JESUS CHRIST: MEDIATOR AND FULLNESS 0F ALL REVELATION

12 "By this revelation, then, the deepest truth . . . is made clear to us in Christ, who is the Mediator and at the same time the fullness of ail revelation" (DV, 2).

Christ is not only the greatest of prophets, who by his teaching fulfilled those things which had been said and done by God in earlier limes. He himself is the eternal Son of God, made man, and thus the last event to which ail events in the history of salvation look and which fulfils and manifests the final plans of God. "For this reason he . . . perfected revel action by fulfilling it . .

(DV, 4; cf. LG., 9).

The ministry of the word ought to direct attention to this wonderful characteristic peculiar to the economy of revelation. The Son of God inserts himself into the history of men, takes b himself the life and death of a man, and in this history fulfils his plan of the Covenant.

in the same way as does the Evangelist Luke, the ministry of the word ought first to recall the event of Jesus for believers, by manifesting its meaning and by searching more and more into this unique and irreversible fact: "Many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events which have been fulfilled in our midst.

. I too have carefully traced the whole sequence of events from the beginning, and have decided to set it in writing for you" (Luke 1, 1-3).

Therefore, the ministry of the word should be based on the divinely inspired exposition regarding the redemptive incarnation,

the exposition which has been given us by Jesus himself and by the first disciples and especially the apostles, who were witnesses of the events. "It is common knowledge that among ail [the Scriptures] . . . the Gospels have a special pre-eminence, and rightly so, for they are the principal witness of the life and teaching of the incarnate Word, our Savior" (DV, 18).

Moreover, it is to be recalled that Jesus, the Messiah and Lord, is through his Spirit always present to his Church (cf. John 14, 26; 15, 26; 16, 13; Apoc. 2, 7). Accordingly, the ministry of the word presents Christ not only as its object but also as the one who opens the hearts of hearers to receive and understand the divine proclamation (cf. Acts 16, 14).