Thursday, April 2, 2015

Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 7 – Part II.



YOUCAT Question n. 7 - Part II. Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what he is like?


(Youcat answer - repeated) Man can know by reason that God exists, but not what God is really like. Yet because God would very much like to be known, he has revealed himself.     

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 51) "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature." (DV 2; cf. Eph 1:9; 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4). (CCC 52) God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son (1 Tim 6:16, cf. Eph 1:4-5). By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) God did not have to reveal himself to us. But he did it—out of love. Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love. From creation on, through the patriarchs and the prophets down to the definitive Revelation in his Son Jesus Christ, God has spoken again and again to mankind. In him he has poured out his heart to us and made his inmost being visible for us.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 68) By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life. (CCC 69) God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and in words.[End]   


(The next question is: How does God reveal himself in the Old Testament?)

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