Notes: Revelation and Faith

 The word revelation comes from the Latin word "revelare" which means to remove the
veil or to unveil. In the ordinary sense of the word, it is "a means of communication
between or among persons." It is an encounter between two individuals: one who
speaks and one who listens and responds.
 In Theology or the religious sense, it has two meanings: a) God's communication of
Himself to the world and b) a divine teaching or instruction. God reveals His existence
and nature to humankind through Natural Revelation and Divine Revelation.

KINDS OF REVELATION
1. Natural Revelation ― Among God's creatures, only humans are given the ability to reason.
Thus, by contemplating in the created world that surrounds him and with the use of his
human reason alone, man can know with certainty the existence of God at the beginning
and end of all created things. Natural Revelation is God's self - disclosure and man's
discovery of God through the creation and through what has been in existence already.
1.1. Creation ― The first way by which God reveals Himself to us is through creation. He
reveals Himself to us through His handiwork. All created things bear an imprint of their
Maker so that we can indeed pass from the creature to the recognition of the glory of
the Creator (Rom 1:20). In a special way, God reveals Himself through the existence of
human beings created in God's image and likeness.
1.2. Conscience ― All persons know about an element in their nature called conscience or
their awareness of the rightness of things. This awareness is our reason that judges an
action to be good or evil. It is a law that man finds in the depths of his being and which
he does not impose upon Himself, but which holds him to obedience, always
summoning him to love the good and avoid evil. The voice of conscience can, when
necessary, speak to man's heart more specifically: do this, shun that.
1.3. Signs of the Times/History ― The Bible is the classic proof of how God made Himself
known to us in history. He has intervened in the lives of peoples and the shaping of
nations. The Church acknowledges the presence of divine revelation in the events of
human history that occur with such frequency and universality that they generate
within mankind widespread ways of thinking . These events, together with the current
of aspirations which they engender, are called the signs of the times."

2. Supernatural/Divine Revelation ― By natural reason man can know God with certainty on
the basis of His work. This natural revelation, however, is insufficient because it is not
complete nor direct or immediate. There is another order of knowledge which man cannot
possibly arrive at by his powers; this is the order of Divine Revelation. Through an utterly
free decision, God has revealed and given Himself to man. He did this 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).
2.1 Sacred Tradition ― Tradition is the body of unwritten knowledge given by Christ to the
Apostles and handed by them to their successors, the Catholic Church's bishops, who
teach it to everybody else. The Bible started with Tradition because Christ himself did
not write anything nor did he command his apostles to write. What he commanded
them to do was to preach and to teach as he did. Tradition, then, can be taken either as
the process by which divine revelation coming from Jesus Christ through the apostles is
communicated and unfolded in the community of the Church.
 2.2 Sacred Scriptures ― The Sacred Scriptures is a literature of faith written in religious
languages and which presents a series of faith expressions or a confession of faith in
God. As recorded in this sacred book, God reveals Himself by gradually entering into a
special covenant relationship with His people, Israel.
2.3 Magisterium/Authority of the Church ― The Church as the community of believers in
Christ is where God's revelation was received, preserved and developed. She is vested
with the teaching authority to interpret the Word of God. This teaching authority,
called the Magisterium, is not superior to the Word of God, but a servant of it.

THE PURPOSE AND EFFECTS OF GOD’S REVELATION

 Behind God's revelation is His call - addressed to us and towards a loving fellowship with
Him. The very aim of the gracious action of God is to save us. Even the very content of
God's revelation in the aspect of doctrine, morals (moral teaching), and worship (how to
pray and why) points to its intention: it is God calling us into a loving fellowship with
Him thereby saving us. Objectively, revelation is showing us truths about God and how
to act as disciples of His Son. It helps us to discern through prayer God's action in our
daily lives. Subjectively, it is God who takes the initiative of entering into a relationship
with man. It is not just God speaking but God touching man s life to move and respond
freely to His revelation. He does this by acting as a believer in Jesus and by an authentic
celebration of worship.

