Contents: Introduction, 1- The Words You Gave Me, 2- Lectio Divina : Prophetic Function, 3- Theology and Prophecy, 4- The Highest Prophetic Intimacy, 5- Prophetic Intimacy, Offered to All, 6- The Fulfillment of Prophecy in Christianity, 7- Prophecy and Intellectual Vocation, 8- Relationship Between Word/s and Christ, 9- The Two Levels of Contemplation, 10- The Prophetic Axis of the Gospel of Saint John, 11- The Divine Words Are Given to us, Additional Thoughts
Introduction
The following presentation intends to deepen the question of Prophecy in Christianity and to show its originality and uniqueness! To this end, we will distinguish the charismatic gift of Prophecy [1]from the prophetic function [2]of every baptized believer [3]! We will also distinguish prophecy in the Old Testament and the Christian prophetic function . We will better understand how Christ is simply the Prophet, how the prophecy of the Old Testament is partial and fragmentary and how it reaches its fullness with Christ, the very Word of the Father who gives us his words which are Spirit and Life.
We will thus move from a fragmentary and optional vision of prophecy to a more dynamic, integrative and common vision for all. We will thus understand that, as Christ said, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is much greater than the greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament: John the Baptist [4]. We will understand the exact content of the Christian prophecy and the immense value and nobility of this gift that Christ gives us to participate in his prophetic function on a daily basis!
This work sheds light on other points such as the inspiration of Scripture, the relationship of friendship that Christ wants to establish with us, the vital function of lectio divina as a prophetic activity par excellence (especially since we now have access to the Bible) which allows us to receive a word daily as suggested by the Our Father . The correct understanding of Christian prophecy also sheds light on the content of Mohammedan prophecy [5], etc.
1- The Words You Gave Me
“the words you gave me, I gave them” (Jn 17:8) “I gave them your Word” (Jn 17:14) These statements are clear, like many others like: “he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” (Jn 3:34) “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are Life.” (Jn 6:63) These are the words the Father gave him. “You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68) “I speak what I have seen in my Father” (Jn 8:38) “I, a man who has told you the truth , which I heard from God” (Jn 8:40) “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own , but the Father, dwelling in me, does the works.” (Jn 14:10) “the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me” (Jn 14:24) The words he says are the words of God: “Whoever is of God hears the words of God [that I am giving him]” (Jn 8:47)
These [6]preceding quotes explain how the eternal Word becomes Words, or how the Father gives his Words to the Incarnate Son. It is a very specific phenomenon different, for example, from the prophecy of the OT and the charismatic gift of prophecy! But it is a phenomenon that is not specific to the Son, it can also be specific to humans! He asks us all to keep his Word. Example: “If you remain in my Word, you are truly my disciples” (Jn 8:31) etc… He clearly says to those who do not want to believe him that they do not have the Word of the Father in them! “His [the Father’s] word, you do not have it abiding in you , since you do not believe the one whom he sent.” (Jn 5:38) “I know him [the Father] and I keep his Word ” (Jn 8:55) “Listening-receiving keeping-transmitting” the Word is a functioning that takes place in the humanity of Christ but also which is called to take place in every human being! Christ here is the example to follow and the way for every man!
The closest similarity to this phenomenon is the biblical one of prophecy, where the Word of God is addressed to the Prophet. Jesus also alludes to this phenomenon of prophecy, when “the Word of God is manifested to a prophet “: “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I said, “You are gods”? ‘ While she called “gods” those to whom the word of God came – and the Scripture cannot be denied.” (Jn 10:35) Note the expression: “those to whom the Word of God came”, it is another way of saying: “the Prophets “! In fact, when the Old Testament describes prophecy when it occurs, it says : “and the Word of God came to …”
Example: “The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who lived at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. To him came the word of Yahweh ” (Jer 1:1-2) and also: ” The word of the Lord came to me in these terms” (Jer 1:4) and also: “Behold, I have placed my words in your mouth .” (Jer 1:9). This is the major phenomenon that takes place in the Prophet. In this sense, Jesus is the awaited Great Prophet. But he is much more, he is the Seal of all the Prophets and of the Prophecy that finds in him its final fulfillment, because he is the eternal Word incarnate. For this reason, when Saint John the Evangelist chooses to present Christ, he presents him from the Angle of Prophecy, that is to say, of the Word, and this is why in the passage quoted above he shows his relationship to the Prophecy of the Old Testament. It was important that he take this approach in order to show what the prophecy of Christ consists of ; it is more than a simple prophecy, because he is the eternal Word itself ! The difference is enormous! He is the divine Life itself. Certainly, as a man, prophecy functions in him.
It is also worth noting that the prophecy concerning God’s New Covenant is that “all shall be prophets [7]“: “After this I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Our sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days I will pour out my Spirit. I will produce signs in heaven and on earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke!” (Joel 3:1-3) And this is what we see in the Acts of the Apostles where, as soon as the Holy Spirit falls upon people, its first outward expression is the words they utter ! [8]They speak in strange tongues and they sing praises to the Lord. This is how, in the first generations, we recognize those who have received the Holy Spirit. Moreover, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of tongues! And the quotation from the Prophet Joel is taken up again in the book of the Acts of the Apostles to show the clear and distinct awareness that the first generation had of the phenomenon of prophecy as a phenomenon common to all. On the day of Pentecost, faced with the strange and new phenomenon of a collective “exaltation,” Peter explains: “Men of Judea and all you who reside in Jerusalem, learn this, listen to my words. No, these people are not drunk, as you suppose; moreover, it is only the third hour of the day. But it is indeed what the prophet spoke: It will come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. And I will pour out my Spirit on my male and female servants, and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on earth below.” (Acts 2:14-19)
Furthermore, we have this frequent phenomenon among those who enter into the supernatural: they often have words, interior words (the “locutions”)! Saint Teresa of Jesus has them, Saint John of the Cross, in his second book of the Ascent of Mount Carmel, mentions the phenomenon and studies it and shows how to discern and operate [9]! The entry into the Supernatural [10]– which is the equivalent of the falling of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles [11]– is characterized by this phenomenon of the Word. All will be prophets, such is the novelty!
And Lectio divina is the most ordinary and common way to allow every Christian to have “a word every day” from the Lord [12]. If all will be prophets because they will all receive the Holy Spirit, not all have the phenomenon of tongues [13]or interior words. On the other hand, every Christian is called to receive a Word every day from the Lord, this is what we ask in the Our Father: “give us this day our daily bread!” “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.” The Word is daily food, and it is given to every man of good will to enlighten, guide and nourish him! The Word of God is Spirit and divine Life. It is therefore quite normal to feed on the Word of God every day.
