“The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament” -Dei Verbum #17The New Testament is comprised of 27 books. They are Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles (letters) and the Book of Revelation. While all of Scripture has Jesus as the center, the New Testament has him at the center in a more overt way. There is no veil in the New Testament like we might find in the Old.
The Catholic Church teaches that Divine Revelation is complete in the person of Jesus Christ. God has nothing left to reveal of himself to us. So, with the death of the last Apostle we consider revelation completed. But, the Church continues to grow in knowledge of what (and more importantly WHO) has been revealed. Imagine that I were to take a book and flip through every page of that book for your eyes to behold. Imagine that I then began quizzing you with very specific questions about the content. Seems unfair, right? There is no way you could have grasped the book’s contents in such a short exposition. However, the revelation of that book is complete. There is nothing in the book that has not been revealed. You may go back and study the book; you may even read commentaries on the book by others, but none of it is really “new revelation.”
The same is true of Christ. He has been revealed completely, but we human beings are still gaining insights into what that means and who he is. Our faith will continue to grow as we grow in knowledge about our beloved. But there will be no new revelation, just a deeper understanding.
 | About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children. |
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