1.27 Cos’è l’Alleanza? E in cosa consiste il piano di salvezza di Dio?
L’Antico Testamento ci racconta del popolo d’Israele, il popolo scelto di Dio. Dio concluse un’alleanza con questo poplo: essi sarebbero stati fedeli a Dio e Dio non li avrebbe mai abbandonati. Comportandosi male, il popolo d’Israele ruppe questa alleanza. Dio perdonò il suo popolo e diede loro i Dieci Comandamenti come nuova alleanza. Sfortunatamente, il popolo continuò a peccare, ma Dio li perdonò in continuazione e stipulò sempre una nuova alleanza con loro.
Dio voleva che l’uomo fosse eternamente felice: volle cancellare il peccato dei primi esseri umani e di tutti quelli che sarebbero venuti dopo di loro. Questo è il piano di salvezza di Dio, e il cammino che egli fa con noi si chiama storia della salvezza. Attraverso il sacrificio di Gesù sulla croce, Dio concluse una nuova e definitiva alleanza con il suo popolo. Da quel momento in poi, è possibile andare in paradiso e vivere per sempre con Dio.
How does God reveal himself in the Old Testament?
God shows himself in the Old Testament as God, who created the world out of love and remains faithful to men even when they have fallen away from him into sin.
God makes it possible to experience him in history: with Noah he establishes a covenant to save all living things. He calls Abraham so as to make him “the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17:5b) and to bless “all the families of the earth” in him (Gen 12:3b). The people Israel, sprung from Abraham, becomes his special possession. To Moses he introduces himself by name. This mysterious name Yhwh, usually transcribed Yahweh, means “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14). He frees Israel from slavery in Egypt, establishes a covenant with them on Sinai, and through Moses gives them the law. Again and again, God sends prophets to his people to call them to conversion and to the renewal of the covenant. The prophets proclaim that God will establish a new and everlasting covenant, which will bring about a radical renewal and definitive redemption. This covenant will be open to all human beings. [Youcat 8]
What does God reveal to man?
God in his goodness and wisdom reveals himself. With deeds and words, he reveals himself and his plan of loving goodness which he decreed from all eternity in Christ. According to this plan, all people by the grace of the Holy Spirit are to share in the divine life as adopted “sons” in the only begotten Son of God. [CCCC 6]
What are the first stages of God's Revelation?
From the very beginning, God manifested himself to our first parents, Adam and Eve, and invited them to intimate communion with himself. After their fall, he did not cease his revelation to them but promised salvation for all their descendants. After the flood, he made a covenant with Noah, a covenant between himself and all living beings. [CCCC 7]
Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what he is like?
Man can know by reason that God exists, but not what God is really like. Yet because God would very much like to be known, he has revealed himself.
God did not have to reveal himself to us. But he did it—out of love. Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love. From creation on, through the patriarchs and the prophets down to the definitive revelation in his son Jesus Christ, God has spoken again and again to mankind. In him he has poured out his heart to us and made his inmost being visible for us. [Youcat 7]
The whole of salvation history is the story of God looking for us: he offers us love and welcomes us with tenderness. [Pope Francis, Tweet, 31 May 2013].
