WORD OF GOD: REVELATION the divine self and communicating through

means easily assimilated: WORDS.

REVELATION IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE
• By nature, human beings are relational. Some REVELATION
even say that the quality of our life depends on • Disclose, an uncovering, the unveiling of
the quality of our relationships. Entering into a something hidden, so that it may be seen and
relationship requires two things: known for what it is.”
• Making ourselves known; and
• God’s personal loving communication to us of
• Disclosing ourselves further through who He is and His plan to save us all in His love.
communications.
“It is God’s reaching out to us in friendship, so we
• And these necessitates language, i. e. the Use of get to know and Love him.”
Words.
REVELATION IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE
• Hence, the use of words is an affirmation of the • Catechism teaches us that God created us for 4
human need to reach out to others. reasons:
• To know Him
• For us Filipinos, getting in to a relationship means
• To love Him
getting into the very depths of another person,
• To Serve Him; and
articulated in the nuances of term, “loob” (“inner
• To be happy with Him in heaven.
self”): “makuha ang loob” (win another’s
confidence/trust), “makapalagayang-loob” (attain • Of course, a perfect God does not need anyone to
confortable acquaintance), “malaman ang know, love and serve Him. God is perfectly happy.
kalooban” (know the other’s inner self), and what Yet God wants us to experience happiness with
sustains a relationship is “KAGANDAHANG LOOB” Him.
(good will).
• Humanly speaking, however, we cannot be happy
• We could then imagine God as desiring to get into with someone we do not love, and we cannot
the very depths of our being, not forcefullly, but love someone, whom we do not know.
through our free act of welcoming.
• In the final analysis, knowing and loving God is for
• “Nothing is in the mind that is not first in the our own happiness, indeed, eternal happiness.
senses” – St. Thomas Aquinas
• Therefore, the ultimate purpose of God’s free act
• The Five external senses are the entry points of of self disclosing to us is nothing else but our
knowledge, even the knowledge about God. SALVATION.

• The problem is that God is a Spirit, invisible and REVELATION AS THE WORD OF GOD:
intangible a mystery that cannot be known or • “WORD OF GOD” is a multi-layered terminology.
understood through mere human effort. The Hebrew term “dabar,” means “word,” and
also “event” or “reality.”
• Although an analysis of the visible and tangible
things may be sufficient to convince that God • Accordingly, the WORD OF GOD could mean:
exists (e. g. the five ways)
• Events in Salvation History;
• The human intellect by itself cannot determine • The Message of God proclaimed to
who God is. through the prophets;
• The person of Jesus, who Himself is the
• Therefore, in the divine relationship with
word of God;
humans, God takes the initiative of introducing
• The preaching of the Christian Faith;
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 • The General message of God to Humanity; Observing creation and its activities, such as motion
and and causality, may lead to us to the conclusion that
• The Bible. God exists.

AVENUES OF REVELATION: The created world in itself, however, in incapable of

telling who God is. Thus, there is a need of special
REVELATION THROUGH EVENTS
revelation.
• CREATION – is the first act of God’s Revelation.
Creation points to a God who is the cause of Special Revelation is equated to the Bible.
everything. And the goodness in the created
THE BIBLE - records how God conveyed to and
world reflects the goodness of the creator.
through chosen individuals His message that other
“Ever since the creation of the world, His eternal wise would not be known to us.
power and divine nature, invisible though they are,
PUBLIC REVELATION is the disclosure of God’s self
have been understood and seen through the things
and His saving plan for all humanity.
he has made.” (Romans 1:19-20)
• These are the essential truths of our Christian
• HISTORY – The events of history, seen through
Faith, revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ and
the eyes of faith, become evidence of God’s
taught by the Church.
divine plan for humanity. An event, secular or
religious, communal or personal, pleasant or PUBLIC REVELATION is complete and final; it
tragic, may also point to a God behind all these preaches it reached its completeness and finality in
happenings. We look at the event of history as the person of Jesus Christ.
actions of God.
Since Jesus is already the fullness of God’s revelation,
• PROPHETS – Actions and events often need to be nothing more can be added to the revelation of Jesus.
interpreted. Prophets, both ancient and modern, Only public revelation is rightfully called Divine
as “spokespersons of God” proclaim a religious Revelation.
interpretation of history.
PRIVATE REVELATION refers to the Church-
• CHURCH – the Church, as the people of God, has recognized messages from apparitions or mystical
a collective discernment and senses of divine experiences of some privileged men and women.
actions. They ritualize these in the preaching of
For these messages to be deemed authentic, they
the word, in worship celebration, and in acts of
must be inconsonance with public revelation and
service and charity.
must be helpful for our attainment of salvation.
• JESUS CHRIST – God-revealing and God revealed,
Some Private revelations may be declared as worthy,
Jesus Christ is the fullness of God’s revelation, the
but not obligatory to of belief.
ultimate self communication of God.
THE TRANSMISSION OF REVELATION
KINDS OF REVELATION
“How sure are we that the teachings we receive
There are two kinds of revelation: General and today are still the same teachings that came from the
Special. Lord Jesus?”
GENERAL REVELATION – sometimes called “natural • To answer this question, wee look to the Christian
revelation” refers to how God makes himself known community; the Church.
to us through the created world.
• Ever since, it has been tasked of the Church to
divine revelation and to hand over to generation.

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• The Christian community, the church, did her part
in preserving the teachings of Jesus Christ
through her vibrant community life, moral
rectitude, Celebration of the Liturgy, and constant
rendition of apostolic teaching through oral
tradition.

• Therefore, in the Church, when we say “word of

God”, we refer to both written word of God
(Sacred Scriptures), and the living transmission of
faith of the Church (Sacred Tradition) which gives
meaning and expression to the written word.

• To study the Bible apart from the tradition of the

Church is to deprive it of its meaning.

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