Office Of Readings | Advent Monday Week 2 | A Reading From The Ascent Of Mount Carmel By Saint John Of The Cross | God Has Spoken To Us In Christ

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Office Of Readings | Advent Monday Week 2 | A Reading From The Ascent Of Mount Carmel By Saint John Of The Cross | God Has Spoken To Us In Christ

‘In Christ, God has spoken to us.’

Saint John of the Cross reflects on the difference between the time before Jesus Christ and the time after Jesus’ coming. He begins by recalling that in the ancient law, prophets and priests needed revelations, visions, and signs. This was not a weakness but a necessity: the foundation of faith had not yet been laid, and the gospel had not yet been spoken in its fullness. God therefore met them in many ways—through images, symbols, and partial glimpses. Everything God revealed then pointed toward something greater that had not yet arrived.

Now, John says, that greater reality has come. God has spoken his final and complete Word in his Son. Because Christ is the fullness of God’s self-communication, there is no further message to seek, and no deeper revelation to expect. Everything scattered throughout the earlier ages—every prophecy, every symbol, every movement of hope—has been gathered together and completed in the person of Jesus Christ.

John takes up the letter to the Hebrews to make the point clear: once God spoke through the prophets ‘in various ways’, but now he has spoken through his Son. For John, this means that the old desire for visions or new messages from God can actually lead the heart away from the simplicity of faith. To look beyond Christ, or to expect some fresh revelation apart from him, is to risk overlooking the one Word in whom God has already said everything.

John presents God as answering such searching hearts with the words spoken at the Transfiguration: This is my beloved Son; hear him. In Christ, God has revealed all we need. To listen to Christ is not to limit ourselves, but to receive the fullness of life, wisdom, and truth. Whatever God spoke before, he spoke in preparation for this one revelation. Whatever the prophets sought, they were really seeking Christ. Whatever the faithful hope for, they find its fulfilment in him.

John’s teaching leads us into a quiet confidence: we do not need to chase after extraordinary experiences or new signs. Instead, we learn to remain with Jesus, to look toward him, and to trust that God has already given in Jesus everything that leads to salvation. That simplicity, for John, is not a narrowing but a deepening. Jesus Christ is the entire Word, and in Jesus the whole mystery has already been spoken.

A Reading From The Ascent Of Mount Carmel By Saint John Of The Cross | God Has Spoken To Us In Christ

Under the ancient law, prophets and priests sought from God revelations and visions which indeed they needed, for faith had as yet no firm foundation and the gospel law had not yet been established. Their seeking and God’s responses were necessary. He spoke to them at one time through words and visions and revelations, at another in signs and symbols. But however he responded and what he said and revealed were mysteries of our holy faith, either partial glimpses of the whole or sure movements toward it.

But now that faith is rooted in Christ, and the law of the gospel has been proclaimed in this time of grace, there is no need to seek him in the former manner, nor for him so to respond. By giving us, as he did, his Son, his only Word, he has in that one Word said everything. There is no need for any further revelation.

This is the true meaning of Paul’s words to the Hebrews when he urged them to abandon their earlier ways of conversing with God, as laid down in the law of Moses, and set their eyes on Christ alone: In the past God spoke to our fathers through the prophets in various ways and manners; but now in our times, the last days, he has spoken to us in his Son. In effect, Paul is saying that God has spoken so completely through his own Word that he chooses to add nothing. Although he had spoken but partially through the prophets he has now said everything in Christ. He has given us everything, his own Son.

Therefore, anyone who wished to question God or to seek some new vision or revelation from him would commit an offense, for instead of focusing his eyes entirely on Christ he would be desiring something other than Christ, or beyond him.

God could then answer: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear him. In my Word I have already said everything. Fix your eyes on him alone for in him I have revealed all and in him you will find more than you could ever ask for or desire.

I, with my Holy Spirit, came down upon him on Mount Tabor and declared: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear him. You do not need new teachings or ways of learning from me, for when I spoke before it was of Christ who was to come, and when they sought anything of me they were but seeking and hoping for Christ in whom is every good, as the whole teaching of the evangelists and apostles clearly testifies.

Christian Prayer With Jesus

Lord Jesus,
you are the Word the Father has spoken in fullness.
Keep our eyes fixed on you alone,
and free our hearts from restless searching.
Teach us to receive you as the wisdom we need,
and the light in whom all things are revealed.
Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

Ancient law – The time of the Old Testament, before the coming of Jesus.
Revelation – God making himself known, whether through words, visions, or events.
The Word – A title for Jesus, meaning the full expression of God’s self-communication.
Transfiguration – The moment on Mount Tabor when Christ’s glory was revealed, and the Father’s voice declared him the beloved Son.
Fullness of revelation – The teaching that everything necessary for salvation has been given definitively in Christ, Jesus, God the Son.