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18 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed
• From the beginning, God established a personal relationship with
our first parents. After the Fall, he encouraged them with the hope
of Salvation by promising them Redemption.
• God’s Revelation resulted in a relationship with people that is called
a
covenant
in Scripture. Scripture tells us that God entered into a
covenant with Noah and all living beings (cf. Gn 9:16).
• Revelation is an act by which God speaks to and forms a covenant
people beginning with Abraham. He then chose Moses through
whom the divine law was given to the covenant people.
• Through the prophets God prepared the covenant people to look
forward to the coming of the Messiah who would bring the salva-
tion destined for all people.
• Revelation reached its fullness in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The Son
is the Father’s definitive Word. No new public revelation will occur
before the final, glorious manifestation of Jesus Christ.
• God’s Revelation is transmitted to us by Apostolic Tradition and
Scripture. This is the topic of our next chapter.
MEDITATION
Jesus Christ is the definitive revelation of God:
Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect,
and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there
will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross,
among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2: “In
giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he
spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word—and he has no
more to say . . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in
parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is
His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or
revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also
of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and
by living with the desire for some other novelty.”
—CCC, no. 65, citing St. John of the Cross,
The Ascent of Mount Carmel
, 2, 22, 3-5