Lesson 4
The Revelation of God
(Cropped photo by edlimphoto on Flikr)
Synopsis
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God has created us to live in communion with him. That is why we have a natural desire written in our hearts for God. We can come to know God through his creation, just as we can know an artist through their works of art. However, it is also easy for us to forget, overlook, or even explicitly reject our intimate bond with him. Therefore, to help us find him, God revealed himself to us. He did so gradually, through both his deeds and words. But in Jesus Christ he has given us the fullness of his revelation so there will be no new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time.
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Learning Objectives
You will have successfully completed this lesson when you can explain:
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how we can come to know God through his creation,
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why God chose to reveal himself to us, and
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how God actually did reveal himself to us.
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Introduction
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We believe that God speaks to us through the Bible.
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The books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures. (CCC 107)
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In the previous lessons, we look at several Bible-reading principles that can help us discover what God wants to reveal to us through this sacred book. In this lesson we will look in more detail at the concept of divine Revelation. Why and how did God reveal himself to us? We will answer these questions by presenting and explaining numbers 26 to 73 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You should study these numbers together with this lesson.
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Man’s Capacity for God (CCC 27 – 49)
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The Desire for God
The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for. (CCC 27)
We read in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 how God created us in his image and likeness to know and love him, in order to live in communion with him. In short, we are created by God for God. That is why the desire for him is written in our hearts. Because of this, nothing in this world can ever fully satisfy us. We experience this in our lives. Often, those who enjoy everything this life has to offer feel unsatisfied. We also see how throughout history, people have always searched for God. This can be seen by the fact that there are so many different religions in the world. “These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being” (CCC 28).
At the same time that we seek God, he never ceases to reach out to us, calling us to him. “But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, ‘an upright heart’, as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God” (CCC 30).
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Ways of Coming to Know God
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We can often know an artist through their artwork. Take the famous painter Vincent van Gogh, for example. He is now one of the most popular artists of all time, yet he only sold one painting during his lifetime. Because of this, he often lived in poverty. He also suffered from complex psychiatric ailments, aggravated by his excessive use of alcohol and tobacco. He eventually committed suicide at the age of 37. “The Potato Eaters” is considered to be his first masterpiece. It’s theme and dark colors depict the poverty he experienced.
(Vincent van Gogh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
His “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” bears witness to his renewed strength and attempt at recovery after having cut off a portion of his right earlobe during a manic attack.
(Vincent van Gogh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
And the painting “Wheat Fields with Crows” reveals his depressed state of mind shortly before his death. It depicts black birds flying in a starless sky with three paths in a field going nowhere.
(Vincent van Gogh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Likewise, we can come to know God through his creation, as number 32 of the Catechism states:
The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world’s order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.
As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made (Rom 1:19-20).
And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: “See, we are beautiful.” Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change? (St. Augustine, Sermo 241, 2: PL 38, 1134).
(Image by WikiImages from Pixabay)
(Image by john Ioannidis from Pixabay)
(Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay)
These images tell us something about the world’s creator. But it is from the study of the human person, created in God’s own likeness and image, that we can arrive at a deeper knowledge of God.
The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. the soul, the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material”, can have its origin only in God. (CCC 33)
(Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay)
(Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay)
The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality “that everyone calls ‘God.’” (CCC 34)
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God Reveals His “Plan of Loving Goodness” (CCC 50 – 67)
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But even though we have been created by God to live in communion with him, and even though we can come to know him through his creation, at the same time, it is easy for us to forget, overlook, or even explicitly reject our intimate bond with him. “Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call” (CCC 29).
To help us find him, God revealed himself to us.
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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. (CCC 50)
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Numbers 51 to 67 of the Catechism explain why he did this.
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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. 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. (CCC 52)
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These numbers also explain how he did it. God revealed himself to us gradually “by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other” (CCC 53). He first made himself known at the dawn of human history, to our first parents. And, after our communion with him was destroyed by their sin, he continued to reveal himself. He established a covenant with Noah (see CCC 56 – 58), chose Abraham to be the father of a multitude (see CCC 59 – 61), and formed his people, Israel (see CCC 62 – 64). The Israelites were the first people to know God and call him their lord. God spoke to them through Moses and gave them their law. He also defended them against their enemies and spoke to them through the prophets. These events, described in the Old Testament, prepared a people for the coming of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He is the culmination of this revelation.
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, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Heb 1:1-2)
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. (CCC 65)
Jesus Christ is the fullness of God’s revelation so there will therefore be no new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ (see CCC 66).
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Assignments
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Explain in your own words the meaning of the following statement:
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Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. (CCC 31)
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If we can come to know God through his creation, explain why God chose to reveal himself.
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How did God reveal himself?