Victory over the "prince of this world" 169 was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely Gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out." 170 "He pursued the woman" 171 but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from Sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring." 172 Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," 173 since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One.

Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. the sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and "This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood." 185 In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he Gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of Sins." 186

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

Is this not the same movement as the Paschal meal of the risen Jesus with his disciples? Walking with them he explained the Scriptures to them; sitting with them at table "he took bread, blessed and broke it, and Gave it to them." 172

By celebrating the Last Supper with his Apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus Gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus' pasSing over to his Father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom.

The Lord, having Loved those who were his own, Loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and Gave them the commandment of love. 161 In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and commanded his Apostles to celebrate it until his return; "thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament." 162

In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; 154 their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God's Faithfulness to his promises. The "cup of blesSing" 155 at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he Gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup.

The Creed links "the forgiveness of Sins" with its profession of Faith in the Holy Spirit, for the risen Christ entrusted to the Apostles the power to forgive Sins when he Gave them the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle's Creed associates Faith in the forgiveness of Sins not only with faith in the Holy Spirit, but also with faith in the Church and in the communion of saints. It was when he Gave the Holy Spirit to his Apostles that the risen Christ conferred on them his own divine power to forgive Sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 518

"This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally Gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal Salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix." 510

The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He Gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. 400 "The office of binding and looSing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of Apostles united to its head." 401 This pastoral office of Peter and the other apostles belongs to the Church's very foundation and is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the Pope.

Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He Gave her authority and Mission, orientation and goal:

It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the Love with which he Loved us "to the end," 207 even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and Gave himself up for us, 208 and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love:

The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forGave the Sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, 3 has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and Salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

During his public life Jesus not only forGave Sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven Sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God. 44

This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; "A new commandment I give to you, that you Love one another, even as I have Loved you, that you also love one another." 139 It is impossible to keep the Lord's commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make "ours" the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. 140 Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forGave" us. 141

In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." 99 Only Jesus can say: "I always do what is pleaSing to him." 100 In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: "not my will, but yours be done." 101 For this reaSon Jesus "Gave himself for our Sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." 102 "and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." 103

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 traditional expression "the Lord's Prayer" - oratio Dominica - means that the prayer to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. the prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is "of the Lord." On the one hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father Gave him: 13 he is the master of our prayer. On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer.

Mary Gave her consent in Faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever Since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties." 28 Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she "shows the way" (hodigitria), and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West.

But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: Jesus. the divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity the Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves." 16 The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and Salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who Loved him and who Gave himself up for him. 17

Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them "renounce all that [they have]" for his sake and that of the Gospel. 334 Shortly before his passion he Gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem who, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on. 335 The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.

The "ten words" sum up and proclaim God's law: "These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. and he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and Gave them to me." 19 For this reaSon these two tables are called "the Testimony." In fact, they contain the terms of the Covenant concluded between God and his people. These "tables of the Testimony" were to be deposited in "the ark." 20

In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two Catholic Faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal Mystery of Christ. 120 In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beLoved bride for whom he Gave himself up. 121 It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ. 122

This is what the Apostle Paul makes clear when he says: "Husbands, Love your wives, as Christ Loved the Church and Gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her," adding at once: "'For this reaSon a man shall leave his Father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great Mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church." 110

Christ himself chose the Apostles and Gave them a share in his Mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken his flock but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles, and guides it still through these same pastors who continue his work today. 61 Thus, it is Christ whose gift it is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues to act through the bishops. 62

The Byzantine Liturgy recognizes several formulas of absolution, in the form of invocation, which admirably express the Mystery of forgiveness: "May the same God, who through the Prophet Nathan forGave David when he confessed his Sins, who forgave Peter when he wept bitterly, the prostitute when she washed his feet with her tears, the Pharisee, and the prodigal Son, through me, a Sinner, forgive you both in this life and in the next and enable you to appear before his awe-inspiring tribunal without condemnation, he who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen."

The unity of Christ and the Church, head and members of one Body, also implies the distinction of the two within a perSonal relationship. This aspect is often expressed by the image of bridegroom and bride. the theme of Christ as Bridegroom of the Church was prepared for by the prophets and announced by John the Baptist. 234 The Lord referred to himself as the "bridegroom." 235 The Apostle speaks of the whole Church and of each of the Faithful, members of his Body, as a bride "betrothed" to Christ the Lord so as to become but one spirit with him. 236 The Church is the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb. 237 "Christ Loved the Church and Gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her." 238 He has joined her with himself in an everlasting Covenant and never stops caring for her as for his own body: 239

The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's Love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." 72 "For God so Loved the world that he Gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." 73

The word "Christ" comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means "anointed". It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine Mission that "Christ" signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he Gave were anointed in his name. This was the case for kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets. 29 This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively. 30 It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king and priest, and also as prophet. 31 Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet and king.

