Now - and this is daunting - this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indiVisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. 136 In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.

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

The Lord's Supper, because of its connection with the supper which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem. 141 The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used this rite, part of a Jewish meat when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread, 142 above all at the Last Supper. 143 It is by this action that his disciples will recognize him after his Resurrection, 144 and it is this expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies; 145 by doing so they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into Communion with him and form but one body in him. 146 The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is celebrated amid the assembly of the Faithful, the Visible expression of the Church. 147

Finally, the Church has an eschatological significance. To enter into the house of God, we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes passing from the world wounded by sin to the world of the new Life to which all men are called. the Visible church is a symbol of the Father's house toward which the People of God is journeying and where the Father "will wipe every tear from their eyes." 65 Also for this reason, the Church is the house of all God's children, open and welcoming.

When the exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, 56 Christians construct buildings for divine worship. These Visible Churches are not simply gathering places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place, the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ.

The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the inVisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new "economy" of images:

God speaks to man through the Visible creation. the material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. 16 Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.

But "the members do not all have the same function." 12 Certain members are called by God, in and through the Church, to a special service of the community. These servants are chosen and consecrated by the Sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the Holy Spirit enables them to act in the person of Christ the head, for the service of all the members of the Church. 13 The ordained minister is, as it were, an "icon" of Christ the priest. Since it is in the Eucharist that the sacrament of the Church is made fully Visible, it is in his presiding at the Eucharist that the Bishop's ministry is most evident, as well as, in Communion with him, the ministry of priests and deacons.

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

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.

As the work of Christ liturgy is also an action of his Church. It makes the Church present and manifests her as the Visible sign of the Communion in Christ between God and men. It engages the Faithful in the new life of the community and involves the "conscious, active, and fruitful participation" of everyone. 9

The Visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, "so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just," sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ. 638

Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in Visible signs, gestures and works of penance. 23

Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also with the Church. Since ancient times the Bishop, Visible head of a particular Church, has thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential discipline. 66 Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the Pope, according to the law of the Church. 67

Word and Sacrament form an indiVisible whole. the Liturgy of the Word, preceded by an act of repentance, opens the celebration. the words of Christ, the witness of the apostles, awaken the Faith of the sick person and of the community to ask the Lord for the strength of his Spirit.

When we pray to "our" Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so we do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its "source and origin," but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. We are not confusing the persons, for we confess that our Communion is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in their one Holy Spirit. the Holy Trinity is consubstantial and indiVisible. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him together with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This indiVisible gift of the Lord's words and of the Holy Spirit who gives life to them in the hearts of believers has been received and lived by the Church from the beginning. the first communities prayed the Lord's Prayer three times a day, 18 in place of the "Eighteen Benedictions" customary in Jewish piety.

Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. 46 He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them. 47 It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the Visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.

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 celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, Visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all." 109 Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.

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

In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is Visible in the Lord's agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.

"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

"One is constituted a member of the episcopal body in virtue of the Sacramental consecration and by the hierarchical Communion with the head and members of the college." 39 The character and collegial nature of the episcopal order are evidenced among other ways by the Church's ancient practice which calls for several Bishops to participate in the consecration of a new Bishop. 40 In our day, the lawful ordination of a bishop requires a special intervention of the Bishop of Rome, because he is the supreme Visible bond of the communion of the particular Churches in the one Church and the guarantor of their freedom.

"Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling.... In fact ... by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that Bishops, in an eminent and Visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona agant)." 37 "By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, Bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the Faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors." 38

Through the ordained ministry, especially that of Bishops and priests, the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made Visible in the midst of the community of believers. 26 In the beautiful expression of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the Bishop is typos tou Patros: he is like the living image of God the Father. 27

Integration into one of these bodies in the Church was accomplished by a rite called ordinatio, a religious and liturgical act which was a consecration, a blessing or a Sacrament. Today the word "ordination" is reserved for the sacramental act which integrates a man into the order of Bishops, presbyters, or deacons, and goes beyond a simple election, designation, delegation, or institution by the community, for it confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that permits the exercise of a "sacred power" (sacra potestas) 5 which can come only from Christ himself through his Church. Ordination is also called consecratio, for it is a setting apart and an investiture by Christ himself for his Church. the laying on of hands by the Bishop, with the consecratory prayer, constitutes the Visible sign of this ordination.

