Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, 142 become a living reality. the parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." 143 It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is Bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.

The precept of the Church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely: "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the Faithful are Bound to participate in the Mass." 117 "The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day." 118

"All men are Bound to seek the Truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it." 26 This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human person." 27 It does not contradict a "sincere respect" for different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men," 28 nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith." 29

The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life Bound to and nourished by liturgical life. the obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the Faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:

First, the common good presupposes respect for the person as such. In the name of the common good, public authorities are Bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation. In particular, the common good resides in the conditions for the exercise of the natural freedoms indispensable for the development of the human vocation, such as "the right to act according to a sound norm of conscience and to safeguard . . . privacy, and rightful freedom also in matters of religion." 27

"It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper Bounds. This is the principle of the 'rule of law,' in which the law is sovereign and not the arbitrary will of men."

A society is a group of persons Bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the past and prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established as an "heir" and receives certain "talents" that enrich his identity and whose fruits he must develop. 3 He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good.

As St. Paul affirms, "Where sin increased, grace aBounded all the more." 118 But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and bestow on us "righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ ourLord." 119 Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on sin:

As long as freedom has not Bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely. Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out. Thus the extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin. One is morally Bound to resist orders that command genocide.

Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and Bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' "right to become a father and a mother only through each other." 166

By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity. Being creatures and still sinners, we have to petition for us, for that "us" Bound by the world and history, which we offer to the boundless love of God. For through the name of his Christ and the reign of his Holy Spirit, our Father accomplishes his plan of salvation, for us and for the whole world.

The baptized cannot pray to "our" Father without bringing before him all those for whom he gave his beloved Son. God's love has no Bounds, neither should our prayer. 52 Praying "our" Father opens to us the dimensions of his love revealed in Christ: praying with and for all who do not yet know him, so that Christ may "gather into one the children of God." 53 God's care for all men and for the whole of creation has inspired all the great practitioners of prayer; it should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say "our" Father.

The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ's return, teaches us - to pray in hope. Conversely, the prayer of the Church and personal prayer nourish hope in us. the psalms especially, with their concrete and varied language, teach us to fix our hope in God: "I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry." 8 As St. Paul prayed: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may aBound in hope." 9

The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely. 116 Thus the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of preaching the Gospel 117 but also intercedes for them. 118 The intercession of Christians recognizes no Boundaries: "for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions," for persecutors, for the salvation of those who reject the Gospel. 119

When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the Boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up (“Abba . . . not my will, but yours."), 53 but even in his last words on the Cross, where prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", 54 "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise", 55 "Woman, behold your son" - "Behold your mother", 56 "I thirst."; 57 "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" 58 "It is finished"; 59 "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" 60 until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit. 61

From this intimacy with the Faithful God, slow to anger and aBounding in steadfast love, 23 Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession. He does not pray for himself but for the people whom God made his own. Moses already intercedes for them during the battle with the Amalekites and prays to obtain healing for Miriam. 24 But it is chiefly after their apostasy that Moses "stands in the breach" before God in order to save the people. 25 The arguments of his prayer - for intercession is also a mysterious battle - will inspire the boldness of the great intercessors among the Jewish people and in the Church: God is love; he is therefore righteous and faithful; he cannot contradict himself; he must remember his marvellous deeds, since his glory is at stake, and he cannot forsake this people that bears his name.

In the Old Testament, the revelation of prayer comes between the fall and the restoration of man, that is, between God's sorrowful call to his first children: "Where are you? . . . What is this that you have done?" 3 and the response of God's only Son on coming into the world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." 4 Prayer is Bound up with human history, for it is the relationship with God in historical events.

Professional secrets - for example, those of political office holders, soldiers, physicians, and lawyers - or confidential information given under the seal of secrecy must be kept, save in exceptional cases where keeping the secret is Bound to cause very grave harm to the one who confided it, to the one who received it or to a third party, and where the very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the Truth. Even if not confided under the seal of secrecy, private information prejudicial to another is not to be divulged without a grave and proportionate reason.

