. 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

A. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and He gave sight to the blind. Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” and He resurrected Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and the son of the woman of Nain. Christ's deeds and words, as well as the deeds and the words of His Church's Apostles, through the Holy Spirit, realizes the divine plan of Revelation. Jesus said, “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in My Name – He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (Jn 14:25-26) The Lord Jesus also said, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” (Jn 16: 12-13)

1) The Holy Spirit, who worked together with Christ in His mission, continues working this mission through the Church. He is the Spirit of Truth, and throughout the ages teaches the Church all the truth that is found in Christ, and which He revealed to His Apostles.

2) The Spirit of Truth reminds the Church of everything that Christ taught (see Part I, section E, #2) and guides the Church to all truth, so that the teachings that the Church defines and professes are all related to the mystery of the divine plan, which was made known by God's communication of Himself.

Alvin Peña