The Pontifical and Royal ECCLESIASTICAL FACULTIES

UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS Faculty of Sacred Theology

MAPALO, GERARD LOUIEZ I PEREZ REV. FR. CECILIO VLADIMIR MAGBOO, OP

Bachelor of Sacred Theology I Instructor, Revelation

EXERCISE ON MODELS OF REVELATION

PART I

He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
      your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
      for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
      and do not subject us to the final test.”
—Luke 11:1-4

a. Revelation as Doctrine – Jesus is seen here as the authority in terms of prayer. The disciple knew that
how Jesus prays is the way how we should pray.
b. Revelation as History – The event happened in a certain place while Jesus was praying. It was an event
in history that shaped our prayer lives. This prayer is prayed everywhere in the world by Christians
regardless of sect and denomination.
c. Revelation as Inner Experience – The fact that the disciples wanted to know how Jesus prays is a
manifestation that they long to experience his presence, and the disciples were evidently prayerfully
open.
d. Revelation as a dialectical presence – Jesus taught his disciples to plead for mercy: “forgive us our
sins”—a manifestation that God is merciful God who alone can forgive our sins while we forgive each
other’s.
e. Revelation as New Consciousness – Jesus’s prayer was a glimpse of what is in the mind of God and has
forever shifted the paradigm of prayer in the faithful’s mind.

PART II

a. Revelation as Doctrine

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of
the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood[l] has not
revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
—Matthew 16:15-17

In a dialogue between his disciples, Jesus reveals himself as the Son of the Living God. This passage is
a direct quotation from Jesus himself about his true identity as God.

b. Revelation as History

At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God.”
 —Matthew 22:21

The mention of Emperor Caesar could be a manifestation that revelation happened in history—human
time and space. However, this passage makes Christ as a transcendent agent who moves from human
time to God’s.

c. Revelation as Inner Experience

A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She
said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said,
“Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured.
—Matthew 9:20-22

This passage banks on her immediate interior experience of Jesus. She thinks that touching the hem of
Jesus’ cloak would lead to her healing. By his presence, Jesus communicates himself and therefore
making him the divine guest and visitor of the soul of the woman.

d. Revelation as a Dialectical Presence

How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.
—Romans 5:9

This passage clarifies that through the Cross, we have been justified. God, in His graciousness, chose
to suffer for our sins, yet it is in His sufferings that he saved us, and that makes him great a God.

e. Revelation as New Consciousness

Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new
and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have “a great priest over the
house of God,” let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
—Hebrews 10:19-22

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have a new way of approaching God. God becomes
nearer to us and we become nearer to God, making us less unworthy to enter his sanctuary by making
our lives holy and pure.