WHAT IS FAITH ?
 It is the substance of things we hoped for and the evidence of things that cannot be
seen by our naked eyes (Hebrews 11:1)
Faces of Faith:
1. Faith in God - calling, invitation whereby man responded by putting his trust and
confidence in God. (Faith Response)
2. Faith in Man - our faith in God moves us to have faith in our fellowmen.

UNDERSTANDING FAITH and MODELS OF FAITH:

 Faith is a central reality of human life. It is an everyday “natural” factor in all human
relationships, decisions, and actions.
 In accepting the words of others, in entrusting ourselves to people like jeepney drivers,
cooks, doctors, teachers and judges, we show that we have faith in them.
 Faith is a process that involves a gradual revelation of one’s self to others as well as
acceptance of others, as they reveal themselves to us.
 This is true not only in human relationships but also in relationship between man and
God which is essentially a relationship of and in faith.

The Concept of Faith:

a) Fundamentally, faith is acceptance of the word of another, trusting in what the other is
saying because he is convinced that the other is honest and is telling the truth. The
primary motive of all faith is the authority and integrity of someone who is speaking.
b) For a Christian, faith is NOT merely “believing in God” who calls us to share in His divine
life; it is our personal response as disciple of Christ, accepting Him as our Lord and
Savior.
c) As a theological virtue, “Faith enables a person to believe that what God has revealed is
true, not because of its intrinsic truth as seen in the light of reason, but because of the
 authority of God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.” It is an obedience by which
man entrusts his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and
will to God.
d) Faith is an attitude, activity and a process by which we freely commit our entire selves
to God, we offer our liberty, understanding and whole will to God.

Dimensions of Faith:
 Faith is a reality touching our whole lives ― our minds (convictions), our hands and will
(committed action) and our hearts (trust). The objective aspects of our Christian faith,
exemplified in doctrine (the Creed), morals (the Commandments) and worship (the
Sacraments) also manifest faith as an integral whole. Christian faith, then, is not
something fragmented, but living life in such a way that our mind, will and heart are
enlightened by and united with the Church’s doctrine, morals and worship.

The following are the essential dimensions of faith:

1. Believing ― This is our acceptance of the truth of the teachings handed down to us
by virtue of the authority of the one who taught us. When talking, however, of belief
we become skeptical or dubious. Sometimes we do not even take views as real
knowledge so that at this moment, it is necessary to ask ourselves, how do we arrive at
knowledge? If we are not analytic enough, we fall into the conviction that knowledge
comes to us more often by evidence (our direct experience), or logic or reasoning
(induction, i.e. particular to general, or deduction i.e. from general to particular).
Hardly, we realized that the bigger chunk of our knowledge comes to us through
believing in others i.e. through authority.
 St. Augustine has a clear example on this. He asks, “How do you know that your father
and your mother are your real parents?” For St. Augustine, our knowledge that our
parents are our parents comes from the fact that we are told that it is so.

2. Doing/Obedience - In his letter, St. James wrote: “What good is it, my brothers, if
someone says he has faith but does not have good works” (Jas 2:14)? Christ himself
taught: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Faith, then, is a
commitment to follow (obey) God’s will for us. Mary exemplified this when she said: “I
am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
For us, the awareness of our failures and weaknesses make us more conscious of our
need for Christ’s Spirit to help us live out our faith. “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn
15:5).
 To have faith, is to bear witness to the Lord through our life by obeying his commands
and living the Gospel. This obedience and bearing witness to one’s faith is to be
manifested in action and words as we proclaim the Lord and his kingdom.

3. Entrusting/Worshipping ― Beyond believing and doing, faith is also entrusting

oneself into God’s hands. At God’s command, Abraham, our father in faith, left
everything to set out for a foreign land. Against all human odds, Moses trusted Yahweh
to free the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament, Jesus worked
signs and cures only with those who trusted Him. He promised the possessed boy’s
father: “Everything is possible to one who has faith” (Mk 9:24). Faith, then, is from the
 heart ― the loving, trusting and hoping in the Lord that come from God’s personal love
flooding our hearts. We celebrate this belief in prayer and worship.
 The Catholic faith involves both right belief (orthodoxy) and right practice (orthopraxis).
There is a mutual, intrinsic relation between theory and praxis, between Christian
orthodoxy and Christian orthopraxis. All orthopraxis implies some proper belief guiding,
informing and at times transforming practices, just as all orthodoxy is born in and
continuously renewed and transformed by proper practice.

