6. “In his goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of his will.”10 At the risk of subjecting the mystery of God to the human word and the formality of an arbitrary report, the Second Vatican Council masterfully and accurately set forth in Dei Verbum a summary of the faith professed by the Church throughout the ages. God makes himself known in a gratuitous and direct way so as to enter into an interpersonal relationship of truth and love with humankind and the world he created. God reveals himself in the visible realities of the cosmos and history “through deeds and words having an inner unity,”11 thereby demonstrating an “economy of Revelation,” namely, a plan which seeks the salvation of humankind and, through it, all creation. At one and the same time, this Revelation communicates the truth about God, One in Three, and the truth about humanity, loved by God and destined for eternal happiness. This Divine Revelation gloriously culminates in the Person of Jesus Christ, “who is both the mediator and the fullness of all Revelation.”12
This gratuitous communication, which presupposes a deep communion analogous to human intimacy, is characterised by God himself and his Word, that is, the “Word of God.” Fundamentally speaking, it is a personal act of the Trinitarian God, who loves and consequently “speaks.” God speaks to humankind so that each person might acknowledge his love and respond to him.13An attentive reading of the Bible clearly demonstrates that this communication has continually taken place from Genesis to Revelation. When the Word of God is read and proclaimed, above all in the Eucharist, the “Sacrament par excellence,”14 and in the other sacraments, the Lord himself makes an appeal to us to “become part” of a deeply profound and uniquely interpersonal event of communion between him and us and each of us with one another. Truly, the Word of God is active and accomplishes its purpose (cf. Heb 4:12).