If the Words of Christ are Spirit and Life, and if they are the first manifestation of the Spirit in the human being (phenomenon of tongues) and of the generosity of the Spirit (“God gives the Spirit without measure” (Jn 3:34)), this means that the Bible, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the place from which we can draw the Words of Life! The Bible is the fruit of the Spirit! It is his work. It is the Instrument par excellence by which the Spirit manifests himself to believers and nourishes them! This is the fundamental role of the Holy Spirit: that of giving life to the Word, making it effective and divinely active: “But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have said to you .” (Jn 14:26) the Holy Spirit “will bring to mind all that I have said to you” we see the link between the Word that was spoken, and which was also recorded and preserved in writing, and the Holy Spirit, who takes it up, and teaches it, that is to say makes us penetrate it! It is as if the Spirit used these recorded words and made them, by his virtue, effective! Thus, these words “are Spirit” !
Note: When, after hearing the word of God, we put it into practice, we move from “science” to “knowledge”: knowing what is written, and then knowing it. This passage leads to “recognition.” “They were yours and you gave them to me and they kept your word. Now they have recognized that everything you gave me is from you; for the words you gave me, I gave them to them, and they accepted them and truly recognized that I came out from you, and they believed that you sent me.” (Jn 17:6-8) It is the experience of the divine efficacy of his Words that he gives us that makes us recognize the divine origin of Christ! Here, what is emphasized is at the same time the unique spiritual experience of the life-giving and nourishing force of the divine Word, through the Holy Spirit. And this experience leads to recognition ! Experience therefore consolidates faith! For this recognition is an increase in faith!
2- Lectio Divina : Prophetic Function
Lectio divina in turn generates a mission similar to that of Christ: Jesus gives us his Word so that we in turn may transmit it: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me [14] through their word ” (Jn 17:20 Cf. also Jn 4:39 ). As we see, in the whole phenomenon of the Word – given by the Father to the incarnate Son, who keeps it and transmits it, likewise to the disciples, who receive it, keep it and transmit it – there is a fluidity of the Word as a Gift of God which passes from God to men and to all men. Prophecy is not then an exclusive phenomenon of the prophets or of the Son of Man, but all are called to become prophets because the Word of God is addressed to everyone. God gives himself to all in his Word, he gives his words to all. All will be prophets! The Word of God is not something exclusive or elitist for a few people! Everyone is invited to enter into a living and life-giving dialogue with God himself. The least of Christians is therefore superior to the greatest of all the prophets of the Old Testament! The least of Christians speaks and enters into direct and constant contact with God, he listens to him, keeps the word addressed to him in a living way by the Spirit who re-actualizes! Yes, the dignity of man in God’s design according to the mission of his Son is very high. Man is introduced into an incessant and direct dialogue with God! A divine friendship is established.
“I have given them your word.” This is what the Lord says to the Father! What is the exact dimension of this word ?! Is it of the same order as the Prophecy of the Old Testament? This is an important question. We can ask it differently: what is the difference between the prophecy of the Old Testament and that of Christ?
The prophecy of the Old Testament is sometimes, if not often, a kind of message that God gives to the people or to a very specific person! But the “prophecy” of Christ, that is to say his message and his words are much more than a simple prophecy, he is the eternal Word of the Father! He is the very Being of God. His words are Spirit and Life, they are daily nourishment for the reconstruction of the human being in Christ. This does not mean that the words of the prophets of the Old Testament are not nourishment. But it is quite different. Moreover, he is the Savior, the Physician, the one who transforms, who heals! The Word of Christ comes from the Father and derives from the eternal Word! It assimilates us to Him, to his being! The Word becomes words so that through them the Word comes to live and act in us. Christ-Word gives himself, so to speak, in pieces (words) until he reaches the fullness of his stature in us.
The Prophet does not receive the fullness of the Word. For the Word had not yet become incarnate! The prophecy was partial ! With Christ we arrive at the perfection of prophecy in its deepest and most common sense. It is offered to all!
Ultimately, it must be said that Christ brings Prophecy to its fulfillment. He believes that every Christian is a Prophet, because in fact he receives the Word of God and is also Anointed by the Holy Spirit who gives life and guides him! Therefore, Saint John builds his Gospel on the question of Prophecy reaching its fullness in Christ. He begins his Gospel with the highest point of Prophecy: the Eternal Word of the Father, this Word which is God and which is given to us: in the beginning was the Word [15]. Prophecy is fulfilled and reaches its fullness through and in Christ. We must therefore not neglect the phenomenon of prophecy in the Old Testament but broaden and deepen it. The Prophecy of Joel that we saw above – quoted by Saint Peter on the day of Pentecost – is fundamental: all will be prophets ! It is not a question of a particular gift-charism within the Church as mentioned by Saint Paul, no, it is a question of what is given to all and what is common to all: in the person of Christ, God enters into direct relationship with each human being, he speaks to him, makes himself heard by him! Moreover, the Word becomes alive in each Christian and he is called to transmit it to his brothers!
In fact, the Holy Spirit leads to the prophetic experience. This is his primary function. He immediately brings those who receive him to this phenomenon! He is the Spirit of Prophecy, he is the one who allows the transmission of the Father’s Words, from the latter to Christ and finally to us! This is the first gift of the Spirit, and Saint John will say in his own way that the first gift that God gives us is indeed the Words of Christ!
It is the Spirit who is the transmitter of words. He takes them from the Father and the Son and gives them to us: the Holy Spirit recalls what Christ has said, and then says everything that Christ wants to say to us and that we cannot initially bear. His function is therefore totally linked to the words of Christ.
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have said to you .” (Jn 14:26) And also: “I still have much to say to you , but you cannot bear it now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth [that is, Christ himself, the eternal Word of the Father]. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and will reveal to you things to come. He will glorify me, because he will receive what is mine and will reveal it to you.” (Jn 16:12-14)
As we see, he is the one who internalizes, from within, the teaching of Christ, he is the one who allows us to assimilate it. He is the One who speaks (transmits) the words of Christ and also incarnates them in us until he forms, in fullness, Christ in us! In fact, the whole Truth is Christ himself, the eternal Word of the Father, incarnate!
So in fact the Spirit speaks ! In the book of Revelation we find this expression: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 2:7 and similar). In the book of the Acts of the Apostles we also see in the action of the Spirit, the word: “Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance .” (Acts 2:4) To indicate where Stephen got his words from we find: “wisdom and the Spirit that made him speak” (6:10) “the Spirit said to Philip” (8:29; 10:19; 13:3) And finally: “when they hand you over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say : what you have to say will be given to you at that time, for it is not you who will speak, but the Spirit of your Father who will speak in you .” (Mt 10:19-20) “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my Beloved in whom I have all favor. I will put my Spirit upon him and he will proclaim Justice to the nations.” (Mt 12:18 cf Lk 4:18 also) The Spirit has the principal and first effect of making one capable of proclaiming.
“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she cried out with a loud voice and said , ” “(Zechariah) was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy.”
In the Creed: we say: “he spoke through the prophets” , the Maronite liturgy adds in the Creed: “and through the apostles” which is an important addition which shows that we are in the age of prophecy, we are in the age of the words of God given to men!
