1. Divine revelation involves God communicating who He is through symbols like nature, scripture, and Jesus Christ. These symbols point to and make God's transcendent reality present. 2. Jesus Christ is the preeminent symbol of God, making the invisible God visible as the perfect revelation of the Father through his life, death, and resurrection. 3. God reveals Himself through natural signs like creation, biblical signs in scripture, ecclesial signs in the Church, and interior grace, with the goal of bringing humanity into union with Him.

1. The Synopsis of the
Existence of God
From reasoning about
the world of things
around us
-reason tells us that the world did not always exist
but must have had a beginning. It could not have made
itself. An almighty Creator must have called it into being
by some means.
-within the world and the universe, there exists a
marvelous order which could not have been the result of
mere chance. An all-wise and all-powerful supreme Being
must have organized it all. We call Him GOD

3. Greek word, “apokalypsis”
-to remove the “veil”
-to uncover

4. DIVINE

5. “Divine 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.” (CFC101)
“All revelation is symbolic.” (R. Haight)
“Revelatory symbols are those which express and
mediate God’s self-communication.” (A. Dulles)

6. -finite realities and point to
a transcendent reality,
something
imperceptible/invisible.
-make Transcendent Reality
present and participate
in Transcendent Reality.

7. 1.) The Transcendent Reality can be
expressed through various symbols.
-each symbol will not be able
to contain the full reality.
-we do not have direct access
to God but all these symbols
(Scriptures, nature, any finite
reality) mediate God’s
presence to us.
-symbols express more than what they are or
they seem to hold because they point to, by
participating it, God’s reality.

8. 2.) Every claim that symbol is more
than what it is or makes the
divine present is a confessional
statement.
-it is not open to empirical
science.

9. 3.) How God Reveals Himself.
a.) Natural Signs
-creating us, everything
we see, hear, touch.
-God’s first manifestation
is in creation.
“The created universe constitutes a first presence
and a first manifestation of God’s permanent
testimony of Himself to humanity inscribed in the
universe he has created.” (Rom 1:19-20; DV 3)

10. 3.) How God Reveals Himself.
b.) Biblical Signs
-words and deeds in
scriptures, completed and
perfected in Jesus Christ.
c.) Ecclesial signs
-continuing presence by the Holy Spirit in
His people, the Church.
d.) Liturgical signs
-prayer and sacramental worship, doctrine
and moral service of the Church.

11. 3.) How God Reveals Himself
e.) Grace in our conscience
-God’s interior presence
f.) Signs of the Times
-daily events in history
The Christian Idea of God
**reference- CFC 73, 102

12. 4.) Jesus is the symbol of God
a.) “Christianity is the most
incarnational faith” (K.
Rahner)
-He has made the
invisible God visible.
b.) Jesus Christ is the “completion and perfection
of Divine Revelation. (DV4)
b.1)The Risen Christ is the unique, irrevocable
and definitive revelation of God. (CFC70)

13. 4.) Jesus is the symbol of God
b.2) For Christians, Jesus is:
i.) The Revealer of the
Father
ii.) Himself, the image and
Word of God
iii.) The Final Goal of God’s Revelation, our
ultimate destiny.

14. 4.) Jesus is the symbol of God
b.3) Christ is the goal, content
and the agent of God’s
self-revelation
i.) As Goal: Jesus is the key,
the center and the
purpose of the whole of
human history (GS 10) in whose image we
are to be conformed (Rom 8:29).

15. 4.) Jesus is the symbol of God
ii.) As content: Jesus is the
revealed one.
-Christ, the new Adam, in
the very revelation of the
mystery of the Father and
His love, fully reveals man
to himself and brings to
light his highest calling.
(GS 22)

16. 4.) Jesus is the symbol of God
iii.) As agent: Jesus is the
mediator (DV2).
-Christ is the 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. (DV4)

17. In what particular symbol God has
chosen to reveal Himself to you? What
do you think is the reason why God
chooses that symbol to reveal Himself
to you?