Activity:

“Sharing my Secrets”

1. When is the happiest moment of my life? Why?

2. What is my most embarrassing experience?
Why?
3. Who is the person I admire most? Why?
“Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true
God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.”
John 17:3
FRIENDSHIP BEGINS WITH ONE
“HELLO”

It is impossible to love or to have a

relationship with someone who is
not known.

Introducing one’s self to another is

basic in initiating friendship. This
introduction should be sustained
by constant communication
through which the unfolding of self
takes place.
God, in his desire to enter into a
loving relationship with humanity,
took the initiative of introducing
himself to us, and of communicating
with us both through natural and
supernatural means.

GOD’S DISCLOSURE OF HIMSELF IS CALLED:

“Revelation is God’s personal loving communication to us of

who He is and His plan to save us all in His love. It is God’s
reaching out to us in friendship, so we get to know and love
Him.”
CFC no.101
THE LIMITATION OF HUMAN REASON:
The fact that natural reason can prove
God’s existence is in itself revelation.

But while human reason can tell us that

God exists, it cannot tell us WHO GOD IS.

In order for us to know who God is,

we have to pay attention to the
different avenues by which God
communicates with us.
 Rev. Fr. Ian Knox, C.S.Sp.

EVENTS CREATION

HISTORY

PROPHETS

CHURCH
PERSONS
JESUS CHRIST
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
proclaims His handiwork” Psalm 19:1
The beauty of nature awakens our religious
sense. Realizing that we cannot be
responsible for the grandeur of creation,
we end up concluding: there must be a
God who is the cause of everything.

CREATION IS THE FIRST ACT OF

GOD’S REVELATION.
“Ever since the creation of the world, his eternal power and
divine nature, invisible though they are, have been
understood and seen through the things he has made.”
Romans 1:19-20
For history to be revelatory, we have to learn
looking at history with the eyes of faith.

We have to realize that God is not merely

watching us from a distance. Rather, he is
actively involved in the story of our lives,
both as individuals and as a people.

Even the most secular historical events,

when seen with faith, become evidences of
God’s divine plan gradually unfolding
through time.
Historians enable us to remember significant
events. The PROPHETS of God, both ancient and
modern, help us to see historical events with God’s
own eyes.

While prophets may tell future events, prediction of

the future is just incidental to prophecy. The main
task of a prophet is to convey the message of God
by interpreting the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

The meaning of historical events as revealed by

God through the prophets are at times unpalatable.
Often, prophets speak the uncomfortable truth,
hence they are often persecuted.
“In times past God spoke in varied ways to our fathers
through the prophets; in this, the final age, He has
spoken to us through His Son” Hebrews 1:1-2

“No one has ever seen God, but the only Son, who is the
same as God, made Him known…” John 1: 18

JESUS CHRIST IS THE FULLNESS OF

GOD’S REVELATION
By becoming man like us, he revealed to us everything
we need to know about God, using a language that we
can understand and relate to.
“As goal, Jesus is ‘the key, the center and the purpose
of the whole of man’s history’ (GS 10), in whose image
we all are to be conformed (cf. Rom 8:29).”
“But Christ is not only the goal of God’s revelation, He is also its
content, the Revealed One. In himself, Jesus reveals both God
and ourselves. ‘Christ, the new Adam, in the very revelation of the
mystery of the Father and of His love, fully reveals man to himself
and brings to light his most high calling’ (GS 22).”
“Christ is revealer through his part in creation, through his
becoming man, through his hidden and public life, and
especially through his passion, death and resurrection. After
his resurrection, the Risen Christ continues his revelation by
sending us his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth (cf. DV 4).”
CFC nos. 77-79
“God speaks to us in and through the life of
the church. God speaks to us through the
lives of holy people who have evidently taken
Jesus’ message to heart and serve as an
example to all. As we participate in the life of
the church, we participate in revelation. We
believe that Jesus is still speaking and acting
through the church, that is through us and our
participation in the life of the community. We
believe that we as a church, continue Jesus’
preaching and mission to the world.”

Fr. Ian Knox

THEOLOGY FOR TEACHERS,p.88
 Sometimes called “natural
revelation” which refers to how
God makes himself known to us
through the created world
Created is incapable of telling who
God is. Thus, there is a need for
special revelation such as the Bible.
It records how God conveyed to and
through chosen individuals.
It is the disclosure of God’s self
and his saving plan for ALL of
humanity; essential truths of
Christian faith; revealed by
Christ and taught by the Church.
DIVINE REVELATION
It refers to the Church-recognized
messages from apparitions or
mystical experiences of some
privileged men and women.
 GOD’S REVELATION IS CONTAINED IN:

God, the one and only source of revelation, so willed that his revelation
be transmitted to us through two modes: Sacred Scriptures and Sacred
Tradition, two phases of the same revelation forming one sacred deposit
of the word of God entrusted to the Church
 OUR RESPONSE TO REVELATION IS

ACT OF FAITH
O MY GOD, I FIRMLY BELIEVE
ALL THE TRUTHS WHICH
THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH TEACHES
BECAUSE YOU HAVE REVEALED THEM
WHO NEVER DECEIVE,
NOR CAN BE DECEIVED.
AMEN.

Many of the truths revealed by God to us are beyond the power of our
human comprehension. Yet because we believe that God, who is all
good "cannot deceive nor be deceived” we say “AMEN” even to things
we do not fully understand.
Revelation is both a
gift and a task.
Revelation is God’s free, undeserved act of
love by which he enables us to have
knowledge of him and of the salvation that
he offers.
Revelation likewise challenges us to interpret
the events in our lives in the light of the
life-changing Gospel of Jesus, that we
might know and obey God’s will and thus
become tangible signs of God’s loving
presence.
 Fr. Ian Knox, C.S. Sp.
THEOLOGY FOR TEACHERS
Ottawa: Novalis Press, 1994

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines ECCCE

CATECHISM FOR FILIPINO CATHOLICS
Makati: Word and Life Publications, 1997

Erlinda Bragado and Arnold Monera

KALOOB: Interweavings on the Christian Story
Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1998