In addition to the Prophecy of Joel, it is good to read another text that helps us become aware of the prophecy:
“Ask the people of old, who have been before you since the day God created man on the earth: Was there ever such a glorious word from one end of heaven to the other? Was anything like it heard? Has any people heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived? […] From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire, and from the midst of the fire you heard his words. […] Know this today and consider it in your heart: the Lord is God, in heaven above and on earth below, he and no other.” (Deut 4:32-39)
This text highlights one aspect of the relationship between God and his people in the Old Testament, where God makes himself heard and speaks to his people (through the Prophet, here Moses). It is a personalist tone that is highlighted: the Lord enters into a personal relationship with his people and makes his voice heard (and this, through the Prophet). There is therefore possible contact with God in the Old Testament, but it is through the Prophet. This shows us what a unique privilege it is to have the possibility of speaking directly with God in the regime of the New Covenant. Saint Paul says that our glory is higher than that of Moses [16]!
With Christ, all will become prophets, that is to say, they will be able to enter into a personal relationship with God, where the latter is listened to, and whose Word is put into practice.
This text makes us reflect on those events to which we are accustomed (hearing God speak to us personally through Scripture), but which in fact are not something usual in humanity! That a God speaks to his people, that he addresses them in such a clear and strong way, is rare! All the more reason why he addresses each believer directly and personally![17]
3- Theology and Prophecy
Saint Thomas, when he discusses Prophecy in the Summa Theologica, evokes different visions. In fact, there are three types of communication from God: Either 1- “intellectual vision” which is the major mode of Adamic information and which consists of “intelligible ideas”, infused; or 2- “Imaginative visions”, or 3- “sensible visions”. For the first type of communication, the superior form [18]and which interests us the most here, the supernatural truth is manifested by God, to the minds of the prophets, by means of ideas imprinted in the mind of the prophet: this is the case of those who receive science or infused wisdom, like Solomon or the Apostles [19], it is the highest form!
The “Intellectual Vision” [20]is the highest of visions because supernatural truth is considered in its naked form! This resonates with ch. 26 of the second book of the Ascent of Mount Carmel where Saint John of the Cross says that these supernatural “notices” received in the intelligence are the union itself! This chapter 26 is about supernatural “notices” (knowledge) that God gives. They can come from a word of Scripture (Cf. §9), they come directly from God, they are pure contemplation (Cf. §3), they are the union itself (Cf. §5), they are part of the union where the soul is led (Cf. §10), they are a certain touching that is made of the soul in the divinity (Cf. §5). They enrich the soul so much that a single one can not only tear from the soul, all at once, all the imperfections which it had not been able to rid itself of during its whole life, but also fill it with virtues and goods from God (Cf. §6). And the means for God to give them must be humility and a readiness to do everything for love of Him, with abandonment of all retribution; because these favors are not given to the soul that owns them, but they are caused by a very special love that God has for this soul, which also loves Him with a very disinterested heart (Cf. §10).
This only confirms what concerns lectio , which is a reception of naked supernatural truths [21]! Except that Saint Thomas says that the Higher Prophecy is for the Apostles, while today there is an awareness of the importance of the formation of lay people [22]! So these “intellectual visions” are for a greater number! We must therefore integrate the idea of Saint Thomas for the good of all! Today, the majority of people follow university studies, which requires a generalization of the necessity of “intellectual visions” for the common faithful!
Intellectual visions, this way of receiving supernatural truths naked into our intellect, constitute contemplation for the soul. We will discuss the question of contemplation below.
4- The Highest Prophetic Intimacy
On Mount Tabor, the place where Christ appeared to his disciples, we see two people from the Old Testament appear and converse intimately with Christ: Moses and Elijah. In fact, both men had a very close relationship with God in the Old Testament. They are like the highest peaks of Old Testament prophecy. Let us examine the intimacy that Moses had with God. Let us read certain passages from the Pentateuch that evoke the relationship that Moses had with God.
“Moses took the Tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp, far from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting, and whoever had to inquire of the Lord went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people stood up, each one standing at the entrance of his tent, and watched Moses until he entered the Tent. Whenever Moses entered the Tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the Tent and talk with Moses . All the people saw the pillar of cloud that stood at the entrance of the Tent, and all the people would stand up and worship, each one at the entrance of his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend , and then he would go into the camp, but his servant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not leave the interior of the Tent.” (Ex 33,7-11)
“There has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face .” (Deut 34:10) God conversed with him directly and intimately, in clear and intelligible language, they discussed, they argued. Just as God did with Abraham!
“Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married. For he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, ” Does the Lord speak only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us also?” The Lord heard. Now Moses was a very humble man, the most humble man on earth. Suddenly, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come, all three of you, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three of them went, and the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam; the two of them came forward. The Lord said, “Now listen to my words: If there is a prophet among you, I will reveal myself to him in a vision and speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; all my house is entrusted to him. I speak to him face to face in plain language, not in riddles, and he sees the form of the LORD . Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? (Num 12:1-8)
We see in these texts that Moses was the only one who could deal with God, and that if anyone wanted to do so, they had to resort to Moses!
5- Prophetic Intimacy, Offered to All
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will come to you in the thick of the cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe in you forever.'” (Ex 19:9) And this is how God will communicate with Moses in full view of the people:
“Now early the next day, there were peals of thunder and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, and all the people in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was smoking, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire ; smoke rose from it as from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder; Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder. The LORD came down to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. The LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. The LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to go beyond the boundaries to see the LORD, for many of them will perish. Even the priests who approach the Lord must sanctify themselves, lest the Lord rage against them.” Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot go up Mount Sinai, since you yourself have warned us: mark out the mountain and declare it sacred.” The Lord said, “Come now, go down and come up again, you and Aaron. But the priests and the people must not cross the boundaries to go up to the Lord, lest he rage against them.” Then Moses went down to the people and said to them…” (Ex 19:16-25)
When we see the divine manifestation in the desert, on the Mountain, we cannot help but reflect deeply on the meaning of the coming of Christ and its consequences! Saint Paul speaks well of these flashes of the revelation of Sinai or the mode of communication between God and Moses. And he says clearly that what happens with Christ is much greater [23]! The mode of communication that God chooses to have with Moses is extremely impressive. And he does it on purpose so that the people are impressed. Moreover, Moses is a privileged person! And this is the point that is important to note! God communicates with him alone and speaks to him as with a friend and confidant. The intimacy and ease of contact and understanding are almost absolute between Moses and God. And Moses is a privileged person; no one else communicates in this way with God. When we reflect on this carefully, we realize the enormous step that God is going to take by generalizing this mode of communication [24]through the Incarnation of the eternal Son and through Pentecost! From now on, communicating with God will be possible for every human being who is willing to receive God’s Gift!! Intimacy with God is now possible for everyone! “Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it!” (Mt 13:17) Hearing and seeing are now possible through the Holy Spirit.
