of His might. Put on the complete armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities, and against the Powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spirit-hosts of wickedness in the regions of the sky. Therefore take with you the complete armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and being fully prepared to stand your ground. Stand, therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and donned the breastplate of righteousness, and shod your feet with readiness to carry the glad tidings of peace; carrying in all circumstances the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

Chapter IV

REVELATION; ITS POSSIBILITY

In the preceding chapter we pointed out the necessity of religion to the individual, the family and to civil society. We also made it clear that natural religion is insufficient if mankind in its present state is to attain the end for which it was created. We granted that it is theoretically possible for man to reach his natural end without a super natural religion; but when we considered his aptitudes, his numerous cares, the truths of religion with their sublimity and depth we were forced to con clude that the great majority of men would remain ig norant of and fail to practice their duties toward God, their neighbor and themselves. We concluded that a supernatural religion is necessary to man if he is to honor God as he is bound to. It is our pur pose in this chapter to show the possibility of a supernatural religion and to set up norms or standards by which we shall be able to recognize it.

Supernatural religion is a revealed religion. It remains for us to prove the possibility of revelation and determine the signs by which it can be recognized. The word revelation is from the Latin re, indicating opposition and velare, to veil. It means, therefore, to remove the veil, to make known what was covered, hidden. Divine Revelation is a supernatural manifestation which God has made to men of what they should know, believe and practice.

Four things must be considered when discussing the possibility of revelation: first, God who makes it; second, man who receives it; third, the truths revealed and fourth, the manner of the revelation. If we show that God knows truths which man does not know; that He can reveal them and that it

is not unbecoming to His divine majesty and wisdom to do so; that man can be taught by God and that he can be certain God has spoken; and if we show that even if man cannot or does not comprehend all the truths revealed by God but believes them on the word of God he does not renounce his reason but rather uses it as he should, we shall have proved the possibility of a supernatural religion, of a divine Revelation.

If man

Who will deny that the mind of God knows truths the finite mind of man does not know? Even among men, whose intellects are finite, we see some who know many things about which the rest of men are ignorant. Men of science, for example, know many things of which others, not educated along the same lines, have never even heard. Surely then, God does know many truths of which even the most learned are ignorant. To say He does not is to limit the infinite and to say the finite can compass the infinite. It is to place the finite and the infinite on the same level. Who will deny that Almighty God can reveal these truths to men either by the help of words or by the infusion of ideas into their minds? can communicate with man surely God, Who created man, gave him intelligence and the power to communicate with his fellow men, has the power of transmitting His thoughts to men and illuminating their minds with the light of truth. deny it is to limit the omnipotent power of God. munication with man unbecoming the If it is not unbecoming for Him to create man, it certainly is not unbecoming to care for him and to provide him with truths which will perfect his knowledge and aid in his salvation. It is not contrary to His wisdom for the more man knows about God and the things of God the closer will be his union with Him and the greater will be the honor rendered to Him by His creatures.

To

Neither is comdivine majesty.

Man can be taught by God. If man can be taught by man, if one man can speak to another and

be understood by him, the Omnipotent Creator of man can speak to His creatures and be understood by If it is not below the dignity of man to certainly is not below

Now, man can learn directly or through is to place His

them. learn from a human teacher it his dignity to learn from God. from God in either of two ways, His legates. To deny the first power below that of man. To deny the second is to limit the omnipotence of God. The only difficulty with the second method is to recognize the legates of God. Miracles and prophecy are signs that a certain person comes from God. They are the seals of God; they are the credentials of an ambassador from God. We shall consider miracles and prophecies later in this chapter. "In order that the obedience of our faith might be agreeable to reason, God has willed that to the internal aids of the Holy Spirit, there should be joined external proofs of His Revelation; viz., divine works, especially miracles and prophecy, which, inasmuch as they manifestly display the omnipotence and omniscience of God, are most certain signs of Divine Revelation and are suited to the understanding of all." (Vatican Council).

Mysteries

A mystery, in the language of the theologian, is a supernatural truth which, by its very nature, surpasses the understanding of created beings, and which cannot be discovered by such beings nor even understood by them when it has been made known to them by some revelation. Keeping this definition clearly in mind one will not confuse mysteries of mathematics, of science, of philosophy, of forces of nature, with mysteries of religion. The so-called mysteries today of science may not be such tomorrow. Many now unexplained or even unknown scientific phenomena will be explained and discovered by future generations. The mysteries of religion, on the other hand, are such because they cannot be understood nor demonstrated by purely human means and,

consequently, will always be mysteries.

The great

modern heresy is that everything can be explained by science or by scientific methods. Just give the scientist time enough, we read in scientific periodicals, and he will answer all questions, philosophical as well as mathematical, theological as well as scientific, and will solve all mysteries of science and religion. The mysteries of religion, by definition, are supernatural truths which can neither be understood nor explained by human reason or human methods. We shall show now that there are such truths and later that some of them at least have been revealed to us.

Just as there are truths beyond the understanding of some men there are truths beyond the understanding of all men. There are many things known and understood by the learned which the illiterate do not understand. This is no reason why they should be rejected by them as false or impossible. The ignorant perform a most reasonable act when they accept them upon the authority of scholars. It was St. Thomas, I believe, who said that it would be a sign of idiocy in an illiterate person to assert as false truths proposed by learned men because he did not comprehend them. It would be a sign of even greater stupidity in learned men to reject as false truths which were proposed by God because they did not understand them. Besides, there are many truths in philosophy and science which even the learned accept, although they do not fully comprehend them. Who understands completely the nature of vegetable and animal life? Who can explain the union between soul and body? Even mathematicians accept as true that x + yn zn for integral values of n greater than two, x, y, z, being integers, without being able to prove it. If there are truths in the natural order which we do not fully comprehend but must believe should we be surprised to find truths in the supernatural order which we cannot comprehend and which we should believe? Are we going to claim that