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By its nature, prophecy can be difficult to interpret. It uses many symbols, and these can be taken in more than one way.The key to understanding biblical prophecy is to determine itsliteralsense—that is, what it meant in itsoriginalcontext, what the prophet was trying to communicate to his audience for their benefit. Normally Old Testament prophecies have their primary fulfillment within the generation to which they were given or within a few generations. However, they can have additional fulfi …

Faith and Reason: Both Come from God Both the truths of faith and truths of reason come ultimately from God, who is the truth. The Catechism, citing the first and second Vatican Councils, puts the point as follows: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.” “Con …

The Nature of Faith: Trust in Relationships In general, faith can be understood as the acceptance of something as true based on the trustworthiness of the one revealing it. Any kind of deep friendship requires a trust between friends. Otherwise, the relationship will remain superficial, without any deep intimacy and communication of what is most important to both. In true friendship, each person speaks from the heart, revealing what is of deep significance. To accept as true what a frien …

Cultural Resistance to Revelation The necessity of revelation and of knowing God on his terms is not accepted in our culture today. A story can help illustrate this tension. In our society, for decades bumper stickers have been used as a means of self-declaration. Beyond the popular Christian “fish” bumper sticker, and the reactionary Darwin one, we find all kinds of political, social, and religious statements on the bumpers of people’s cars. They were our original social media “walls” befor …

There were actually two apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe more than two centuries apart. In 1326 in Cácerces, Spain, according to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to a cowherd named Gil Cordero as he searched for a lost cow. The Virgin led him to a mound of stones where he saw his cow lying motionless as if dead. Cordero was preparing to cut off its hide when it awoke. Mary told him to dig at the spot. Skeptical at first, local authorities dug to remove the stones and found a cave that conta …