Prophetic intimacy is a very important thing for human beings. But it was not offered to everyone before the coming of Christ [25]. They were privileged beings who received a mission! And yet, the Lord God did not always explain what he wanted to do! Now Christ says: “I make you my friends” [26]and “to the friend I say everything” ! It is a divine decision, a complete change of economy for humanity! From now on, every man can enter into contact with God, the notion of prophecy has changed.
6- The Fulfillment of Prophecy in Christianity
The birth of the common munus propheticum
In the Gospel, Christ speaks of “false prophets!”: “Beware of false prophets , who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Mt 7:15; cf. also Mt 24:24), so he does not consider that prophecy is over! In the Beatitudes he also tells his disciples that they may be persecuted as the prophets were. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely because of me. Be glad and rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven, just as they persecuted the prophets before you.” (Mt 5:11-12) Again: “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name ?'” (Mt 7:22) So the prophecy is not finished! “Whoever receives a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward” (Mt 10:41), “I am sending to you prophets, wise men and scribes” (Mt 23:34) If the prophecy is not finished, is it the same as that of the Old Testament? Let us look at this more closely.
John the Baptist is the greatest of the Old Testament prophets; he is the messenger of the Son. “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” (Mt 11:13) “I tell you, there is not one greater than John among those born of women.” This is Christ recognizing and classifying the prophecy of John the Baptist as the highest. However, Christian prophecy is much higher: “yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk 7:28). A very powerful statement, which points to the fulfillment of prophecy in Christ!
With Christ and in him, the prophecy of the Old Testament reaches its fullness. Thus is born the munus propheticum , the gift of prophecy common to every Christian by virtue of the fact that he participates in the life of Christ the Prophet through baptism. Far from closing the era of prophecy, Christ inaugurates the era of prophecy in Himself! We thus pass from a reduced conception of prophecy, incomplete and restricted to a generalized, full and daily conception of it. Prophecy is no longer the announcement of future events, but the daily reception – as “daily bread” – of the Words of the Father, by the Son, in the Spirit. Words, intelligible, full of Spirit and Life, and which are the content of a transforming dialogue of friendship with Christ. Christ no longer hides anything from his disciple, he reveals to him his project, his thoughts and his feelings! He makes him a real collaborator in his work! “The Lord said to himself: shall I hide from Abraham what I want to do?” (Gen 18:17) What is true for Abraham, a Patriarch, is now true for every Christian! “To a friend I say everything ,” says the Lord, and “I make friends of you all” ! God spoke to Moses face to face, as to a friend. And Saint Paul says clearly that every Christian is called to a glory greater than that of Moses (Cf. 2 Cor 3:7-11)! Intimacy, dialogue, listening to his words that he addresses to us daily are a constant of the Christian life!
7- Prophecy and Intellectual Vocation
A step forward in the munus propheticum
What would we be without the teachings of Saint Paul? Without the letter to the Romans, for example!? This leads us to seriously consider the need for people who write! The mission to write, to explain, to clarify, to dissect, to open, to present, to expose! All the intelligence received, the intellectual effort to understand the spiritual life, all this must be offered to all, accessible to all! Paul received an understanding of the mysteries, he reflected and meditated on them, he deepened, he perceived major articulations (old/new testament). But we are stingy with ourselves and we do not think that God wants to give us more and more light on his Gift!
What would we have done without Paul? And all teachings come to us through humans. There is no direct dictation or automatic writing! God’s plan is incarnational, because he wants us to become like him, and he makes us friends who understand his plans (as was Saint Paul). Yes, God makes us collaborators! It is again the correct conception of prophecy that is the key to this friendship/collaboration with Christ.
Instinctively, we would put the duty of being holy before that of writing. And Saint Paul is worth more in the eyes of God for his holiness! And for us too, for his prayer! But his teaching is precious and we need it! His teaching is vital. There comes a time when holiness is about writing, taking the time and the effort to write, to explain. It is a form of charity to explain, to open the way. One could well open the way through prayer in a monastery and in a hidden way, but the Lord works through human means. Prophecy, in the Christ-like sense of the term, is essential to our life. The Word becomes words so that his words become Word in us. Christ constitutes himself in us, word by word, the Word is formed. And thus we reach the perfect age of Christ.
What we ask is that he come and act in us! This is true prophecy! Writing, in the Christian prophetic sense, supposes that words become Word in us – that the words of Christ give birth and life to Christ-Word in us! The intellectual vocation is inseparable from holiness; it is holiness in the sense that it supposes the incarnation in us of the words of Christ.
Prophecy is intelligence nourished by Christ. It is the illuminated, integrated intellectual life. And not the easy way, thieving like a wolf, bypassing information dictated from above! The integrative way is the only way! Knowledge, not science. A lived word, become life in us!
Yes, the question of Christian prophecy is crucial and it is the key to understanding Christianity, to this friendship of intelligence with Christ: to the Friend, I say everything! To the Friend, I give the Words that the Father has given me! The Holy Spirit will take these words and give them to you, explain them and bring you to the fullness of the Word (Christ).
The literary genre: The form of explanation, the form of prose, is in a certain sense the highest form! It is the prophetic form par excellence. That human intelligence, enlightened by God, puts things in order and explains is the highest form in fact ! This is why Christ wanted men to be the ones who say directly what they think of him! He did not want to write something himself, he preferred that it be the action of the Holy Spirit in men that does the work. And thus, he gives proof that everything he said can be incarnated in us, that we can become prophets in him! The authors of the New Testament are proof that Christ is incarnate in our lives, inspires us, guides us and leads us to union with Him. The literary genre of “prose” (as opposed to “poetry”) is the general form of the Gospel).
8- Relationship Between Word/s and Christ
We must address the degrees of Christ’s prophecy in order to better understand his prophecy and, consequently, our own. To do this, we must consider the relationship between the Word or Words and him. We can distinguish at least three levels in this relationship. First, in his divinity, he is God, he is the eternal Word of the Father. This Word is the eternal Logos that the Father has spoken from all eternity. He is the entire thought of the Father. Then, in his spirit, that is, in the summit of his soul, that part of his created human nature that is united, immersed, and ineffably transformed with the divinity. The Father speaks his Eternal Word in his spirit. This constitutes the Beatific Vision that Christ enjoyed as a man. His spirit, like the summit of a mountain that pierces the clouds of conscious life and sees the Sun of divinity, as much as is given to a created nature to do. In fact, in his spirit, Christ is the image and likeness of the Father, and is therefore capable of God in his human nature. In fact, the two natures are united in the unity of the divine Person.
And finally, in his soul, beneath the clouds, in the conscious part of his being, he receives the words that the Father gives him, for he constantly does the Father’s will. The Father guides him and gives him everything he needs to fulfill his mission as a man. So his soul receives the words of the Father. We are truly here at the birth of the words that are Spirit and Life, at the source of their gushing forth. These are the words that the Father gives to the Son and that he will subsequently give to us and that we will transmit. These are the words that he evokes in the Gospel of Saint John.