Characteristics of the Christian Faith:

 That faith is a gift from God is central to Gospel teaching: “No one comes to the Father
but through me” (Jn. 14:6) and “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him.” (Jn. 6:44, 65). St. Paul writes: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the
Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 13:3). It is clear, then, that coming to know God in faith is
accomplished only through grace --- that faith itself is a grace, i.e. an unmerited gift.

1. Personal-The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that, “Faith is first of all a personal
adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole
truth that God has revealed.” (CCC#150). In life, a discerning encounter with others is always
enriching. It is this personal contact that can bring change to the life of the person. Saul, who
became St. Paul later, was rude to the Christians until he met Christ. The encounter with Christ
cannot leave the person indifferent. It has a transforming power. It is like fire. Whatever it
touches, it turns to itself. To arrive at a very personal faith, we should have a personal
encounter of the Person upon whom we place our faith. Knowing the person and knowing
about the person are two different experiences. The dividing line between them is personal
encounter.

2. Total and Absolute ― “Only faith in God calls for a total and absolute adherence. Christ
Himself provides, especially in His passion, death and resurrection, the best example of his total
and complete commitment to God” (CFC 123).
3. Trinitarian ― “For us, Christians, faith is our adherence to the Triune God revealed through
Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in the
Holy Spirit” (CFC 124).

4. Loving, Maturing and Missionary ― “Our Christian faith is truly life-giving and mature
through love, for ‘the man without love has known nothing of God, for God is love’ (1Jn 4:8).
And for it to be Christian, this love must be an inseparable love of God and love of neighbor, like
Christ’s. It thus impels us to mission, to evangelize, by bringing [to] others the Good News (cf. 1
Cor 9:16). Such a missionary spirit is the test of authentic faith because it is unthinkable that a
person should believe in Christ’s Word and Kingdom without bearing witness to it and
proclaiming it in his turn. This means we are all called to share in Christ’s own three-fold
mission as priest, prophet and king” (CFC 125).

5. Informed and Communitarian ― Faith is “believing Jesus’ words, and accepting His
teachings, trusting that He has the ‘words of eternal life’” (Jn 6:8). It is communitarian because
“it is the Church that transmits to us Christ’s revelation through Sacred Scripture and its living
Tradition, and alone makes possible for us an adequate faith-response” (CFC 126).
6. Inculturated ― “Our faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical
Filipino faith in family and friends. On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our
daily relationships with family, friends, fellow workers, etc. On the other hand, each of these is
radically affected by our Catholic Faith in God our Father, in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son,
our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit dwelling within us in grace” (CFC 127).

Models of Christian Faith:

 The use of images and the honoring of the Virgin Mary and the saints has been the topic
of discussions between Christians and Catholics. The following quote from the
Catechism of Christian Doctrine used in England by command of the Catholic bishops
there might be of help to both groups:
 "It is forbidden to give divine honor or worship to the angels and saints for this belongs
to God alone."
 "We should pay to the angels and saints an inferior honor or worship for this is due to
them as the servants and special friends of God."
 “We should give to relics, crucifixes, and holy pictures a relative honor, as they relate to
Christ and his saints and are memorials of them."
 "We do not pray to relics or images, for they can neither see nor hear nor help us."
 The four – point summary on the use of images most especially the second point, brings
to our attention the role played by saints and the Blessed Mother in our lives as
believers. Indeed, they serve as our examples or models in the faith. Jesus, since he is
not only God but also man, can indeed be our model, too.
 The whole life of Jesus Christ is a life of faith as expressed in His personal relationship
with His Father. That is, His acceptance (believing), total submission to His mission
(obeying) and surrendering (entrusting) Himself into God's hands. Jesus is both the
object of our faith (the God we believe in) and the subject of faith (the model of
authentic faith in God)