christology revelation
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Christology Revelation. God Making Known Who God Is Part 1: The God-Human Relationship. Revelation. God’s self-disclosure to us Knowledge not known on our own Gradually reveals himself Divine plan of salvation Through words and deeds Created world Lives of the saints - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
ChristologyRevelation
God Making Known Who God IsPart 1: The God-Human Relationship
Revelation God’s self-disclosure to us
Knowledge not known on our own
Gradually reveals himself
Divine plan of salvation Through words and deeds Created world Lives of the saints Human intellect & reason
Revelation is a Gift Lovingly offered to us
God’s utterly free decision
Allows us to know God more fully
Empowers us to respond to Him with love & devotion
Gradually unfolds in stages throughout Salvation History
Natural Revelation Natural Revelation
Ongoing Available to all Experienced through gifts of creation and intellect
Inward dimension Through human reflection
Hunger for certain things but never satisfied Something more: truth, beauty, and love that is God
Natural Revelation cont. Outward expression
Experienced in things and creatures that make up creation Through intellect recognize something bigger and more powerful for it Recognize a creator who is in love with beauty and diversity See tenderness, compassion and heroic sacrifice in human relationships
Only possible because human beings are channeling the love of God
Doctors of the Church Thirty-three theologians and saints
Holiness in the service of God and his people Study the history and teachings of the Church Guide us in understanding and interpreting the Revelation of the divine plan in
salvation history
First four - 1295 Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory the Great
Recently women - 1997 Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Therese of Lisieus
Church Fathers Origen about Natural Revelation (AD 225)
“Although no one, certainly, is able to speak worthily of God the Father, it is nevertheless possible for some knowledge of Him to be obtained by means of visible creatures and from those things which the human mind naturally senses: and it is possible, moreover, for such knowledge to be confirmed by the Sacred Scriptures.”
Church FathersSaint Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 350)
“In regard to the divine and holy mysteries offaith, not the least part may be handed onwithout Holy Scriptures. Do not be led astrayby winning words and clever arguments. Evento me Holy Scriptures the proof of the thingswhich I announce. The salvation in which webelieve is proved not from clever reasoning,but from the Holy Scriptures.”
Salvation HistoryThe Unfolding Of God’s Plan For Us
God acts within historical events to redeem and same humanity
Began at dawn of universe, continued through events of Old Testament
Culminated in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus
Fullness of God’s loving plan revealed at the end of time
Jesus ChristSavior of the World
The Revelation of God’s loving plan in history finds its fulfillment in the Incarnation. Jesus became one of us.The life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, the Eternal Son of God made flesh, is God’s definitive effort to save us, to reveal the truth, and to bring us to the fullness of life.
All Revelation is Trinitarian The work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
In a particular way it was the work of the Holy Spirit To inspire and guide Apostles To remember and teach all they learned from Christ Called Apostolic Tradition or just Tradition
The IncarnationContinues
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands but yours,
No feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet with which
He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which
He is to bless us know.
We Cannot Fully Know God
God is beyond our limited human capacity for Thought, words, speech, and understanding.
“God remains a mystery beyond words: ‘If you understood him, it would not be God.” Saint Augustine
We can certainly experience divine love and mercy when we attune our minds, hearts, and spirits to the many signs of God’s active, loving presence in the world.
Sharing in God’s Life Revelation makes it possible for humanity to respond to God’s plan of loving
goodness for us
God’s plan for us To live in communion with him To have a share of God’s own life To love as God loves us
Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord. (Saint Augustine) God has planted in our hearts the desire for him; through Revelation this divine-human
bond becomes clear.
How Do We Know God Really Exists? Sacred Scripture
Written through inspiration of Holy Spirit A privileged place to encounter God’s strong, reliable, and active presnce
Other Believers: The Witness of Faith-Filled Lives People who have responded to the gift of faith with extraordinary trust despite trails, suffering,
and persecution.
Reason and Conscience Saint Anselm – “faith seeks understanding” Created with human reason and a moral conscience CCC – can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason
Evil and Suffering and a Good and Powerful God
Theodicy – human attempts to answer question why so much suffering in the world
Four key elements: The World is Yet Imperfect
CCC – with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world in a state of journeying toward its ultimate perfection
Free will, option to sin Redemptive Suffering
Jesus’ death redeemed – view suffering, especially when endured on behalf of others, as redemptive The Paschal Mystery – Church’s theodicy rooted in Paschal Mystery – baptized into Christ’s death, also share in
Resurrection We see Only Partially – cannot see big picture
All things work for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28) Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that evil.
(CCC)