As humans like Christ, we are called to imitate him and to participate in the gifts he received as a man on at least two levels: that of the spirit and that of the soul. Thus, in the prayer of the Heart, the Father will pronounce his Son, his eternal Word, in our hearts as he did in his incarnate Son. And then, by the Holy Spirit, we will receive from the Father through the Son, the words that are Spirit and Life to guide us and enable us to carry out our mission and bear fruit!
We can represent this in a table.
| The place of the relationship | The content of the relationship | Correspondence for us | |
| 1 | in the divinity of the eternal Son,from all eternity | He is the Eternal and Uncreated Word of the Father, God | __ |
| 2 | In the mind of Christ | the Father speaks his Word in his spirit | The Father speaks his Word in our spirit a) |
| 3 | in the soul of Christ | the Father gives the Words to the intelligence of the Son, through the Spirit | The Father gives us the Words of the Son, through the Spirit, in our intelligence b) |
In the first column we have “the place of the relationship” between the different levels in the being of Christ and the Word(s). We have three places of encounter: 1- his divinity: there he is the Eternal and Uncreated Word of the Father. We then enter into his created being, into his human nature: his soul and the very tip of his soul. 2- His spirit is the place within him where the Father pronounces his Word in an ineffable way. It is the place of his beatific vision. Finally, 3- his soul, that is to say his active and conscious intelligence and will. In his intelligence he receives the Words of the Father and puts them into practice by his human will. This is how he knows the will of the Father and puts it into practice.
Christ is our way, for this reason, what takes place in his human nature is an example that he gives us to imitate. In fact, in the third column we have what is applicable for us in imitation and in extension with Christ: In our spirit (2), the Father pronounces – as in the Son – his Eternal Word, Uncreated Logos. This is an ineffable operation that takes place especially during Communion and the Prayer of the Heart. And finally (3) the Father, as he did with the incarnate Son, gives us the Words that are Spirit and Life so that we put them into practice. This takes place especially during the first part of the Mass and in the Lectio divina practiced from these readings. In the following paragraph we develop these last two actions of the word(s) of God in us!
9- The Two Levels of Contemplation
In the table above we note in the third column that we are faced with two levels or planes of Christian contemplation offered to every believer.
a) Superconscious level of contemplation: a way of “seeing” God in our minds. This capacity to see is much greater than that which takes place in the soul. It is of the order of the Beatific Vision that the spirit of Christ had on earth. The spirit participates in the generation of the Word! This participation is ineffable! Or in other words, as we say in the table above: the Father pronounces his Son-Eternal-Word in our minds.
b) Conscious level of contemplation: While being inferior to that which takes place in the spirit, the summit of the soul, it remains divine and useful for salvation. It is the words of the Father which carry within them light and life to the conscious intelligence. These received words, which deliver the light of the naked truths contained within it, unite with God, and lead towards the union of love. This contemplation is of a lower order but no less important than that which takes place in the spirit. The soul here receives the words of the Father, the naked truths contained within them. It contemplates these truths. It receives them! This contemplation which nourishes our intelligence also allows us to better understand the thought of God and what he expects of us.
Both levels of contemplation are necessary. They are two types of nourishment that are absolutely vital for us. One nourishes our mind and the other our soul! Contemplation then appears to us as a vital necessity without which our daily Christian life becomes very poor!
We see clearly that there are two orders of contemplation. One that takes place with a view to the spirit in the prayer of the heart and the other with a view to the soul, in lectio. Both are obviously supernatural contemplation, direct gifts of God. Both nourish the spirit, because all grace is first given to the spirit. But the words given nourish both the soul and the spirit, each according to its capacity/modality. That said, a direct and specific nourishment of the spirit is required; this is the prayer of the heart, or oration.
Both orders of contemplation exist and must exist as nourishment for every human being. We cannot do without them. Saint John of the Cross—who advocates contemplation in the mind—does not hesitate to say that he is not against the other contemplation. He takes care, for a chapter, to explain the eminence of this other contemplation. He himself took full advantage of it since his attachment to Scripture was unwavering, almost obsessive. He clearly states that the one who speaks in Scripture is God himself. He also says in this famous chapter 26 that God gives, among other things, this “supernatural knowledge” by reading the Bible.
The dimension of the munus propheticum is fundamentally a contemplative dimension.
10- The Prophetic Axis of The Gospel of Saint John
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1) Each evangelist is fond of certain appellations or titles for Our Lord. The choice (not exclusive, of course) of Saint John the Evangelist is the term “Word” (Verb – Logos). But let us note immediately that, by this term, he designates the divinity of Christ. He even begins his Gospel with the pre-existing reality of the Son, his reality before the Incarnation, one could even say before creation. The Word subsists eternally and is God. Saint John therefore goes back to the beginningless origins of Jesus of Nazareth. He therefore chooses the term Logos to designate the divine nature of Jesus of Nazareth.
Not that he was influenced by a Greek or other (gnostic) current, but because his Gospel is animated by a much deeper purpose, that of showing Christ as the revealer of God, the one who makes him known, the one who communicates him to men: “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is turned toward the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” (Jn 1:18) He wants to present Christ as the final realization of prophecy, as The awaited Prophet. He wants to present Christ in the axis of prophecy, that is to say, that of the Eternal Word which becomes words [27]. Christ for Saint John is the one who has the Words which are Spirit and Life. And for the Gospel of Saint John, he is the Word of the Father, his whole thought. Nothing could be more perfectly adapted. The Word becomes Words, the Word gives itself in Words, the inaudible (eternal) Word becomes audible (incarnate), the isolated Word, communicates itself through Words. The Incarnation creates a new reality: words that are both human and divine, words that did not exist before, and that can restore life to human beings. This is the fulfillment of prophecy. This is the axis chosen by Saint John to write his Gospel.
For Saint John, God’s revelation/communication to man is done through the intellectual-visual mode. Man in fact is a rational being possessing intelligence and will. We can better understand the Evangelist’s choice to designate the divinity of the Son as Logos. “In the beginning was the Logos.” The eternal Son of God is the thought of the Father, his Word, his entire Word. And the Son will reveal, show, transmit the Father; he will make him visible to human beings. The term Logos, chosen by Saint John, is therefore very important. It has immense consequences for all human activity.
Indeed, the latter is created in the image and likeness of God and is called to participate in the life of God. Man has a soul and a spiritwhich is like the summit of this soul.
The soul , and the spirit which is its summit, are mainly intelligence and will . In the soul, intelligence is active and conscious , it is the visible part of the mountain. While the spirit which is comparable to the part of the mountain which passes through the clouds and sees the Sun directly, is mainly supra-conscious and passive intelligence and will. “Supra-conscious” because consciousness characterizes the soul and “supra-” because the spirit is closer to God than the soul; and it is capable of participating in the divine life as it is, which is not the case with the soul. The spirit is passive because it is acted upon by God, unlike the soul which is active and conscious.
