Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
- 87 -
God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
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".
 |
 |
 |