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

At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus "we see our God made Visible and so are caught up in Love of the God we cannot see." 114 The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son. He has made the features of his human body his own, to the point that they can be venerated when portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who venerates the icon is venerating in it the person of the one depicted". 115

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

The sign of man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. 255 There he lives "to till it and keep it". Work is not yet a burden, 256 but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the Visible creation.

Of all Visible creatures only man is "able to know and Love his creator". 219 He is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for himself", 220 and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity: What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good. 221

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

Christ is the centre of the angelic world. They are his angels: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. . " 191 They belong to him because they were created through and for him: "for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him." 192 They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain Salvation?" 193

As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all Visible creatures, as the splendour of their glory bears witness. 190

Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight." 151 The universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the inVisible God", is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a personal relationship with God. 152 Our human understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and only in a spirit of humility and respect before the Creator and his work. 153 Because creation comes forth from God's goodness, it shares in that goodness - "and God saw that it was good. . . very good" 154 - for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world. 155

For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as "the image of the inVisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature". 65

By his Revelation, "the inVisible God, from the fullness of his Love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company." 1 The adequate response to this invitation is Faith.

The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. 10 Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of Love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indiVisible, the Church's Faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him.

"God fashioned man with his own hands [that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit] and impressed his own form on the flesh he had fashioned, in such a way that even what was Visible might bear the divine form." 65

In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifests the Son of the Father, now become the Son of the Virgin. She is the burning bush of the definitive theophany. Filled with the Holy Spirit she makes the Word Visible in the humility of his flesh. It is to the poor and the first representatives of the gentiles that she makes him known. 106

"The individual Bishops are the Visible source and foundation of unity in their own particular Churches." 408 As such, they "exercise their pastoral office over the portion of the People of God assigned to them," 409 assisted by priests and deacons. But, as a member of the episcopal college, each Bishop shares in the concern for all the Churches. 410 The bishops exercise this care first "by ruling well their own Churches as portions of the universal Church," and so contributing "to the welfare of the whole Mystical Body, which, from another point of view, is a corporate body of Churches." 411 They extend it especially to the poor, 412 to those persecuted for the Faith, as well as to missionaries who are working throughout the world.

The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and Visible source and foundation of the unity both of the Bishops and of the whole company of the Faithful." 402 "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered." 403

"Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of Salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization, and who - by the bonds constituted by the profession of Faith, the Sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and Communion - are joined in the Visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops. Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but 'in body' not 'in heart.'" 321

"Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" 273 are found outside the Visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; Faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." 274 Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of Salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, 275 and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity." 276

What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity "binds everything together in perfect harmony." 265 But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by Visible bonds of Communion: - profession of one Faith received from the Apostles; -common celebration of divine worship, especially of the Sacraments; - apostolic succession through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the fraternal concord of God's family. 266

"What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church." 243 "To this Spirit of Christ, as an inVisible principle, is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of the body are joined one with the other and with their exalted head; for the whole Spirit of Christ is in the head, the whole Spirit is in the body, and the whole Spirit is in each of the members." 244 The Holy Spirit makes the Church "the temple of the living God": 245

When his Visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave his disciples orphans. He promised to remain with them until the end of time; he sent them his Spirit. 218 As a result Communion with Jesus has become, in a way, more intense: "By communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body those brothers of his who are called together from every nation." 219

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."

"The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of Faith, hope, and charity, as a Visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men." 184 The Church is at the same time: - a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ; - the visible society and the spiritual community; - the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches." 185 These dimensions together constitute "one complex reality which comes together from a human and a divine element": 186

The Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only "with the eyes of Faith" 183 that one can see her in her Visible reality and at the same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.

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.