One can Sin against God's Love in various ways: - indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power. - ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to Return him love for love. - lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity. - acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness. - hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.

When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine Love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in Return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blesSing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.

"Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not Return to your former base condition by Sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God." 1

Virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is an unfolding of baptismal grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and of the ardent expectation of his Return, a sign which also recalls that marriage is a reality of this present age which is pasSing away. 116

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

"The priests, prudent cooperators of the episcopal college and its support and instrument, called to the service of the People of God, constitute, together with their bishop, a unique sacerdotal college (presbyterium) dedicated, it is, true to a variety of distinct duties. In each local assembly of the faithful they represent, in a certain sense, the bishop, with whom they are associated in all trust and generosity; in part they take upon themselves his duties and solicitude and in their daily toils discharge them." 51 priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on the bishop and in communion with him. the promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his co-workers, his Sons, his brothers and his friends, and that they in Return owe him Love and obedience.

Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt against God. It can also make a perSon more mature, helping him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can turn toward that which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a Return to him.

When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal Son and welcomes him on his Return, and of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. the priest is the sign and the instrument of God's merciful Love for the Sinner.

Many Sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm (e.g., Return stolen goods, restore the reputation of someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as much. But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. 62 Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must "make satisfaction for" or "expiate" his sins. This satisfaction is also called "penance."

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

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

BlesSing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. the prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human Heart can in Return bless the One who is the source of every blessing.

When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's Return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." 174

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

With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to Sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we Return to him like the prodigal Son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him. 133 Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." 134 We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church. 135

In the Lord's Prayer, "thy kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's Return. 88 But, far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that Reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord who "complete(s) his work on earth and brings us the fullness of grace." 89

In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God gives them - "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" - and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and profane his name among the nations. 74 For this reaSon the just ones of the old covenant, the poor survivors Returned from exile, and the prophets burned with passion for the name.

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

From this unshakeable faith springs forth the hope that sustains each of the seven petitions, which express the groanings of the present age, this time of patience and expectation during which "it does not yet appear what we shall be." 22 The Eucharist and the Lord's Prayer look eagerly for the Lord's Return, "until he comes." 23

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.

Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven Sinner who agrees to welcome the Love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. 8 But he knows that the love he is Returning is poured out by the Spirit in his Heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.

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

Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from Sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it Return to the Father, for his glory. the thanksgiving of the members of the Body participates in that of their Head.

The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal Son, the center of which is the merciful Father: 37 The fascination of illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father's house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, at wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father's generous welcome; the father's joy - all these are characteristic of the process of conversion. the beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life - pure worthy, and joyful - of anyone who Returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church. Only the Heart of Christ Who knows the depths of his Father's Love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.

The human Heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. 25 Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts Return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!" 26 God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's Love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of Sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. the human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced: 27

"The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," 179 at the time of Christ's glorious Return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations." 180 Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." 181 The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." 182

The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but according to the Spirit. the People of God had to suffer this purification. 77 In God's plan, the Exile already stands in the shadow of the Cross, and the Remnant of the poor that Returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent prefigurations of the Church.

The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah Returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. 58 When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. 59 The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified Hearts of the baptized. In certain Churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.

Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's Return to earth. 556 This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover. 557 Until everything is subject to him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the Sons of God." 558 That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him: 559 Maranatha! "Our Lord, come!" 560

This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can Return to the Father: Christ Jesus. 537 "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man." 538 Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness. 539 Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us. 540

Christ's Resurrection was not a Return to earthly life, as was the case with the raiSings from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jairus' daughter, the young man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the perSons miraculously raised returned by Jesus' power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. Christ's Resurrection is essentially different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus' Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is "the man of heaven". 511

Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold. 502 The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad" 503 ) and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women Returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale". 504 When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of Heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen." 505

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." 492 The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise. 493 Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter. 494 The disciple "whom Jesus Loved" affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there", "he saw and believed". 495 This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply Returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus. 496

The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. 282 Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. 283 Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay". 284 Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "Return to the ground", 285 for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history. 286

From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God "brings the firstborn into the world, he says: 'Let all God's angels worship him.'" 196 Their Song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church's praise: "Glory to God in the highest!" 197 They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been. 198 Again, it is the angels who "evangelize" by proclaiming the Good News of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection. 199 They will be present at Christ's Return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgement. 200

Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient religions and cultures produced many myths concerning origins. Some philosophers have said that everything is God, that the world is God, or that the development of the world is the development of God (Pantheism). Others have said that the world is a necessary emanation arising from God and Returning to him. Still others have affirmed the existence of two eternal principles, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, locked, in permanent conflict (Dualism, Manichaeism). According to some of these conceptions, the world (at least the physical world) is evil, the product of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or left behind (Gnosticism). Some admit that the world was made by God, but as by a watch-maker who, once he has made a watch, abandons it to itself (Deism). Finally, others reject any transcendent origin for the world, but see it as merely the interplay of matter that has always existed (Materialism). All these attempts bear witness to the permanence and universality of the question of origins. This inquiry is distinctively human.

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.

and when one considers the future, God's People of the Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the Return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah, whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.

The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways: - she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," 362 The witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself; 363 - with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching, 364 The "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the apostles; 365 - she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ's Return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor": 366

Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a Return, a conversion to God with all our Heart, an end of Sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart). 24

It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in Returning to the Father 5 from whom one has strayed by Sin. It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's perSonal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.

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.

In the anamnesis that follows, the Church calls to mind the Passion, Resurrection, and glorious Return of Christ Jesus; she presents to the Father the offering of his Son which reconciles us with him. In the intercessions, the Church indicates that the Eucharist is celebrated in communion with the whole Church in heaven and on earth, the living and the dead, and in communion with the pastors of the Church, the Pope, the diocesan bishop, his presbyterium and his deacons, and all the bishops of the whole world together with their Churches.

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

At the Heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious Return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: "He took bread...." "He took the cup filled with wine...." the signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpasSing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine, 152 fruit of the "work of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine" - gifts of the Creator. the Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own offering. 153

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).

The divine blesSings were made manifest in astonishing and saving events: the birth of Isaac, the escape from Egypt (Passover and Exodus), the gift of the promised land, the election of David, the presence of God in the Temple, the purifying exile, and Return of a "small remnant." the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, interwoven in the liturgy of the Chosen People, recall these divine blessings and at the same time respond to them with blessings of praise and thanksgiving.

The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them "the acceptable time, . . . the day of salvation." 627 It inspires a holy fear of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the "blessed hope" of the Lord's Return, when he will come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all who have believed." 628

The Last Judgment will come when Christ Returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvellous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. the Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's Love is stronger than death. 626

Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When "the Single course of our earthly life" is completed, 584 we shall not Return to other earthly lives: "It is appointed for men to die once." 585 There is no "reincarnation" after death.

How? Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself"; 551 but he did not Return to an earthly life. So, in him, "all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body": 552