"It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of the Faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred office; there, acting in the perSon of Christ and proclaiming his Mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the Faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass they make present again and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the Father." 49 From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly ministry draws its strength. 50

The essential rite of the sacrament follows: Baptism properly speaking. It signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Baptism is performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal water. However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by pouring the water three times over the candidate's head.

If water springing up from the earth symbolizes life, the water of the sea is a symbol of death and so can represent the Mystery of the Cross. By this symbolism Baptism signifies Communion with Christ's death.

In the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil, during the blessing of the baptismal water, the Church solemnly commemorates the great events in Salvation history that already prefigured the Mystery of Baptism:

The Celebration of the Liturgy, therefore, should correspond to the genius and culture of the different peoples. 70 In order that the Mystery of Christ be "made known to all the nations . . . to bring about the obedience of Faith," 71 it must be proclaimed, Celebrated, and lived in all cultures in such a way that they themselves are not abolished by it, but redeemed and fulfilled: 72 It is with and through their own human culture, assumed and transfigured by Christ, that the multitude of God's children has access to the Father, in order to glorify him in the one Spirit.

The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reaSon of the Church's mission. Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate the Mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterized by the culture: in the tradition of the "deposit of Faith," 67 in liturgical symbolism, in the organization of fraternal Communion, in the theological understanding of the mysteries, and in various forms of holiness. Through the liturgical life of a local church, Christ, the light and Salvation of all peoples, is made manifest to the particular people and culture to which that Church is sent and in which she is rooted. the Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity, while purifying them, all the authentic riches of cultures. 68

The Mystery of Christ is so unfathomably rich that it cannot be exhausted by its expression in any single liturgical tradition. the history of the blossoming and development of these rites witnesses to a remarkable complementarity. When the Churches lived their respective liturgical traditions in the Communion of the Faith and the Sacraments of the faith, they enriched one another and grew in fidelity to Tradition and to the common mission of the whole Church. 66

From the first community of Jerusalem until the parousia, it is the same Paschal Mystery that the Churches of God, Faithful to the apostolic Faith, celebrate in every place. the mystery Celebrated in the Liturgy is one, but the forms of its Celebration are diverse.

The catechumenate, or formation of catechumens, aims at bringing their conversion and Faith to maturity, in response to the divine initiative and in union with an ecclesial community. the catechumenate is to be "a formation in the whole Christian life . . . during which the disciples will be joined to Christ their teacher. the catechumens should be properly initiated into the Mystery of Salvation and the practice of the evangelical virtues, and they should be introduced into the life of faith, Liturgy, and charity of the People of God by successive sacred rites." 47

"Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal Mystery." 62 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such perSons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

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."

There is no surer pledge or dearer sign of this great hope in the new heavens and new earth "in which righteousness dwells," 245 than the Eucharist. Every time this Mystery is Celebrated, "the work of our redemption is carried on" and we "break the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Jesus Christ." 246

In an ancient Prayer the Church acclaims the Mystery of the Eucharist: "O sacred banquet in which Christ is received as food, the memory of his Passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace and a pledge of the life to come is given to us." If the Eucharist is the memorial of the Passover of the Lord Jesus, if by our Communion at the altar we are filled "with every heavenly blessing and grace," 239 then the Eucharist is also an anticipation of the heavenly glory.

Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic Mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders." 236 It is for this reaSon that Eucharistic interCommunion with these communities is not possible for the Catholic Church. However these ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and Resurrection in the Holy Supper . . . profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and await his coming in glory." 237

The Eucharist and the unity of Christians. Before the greatness of this Mystery St. Augustine exclaims, "O sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity! O bond of charity!" 234 The more painful the experience of the divisions in the Church which break the common participation in the table of the Lord, the more urgent are our Prayers to the Lord that the time of complete unity among all who believe in him may return.

The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the Celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same Mystery: the altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his Faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?" 212 asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, "The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar." 213 The Liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and Communion in many Prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:

Thus from Celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the Paschal Mystery of Jesus "until he comes," the pilgrim People of God advances, "following the narrow way of the Cross," 168 toward the heavenly banquet, when all the elect will be seated at the table of the Kingdom.