Each of these two levels of man is called to participate in his own way in the divine life, in the Word. Through his spirit, which is capable of God, he is called to participate in God as he is.
Therefore, the highest operation of man’s passive intelligence (the spirit) will be to participate in the Generation of the Word . The passive will (the spirit), for its part, will participate in the Spiration of the Holy Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the Word! It is the prayer of the heart which allows our spirit (or “heart” in the biblical sense) this direct participation in divine life. Lectio divina allows the participation of the soul, that is to say of the conscious and active intelligence and will, in the words full of life of the Logos.
The Word is God. It is the ultimate reference point of human intelligence and life; it is the nourishment of the human being. But how can “this” be realized? (Cf. Lk 1:34).
11- The Divine Words are Given to us
“And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us” (Jn 1:14) Saint John shows us how this divine Word becomes flesh, that is to say, how that which has the infinite and uncreated dimension of God will “enclose itself”, give itself, multiply itself in words, materially human, but now having a divine content. This event is transcendent because it will finally allow human intelligence to have access again to the divine, to the eternal Word. The divine words that the Word will communicate to us will be the bridge by which we will now be able to return to God.
The infinite and uncreated thought of God is incarnated and becomes human speech. Not that the divinity has changed its nature, but it has taken on a human form. “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and Life ” (Jn 6:63). “In the condescension of his goodness, God, in order to reveal himself to men, speaks to them in human words: “For the words of God, expressed in human languages, took on the likeness of human speech, just as the Word of the eternal Father, having assumed the infirmity of our flesh, was made in the likeness of men.”” (CCC [28]101) He who was inaudible to the human ear and intellect, has become audible. It is an immeasurable event. He who could not give himself, now gives himself through words that have human form, but are charged with divine density. The Incarnation has a completely unique and crucial consequence for human intelligence. Human words are no longer anything but human, empty of divine sap, but there is now the possibility of finding words that, while having a known form, have a divine charge. There now exist, through the Incarnation, words that carry divine Light. Certainly, 30 years separate the moment of the Incarnation from the beginning of Christ’s activity. But we can globally consider the event as the Outflow of the Word to sow his words, to sow himself in Words.
In our human life we do not sufficiently appreciate the importance of this opening of the Father’s Bosom, of this coming out of the Sower. The Word was hidden from our eyes, we did not have the Light. There was a kind of eternal barrier that separated the human being from God. The human being could no longer eat from the Tree of Life [29]. From now on, through the coming out of the One who was hidden in the Father’s Bosom, through this mysterious Incarnation of the Word in divine-human Words, the way is now open again. We have access to the Tree of Life [30].
The Word, therefore, will travel throughout Palestine, sowing his words full of life, which illuminate and heal. Then he will entrust these living Words – as he will entrust his Body and Blood – to successors so that they may distribute them in turn. “Now they have recognized that everything you have given me comes from you; for the The words that you gave me, I gave them to them , and they accepted them and truly recognized that I came out from you, and they believed that you sent me.” (Jn 17:7-8) “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word .” (Jn 17:20)
Let us repeat: the stakes of this event are immeasurable. It is in the daily practice of lectio divina that we grasp the richness of this event and how these words can in turn be embodied in our hearts!
The apostles, to whom Christ gave his words, will entrust them to the following generations in oral and written form. The Gospel is the book that contains these words. It will be the written form par excellence that the life-giving words of Christ will take. He transmits them to us as they were preserved and meditated on in the hearts of these men chosen by Christ and assisted by the Holy Spirit. And as Saint Jerome will say, “to ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ [31].” We must therefore go to Scripture, love it, scrutinize it, inhabit it to learn the eminent knowledge of Jesus Christ. The daily practice of lectio divina is certainly an eminent way of receiving the life-giving words of Christ and of incarnating them. Thus the prophecy is fulfilled and we become prophets.
12- The Language of God
I am deeply convinced that Lectio Divina is literally an apprenticeship in the language of God. Every day, the Holy Spirit teaches us a new divine “word.” God shows us from within (when we apply it) a new concept, as He understands it.
A “Word” a day listened to and then put into practice: it is embodied in us, it inhabits us, it takes flesh in us, it comes to life in us.
Reaching the stage where language learning is complete corresponds to having Christ living and acting in us and through us. We now “speak” His language. His Words are then living and acting in us and through us. Here is the great text for this:
“Brothers, the Spirit sees into all things, even the depths of God. Who among men knows what is in a person? Only the spirit of a person knows, which is in a person. Even so, no one knows what is in God except the Spirit of God. And we have received a spirit, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of God, and so we understand the gifts given to us by God. And we proclaim this with language that we do not learn from human wisdom, but from the Spirit , and we interpret spiritually what comes from the Spirit. A person who is only human cannot grasp what comes from the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is judged by the Spirit. But the person who is led by the Spirit judges all things, and he cannot be judged by anyone. The Scripture asked: Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will give him advice? Well , we have the mind of Christ ! (1 Cor 2:10b-16)
In this text, two points that evoke the same thing: The existence of the “language of the Spirit” and the fact of having the Thought of Christ.
We could define Union with Christ along this axis of language learning. That is to say, the path that leads to union is the daily path of lectio divina, which is the path of living incarnation in us each day of a Word. Day after day, living Word in us after living Word, this leads to thresholds of abundance, docility, purification, and fullness. From now on, the Holy Spirit guides and leads the human being through the Word, which has become alive and animating the human being. The Word transforms the human being into it. Plenary Union would therefore be the plenary quality of influence that the Word has over the human being.
This angle of vision of things (according to the growth of the Word in us) broadens our understanding in general of Spiritual Theology and in particular of the path that leads to union, offering a different, but no less relevant and encompassing approach to the subject. We thus understand what a Father of the Church says in the great Philokalia, how in fact one of the characteristics of Union with God (and of the state that follows) is to give (produce), to communicate to others the Words that are Spirit and Life .
I had written on this question, the fruits of the Union and the meaning of Christian prophecy.
How then can a theologian, or a priest, or even a Bishop, fulfill his sacred mission of expounding the Thought of God, the Thought of Christ, if he is not a daily practitioner of Lectio ? If this is not the case, he has not learned the language well: how then can he open his mouth (and speak)?
