Jesus Christ: mediator and fullness of Revelation

January 17, 2013

This line from Dei Verbum was the nucleus of Pope Benedict XVI's audience yesterday:

...the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation.
 

The Old Testament narrates the story of how God, after creation and the fall of man, still offers men and women the possibility of friendship with him.  The history of the people of Israel is the beginning of this.  They are set apart--truly chosen by God--but their election is in view of the salvation of all peoples.  Pope Benedict makes an interesting point here: "being chosen" or "elected" is not so that God can take some and exclude others.  The one who is chosen is actually chosen for the sake of the others.  This is what we call mediation.

Philip the Apostle from
Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper

Revelation takes a turn which no human being could have expected in the Incarnation, which we have been learning about the past few weeks.  In the Gospel according to John, we read, "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known (1,18)."  And yet, we have such a strong desire to see the face of God.  Think of Philip at the Last Supper: Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.  The Old Testament talks over 100 times about seeking the face of God!  This is a recurring theme in Scripture because it is a recurring, even essential, theme in the life of man.

To desire to see the face of God also implies that even though we cannot imagine what God looks like (and to make pictures or images of God was absolutely prohibited in the Old Testament), there is a call to relationship.  We cannot make God an object, but we can believe in Him and love Him because He is calling us to do just that.  He comes near to us so that we might come to Him.

However, the newness of the Incarnation is that in Jesus we do see the face of God.  If we go back to Philip, Jesus' response to him is shocking: He who has seen me has seen the Father.  This is why we talk about Jesus as the fullness of Revelation.  He is the perfect Word of God, and therefore in Him we find the completion of Revelation.  He reveals and is revelation itself.

The desire to truly know God, what we called above the desire to seek His face, is within every person, even atheists.  Simply put, we just want to know Who He is, and Who He is for us.  The desire is not in vain.  It is met by following Christ, who has revealed the face of God to us, and still does so, particularly through Sacred Scripture and the Sacraments.  If you want to get to know someone, though, you have to spend a little time with him or her.  The same is true for God.  If we want to know Christ and then begin to see Him in those around us (for He truly is present in those we meet), then we must go to the sources of that relationship and spend time with God.  Ask questions and wait for answers.  Go deeper into your knowledge of the faith and participation in the Sacraments, the life of the Church, especially the Most Holy Eucharist.  Try it, and see what happens.

     It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone.  "Look out!" we cry, "it's alive."  ...An "impersonal God"--well and good.  A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads--better still.  A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap--best of all.  But God himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband--that is quite another matter...  There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (Man's search for God!") suddenly draw back.  Supposing we really found Him?  ...Worse still, supposing He had found us?
     So it is a sort of Rubicon.  One goes across; or not.  But if one does, there so manner of security against miracles.  One may be in for anything.
--C. S. Lewis, Miracles, as quoted in J. Pieper's Faith, Hope, Love