The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples, just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 158 The Eucharist and the Cross are stumbling blocks. It is the same Mystery and it never ceases to be an occasion of division. "Will you also go away?": 159 The Lord's question echoes through the ages, as a loving invitation to discover that only he has "the words of eternal life" 160 and that to receive in Faith the gift of his Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself.

Holy Mass (Missa), because the Liturgy in which the Mystery of Salvation is accomplished concludes with the sending forth (missio) of the Faithful, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily lives.

The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, 59 from which the Sacraments of the Paschal Mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the Church, the sacrifice of the Cross is made present under sacramental signs. the altar is also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited. 60 In certain Eastern liturgies, the altar is also the symbol of the tomb (Christ truly died and is truly risen).

The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the Prayer of the psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day, the liturgical seaSon, or the feast being Celebrated. Moreover, the reading from the Word of God at each Hour (with the subsequent responses or troparia) and readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal more deeply the meaning of the Mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the psalms, and prepare for silent prayer. the lectio divina, where the Word of God is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer, is thus rooted in the liturgical Celebration.

For this reaSon no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community. Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the Liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of Faith and with religious respect for the Mystery of the liturgy.

The Sacraments are "of the Church" in the double sense that they are "by her" and "for her." They are "by the Church," for she is the sacrament of Christ's action at work in her through the mission of the Holy Spirit. They are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the Church," 35 since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the Mystery of Communion with the God who is Love, One in three perSons.

Jesus' words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvific, for they anticipated the power of his Paschal Mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going to give the Church when all was accomplished. the mysteries of Christ's life are the foundations of what he would henceforth dispense in the Sacraments, through the ministers of his Church, for "what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries." 32

The epiclesis is also a Prayer for the full effect of the assembly's Communion with the Mystery of Christ. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" 28 have to remain with us always and bear fruit beyond the Eucharistic Celebration. the Church therefore asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to make the lives of the Faithful a living sacrifice to God by their spiritual transformation into the image of Christ, by concern for the Church's unity, and by taking part in her mission through the witness and service of charity.

The Holy Spirit's transforming power in the Liturgy hastens the coming of the Kingdom and the consummation of the Mystery of Salvation. While we wait in hope he causes us really to anticipate the fullness of Communion with the Holy Trinity. Sent by the Father who hears the epiclesis of the Church, the Spirit gives life to those who accept him and is, even now, the "guarantee" of their inheritance. 25

Christian Liturgy not only recalls the events that saved us but actualizes them, makes them present. the Paschal Mystery of Christ is Celebrated, not repeated. It is the Celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present.

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).

The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of Salvation in the Liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other Sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the Mystery of salvation. the Holy Spirit is the Church's living memory. 19

The Church celebrates the Mystery of her Lord "until he comes," when God will be "everything to everyone." 53 Since the apostolic age the Liturgy has been drawn toward its goal by the Spirit's groaning in the Church: Marana tha! 54 The liturgy thus shares in Jesus' desire: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you . . . until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." 55 In the Sacraments of Christ the Church already receives the guarantee of her inheritance and even now shares in everlasting life, while "awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus." 56 The "Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come . . . Come, Lord Jesus!"' 57

It is in this eternal Liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to participate whenever we celebrate the Mystery of Salvation in the Sacraments.

The Mystery of Christ, his Incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the time of each day, through the Celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, "the divine office." 46 This celebration, Faithful to the apostolic exhortations to "pray constantly," is "so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God." 47 In this "public Prayer of the Church," 48 The Faithful (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of the baptized. Celebrated in "the form approved" by the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours "is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the Father. 49

When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual cycle, she proclaims the Paschal Mystery in those "who have suffered and have been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the Faithful as examples who draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for God's favors." 45

In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal Mystery unfold. This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the Incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning of our Salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery.

Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "Feast of feasts," the "Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of Sacraments" (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday" 43 and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week "the Great Week." the Mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to him.