Additional Thoughts
This way of understanding prophecy clarifies it and settles this question of prophecy in depth. We thus reach the depths of the eternal Logos who gives himself to us! Lectio , practiced daily through the two daily readings, is in fact this conviction that we have the right to a daily “word” from God . For God is not a mute God! The Incarnation is in fact the opening of the celestial floodgates of God’s Love. And God, wanting to make us friends and collaborators in the work of transforming ourselves and our brothers, addresses us every morning with a word that awakens our intelligence and spurs our freedom by soliciting it! It is no longer to privileged men and figures that he speaks! He wants to address himself to all, and in a clear and understandable way! Prophecy has been generalised since the Incarnation – offered to all – and fulfilled in Christ.The existence of the exercise of lectio as a Gift from God reminds us that we are all called to be prophets, that is, people called to receive a word from God every day, a word of transformation, of growth, true nourishment.Note: We must not separate “Lectio” and “prayer of the heart” . Certainly, lectio brings the Son into existence in us, through daily bites. But it also leads to prayer , which is a divine exercise, even more profound because it directly reaches the mind (or heart) where the Father pronounces his Son in the soul. The Prophet according to the New Testament is the one who receives the word of God every morning, the words of God, and feeds on them to become more in Christ. It is so important to address the question of Prophecy! Both for the Christian Faith in general, but also for questions of Scripture (inspiration in our country and in Islam) and of Prophetic Mission (in our country before and after Christ, and also between Christians and Muslims, for example)! Every Christian is a prophet! Every Christian has direct contact with God! Every Christian can receive a word from God daily, for his life, to guide him, so that Christ, the total Word of the Father, may be incarnated in him by the Holy Spirit and live in him and speak through him. “I have given you the words of the Father” and I ask you to pass them on. I pray for those who will listen to you. If they listen to you, they listen to me, because I have placed in you, by the Spirit, my words. The best way to transmit this word is to let it be incarnated in us so that it lives: it is no longer I who lives, it is the Word of God (Christ) who lives in me and acts! The ERA of Scripture opens with the death and resurrection of Christ and is fulfilled when all the books of the New Testament are written. Scripture now has, through Christ, a “more manifestly prophetic content” (Saint Augustine). But for several decades we have been witnessing a unique phenomenon in history: the Bible is, as it were, re-given to us! [32]Just as in the Old Testament there is the Gift of the Law and the celebration of the gift of the Law by all the people of God, we must realize that we are living in a unique stage in the history of humanity: the Word of God has been given to us for several decades! Access to the Bible is now universal! Before, it was priests, monks, the rich, the privileged, the learned! Today, everyone has access to the Word of God. God gives his Word to all humanity as if for the first time. He can finally speak to each of us in the intimacy of his heart, daily. Certainly, in the case of the West, Luther had already taken a huge step forward in this direction when he translated the Bible into German! He offered the Germanic people access to the Word of God. But today, this is widespread. The Bible was forbidden in languages other than Latin during Luther’s Reformation because of fears of deviations and personal interpretation [33]! Today this prohibition no longer exists! And everyone has access to the Bible. God has, as it were, given a Gift of His Word for the first time in history! It is a unique phenomenon! “He will reveal to you things to come!” “Things to come” here does not mean the spirit of prophecy! The Old Testament notion of prophecy as announcing an external historical event to come changes completely in the New Testament! For after the coming of Christ there is only one thing “to come”: Christ who transforms us into Him! This is how He comes into us: by transforming us into Him. The divine Light when it comes into the human being does not leave him intact, just as the fire in the Oven does not leave the dough intact: it bakes it! This is why Jesus speaks of his mysterious coming in Jn 14-16 and this is why the type of prophecy that is the Apocalypse is unique in the world: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ: God gave it to him to show to his servants what must soon take place ” (Rev 1:1)! It is not a prophecy of historical events to come! This is the only event that interests God: the coming of Christ into us, transforming us, and therefore acquiring ever more weight in our hearts. The Spirit revealing the things “to come” is the whole initiation that Christian mystics speak to us about: this march, step by step, towards the fullness of Union with God and of Charity. The Holy Spirit introduces us into Christ, in a march or more exactly “ascent” into HIM, from his feet, to his Head and his Heart! We enter into Christ, ever more deeply! This is the only future of humanity, the future of every human being!The Holy Spirit is the inner Master of lectio, the Master who takes us by the hand to lead us forward in Christ and thus reveals Him to us with ever greater intensity and depth until we reach Union with God! He purifies us, He purifies our body and soul, makes the spirit grow and be born, and thus unites us to Christ-God! Every word received daily during lectio is in fact a step further in Christ, a step further towards the whole Truth (Christ)!
Jean Khoury
London, July 3, 2003
Copyright @ Jean KHOURY Reproduction prohibited.
[1]This gift is mentioned for example by Saint Paul in his letters. Example 1 Cor 13 and 14.
[2]We are talking here about the munus propheticum , ( munus , Latin, gift, present) participation in the Prophetism of Christ! Let us remember that Christ, and consequently all those united to him by baptism, has three functions: Prophetic (which is to announce the truth), Priestly (to sanctify by his offering of himself), Royal (to lead and organize). The Church consequently – as the Second Vatican Council so rightly recalled – participates in the functions of Christ, by virtue of its union with him. The Church therefore also has these three functions. The prophetic function is the rector of the other two, that is to say that it is she, as dispenser of the truth, who governs the other two functions! The Second Vatican Council, for example, developed the notion of the priesthood of the faithful , which is a participation in the Priesthood of Christ through baptism. It is very different from the ministerial priesthood!
[3]This distinction is rarely made, which means that Prophecy ( prophetic function ) is hidden by the Charism of Prophecy. Hence the interest of this work which highlights a “new” understanding of what is the essence of Christian prophecy (which is not to predict the future, but to receive the Word of God), and of its vital necessity because every man does not live only by bread but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The word is daily bread, and Christian prophecy is eating!
[4]“I tell you, there is no one greater than John among those born of women, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he .” (Luke 7:28)
[5]Muhammad is considered by Muslims to be the “seal of the Prophets” and the Quran is supposedly dictated to him by the Angel and not inspired. Two important questions that are indirectly addressed by this study: Christian prophecy and the Christian mode of inspiration of the Scriptures, mode of friendship! Moreover, the Muslim “Revelation” is made in Arabic and consequently it is not translatable! So many questions that are indirectly clarified by this study.
[6]They were used in the first chapter of the book on lectio .
[7]This does not mean that everyone will prophesy by receiving inner words! But everyone must be moved by the Word, everyone will have Christ the Word as their confidant and friend who gives them his words of life.
[8]Peter points this out when he explains to the Jews who had become Christians that Gentiles too had received the Spirit. “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed to see that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. They heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God ” (Acts 10:44-46) exactly as happened on the Day of Pentecost. Likewise, when Saint Paul baptizes and lays hands on them, the Spirit comes and the first manifestation of the Spirit is the mysterious Words! “And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy ” (Acts 19:6) .
[9]In this sense, it is chapter 26 of the second book of the Ascent of Mount Carmel , which is a chapter entirely of the lectio type (as well as chapters 19 to 22 of the Ascent of Mount Carmel , book II) which is fundamental. For Saint John of the Cross asks us to avoid being taken in by these phenomena of locution, on the other hand, the only thing he approves and even desires is the Word of God, which is the very substance of union. This is pointed out in the book (French version). It is a pity that he did not comment with more development on the question of meditation on the Word, of the reception of the Word of God as a phenomenon of union! We will briefly address these questions below.