Jesus means in Hebrew: "God saves." At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel Gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his Mission. 18 Since God alone can forgive Sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, "will save his people from their sins". 19 in Jesus, God recapitulates all of his history of Salvation on behalf of men.

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 the beginning God created the heavens and the earth": 128 three things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God Gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself; he alone is Creator (the verb "create" - Hebrew bara - always has God for its subject). the totality of what exists (expressed by the formula "the heavens and the earth") depends on the One who gives it being.

The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is he who Gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements. . . for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me." 121

In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin: "substance", "perSon" or "hypostasis", "relation" and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the Faith to human wisdom, but Gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable Mystery, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand". 82

God's Love for Israel is compared to a Father's love for his Son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beLoved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved the world that he Gave his only Son." 40

"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the Apostles left bishops as their successors. They Gave them their own position of teaching authority." 35 Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time." 36

In keeping with the Lord's command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways: - orally "by the Apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they Gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit"; 33 - in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of Salvation to writing". 34

After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt. He established with them the Covenant of Mount Sinai and, through Moses, Gave them his law so that they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true God, the provident Father and just judge, and so that they would look for the promised Saviour. 20

Jesus knew and Loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and Gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . Loved me and gave himself for me." 116 He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our Sins and for our Salvation, 117 "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception. 118

At the announcement that she would give birth to "the Son of the Most High" without knowing man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of Faith, certain that "with God nothing will be impossible": "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word." 139 Thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. EspouSing the divine will for Salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she Gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the Mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God's grace: 140

The eyes of Faith can discover in the context of the whole of Revelation the mysterious reaSons why God in his saving plan wanted his Son to be born of a virgin. These reasons touch both on the person of Christ and his redemptive Mission, and on the welcome Mary Gave that mission on behalf of all men.

From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the Mystery of the Kingdom to them, and Gave them a share in his Mission, joy, and sufferings. 215 Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him: "Abide in me, and I in you.... I am the vine, you are the branches." 216 and he proclaimed a mysterious and real communion between his own body and ours: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." 217

"When the work which the Father Gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church." 174 Then "the Church was openly displayed to the crowds and the spread of the Gospel among the nations, through preaching, was begun." 175 As the "convocation" of all men for Salvation, the Church in her very nature is Missionary, sent by Christ to all the nations to make disciples of them. 176

"The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who Gave his life for his sheep. 146

The Law, the sign of God's promise and Covenant, ought to have governed the hearts and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's Faith Gave birth. "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, . . . you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." 75 But after David, Israel gave in to the temptation of becoming a kingdom like other nations. the Kingdom, however, the object of the promise made to David, 76 would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to the poor according to the Spirit.

This divine pedagogy appears especially in the gift of the Law. 72 God Gave the letter of the Law as a "pedagogue" to lead his people towards Christ. 73 But the Law's powerlessness to save man deprived of the divine "likeness," along with the growing awareness of Sin that it imparts, 74 enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. the lamentations of the Psalms bear witness to this.

Christ's Resurrection is an object of Faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine perSons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. the Father's power "raised up" Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead". 514 St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God's power 515 through the working of the Spirit who Gave life to Jesus' dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.

Jesus Gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the twelve Apostles "on the night he was betrayed". 429 On the eve of his Passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the Salvation of men: "This is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of Sins." 430

Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had Sinned. 405 But in the redeeming Love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 406 Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but Gave him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son". 407

The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of Salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a Mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of Sin. 397 Citing a confession of Faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our Sins in accordance with the scriptures." 398 In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant. 399 Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. 400 After his Resurrection he Gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the Apostles. 401

Jesus Gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward Sinners with God's own attitude toward them. 367 He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet. 368 But it was most especially by forgiving Sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 369 By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God's equal, or is speaking the truth and his perSon really does make present and reveal God's name. 370

Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he Gave the essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the Temple-tax, associating with him Peter, whom he had just made the foundation of his future Church. 359 He even identified himself with the Temple by presenting himself as God's definitive dwelling-place among men. 360 Therefore his being put to bodily death 361 presaged the destruction of the Temple, which would manifest the dawning of a new age in the history of Salvation: "The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." 362

The Church remains Faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus Gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" 314 Jesus' sufferings took their historical, concrete form from the fact that he was "rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes", who handed "him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified". 315

"The ministry of catechesis draws ever fresh energy from the councils. the Council of Trent is a noteworthy example of this. It Gave catechesis priority in its constitutions and decrees. It lies at the origin of the Roman Catechism, which is also known by the name of that council and which is a work of the first rank as a summary of Christian teaching. . " 12 The Council of Trent initiated a remarkable organization of the Church's catechesis. Thanks to the work of holy bishops and theologians such as St. Peter Canisius, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Turibius of Mongrovejo or St. Robert Bellarmine, it occasioned the publication of numerous catechisms.