"By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal Mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday." 36 The day of Christ's Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of Creation, and the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening." 37 The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the Faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet: 38

When the Church celebrates the Mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her Prayer: "Today!" - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit. 34 This "today" of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus' Passover, which reaches aCross and underlies all history:

From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts, beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astonishing actions of the Savior God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the Church, between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its consummation in the Kingdom of God, the Liturgy Celebrated on fixed days bears the imprint of the newness of the Mystery of Christ.

"Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of the year. Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord's Day, she keeps the memory of the Lord's Resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year, together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole Mystery of Christ .... Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the Faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present in every age; the Faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace." 33

"The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God." 32 Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of Celebration so that the Mystery Celebrated is imprinted in the heart's memory and is then expressed in the new life of the Faithful.

It is on this harmony of the two Testaments that the Paschal catechesis of the Lord is built, 15 and then, that of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church. This catechesis unveils what lay hidden under the letter of the Old Testament: the Mystery of Christ. It is called "typological" because it Reveals the newness of Christ on the basis of the "figures" (types) which announce him in the deeds, words, and symbols of the first covenant. By this re-reading in the Spirit of Truth, starting from Christ, the figures are unveiled. 16 Thus the flood and Noah's ark prefigured Salvation by Baptism, 17 as did the cloud and the Crossing of the Red Sea. Water from the rock was the figure of the spiritual gifts of Christ, and manna in the desert prefigured the Eucharist, "the true bread from heaven." 18

The final doxology, "For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these Prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the Liturgy of heaven. 176 The ruler of this world has mendaciously attributed to himself the three titles of kingship, power, and glory. 177 Christ, the Lord, restores them to his Father and our Father, until he hands over the kingdom to him when the Mystery of Salvation will be brought to its completion and God will be all in all. 178

Contemplative Prayer is the simplest expression of the Mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. 9 Contemplative prayer is a Communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."

We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal Mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make Prayer spring up from us. Jesus' teaching about praying to our Father is in the same vein as his teaching about providence: 12 time is in the Father's hands; it is in the present that we encounter him, not yesterday nor tomorrow, but today: "O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts." 13

In the sacramental Liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the Mystery of Salvation, which is continued in the heart that prays. the spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. Prayer internalizes and assimilates the liturgy during and after its Celebration. Even when it is lived out "in secret," 6 prayer is always prayer of the Church; it is a Communion with the Holy Trinity. 7

"[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual Songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." 124 Like the inspired writers of the New Testament, the first Christian communities read the Book of Psalms in a new way, singing in it the Mystery of Christ. In the newness of the Spirit, they also composed hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard - of event that God accomplished in his Son: his Incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension to the right hand of the Father. 125 Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this "marvelous work" of the whole economy of Salvation. 126

In the first place these are Prayers that the Faithful hear and read in the Scriptures, but also that they make their own - especially those of the Psalms, in view of their fulfillment in Christ. 96 The Holy Spirit, who thus keeps the memory of Christ alive in his Church at prayer, also leads her toward the fullness of truth and inspires new formulations expressing the unfathomable Mystery of Christ at work in his Church's life, Sacraments, and mission. These formulations are developed in the great liturgical and spiritual traditions. the forms of prayer Revealed in the apostolic and canonical Scriptures remain normative for Christian prayer.

When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the Mystery of Prayer to the Father, he Reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name." 78 Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life." 79 Faith bears its fruit in Love: it means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus. 80

The evangelists have preserved two more explicit Prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has Revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes. 48 His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. the whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the Mystery of the will of the Father. 49

The Psalter is the book in which the Word of God becomes man's Prayer. In other books of the Old Testament, "the words proclaim [God's] works and bring to light the Mystery they contain." 39 The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express and acclaim the Lord's saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God's work and man's response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how to pray.

"Great is the Mystery of the Faith!"

Contemplative Prayer is a union with the prayer of Christ insofar as it makes us participate in his Mystery. the mystery of Christ is Celebrated by the Church in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in contemplative prayer so that our charity will manifest it in our acts.

