On that day, the Holy Trinity is Fully Revealed. Since that day, the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who Believe in him: in the humility of the flesh and in Faith, they already share in the communion of the Holy Trinity. By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the "last days," the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated.

There are different expressions of the moral law, all of them interrelated: eternal law - the source, in God, of all law; Natural law; Revealed law, comprising the Old Law and the New Law, or Law of the Gospel; finally, civil and ecclesiastical laws.

The precepts of Natural law are not perceived by everyone clearly and immediately. In the present situation sinful man needs Grace and Revelation so moral and religious Truths may be known "by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error." 12 The natural law provides Revealed law and grace with a foundation prepared by God and in accordance with the work of the Spirit.

God, our Creator and Redeemer, chose Israel for himself to be his people and Revealed his Law to them, thus preparing for the coming of Christ. the Law of Moses expresses many Truths Naturally accessible to Reason. These are stated and authenticated within the covenant of Salvation.

The Old Law is the first stage of Revealed Law. Its moral prescriptions are summed up in the Ten Commandments. the precepts of the Decalogue lay the foundations for the vocation of man fashioned in the image of God; they prohibit what is contrary to the Love of God and neighbor and prescribe what is essential to it. the Decalogue is a light offered to the conscience of every man to make God's call and ways known to him and to protect him against evil:

The New Law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, Natural and Revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel. . . . I will put my laws into their hands, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 19

Ministries should be exercised in a spirit of fraternal service and dedication to the Church, in the name of the Lord. 81 At the same time the conscience of each perSon should avoid confining itself to individualistic considerations in its moral judgments of the person's own acts. As far as possible conscience should take account of the good of all, as expressed in the moral law, Natural and Revealed, and consequently in the law of the Church and in the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium on moral questions. Personal conscience and Reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church.

The word "Decalogue" means literally "ten words." 11 God Revealed these "ten words" to his people

The commandments of the Decalogue, although accessible to Reason alone, have been Revealed. To

Faith is the theological virtue by which we Believe in God and believe all that he has said and Revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is Truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." 78 For this Reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work(s) through charity." 79

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

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."

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

"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the Faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.... the infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in an Ecumenical Council. 418 When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely Revealed," 419 and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the obedience of faith." 420 This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself. 421

God Revealed the Resurrection of the dead to his people progressively. Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to Faith in God as Creator of the whole man, soul and body. the creator of heaven and earth is also the one who faithFully maintains his covenant with Abraham and his posterity. It was in this double perspective that faith in the resurrection came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed:

In the Church's liturgy the divine blessing is Fully Revealed and communicated. the Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings of Creation and Salvation. In his Word who became incarnate, died, and rose for us, he fills us with his blessings. Through his Word, he pours into our hearts the Gift that contains all gifts, the Holy Spirit.

The catechesis of the liturgy entails first of all an understanding of the sacramental economy (Chapter One). In this light, the innovation of its celebration is Revealed. This chapter will therefore treat of the celebration of the sacraments of the Church. It will consider that which, through the diversity of liturgical traditions, is common to the celebration of the seven sacraments. What is proper to each will be treated later. This fundamental catechesis on the sacramental celebrations responds to the first questions posed by the Faithful regarding this subject: - Who celebrates the liturgy? - How is the liturgy celebrated? - When is the liturgy celebrated? - Where is the liturgy celebrated?

A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the divine pedagogy of Salvation, their Meaning is rooted in the work of Creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and Fully Revealed in the perSon and work of Christ.

All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses" 29 who continue to participate in the Salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is man "in the image of God," finally transfigured "into his likeness," 30 who is Revealed to our Faith. So too are the angels, who also are recapitulated in Christ:

Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for sinners, in order to "fulfill all righteousness." 19 Jesus' gesture is a manifestation of his self-emptying. 20 The Spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first Creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation, and the Father Revealed Jesus as his "beLoved Son." 21

The proclamation of the Word of God enlightens the candidates and the assembly with the Revealed Truth and elicits the response of Faith, which is inseparable from Baptism. Indeed Baptism is "the sacrament of faith" in a particular way, since it is the sacramental entry into the life of faith.

The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our Faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith: Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has Revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.

Incredulity is the neglect of Revealed Truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be Believed with divine and catholic Faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of subMission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him." 11

The first commandment forbids honoring Gods other than the one Lord who has Revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.

Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom Revealed to "little children," to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom. 14

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.

We can invoke God as "Father" because he is Revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us. the personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very relation to us who Believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God. 32

When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 33 Then we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. the first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the true God. We give him thanks for having Revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.

Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children": 41 for it is to "little children" that the Father is Revealed. 42

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

We can invoke God as "Father" because the Son of God made man has Revealed him to us. Jn this Son, through Baptism, we are incorporated and adopted as sons of God.

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

Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is Revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice. 75 This is the heart of his priestly Prayer: "Holy Father . . . for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in Truth." 76 Because he "sanctifies" his own name, Jesus Reveals to us the name of the Father. 77 At the end of Christ's Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 78

The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, 152 and temptation, which leads to sin and death. 153 We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, 154 when in reality its fruit is death. God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings.... There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation Reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has Revealed to us. 155

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.

Mary's Prayer is Revealed to us at the dawning of the Fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the Father's plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body. 88 In the Faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of Grace" responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word." "Fiat": this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God's, because he is wholly ours.

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 divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure...." 66 It is the absolutely transcendent God who Revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works." 67 He is "the author of beauty." 68

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

Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely Revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. the Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired Truth about God and man:

The predicament of a man who, desiring to convert to the Gospel, is obliged to repudiate one or more wives with whom he has shared years of conjugal life, is understandable. However polygamy is not in accord with the moral law." [Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God which was Revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal perSonal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a Love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive." 179 The Christian who has previously lived in polygamy has a grave duty in justice to honor the obligations contracted in regard to his former wives and his children.

The Church's social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, which is articulated as the Church interprets events in the course of history, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in the light of the whole of what has been Revealed by Jesus Christ. 201 This teaching can be more easily accepted by men of good will, the more the Faithful let themselves be guided by it.

"If you knew the gift of God!" 7 The wonder of Prayer is Revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him. 8

Prayer is lived in the first place beginning with the realities of Creation. the first nine chapters of Genesis describe this relationship with God as an offering of the first-born of Abel's flock, as the invocation of the divine name at the time of Enosh, and as "walking with God. 5 Noah's offering is pleasing to God, who blesses him and through him all creation, because his heart was upright and undivided; Noah, like Enoch before him, "walks with God." 6 This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all religions. In his indefectible covenant with every living creature, 7 God has always called people to prayer. But it is above all beginning with our Father Abraham that prayer is Revealed in the Old Testament.

Here again the initiative is God's. From the midst of the burning bush he calls Moses. 20 This event will remain one of the primordial images of Prayer in the spiritual tradition of Jews and Christians alike. When "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob" calls Moses to be his servant, it is because he is the living God who wants men to live. God Reveals himself in order to save them, though he does not do this alone or despite them: he caLls Moses to be his messenger, an associate in his compassion, his work of Salvation. There is something of a divine plea in this Mission, and only after long debate does Moses attune his own will to that of the Savior God. But in the dialogue in which God confides in him, Moses also learns how to pray: he balks, makes excuses, above all questions: and it is in response to his question that the Lord confides his ineffable name, which will be Revealed through his mighty deeds.

The drama of Prayer is Fully Revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer.

The Son of God who became Son of the Virgin learned to pray in his human heart. He learns to pray from his mother, who kept all the great things the Almighty had done and treasured them in her heart. 41 He learns to pray in the words and rhythms of the Prayer of his people, in the synagogue at Nazareth and the Temple at Jerusalem. But his prayer springs from an otherwise secret source, as he intimates at the age of twelve: "I must be in my Father's house." 42 Here the newness of prayer in the Fullness of time begins to be Revealed: his filial prayer, which the Father awaits from his children, is finally going to be lived out by the only Son in his humanity, with and for men.

The Messiah's characteristics are Revealed above all in the "Servant Songs." 82 These songs proclaim the Meaning of Jesus' Passion and show how he will pour out the Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our "form as slave." 83 Taking our death upon himself, he can communicate to us his own Spirit of life.

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.

"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

"I Believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most fundamental. the whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. the other articles of the Creed all depend on the first, just as the remaining Commandments make the first explicit. the other articles help us to know God better as he Revealed himself progressively to men. "The Faithful first profess their belief in God." 2

To Israel, his chosen, God Revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one LORD; and you shall Love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." 4 Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.. . To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength.'" 5

God Revealed himself to his people Israel by making his name known to them. A name expresses a perSon's essence and identity and the Meaning of this person's life. God has a name; he is not an anonymous force. To disclose one's name is to make oneself known to others; in a way it is to hand oneself over by becoming accessible, capable of being known more intimately and addressed personally.

God Revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people, but the Revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai.

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

Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not pronounce his name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the Revealed name (YHWH) is replaced by the divine title "Lord" (in Hebrew Adonai, in Greek Kyrios). It is under this title that the divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed: "Jesus is LORD."

