Catechumenate Topic: Divien Revelation the Word of God

Catechumenate Topic: Divine Revelation

“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.1 Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man.” -CCC

Have someone read John 1:1-5,10-11,14

“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.” –St. John of the Cross

God has been revealing himself in gradual stages through the centuries to His chosen people Israel. The completion, perfection, and totality of this revelation is the communication of God’s own self in his own son, Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh. In Christ all of Divine Revelation is communicated at once. Nothing can ever be added to this revelation, as it is already complete, perfect, and total.

The Apostles are given the task of handing the revelation on to the whole world so that all may come to know God and be His people. Left with this task the Apostles used oral words and written word to pass on the Word.

Along with the Old Testament some of the written words of the apostles were codified into the Canon (List) of scriptures or the Bible toward the end of the fourth century. Pope Damasus called the Synod of Rome to address the Canon in 382, the African Churches took up the topic at their Synods of Hippo and Carthage in 393, 397, and 419. Pope Innocent I in 405 sent the Canon of books to one of his bishops when asked what books should be regarded as scripture. Included in this canon are seven Old Testament books that are now excluded from protestant Bibles; they are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I and II Maccabees, and portions of Esther and Daniel. In response to the exclusion of these books by some Christian communities, the Church explicitly defined the Canon in 1546 and the Council of Trent.

When reading Scripture we should be aware of four different layers of meanings, or senses of scripture. They are:

Literal – The intended meaning of the author, this is not to be confused with a literalist meaning which does not regard figures of speech.

Allegorical – Deals with archetypes where the events and stories of the Old Testament find their perfection and fulfillment in the New Testament. The crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Baptism.

Anagogical – Teaches about the eternal destiny of God’s people and the world.

Moral – Tells us how we are to behave, and what is right and what is wrong.


The New Testament should be read in the light of the Old Testament, and the Old testament should be read in the light of Christ as shown in the New Testament. “The NT lies hidden in the OT, and the OT is unveiled in the NT.”-St. Augustine

“The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ,' by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’””-St. Jerome -CCC-