This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount. 137 This crucial requirement of the covenant Mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible." 138 . . . as we forgive those who trespass against us

"He has made known to us the Mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will." 98 We ask insistently for this loving Plan to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.

The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal Mystery. What is Revealed of it in Creation and history, Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty. 68 In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, man fell "short of the glory of God." 69 From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator. 70

The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. and so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving. 66 But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost Mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the Salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his Plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in Love." 67

The symbol of the heavens refers us back to the Mystery of the covenant we are living when we pray to our Father. He is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father's house is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from the land of the covenant, 56 but conversion of heart enables us to return to the Father, to heaven. 57 Jn Christ, then, heaven and earth are reconciled, 58 for the Son alone "descended from heaven" and causes us to ascend there with him, by his Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension. 59

Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn "from this world." Humility makes us recognize that "no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him," that is, "to little children." 30 The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area "upon him" would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his Mystery as he is and as the Son has Revealed him to us.

In the Eucharist, the Lord's Prayer also Reveals the eschatological character of its petitions. It is the proper prayer of "the end-time," the time of Salvation that began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and will be fulfilled with the Lord's return. the petitions addressed to our Father, as distinct from the prayers of the old covenant, rely on the Mystery of salvation already accomplished, once for all, in Christ crucified and risen.

Finally, in this Prayer Jesus Reveals and gives to us the "knowledge," inseparably one, of the Father and of the Son, 51 which is the very Mystery of the life of prayer.

We must also face the fact that certain attitudes deriving from the mentality of "this present world" can penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant. For example, some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reaSon and science; yet Prayer is a Mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives. Others overly prize production and profit; thus prayer, being unproductive, is useless. Still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the true, the good, and the beautiful; whereas prayer, the "Love of beauty" (philokalia), is caught up in the glory of the living and true God. Finally, some see prayer as a flight from the world in reaction against activism; but in fact, Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from life.

Modesty protects the Mystery of perSons and their Love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.

Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in Faith and adoration, the transcendent Mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and Love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." 296 This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to Prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.

The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the Mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God Reveals himself to him through the universal language of Creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos - which both the child and the scientist discover - "from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "for the author of beauty created them." 289

The Liturgy of the Word during funerals demands very careful preparation because the assembly present for the funeral may include some Faithful who rarely attend the liturgy, and friends of the deceased who are not Christians. the homily in particular must "avoid the literary genre of funeral eulogy" 188 and illumine the Mystery of Christian death in the light of the risen Christ.

The Christian meaning of death is Revealed in the light of the Paschal Mystery of the death and Resurrection of Christ in whom resides our only hope. the Christian who dies in Christ Jesus is "away from the body and at home with the Lord." 183

Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense which underlies these devotions so that the Faithful may advance in knowledge of the Mystery of Christ. 180 Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the bishops and to the general norms of the Church.

Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the Sacraments do, but by the Church's Prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. "For well-disposed members of the Faithful, the Liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event of their lives with the divine grace which flows from the Paschal Mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God." 174

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

The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal Love of Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial Mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath 111 which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized perSons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant. 112

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

Sacred Scripture begins with the Creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding-feast of the Lamb." 85 Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "Mystery," its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of Salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church. 86

"Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the Mystery of the Father and of his Love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation." 2 It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God," 3 that man has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God. 4

Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the Mystery of Christ through the Sacraments - "the holy mysteries" - and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.

Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's given word. God is Faithful. the Sacrament of Matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this Mystery before the world.

"God is Love and in himself he lives a Mystery of perSonal loving Communion. Creating the human race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion." 114

The Sunday Celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the Paschal Mystery is Celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church." 110

Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the Mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ: 107

The sacrament of Baptism is conferred "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 85 In Baptism, the Lord's name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint, that is, of a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord. the patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intercession. the "baptismal name" can also express a Christian Mystery or Christian virtue. "Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to see that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment." 86

Respect for his name is an expression of the respect owed to the Mystery of God himself and to the whole sacred reality it evokes. the sense of the sacred is part of the virtue of religion:

Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the Revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him; he Reveals himself to them in his perSonal Mystery. the gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. "The Lord's name is holy." For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving adoration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it. 74

Basing itself on the Mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.

