St.
John of the Cross:
[From a treatise on The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book 2, chapt. 22. God has made full
disclosure and revelation in Christ]
22.4. This is the meaning of that passage where
St. Paul tries to persuade
the Hebrews to turn from communion with God
through the old ways of the
Mosaic law and instead fix their eyes on Christ:
Multifariam multisque
modis olim Deus loquens patribus in prophetis:
novissime autem diebus istis
locutus est nobis in Filio (That which God formerly spoke to our fathers
through the prophets in many ways and manners,
now, finally, in these days
he has spoken to us all at once in his Son)
[Heb. 1:1-2]. The Apostle
indicates that God has become as it were mute,
with 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.
22.5. Those who now desire to question God or
receive some vision or
revelation are guilty not only of foolish
behavior but also of offending
him by not fixing their eyes entirely on Christ
and by living with the
desire for some other novelty.
22.5.(2). God could answer as follows: If I have
already told you all
things in my Word, my Son, and if I have no
other word, what answer or
revelation can I now make that would surpass
this? Fasten your eyes on him
alone because in him I have spoken and revealed
all and in him you will
discover even more than you ask for and desire.
You are making an appeal
for locutions and revelations that are
incomplete, but if you turn your
eyes to him you will find them complete. For he
is my entire locution and
response, vision and revelation, which I have
already spoken, answered,
manifested, and revealed to you by giving him to
you as a brother,
companion, master, ransom, and reward.2 On that
day when I descended on him
with my Spirit on Mount Tabor proclaiming: Hic
est filius meus dilectus in
quo mihi bene complacui, ipsum audite (This is
my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased, hear him) [Mt. 17:5], I gave up
these methods of answering
and teaching and presented them to him. Hear him
because I have no more
faith to reveal or truths to manifest. If I
spoke before, it was to promise
Christ. If they questioned me, their inquiries
were related to their
petitions and longings for Christ in whom they
were to obtain every good,
as is now explained in all the doctrine of the
evangelists and apostles.
But now those who might ask me in that way and
desire that I speak and
reveal something to them would somehow be
requesting Christ again and more
faith, yet they would be failing in faith
because it has already been given
in Christ. Accordingly, they would offend my
beloved Son deeply because
they would not merely be failing him in faith,
but obliging him to become
incarnate and undergo his life and death again.
You will not find anything
to ask or desire of me through revelations and
visions. Behold him well,
for in him you will uncover all of these already
made and given, and many
more.
Consider
Pope Francis: “Christian doctrine is not a closed system
incapable of generating questions, doubts and uncertainties, but it is living,
it knows how to disturb and to encourage. Its face is not rigid, it has a body
that moves and develops, it has tender flesh; Christian doctrine is called
Jesus Christ”
(Meeting with the
Participants in the Fifth Convention of the Italian Church: November 10, 2015.)
Ultimately, faith is an experiential
consciousness that is not reducible to conceptual creeds. The creeds, the
Magisterium and the theology keep one on the track of attention to Christ. But “faith” is an action of the believer
mimicking Him, and only in mimicking Him is there revelation. As Ratzinger says
it: To know - Intellegere in Latin -
is legere ab intus: to read from
within (oneself). It is a profound point of psychology and common sense: the
only person I experience as “I” is myself. Only I determine myself in my
free act. Therefore, to know Christ in His “I” as the unique Son of the Father
(“I Am” in Jn., 8, 24, 28, 58), one has to do what He does. And that is the
dialogue with the Father, examples of which we have particularly in John’s Gospel.). This
“dialogue” is prayer that Ratzinger proposes as the very Self of Christ.
That is, Christ is nothing but prayer to the Father as Trinitarian Relation. He
is not in Himself in any sense, but all “for” the Father. He is
nothing but Relation to the Father.
Hence, we can know about
Hin conceptually by making Him an object of thought. But that would not be “to
know Him” as He is in Himself as Relation [“I” – Son ] of the Father.
Pope Francis acuratelycalls the
reduction of Christian faith from person experience and consciousness to
conceptual idealogy, Gnosticism. “(Gnosticism ) leads to
trusting in logical and clear reasoning, subjective faith whose only interest
is a certain experience or set of ideas
and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which
ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings
(Evangelii Gaudium, #94). Gnosticism cannot transcend.”[1]
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