Charity and respect for the Truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. the good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known or for making use of a discreet language. the duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is Bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it. 282

Man tends by nature toward the Truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and Bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth." 261

The various liturgies aBound in prayers of blessing and epiclesis asking God's grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the bride. In the epiclesis of this sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church. 124 The Holy Spirit is the seal of their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to renew their fidelity.

"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws.... God himself is the author of marriage." 87 The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, 88 some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely Bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life." 89

But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away." 307 and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace aBounded all the more'; and the Exsultet sings, 'O happy fault,. . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!'" 308

In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive." 178 From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "aBounded all the more", 179 brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.

God, "HE WHO IS", revealed himself to Israel as the one "aBounding in steadfast love and Faithfulness". 27 These two terms express summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his kindness, goodness, grace and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness and Truth. "I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness." 28 He is the Truth, for "God is light and in him there is no darkness"; "God is love", as the apostle John teaches. 29

After Israel's sin, when the people had turned away from God to worship the golden calf, God hears Moses' prayer of intercession and agrees to walk in the midst of an unFaithful people, thus demonstrating his love. 18 When Moses asks to see his glory, God responds "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name "the LORD" [YHWH]." 19 Then the LORD passes before Moses and proclaims, "YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and aBounding in steadfast love and faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving God. 20

Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith." 44 To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; 45 it must be "working through charity," aBounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church. 46

To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. the act of faith is of its very nature a free act." 39 "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in Truth. Consequently they are Bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus." 40 Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom... grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself." 41

"Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are Bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal." 40 Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age". 41

The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which are intrinsically Bound up with each other" 4 and shed light on each another. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, imageBound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God --"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"-- with our human representations. 16 Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God.

Jesus invites sinners to the table of the kingdom: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 258 He invites them to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom, but shows them in word and deed his Father's Boundless mercy for them and the vast "joy in heaven over one sinner who repents". 259 The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life "for the forgiveness of sins". 260

Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be Bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 287 The "power of the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: "Feed my sheep." 288 The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgements, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles 289 and in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom.

"Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination." 66 The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. 67 The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ's return. The Church recognizes herself to be Bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason, the ordination of women is not possible. 68

Since the Second Vatican Council the Latin Church has restored the diaconate "as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy," 58 while the Churches of the East had always maintained it. This permanent diaconate, which can be conferred on married men, constitutes an important enrichment for the Church's mission. Indeed it is appropriate and useful that men who carry out a truly diaconal ministry in the Church, whether in its liturgical and pastoral life or whether in its social and charitable works, should "be strengthened by the imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles. They would be more closely Bound to the altar and their ministry would be made more fruitful through the sacramental grace of the diaconate." 59

"All priests, who are constituted in the order of priesthood by the sacrament of Order, are Bound together by an intimate sacramental brotherhood, but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to which they are attached under their own bishop. . ;" 52 The unity of the presbyterium finds liturgical expression in the custom of the presbyters' imposing hands, after the bishop, during the Ate of ordination.

Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is Bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives. 72 This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the sacrament.

According to the Church's command, "after having attained the age of discretion, each of the Faithful is Bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year." 56 Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession. 57 Children must go to the sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion for the first time. 58

In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ's solemn words to Simon Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be Bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 45 "The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to its head." 46

If from the beginning Christians have celebrated the Eucharist and in a form whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of times and liturgies, it is because we know ourselves to be Bound by the command the Lord gave on the eve of his Passion: "Do this in remembrance of me." 181

The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." 134 "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are Bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch." 135

Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation," whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the Faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. 88 For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly Bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed." 89

The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. 59 He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. 60 Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. 61 The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has Bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.

Anamnesis. the liturgical celebration always refers to God's saving interventions in history. "The economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words which are intrinsically Bound up with each other.... (The) words for their part proclaim the works and bring to light the mystery they contain." 22 In the Liturgy of the Word the Holy Spirit "recalls" to the assembly all that Christ has done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual traditions of the Churches, the celebration "makes a remembrance" of the marvelous works of God in an anamnesis which may be more or less developed. the Holy Spirit who thus awakens the memory of the Church then inspires thanksgiving and praise (doxology).

"Catechesis is intimately Bound up with the whole of the Church's life. Not only her geographical extension and numerical increase, but even more her inner growth and correspondence with God's plan depend essentially on catechesis." 10