THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

The human, being the subject and recipient of revelation encounters a three-fold experience; a transcendental experience, a religious experience and the human response to both.  In O’Collins’ view, “the human subject displays an openness and tendency toward an ultimate horizon of unconditioned being that furthest limit which circles and encloses all experiences” (1981, p.49), illustrating that the human being experiences an absolute fullness of being, meaning, truth, and goodness, which go beyond any particular act of knowing and willing. This absolute horizon is identified as God. Just as in the event of the burning bush, Moses encounters the extraordinary scene of holiness and marvel and the fire that consumes not (Ex. 3, 1-12) or in the “sound of sheer silence” (1Kgs. 19, 11-13) encountered by Elijah at Horeb, man experiences the transcendence of God within which intellect and will cannot fathom. It is salvation history at it exists in the mind of God himself, the meeting point of God and man, a supernatural gift from God, “a grace which does not belong to the natural human condition” (O’Collins 1981, p.50).

On the other hand, “the sacramental character of divine revelation and the revelation of the receiving subject” (O’Collins, 2016, pp. 39, 75) remain absolutely historical since God becomes immanent in and through history. This historical revelation is what man experiences in a religious encounter; as in Moses taking his sandals off and Elijah covering his face with a mantle, the fearful and fascinating mystery of Rudolf Otto. It involves every act of knowing and willing, an appeal to reason, an intellectual enlightenment or divine illumination as in Augustine. The final experience of which the paper is concerned is the human response to revelation as an act of faith. Here, the divine self-communication invites obedience and summons to a self-conscious faith.

THE PLACE OF FAITH

Ratzinger’s view that, “the receiving subject is always also a part of revelation”, emphasizes the importance of the human experience as indispensable to Divine revelation, for without the human experience of intellect and will, there is no veil taken off. It is the human experience that requires a removal of a veil, to see what lies beyond.

This importance is further affirmed by the need for an assenting will (faith), first of all, giving by the Divine as a supernatural gift, and also, the human being’s personal assent to what is revealed. Revelation, therefore, only occurs when it is received by human faith, just as O’Collins quotes from the Epistle of Diognetus, “No living human being has seen God or known Him. He, Himself has provided the revelation of himself. But he has revealed himself only in faith, by which alone we are permitted to see God” (2011).

Just as human experience is an indispensable part of divine revelation, so faith is also an indispensable part of the human experience, through which alone revelation can occur. God’s revelation does not hang in the air, but reaches its goal when human faith recognizes the divine self-communication. Thus in their discourse on Divine revelation the Council Fathers of Vatican affirm that: “The obedience of faith is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals, and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him” (DV. 5).

To be continued…