God's Plan Unveiled by Jorge Mario Bergoglio

WE WILL NEVER be able to explain to our complete satisfaction the mysterious designs of God, who has wanted to reveal himself in the course of history. Over a long stretch of time we humans have been learning, like little children from their father, how to recognize and respond to the face of God. None of the Lord's past revelations was partial; they all mysteriously contained the totality of the mystery of his saving plan. But we humans, because of the hardness of our hearts, were unable to grasp the entirety of the mystery of God in Christ; we perceived it only slowly, in bits and pieces. It is the same with our personal histories: the Lord reveals himself "historically" in the unfathomable mystery of those who seek God and allow themselves to be sought by God, but he reveals himself also in those who reject God and flee from him. That is to say, God reveals himself in the historical mystery of our movement through grace and sin.

ON MANY OCCASIONS and in diverse manners (Heb 1: 1), the Lord has revealed himself to human beings: he has revealed his name (Exod 6: 3), his intentions (Exod 33: 12), his ways (1 Kings 8: 36; 2 Chron 6: 27), his mysteries or secrets (Psalm 50: 8; Deut 2: 28-30), his covenant (Psalm 24: 8), his power (Jer 16: 21), and his glory (2 Macc 2: 8). Throughout the whole of history, the Lord has unceasingly manifested himself (1 Sam 3: 21) and revealed his salvation. "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be ours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the suffering destined for Christ and the subsequent glory" (1 Pet 1: 10-12). This same salvation history is still a driving force for our Christian living today, for our sad-but-ever-so-great history: "So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Pet 1: 19). Learning to reinterpret our lives according to the great events of salvation history will help us to understand the revelation contained in the Gospel proclamation we have received: "The righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith" (Rom 1: 17). It was by faith upon faith and by grace upon grace (John 1: 16) that the manifestation to which the law and the prophets bore witness was transmitted to us (Rom 3: 21). The history of the revelation of God to the chosen people offers us, then, guidelines for observing and orienting our own progress in the faith, for we have been preceded by a "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12: 1, 11). These witnesses foresaw what was promised and hailed it from afar because they placed their hope in the salvation that was to come, the deliverance "which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures" (Rom 1: 2). Every manifestation of God points, therefore, to the epiphany of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.