[10]The entrance into the supernatural is an expression borrowed from Saint Teresa of Avila: “To begin to speak of the Fourth Mansions, I had great need to commend myself to the Holy Spirit as I have done; I begged him to say from now on in my place something of the following Mansions so that you would understand, because we are beginning to enter into supernatural things , and it is extremely difficult to make them understood if His Majesty does not take charge of it” (4th Mansions , chapter 1,1) This is the equivalent of the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, so often mentioned by the Lord.
[11]Acts 10:44: “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.” And “When they came to the Samaritans, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had fallen on none of them.” (Acts 8:15-16)
[12]In fact, to receive the Word of God which is prepared for us every day! There is a meal prepared by the Lord every day and he wants to give it to us.
[13]In Saint Paul (1 Cor 13-14) when it is a question of prophecy, it is rather the charism of Prophecy, that is to say a free gift for the edification of the body of Christ! Among the charisms we also find the fact of speaking in tongues! A charism is not given to all, but just to a few. On the other hand, the prophetic function , the “prophecy of the faithful” (as we say the “common priesthood”, or “priesthood of the faithful”), the munus propheticum , is something else, it is something given to all because we are all united to Christ the Prophet by our baptism, we participate in his prophecy! The whole object of this brief study is to show the functioning of the prophetic function of Christ and the participation in it by all the baptized! It is therefore the prophecy of the baptized!
[14] “A good number of Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s word […].”
[15]This point that we are highlighting is crucial.
[16] “Now if the ministration of death, engraved in letters on stone, was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, though it was fleeting, how should not the ministration of the Spirit have more glory ? For if the ministration of condemnation was glorious, how much more is the ministration of righteousness glorious! Nay, if in this respect it is compared with that exceeding glory , the glory of the former ministry was not glory. For if that which was fleeting was glorified, how much more will that which endures be glorified!” (2 Cor 3:7-11)
[17]We also understand the great danger to which Christianity exposes itself if it distances the people of God from Scripture, and if it ends up resigning itself to a silent God! It is the death of Christianity to arrive at a silent God!
[18] ” The manifestation of divine truth which is made by the naked contemplation of this truth prevails over that which uses the symbolism of corporeal realities: it approaches more closely, in fact, the vision of heaven, where the truth is contemplated in the essence of God . It follows that the prophecy where the supernatural truth is seen in its nakedness by an intellectual vision , is superior to that which uses the symbol of corporeal realities, in a vision of the imagination. It shows at the same time that the spirit of the prophet is higher .” (St II-II q 174 a. 2)
[19]ST II-II Q 173 a.2.
[20]We should see what it was like for Christ: did he have “intellectual vision” in his soul, visions of naked truths?!
[21]Without imaginative or sensible form. Lectio , by its very nature (since it deals with words), tends to favour intellectual visions, which are simply the reception of supernatural light in the intelligence through the passages of Scripture that one reads!
[22]Saint John of the Cross – still in this same chapter 26 – specifies that some of this knowledge is ordinary: “they are not always of the same efficacy and of the same sentiment. For often they are rather mediocre” (§ 9). This “fits” well with what a daily lectio is , where God addresses us in both a supernatural and ordinary way.
[23]In the following passage, St. Paul compares the ministries of Moses and the ministries of Christ’s apostles, and through this comparison he reveals the profound differences between the two administrations! “If the ministration of death, engraved in letters on stones, was surrounded with such glory that the children of Israel could not fix their eyes on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, though it was fleeting, how should not the ministration of the Spirit have more glory? For if the ministration of condemnation was glorious, how much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory! Nay, if from this point of view it is compared to that supereminent glory, the glory of that first ministration was not glory. For if that which was fleeting was manifested in glory, how much more will that which endures be glorious!” (2 Cor 3,7-11) In fact, he will evoke in the passage which comes after the veil which covers every reader of the Old Testament and which is lifted when one believes in Christ!
[24]The mode itself and not its external manifestations.
[25]That said, from the beginning it was not like this! Adam was a Prophet, he dialogued with God all the time, and God’s wish is that everyone be prophets. He will only be able to realize it again through and in Christ-God. Here is a passage which shows that, from the Old Testament, God shows his initial plan and his ardent desire: “A young man ran and told Moses: “Here are Eldad and Medad,” he said, “prophesying in the camp.” Joshua, son of Nun, who had served Moses since his youth, spoke and said: “Moses, my lord, stop them!” Moses answered him: “Are you jealous for me? Ah! May all the people of Yahweh be prophets, Yahweh giving them his Spirit !”” (Num 11:27-29) May all the people be Prophets!
[26]“I no longer call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I call you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (Jn 15:15)
[27]The Apocalypse presents itself as a book containing prophecies: “I declare to everyone who listens to the prophetic words of this book …” (Rev 22:18) However, we can say that Saint John is more of a prophet in his Gospel than in the Apocalypse for two reasons. First, because his Gospel collects the words of Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, and he thus places himself in the very axis of Prophecy and places his Gospel on this axis. But also because the Apocalypse is based more on “imaginary visions” than on the prose of the words of Christ! The “imaginary visions” of the Apocalypse are inferior to the “intellectual visions” that are the Words of Christ, which are all Spirit and Life! What we expect from the Son are not visions but the Words, full of Spirit and life, which he received from the Father and which he transmits to us!
[28]CEC: Catechism of the Catholic Church.
[29]“Then YHWH God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. Let him not now stretch out his hand and pluck from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever!” So YHWH God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. He banished the man and placed the cherubim and the flaming sword before the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the Tree of Life .” (Gen 3:22-24)
[30]“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God.” (Rev 2:7) “Blessed are those who wash their robes, for they will have access to the Tree of Life and will enter the city through the gates.” (Rev 22:14)
[31]Saint Jerome, in the prologue to his commentary on the Book of Isaiah, recalls what Christ declared to the Jews: “You are in error, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Mt 22:29). He concludes: “If, as the Apostle Paul says, Christ is the “power and wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24), to be ignorant of the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ.” (Cf. “Commentary on Isaiah”, PL 24:10)
[32] This remark concerns above all the West. “After a centuries-long exile, the Word of God has regained its central character in the life of the Catholic Church, this is an incontestable fact. One could even speak of a rediscovery” of the Word of God on the part of Catholic believers, who for centuries no longer knew or practiced direct contact with the Scriptures […]. Preceded and prepared by the liturgical, ecumenical and biblical movements, the Second Vatican Council, in fact, […] liberated the Word and put an end to the exile of the Holy Scriptures” E. Bianchi, “The Central Character of the Word of God”, in the collective “The Reception of Vatican II: 1965-1985”, Paris, 1985, pp. 157-185.
[33] For centuries, the People of God did not have access to the Books of the Old Testament, always for fear that the people would misunderstand the meaning of the Scriptures! Yet it has never ceased to be considered that the Old Testament is as inspired as the New!