As in all the Sacraments additional rites surround the Celebration. Varying greatly among the different liturgical traditions, these rites have in common the expression of the multiple aspects of sacramental grace. Thus in the Latin Church, the initial rites - presentation and election of the ordinand, instruction by the bishop, examination of the candidate, litany of the saints - attest that the choice of the candidate is made in keeping with the practice of the Church and prepare for the solemn act of consecration, after which several rites syrnbolically express and complete the Mystery accomplished: for bishop and priest, an anointing with holy chrism, a sign of the special anointing of the Holy Spirit who makes their ministry fruitful; giving the book of the Gospels, the ring, the miter, and the crosier to the bishop as the sign of his apostolic mission to proclaim the Word of God, of his fidelity to the Church, the bride of Christ, and his office as shepherd of the Lord's flock; presentation to the priest of the paten and chalice, "the offering of the holy people" which he is called to present to God; giving the book of the Gospels to the deacon who has just received the mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.

Jesus' temptation Reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. 244 This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning." 245 By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the Mystery of Jesus in the desert.

Taking up St. John's expression, "The Word became flesh", 82 The Church calls "Incarnation" the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our Salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St. Paul, the Church sings the Mystery of the Incarnation:

Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as "Lord". This title testifies to the respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing. 62 At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, "Lord" expresses the recognition of the divine Mystery of Jesus. 63 In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title becomes adoration: "My Lord and my God!" It thus takes on a connotation of Love and affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: "It is the Lord!" 64

The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his "beLoved Son". 53 Jesus calls himself the "only Son of God", and by this title affirms his eternal pre-existence. 54 He asks for Faith in "the name of the only Son of God". 55 In the centurion's exclamation before the crucified Christ, "Truly this man was the Son of God", 56 that Christian confession is already heard. Only in the Paschal Mystery can the believer give the title "Son of God" its full meaning.

From this loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire to proclaim him, to "evangelize", and to lead others to the "yes" of Faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time the need to know this faith better makes itself felt. To this end, following the order of the Creed, Jesus' principal titles - "Christ", "Son of God", and "Lord" (article 2) - will be presented. the Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of his life - those of his Incarnation (article 3), Paschal Mystery (articles 4 and 5) and glorification (articles 6 and 7).

How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? the whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man". 293 By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a Mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a perSonal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. 294 It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. and that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act.

The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his Kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature - to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great Mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in everything God works for good with those who Love him." 275

The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, that all need Salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. the Church, which has the mind of Christ, 263 knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the Mystery of Christ.

God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? "I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution", said St. Augustine, 257 and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For "the Mystery of lawlessness" is clarified only in the light of the "mystery of our religion". 258 The revelation of divine Love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. 259 We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our Faith on him who alone is its conqueror. 260

"In reality it is only in the Mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear." 224

The Letter to the Hebrews refers to the same Mystery:

Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian Faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." 85 Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the Mystery of our religion": "He was manifested in the flesh." 86

Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and Resurrection. the Christian must enter into this Mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beLoved Son in the Son and "walk in newness of life": 238

The finding of Jesus in the temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus. 226 Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of the Mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from his divine Sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?" 227 Mary and Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in Faith. Mary "kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus remained hidden in the silence of an ordinary life.

To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the Kingdom. 205 For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". 206 Only when Christ is formed in us will the Mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. 207 Christmas is the mystery of this "marvellous exchange":

Christ's whole life is a Mystery of recapitulation. All Jesus did, said and suffered had for its aim restoring fallen man to his original vocation:

Christ's whole life is a Mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of his Cross, 179 but this mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life: -already in his Incarnation through which by becoming poor he enriches us with his poverty; 180 - in his hidden life which by his submission atones for our disobedience; 181 - in his word which purifies its hearers; 182 - in his healings and exorcisms by which "he took our infirmities and bore our diseases"; 183 - and in his Resurrection by which he justifies us. 184

