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I have recently learnt that the second Vatican Council has underlined how important it is that
the laity contributes to spreading the Good News through the various gifts God bestows upon
His Church. In
Lumen Gentium
, the Council clearly states that the laity participates in the
prophetic office of Christ and that Christ “fulfils this office, not only by the hierarchy but also
by the laity. He accordingly both establishes them as witnesses and provides them with the
sense of the faith (sensus fidei) and the grace of the word” (LG 35). Every lay-person,
therefore, has a part to play in this service of the Gospel according to the charism God has
given him or her and through those gifts he or she is at once the witness and the living
instrument of the mission of the church itself, “according to the measure of Christ’s
bestowal.”
In most Classic works of Catholic Fundamental Theology there is a distinction between
Revelation as a concept of reflection (Revelation with capital R) and revelation as a concept
of experience (revelation with minor r, often revelations in plural). When I speak of my
humble experience as "revelation", I speak of revelation with a minor "r" from the
experiential point of view.
I do not speak of my experience as revelation from a doctrinal point of view in any way
wanting to compete with Revelation. Just as with other “private revelations” or “prophetic
revelations” my work adds nothing to the Deposit of Faith. On the contrary, God’s calling to
me aims at pointing to the fullness of the truth of the Deposit of Faith, to enter more fully
into and live by this truth.
The constitution Dei Verbum of the Second Vatican Council has made it clear that the Public
Revelation is complete and perfect and that “no new public revelation is to be expected
before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ” (Dei Verbum 4). On the other
hand, Dei Verbum also makes it clear that the people of God constantly needs to deepen the
appreciation of this truth:
The Tradition that comes from the apostles makes progress in the Church with the
help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight into the realities and words that
are being passed on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through
contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts (cf. Lk.
2:19 and 51). It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which they
experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have received, along with
their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth. Thus, as the
centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth,
until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her (Dei Verbum 8).
His Eminence, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has said very explicitly on the relationship
between Christian prophecy and Revelation that the thesis that prophecy should end with the
completion of Revelation in Christ harbours misunderstandings. His position was phrased in
an interview on Christian prophecy and again in a commentary to the disclosure of the Third
Secret of Fatima. I allow myself to quote him directly from the interview:
The Revelation is essentially God who gives himself to us, who constructs history with
us and who reunites us gathering us all together. It is the unfolding of an encounter
that has also an inherent communicative dimension and a cognitive structure. This
also carries implications for knowledge of the truth of Revelation. Understood in the
proper way, the Revelation has attained its goal with Christ because
–
in those
beautiful words of Saint John of the Cross
–
when God has spoken personally there is
nothing more to add. Nothing more about the Logos can be said. He is among us in a