GOD’S Revelation

and
Human Response
The Foundation of Morality
Mr. John Robert Baňal
Ateneo de Naga University
 GOD’S Revelation and Human Response
I. The mystery of Divine Revelation
II. Blessed Trinity as a Community of Love
III. Parable of the Father and the Prodigal Son
IV. Human Response to God’s Revelation
a. Human response in love
b. Human response with humble recognition of our incompleteness
c. Human response towards social justice and equality

V. Conclusion
Objectives:
1. To be able to realize that God’s revelation is the
foundation of our moral responsibilities.
2. To be able to realize that we are created out of
God’s love who revealed as the Trinity.
3. To be able to realize that our relationship with God
is a loving relationship of a merciful father and a
prodigal sons/ daughters.
4. To be able to respond to God’s invitation to love
with humble recognition of our incompleteness
and become instruments of social justice.
The Mystery of Divine Revelation

In Christian Faith,
God reveals Himself as the Blessed Trinity;
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Revelation
Latin
Re-velare- “ to lift
the veil”

“unveil”
Revelation

God’s loving way of

connecting to us
Why would God
reach out to us?
Revelation
Because God created us
for himself, God loves us
and begs our love in return
Ian Knox 64
Revelation
By revealing himself, God wishes

to make us capable of responding to Him,

and of knowing Him, and of loving Him

far beyond our own natural capacity.

CCC no. 52
Revelation
CFC no. 65-74

1. In Creation

2. In the Scriptures

3. In the Church

4. In other Religions
Revelation
How does the mystery happen in the context of a

‘limited and mortal’ humanity?

Answer: God reveals Himself through human

experiences.
Revelation
But not all human experiences are

revelations of God.
Dermot Lane
I. Ordinary Experiences

II. Depth Experiences

III. Religious Experiences

Ordinary Experiences
Visible empirical world of the objects

‘out there’
Depth Experiences
Brings us to the invisible but real world mediated by

meaning: truth, beauty, love.

Religious Experiences
Moments in life when we perceive the world of

meaning as grounded in that immanent and

transcendent reality we call GOD

Religious Experiences
Seeing God in human experiences requires more than

just seeing or experiencing. It involves a lifestyle of

dedicated and conscious awareness of God’s loving

presence
The Blessed Trinity as a Community of Love
Catholic Christians

God is One and Triune

Catholic Christians:
God is One and Triune
From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has
been at the very root of the Church's living faith, principally by
means of Baptism. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal
faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the
Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic
writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic
liturgy: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.“
CCC no. 249
 Dogma- Gk. “decree” a divinely

Trinitarian Dogma
revealed truth, proclaimed as such
by the infallible teaching authority
of the Church and hence binding
now and forever on all the faithful.
The Trinity is One. -a defined doctrine

We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity".
The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God
whole and entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the
Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God." In the words of the
Fourth Lateran Council (1215), "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine
substance, essence or nature.“

CCC no. 253

Trinitarian Dogma
The divine persons are really distinct from one another.
"God is one but not solitary." "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply
names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct
from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who
is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son." They are
distinct from one another in their relations of origin: "It is the Father who
generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds." The
divine Unity is Triune.
CCC no. 254
Trinitarian Dogma
The divine persons are relative to one another.

Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from
one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another: "In
the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the
Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of
their relations, we believe in one nature or substance." Indeed "everything (in them)
is one where there is no opposition of relationship.“ "Because of that unity the Father
is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and
wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son."
CCC no. 255
St. Jerome of Stridon
“Our human
mind cannot fully
fathom the
mystery of God
(the Trinity)”
The Johari Window The Johari window
is a technique that
helps people better
understand their
relationship with
themselves and others.
It was created by
psychologists Joseph
Luft and Harrington
Ingham in 1955, and is
used primarily in self-
help groups and
corporate settings as a
heuristic exercise.
We say that we know ourselves better than any
other else . But, we cannot say that we have
perfectly known and understood ourselves.

Yes, we know something about God, we know

something about ourselves.

Thus, God and ourselves are still mysteries to us.

Are we going to
stop searching
for God in our
lives?
Matthew 22: 37-39
If our first and basic obligation to God
is to love Him, then it follows naturally
that we must know Him.
Man will not and cannot love one
whom he does not know.
God, our creator, is gradually and constantly “in-
breaking” something new in our life.

Thus, we have to be aware of the process by which we

respond to this “in-breaking” for this is an invitation to
grow in our relationships.
 God’s
very being
is Love
CCC no. 221
 By sending his only Son
and the Spirit of Love in the
God’s fullness of time, God has
revealed his innermost

very being secret: God himself is an

eternal exchange of love,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
is Love and he has destined us to
share in that exchange.
CCC no. 221

Cf. l Jn 4:8,16.
 How are we going to live
out God’s revelation?
God’s By faithfully sharing and
very being participating in the eternal
exchange of love.

is Love That is ultimately morality is

CCC no. 221
all about.
Jesus is the visible
image of the
invisible God
Col 1:15

I and the Father are one

Jn 10:30
Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

Presents….

To us who really God is in our life

Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

The Story truly mirrors our

relationship with God

Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32
Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

Prodigal Son – ‘immoral son’

Elder – ‘ moral one’

But God is not pleased of those ‘self-righteous’

Pharisee and the Publican Lk 18:9-14

Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

The Father
Loves his sons so much

The story is not just about being obedient or being righteous

It is ultimately about loving without conditions

God’s love is unconditional

His love never fails

Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

God’s love is not dependent on our being

good or not so good.

When we sin, we are the one’s who withdraw

from our God and refuse his love for us.

Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

It is our hope that we will decide to live

a moral life not because we are afraid

that the favor of the Father will be

withdrawn from us.

Parable of the Father &
the Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-32

But because this experience of

unconditional love will transform us and

put order into our lives in accordance to

how he has forgiven and loved us.

Human
response to How do we
respond?
God’s
revelation
How do we respond?
1. Human response in love
-God revealed himself in love, gave
himself on the cross because of love,
redeemed us through love.

Thus, we are called to respond in love.

To lead/ live a moral life
is to imitate Jesus, to
imitate his manner of
love and loving even if
such love is unreturned,
unreciprocated.

Jesus is our Paragon

How about non- Christians/
unbelievers?
Are they called to love?
Have they experienced God’s love?
God’s Love
How do we respond?

2. Human
response with
humble
recognition
of our
incompletene
ss
“Morality begins
with a sense of
incompleteness”
The moral life begins in the perception that there
is something crucial we lack…. The shattering
recognition that we are far from whole. The
human spirit is driven by hunger for wholeness; it
is fired for healing our brokenness a restoration of
the fragmented self. –P.J. Waldell, 1992
3. Human response towards Social Justice
and Equality
How do we The call to justice is
respond as a not a short-term
person of Justice? solutions to problems

It takes a To address the root causes of poverty,

injustice and oppression.
radical form of
“doing more”
3. Human response towards Social Justice
and Equality
To fight against corruption
and the structures of
discrimination and to offer a
new vision of transparency
and accountability
enlightened by the spirit of
the Gospel of Jesus
3. Human response towards Social Justice
and Equality
A prophetic
task
Going against secularism,
consumerism, hedonism.
True justice persist even in the midst of
opposition and condemnation by those
who choose to perpetuate their
self-interest and vested agenda
 Conclusion
To love is to be
vulnerable. We
We have always We are made by
are called to be
been loved by love and are invited
prophets,
God and will to respond in love,
witnesses of our
love us forever share the love
faith through
no matter what
our actions
Are you in
love?