The Gospels were written by men who were among the first to have the Faith 174 and wanted to share it with others. Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see and make others see the traces of his Mystery in all his earthly life. From the swaddling clothes of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the shroud of his Resurrection, everything in Jesus' life was a sign of his mystery. 175 His deeds, miracles and words all Revealed that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." 176 His humanity appeared as "sacrament", that is, the sign and instrument, of his divinity and of the Salvation he brings: what was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine Sonship and redemptive mission

Concerning Christ's life the Creed speaks only about the mysteries of the Incarnation (conception and birth) and Paschal Mystery (passion, crucifixion, death, burial, descent into hell, Resurrection and ascension). It says nothing explicitly about the mysteries of Jesus' hidden or public life, but the articles of Faith concerning his Incarnation and Passover do shed light on the whole of his earthly life. "All that Jesus did and taught, from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven", 171 is to be seen in the light of the mysteries of Christmas and Easter.

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

If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian Faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of Creation, the drama of sin and the patient Love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the Sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible Mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

The truth about Creation is so important for all of human life that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is salutary to know on the subject. Beyond the natural knowledge that every man can have of the Creator, 124 God progressively Revealed to Israel the Mystery of creation. He who chose the patriarchs, who brought Israel out of Egypt, and who by choosing Israel created and formed it, this same God Reveals himself as the One to whom belong all the peoples of the earth, and the whole earth itself; he is the One who alone "made heaven and earth". 125

and so the Creed is divided into three parts: "the first part speaks of the first divine PerSon and the wonderful work of Creation; the next speaks of the second divine Person and the Mystery of his redemption of men; the final part speaks of the third divine Person, the origin and source of our sanctification." 4 These are "the three chapters of our [baptismal] seal". 5

"Faith seeks understanding": 33 it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has Revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by Love. the grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts" 34 to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's Plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the centre of the revealed Mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood." 35 In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe." 36

Indeed, "the economy of the Old Testament was deliberately SO oriented that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, redeemer of all men." 93 "Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional, 94 The books of the OldTestament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving Love: these writings "are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of Prayers; in them, too, the Mystery of our Salvation is present in a hidden way." 95

The mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the whole of the Revelation of the Mystery of Christ. 51 "In Catholic doctrine there exists an order or hierarchy 234 of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian Faith." 52

"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

"It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the Mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature." 2

By natural reaSon man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation. 1 Through an utterly free decision, God has Revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the Mystery, his Plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beLoved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is Mystery. It is at once a name Revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men. 11

Creation is the foundation of "all God's saving Plans," the "beginning of the history of Salvation" 117 that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the Mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and Reveals the end for which "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth": from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ. 118

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

At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the Father's character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he "who proceeds from the Father", it affirms that he comes from the Father through the Son. 77 The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial Communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says this, "legitimately and with good reason", 78 for the eternal order of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the Father, as "the principle without principle", 79 is the first origin of the Spirit, but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. 80 This legitimate complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of Faith in the reality of the same Mystery confessed.

The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is Revealed in his mission in time. the Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father. 69 The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus' glorification 70 Reveals in its fullness the Mystery of the Holy Trinity.

The Trinity is a Mystery of Faith in the strict sense, one of the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are Revealed by God". 58 To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of Creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reaSon alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the Mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which God Reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the theologia is Revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole oikonomia. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human perSons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.

This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity was Revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the Faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfils the "Plan of his loving goodness" of Creation, redemption and sanctification.

The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian Faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith". 56 The whole history of Salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin". 57

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.

In the sacramental economy the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant. Since Christ's Church was "prepared in marvellous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and in the Old Covenant," 14 The Church's Liturgy has retained certain elements of the worship of the Old Covenant as integral and irreplaceable, adopting them as her own: -notably, reading the Old Testament; -praying the Psalms; -above all, recalling the saving events and significant realities which have found their fulfillment in the Mystery of Christ (promise and covenant, Exodus and Passover, Kingdom and temple, exile and return).

