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To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain; drstevej; NYer
But I would not say she is the most/only perfect emodiment of faith. There were others who by faith accepted God's will in their lives.

Im in agreement becky - however Im confused and wish someone would help me clear up why I have the notion that Jesus Himself was the most faithful

what am I missing / overlooking

78 posted on 05/17/2003 5:43:35 PM PDT by Revelation 911 (Orcae Ita!)
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To: Revelation 911
Your observation? confuses me. The people that are considered to be faithful, christians today that considered to be faithful, are faithful to God's command to trust in Jesus. Are you asking if Jesus was faithful to himself, (he is after all God), He was always and perfectly faithful to His Fathers will. His Father's will for us is to trust Jesus to save us and the HS to guide us.

Becky
80 posted on 05/17/2003 6:49:13 PM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
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To: Revelation 911; PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain; drstevej
I have the notion that Jesus Himself was the most faithful

Unquestionably! You are absolutely right. Christ was/is the Son of God. Mary, on the other hand was human.

By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.2 With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith"

To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and. . . therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act."39 "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus."40 Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom. . . grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."41 . .... CCC Chapter 33

III. CHRIST JESUS -- "MEDIATOR AND FULLNESS OF ALL REVELATION"25

God has said everything in his Word

"In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son."26 Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:

In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.27

There will be no further Revelation

"The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ."28 Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations". .... CCC Chapter 2

81 posted on 05/18/2003 1:26:10 AM PDT by NYer (Laudate Dominum)
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