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

But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is Love": 44 God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the Fullness of time, God has Revealed his innermost secret: 45 God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.

Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, Revealed Truths can seem obscure to human Reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of Natural reaSon gives." 31 "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." 32

What moves us to Believe is not the fact that Revealed Truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our Natural Reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who Reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". 28 So "that the subMission of our Faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reaSon, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." 29 Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind". 30

Believing is possible only by Grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the Truths he has Revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human Reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to Believe what other perSons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by Faith the full subMission of... intellect and will to God who Reveals", 26 and to share in an interior communion with him.

As a result the Church, to whom the transMission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all Revealed Truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence." 44

"Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it FaithFully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely Revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith." 48

All the Faithful share in understanding and handing on Revealed Truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them 53 and guides them into all truth. 54

Thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities and the words of the heritage of Faith is able to grow in the life of the Church: - "through the contemplation and study of Believers who ponder these things in their hearts"; 57 it is in particular "theological research [which] deepens knowledge of Revealed Truth". 58 - "from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which [believers] experience", 59 The sacred Scriptures "grow with the one who reads them." 60 - "from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth". 61

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely Revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." 69

Faith is first of all a perSonal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole Truth that God has Revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to Believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. 17

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 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.

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God Revealed himself to Moses, 59 is rendered as Kyrios, "Lord". From then on, "Lord" becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel's God. the New Testament uses this full sense of the title "Lord" both for the Father and - what is new - for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself. 60

The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "Loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world", and "he was Revealed to take away sins": 70

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

During the greater part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labour. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, 221 a life in the community. From this whole period it is Revealed to us that Jesus was "obedient" to his parents and that he "increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man." 222

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

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.

Through his Grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken Faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ." 4 But the Spirit is the last of the perSons of the Holy Trinity to be Revealed. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, explains this progression in terms of the pedagogy of divine "condescension":

The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our Salvation. But in these "end times," ushered in by the Son's redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is Revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new Creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the Resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

From the beginning until "the Fullness of time," 60 The joint Mission of the Father's Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at work. God's Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is Fully Revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and welcomed at their manifestation. So, for this Reason, when the Church reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, "who has spoken through the prophets," wants to tell us about Christ. 61

Such is not the case for Simon Peter when he confesses Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God", for Jesus responds solemnly: "Flesh and blood has not Revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." 46 Similarly Paul will write, regarding his conversion on the road to Damascus, "When he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his Grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles..." 47 "and in the synagogues immediately [Paul] proclaimed Jesus, saying, 'He is the Son of God.'" 48 From the beginning this acknowledgment of Christ's divine sonship will be the centre of the apostolic Faith, first professed by Peter as the Church's foundation. 49

Jesus accepted Peter's profession of Faith, which acknowledged him to be the Messiah, by announcing the imminent Passion of the Son of Man. 40 He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son of Man "who came down from heaven", and in his redemptive Mission as the suffering Servant: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." 41 Hence the true Meaning of his kingship is Revealed only when he is raised high on the cross. 42 Only after his Resurrection will Peter be able to proclaim Jesus' messianic kingship to the People of God: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." 43

Jesus' messianic consecration Reveals his divine Mission, "for the name 'Christ' implies 'he who anointed', 'he who was anointed' and 'the very anointing with which he was anointed'. the one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is the Son, and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anointing.'" 35 His eternal messianic consecration was Revealed during the time of his earthly life at the moment of his baptism by John, when "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power", "that he might be revealed to Israel" 36 as its Messiah. His works and words will manifest him as "the Holy One of God". 37

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.

Jesus Revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." 64

Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since Creation, having previously "spoken through the prophets", the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them "into all the Truth". 68 The Holy Spirit is thus Revealed as another divine perSon with Jesus and the Father.

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.

From the beginning, the Revealed Truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church's living Faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and Prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: "The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 81

Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has Revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 111 It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who Believe". 112

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

Thus the Revelation of Creation is inseparable from the revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God with his People. Creation is Revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal witness to God's all-powerful Love. 126 and so, the Truth of creation is also expressed with growing vigour in the message of the prophets, the Prayer of the psalms and the liturgy, and in the wisdom sayings of the Chosen People. 127

God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day. 204 On the subject of Creation, the sacred text teaches the Truths Revealed by God for our Salvation, 205 permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God." 206

With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate Meaning, which is Revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 261 We must know Christ as the source of Grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. the Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to "convict the world concerning sin", 262 by revealing him who is its Redeemer.

Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the Missions of the great prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God's Word allowed himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the Holy Spirit both Revealed him and concealed him in its shadow.