The Big Reveal

Although I hate to admit it, I sometimes find myself watching too many Facebook videos.  One recent video included a young man and woman, both in their mid-twenties, a pinata and a big stick.  If I stopped here, I am sure that your imagination could finish the scene. It’s quite possible though that you would be wrong in your expectation.  The point of the video was the young, parents-to-be, executing the popular, “big reveal” of their expected baby's gender.  Now I don’t remember if the air-born confetti were pink or blue, but I do remember thinking about this phenomenon of baby gender reveals.  Why is it so important to share this publicly?  I suppose the answer is that it matters to someone, in this case, maybe not the entire human race but certainly to a small group of family and friends.

The definition of the word reveal is “to make (something secret or hidden) publicly or generally known”[1].  As human beings we are always in a state of revealing as well as having things revealed to us.   As newborn babies, we see, touch, smell, taste, feel the world around us.  In other words, it’s revealed to us through our senses.  As we grow older, English grammar, mathematical principles, scientific theories and laws are revealed to us, engaging us through the intellect and stored as knowledge.  One could anecdotally say that the human race is made for “revelation”.  In some sense we can see this idea in Aristotle’s first sentence from Book one of his Metaphysics.  He states, “All human beings by nature desire to know”[2].  And to a large degree we know through what is revealed to us.

As Catholic Christians we believe in the fundamental dogma that God has revealed Himself to us.  In the first chapter of Dei Verbum, the dogmatic constitution on divine revelation from the Second Vatican Council, we have presented to us clearly the fact that revelation occurs by God’s initiative, not man’s.  Additionally, this revelation occurs through men and by men ultimately concluding in the divine “word” Himself, Jesus Christ, showing us the father in word and in deed.  So, in the New Testament we see that God did not simply reveal instructions on how to live but He revealed Himself in the person of Jesus.  It’s as if by doing so God was calling out to us saying, “I am real”, “I am with you”, “these are not just man made laws”, “see my hands, my eyes, hear my words”, “please see me….I AM HERE”.  God’s purpose in revelation is “to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life”[3].  Dei Verbum also reminds us of the “obedience of faith” that man must offer, which is the “full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals”3.   In other words, God is doing all He can to show us the truth, BUT we must choose whether to see and hear.

If, as human beings, we desire to know, as Aristotle suggests, then what higher knowledge could we possibly want then that which the infinite God wishes to reveal to us.  God desires all men to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  And knowledge comes through what is revealed.  As Catholics we believe that God’s revelation comes to us through Scripture and Tradition, and that it has occurred within the bounds of time and throughout history concluding with Jesus Christ, the Word of God. 

Through the full submission of our intellect and will we faithfully accept as true what God has communicated to us, because if not, many of our beliefs are left blowing in the wind.  One example being, “Did Jesus really rise from the dead?”  St. Paul, in a way, addresses this idea of disbelief in revelation when he talks to the Corinthians about the resurrection.  Some of the Corinthians had said there is no resurrection from the dead to which St. Paul responds, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain”[4].  You see, Christ’s resurrection was “revealed” to the Corinthians via Paul’s preaching, just as it is “revealed” to us in reading scripture.  As human beings we were made for revelation and God knows this.  Because of His love and care for us He communicates to us in the way that we will understand.  But, at the same time, this revelation of Himself fully respects our individual free will.  He permits our choice of hearing, believing, and submitting, or of ignoring.  We must never forget that in both word and deed God has come to us.  He has gone to extreme lengths to entice us to respond, even so far as being lifted-up, high on the cross, for all to see.  This, I think, is something worthy of being called the ‘big reveal”.

Irwin, Trence. Fine, Gail. “Aristotle: Introductory Readings”. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 1996.

Miriam-Webster.com, accessed September 5, 2021, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reveal

The New Testament. “The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 15:14”. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Revised Standard Edition, Second Catholic Edition. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2010

Vatican.va “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: Dei Verbum”. Chapter 1. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html. Accessed September 5, 2021

[1] www.merriam-webster.com
[2] Irwin, Fine, “Aristotle: Introductory Readings, Metaphysics, Book 1”
[3] Vatican.va, “Dei Verbum”
[4] 1 Corinthians 15:14