Christ is the first 'exegesis' of the Father; he is his 'Word,' the one who manifests him. All other words on God and Christ are based on that prime revelation of the Father. The Word - Verbum - was manifested historically in the flesh, and consequently in the assumption of human language. His words, those of the first witnesses and servants of the word, whom the Spirit moved to give authentic expression to the mystery of his appearance among men, will therefore always remain the fundamental norm for everything that will be said about Christ down to the end of time. The incarnation of the Word, his lowering of himself by assuming a temporal form in a certain historical period and within a certain culture, is a fact which has repercussions for all subsequent cultures, and obliges them to turn continually and loyally to that privileged moment and let it work in them as the indispensable formative principle. But fidelity to the Incarnate Word demands, by virtue of the dynamics of the Incarnation, that the message shall be made present whole and entire, not just to man in general but to man of today, to whom the message is announced now. Christ made himself the contemporary of some men and spoke their language. Fidelity to him demands that such contemporaneity should continue. This is the Church's whole task, with its Tradition, the Magisterium and preaching.



Pope Paul VI, Address 25 September 1970, in L'Osservatore Romano, 8 October 1970. Quoted in Magisterium, Scripture and Catholic Exegetes by Rev. Thomas McGovern.



UPDATE and ADDITIONAL: I've just visited Steven Riddle at Flos Carmeli, one of the indispensable sites. He posted the following excerpt from St. John of the Cross earlier today. The passage above could now almost be read as a gloss.



From The Ascent of Mount Carmel Book II Chapter 22.



In giving us, as He has done, His Son, who is his only Word, He has spoken to us once and for all by His own and only Word, and has nothing further to reveal.