In the Church, which is like the sacrament - the sign and instrument - of God's own life, the consecrated life is seen as a special sign of the Mystery of redemption. To follow and imitate Christ more nearly and to manifest more clearly his self-emptying is to be more deeply present to one's contemporaries, in the heart of Christ. For those who are on this "narrower" path encourage their brethren by their example, and bear striking witness "that the world cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes." 475

Religious life derives from the Mystery of the Church. It is a gift she has received from her Lord, a gift she offers as a stable way of life to the Faithful called by God to profess the counsels. Thus, the Church can both show forth Christ and acknowledge herself to be the Savior's bride. Religious life in its various forms is called to signify the very charity of God in the language of our time.

They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the Mystery of the Church, that is, perSonal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.

"Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways." 325 The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own Mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, 326 "the first to hear the Word of God." 327 The Jewish Faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the Sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ", 328 "for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable." 329

"The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the Faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called Churches in the New Testament.... In them the Faithful are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the Mystery of the Lord's Supper is Celebrated.... In these communities, though they may often be small and poor, or existing in the diaspora, Christ is present, through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is constituted." 312

The Church is one because of her source: "the highest exemplar and source of this Mystery is the unity, in the Trinity of PerSons, of one God, the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit." 259 The Church is one because of her founder: for "the Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the Cross, . . . restoring the unity of all in one people and one body." 260 The Church is one because of her "soul": "It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful Communion of the Faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church's unity." 261 Unity is of the essence of the Church:

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

Since the Virgin Mary's role in the Mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer.... She is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ' ... since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head." 500 "Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church." 501

After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her Mystery on her own "pilgrimage of Faith," and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity," "in the Communion of all the saints," 516 The Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.

In this sacramental dispensation of Christ's Mystery the Holy Spirit acts in the same way as at other times in the economy of Salvation: he prepares the Church to encounter her Lord; he recalls and makes Christ manifest to the Faith of the assembly. By his transforming power, he makes the mystery of Christ present here and now. Finally the Spirit of Communion unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ. The Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ

In the Liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal Mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his Hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father "once for all." 8 His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. the Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is - all that he did and suffered for all men - participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. the event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life.

The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 1 The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the "dispensation of the Mystery" the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of Salvation

Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the Mystery of Christ (It is "mystagogy." ) by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the "Sacraments" to the "mysteries." Such catechesis is to be presented by local and regional catechisms. This Catechism, which aims to serve the whole Church in all the diversity of her rites and cultures, 15 will present what is fundamental and common to the whole Church in the Liturgy as mystery and as Celebration, and then the seven sacraments and the sacramentals.

It is this Mystery of Christ that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her Liturgy so that the Faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world:

"The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God. He accomplished this work principally by the Paschal Mystery of his blessed Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and glorious Ascension, whereby 'dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life.' For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the Cross that there came forth 'the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church."' 3

In the Symbol of the Faith the Church confesses the Mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the Plan of God's "good pleasure" for all Creation: the Father accomplishes the "mystery of his will" by giving his beLoved Son and his Holy Spirit for the Salvation of the world and for the glory of his name. 1

Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his Mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. the Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision":

This Mystery of blessed Communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the Kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who Love him." 601

As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. "She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the Salvation of all," "the universal sacrament of salvation," by which Christ is "at once manifesting and actualizing the Mystery of God's Love for men." 199 The Church "is the visible Plan of God's love for humanity," because God desires "that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit." 200

The Greek word mysterion was translated into Latin by two terms: mystenum and sacramentum. In later usage the term sacramentum emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of Salvation which was indicated by the term mystenum. In this sense, Christ himself is the Mystery of salvation: "For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ." 196 The saving work of his holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation, which is Revealed and active in the Church's Sacraments (which the Eastern Churches also call "the holy mysteries"). the seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head throughout the Church which is his Body. the Church, then, both contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense, that the Church is called a "sacrament."

