In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, I will be posting twice a month, on Mondays, a paragraph from this important document. There are a total of 26 paragraphs, so this will take us through to the Fall when we reach the anniversary of its promelgation by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965. I look forward to our discussion. May I suggest a helpful book by Fr. Ronald D. Witherup called The Word of God at Vatican II: Exploring Dei Verbum published by Liturgical Press.
5. "The obedience of faith" (Rom. 13:26; see 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) "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," (4) and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him. To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving "joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it." (5) To bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts.
I immediately thought of Jn 6:44 when thinking about our faith being infused into us by the Lord. DV 5 cites DS 3010 (Vatican I), which cites DS 1525 (Council of Trent), which cites Zach 1:3 and Lam 5:21, speaking of our ability to resist grace, and the fact that "God moves first" regarding conversion:
ReplyDeleteHence, when it is said in the Sacred Writings: “Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you” [Zach. 1:3], we are reminded of our liberty; when we reply: “Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted” [Lam. 5:21], we confess that we are anticipated by the grace of God.