The Lord desires to speak into our hearts through the Holy Spirit His own divine life in order to adopt us as His children in his only-begotten Son. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, God by revealing Himself wishes to make us of knowing Him and loving Him far beyond our own natural capacity (CCC 52.) Since in the natural world we can find God’s creative presence, God’s revelation generally can be experienced through His created world, natural philosophy, and human reasoning. Hence, “natural revelation” or “general revelation” is knowledge about God that is available to everyone as part of ordinary human experience, records of human history, philosophy, conscience, and reasoning. St. Paul’s letter to the Romans teaches that the divine nature of God and His eternal power are clearly seen and understood from what has been created (Rom 1:20).
At the same time, some in the history have experienced special revelations of God through various supernatural means, such as visions, dreams, and etc. It has come in either through oral or written form. There are people still today who look for a word from God or special revelations. In the past, special revelations of God came to specific persons and nations at specific times, specific circumstances, and in specific places. These acts of special revelation did He not make only privately to individuals, but to all His people through choosing a nation. We, Roman Catholics believe that Self-revelation of God made known to us in two ways (forms): (1) Immediate Revelation and (2) Mediate Revelation or Sacred Tradition (CCC 50-51, 74-87). Immediate Revelation means the ‘unveiling’ of God and His plans to a nation specifically chosen by God called people of Israel in Biblical times. And for Judea-Christians these special selfrevelations of God can now be found in one source; which is the Sacred Scriptures – the Bible.
Judeo-Christian tradition believes that the Bible contains special revelations that God wishes to reveal to humankind for their salvation. They believe the special Self-revelation of God began with the call of Abraham. Then, it continued gradually to the people of Israel by loving deeds and God’s words. God continued to inspire the patriarchs, the prophets, the judges, and etc. of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible and finally through His Son Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The author of the letter to the Hebrews state, “At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, He has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom He appointed heirs of all things and through whom he made the ages (Heb 1; 1-2).
The Bible reveals who God is, what God is like, what He wants from us, and how we can come to know Him. It is also a source where Christians are usually called to turn for guidance, consolation, peace, and hope. The whole Bible speaks the story of the loving relationship between God and humankind. Loving relationship in the sense, it is a story about God’s relentless pursuit of those who yield their lives to Him. Therefore, the Bible brings people to a deeper relationship with God. Some people have difficulty believing the Bible as the source of divine revelation. Whenever they read it or hear it read, certain questions may keep coming to their minds. Are the messages of the bible true or not? Did this event or that event actually take place? These kind of reactions are certainly understandable. Because in some situations, the Bible says some things and tells some stories that are not easy to believe.
Perhaps, it would be helpful if we remember that the Bible is a library of books with diverse collection of writings composed by many authors in various times and various settings. It is a composition of several types of literature. It took many hundreds of years to assemble all these books into one volume. All these different books are necessary for us to experience a full and proper understanding of God, the world He created, and what it means to be human. St. Paul beautifully describes the unity of different parts of the human body in diversity. “The body is one and has many members. But, all the members, many though they are, are one body. (1Cor 12: 12).
Christians consider the Bible as an inspired book since through the Holy Spirit, God inspired the human authors who wrote it. If it is not an inspired book, the revealing aspects of God would be unknown. These human authors were inspired to write the various books of the Bible in order to reveal the truths of God. Let us continue our reading of Holy Bible more intensely as we journey through the Lenten Season.
— Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, Ph.D
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