In the Church this Communion of men with God, in the "Love [that] never ends," is the purpose which governs everything in her that is a sacramental means, tied to this passing world. 192 "[The Church's] structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ's members. and holiness is measured according to the 'great Mystery' in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the Bridegroom." 193 Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church's mystery as "the bride without spot or wrinkle." 194 This is why the "Marian" dimension of the Church precedes the "Petrine." 195

The Mystery of Christ's Resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about A.D. 56 St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. . ." 490 The Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus. 491

"We bring you the good news that what God promised to the Fathers, this day he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus." 488 The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our Faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal Mystery along with the Cross:

"By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for every one". 459 In his Plan of Salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins" 460 but should also "taste death", experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body, between the time he expired on the Cross and the time he was raised from the dead. the state of the dead Christ is the Mystery of the tomb and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ, lying in the tomb, 461 Reveals God's great sabbath rest 462 after the fulfilment 463 of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe. 464

The Cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men". 452 But because in his incarnate divine perSon he has in some way united himself to every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the Paschal Mystery" is offered to all men. 453 He calls his disciples to "take up [their] cross and follow (him)", 454 for "Christ also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example so that (we) should follow in his steps." 455 In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. 456 This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering. 457 Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven. 458

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' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the Mystery of God's Plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus (was) delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." 393 This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God. 394

The Paschal Mystery of Christ's Cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God's saving Plan was accomplished "once for all" 313 by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.

On the threshold of the public life: the baptism; on the threshold of the Passover: the Transfiguration. Jesus' baptism proclaimed "the Mystery of the first regeneration", namely, our Baptism; the Transfiguration "is the sacrament of the second regeneration": our own Resurrection. 300 From now on we share in the Lord's Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the Sacraments of the Body of Christ. the Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ's glorious coming, when he "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body." 301 But it also recalls that "it is through many persecutions that we must enter the Kingdom of God": 302

O truly blessed Night, sings the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil, which alone deserved to know the time and the hour when Christ rose from the realm of the dead! 512 But no one was an eyewitness to Christ's Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing over to another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles' encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the Mystery of Faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people." 513

The Paschal Mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. 526 It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren." 527 We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully Revealed in his Resurrection.

It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and Reveals his own Mystery as the purpose of God's Plan: "to unite all things in him." 189 St. Paul calls the nuptial union of Christ and the Church "a great mystery." Because she is united to Christ as to her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in her turn. 190 Contemplating this mystery in her, Paul exclaims: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." 191

It was the Son's task to accomplish the Father's Plan of Salvation in the fullness of time. Its accomplishment was the reason for his being sent. 160 "The Lord Jesus inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Reign of God, promised over the ages in the scriptures." 161 To fulfill the Father's will, Christ ushered in the Kingdom of heaven on earth. the Church "is the Reign of Christ already present in Mystery." 162

We begin our investigation of the Church's Mystery by meditating on her origin in the Holy Trinity's Plan and her progressive realization in history.

In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible Mystery of the Church. the images taken from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: the People of God. In the New Testament, all these images find a new center because Christ has become the head of this people, which henceforth is his Body. 144 Around this center are grouped images taken "from the life of the shepherd or from cultivation of the land, from the art of building or from family life and marriage." 145

Thus the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the Mystery of the Communion of the Holy Trinity (the topic of the next article):

The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ's Faithful to share in his Communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. the Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. the Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them, recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the Mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God, that they may "bear much fruit." 132

To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the perSons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: "with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified." 6 For this reason, the divine Mystery of the Holy Spirit was already treated in the context of Trinitarian "theology." Here, however, we have to do with the Holy Spirit only in the divine "economy."

Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the Faith of many believers. 573 The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth 574 will unveil the "Mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. the supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. 575

As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body. 551 Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. the redemption is the source of the authority that Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. "The Kingdom of Christ (is) already present in Mystery", "on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom". 552

Christ stands at the heart of this gathering of men into the "family of God". By his word, through signs that manifest the reign of God, and by sending out his disciples, Jesus calls all people to come together around him. But above all in the great Paschal Mystery - his death on the Cross and his Resurrection - he would accomplish the coming of his Kingdom. "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." Into this union with Christ all men are called. 250