I Believe by Aid to the Church in Need

I BELIEVE A Little Catholic Catechism

Kirche in Not/Ostpriesterhilfe – an Association of Pontifical Right New edition revised and extended in collaboration with the Congregation for the Clergy

Original text: Eleonore Beck. Illustrations: © Bradi Barth, 2013. Translation by Aid to the Church in Need. All rights reserved: © Kirche in Not, Postfach 1209, D-61452 Königstein, Germany. © Editorial Verbo Divino, 31200 Estella (Navarra), Spain, 2013. Cum licentia ecclesiastica. Printed in Spain. Photocomposition by NovaText, 31192 Mutilva Baja. Printed by Gráficas Estella, 31200 Estella (Navarra). ISBN: 978-84-9945-095-7 Edición en inglés (Ci/13) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0951180584

I believe A Little Catholic Catechism

AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED KIRCHE IN NOT/OSTPRIESTERHILFE Bischof-Kindermann-Straße 23 D-61462 Königstein im Taunus – Germany

CONGREGATIO PRO CLERICIS DECREE N. 20021479 After careful examination of the text Je crois: Petit Catéchisme Catholique, submitted by the association Aid to the Church in Need, and in consideration of the fact: • that it is a most useful instrument of catechesis destined to bring the power of the Gospel to the heart of culture and of cultures (cf. CT 35); • that the catechism appears to be a real contribution to the service that the Church is obliged to render to man to confirm him in the Faith. In fact the primordial mission of the Church consists in proclaiming God, in being his witness before the world, in making known the true face of God and his design of love and salvation for man, as Jesus has revealed it (cf. DGC 23); • that the text itself is reliable, given its constant reference to Sacred Scripture and to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and because it is a work of Tradition, and as such expounds the lex credendi, the lex vivendi, the lex orandi of our Holy Mother the Church, and that it presents the facts and fundamental truths of the Christian mystery in a summarised and organic fashion, with respect for the hierarchy of truths and according to the same four-part division adopted by the Catechism of the Catholic Church; • and acknowledging the effort of the association Aid to the Church in Need in pursuit of the objective it has set itself, namely the publication of this catechism in a large number of copies and languages; In view of the submission made by the association Aid to the Church in Need, dated 9 November 2001, in which it requests approval of the catechism Je crois (I believe), the Congregation for the Clergy, having examined the text before it and having secured, with regard to its own area of competence, the agreement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in accordance with Canon 775 §2 of the Code of Canon Law: hereby grants the approval requested In so doing it will be recalled that, in conformity with Canon 827 §1 of the Code of Canon Law, each translation in another language will require to be submitted by the association Aid to the Church in Need to this dicastery to secure the required approval. These future texts will have to be faithful in every respect to the present edition which - to this end - is considered to be the definitive text. In the event that episcopal conferences should wish to adopt the present Catechism as a National Catechism in which translations of this text would be translated into other local languages, they should submit a request to this effect to this dicastery in conformity with canons 775 §2 and 827 §1 of the Code of Canon Law. In this event, the appropriate indications will additionally be given, as laid down in the General Directory for Catechesis (cf. DGC 131-136). May the Holy and undivided Trinity bless this service of faith that the association Aid to the Church in Need wishes to render for the glory of God and for the benefit of so many men and women of the Third Millennium who, mysteriously moved by the Consoling Spirit and enlightened by Mary, Star of Evangelisation, may thereby be able to follow Christ each day more closely. Vatican City, 15 August 2002 Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

† Csaba Ternyák Titular Archbishop of Eminentiana Secretary

Darío card. Castrillón Hoyos Prefect

† Csaba Ternyák Titular Archbishop of Eminentiana Secretary

Darío card. Castrillón Hoyos Prefect

PART ONE

THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

The Apostlesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Creed I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

I believe in God

THE FAITH OF CHRISTIANS THE APOSTLES’ CREED

1. I believe in God, the Father almighty “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15). “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). This is the mission that Jesus entrusted to his apostles. It is the same mission that the apostles have passed on to their successors - and it is the mission of the Church today. The Church bears witness and proclaims, so that all may believe in Christ and in his Word, may hope in the fullness he has promised us, may live and love with him and like him. The Catholic Church guards this sacred Tradition, meditates upon it with love, shares it with the men of all times and all places, while preserving it from falsification and error. The Apostles’ Creed came about in the Church as a faithful summary of the message handed down by the apostles. All those asked to make a statement of their faith at the time of their baptism profess these words. All over the world Christians express their belonging to God the Father, to Jesus Christ his Son and to the Holy Spirit in these same words. Whoever says “yes” to God needs to know what he is undertaking. That is why it is so important for each and every Christian to come to know and understand this fundamental statement of our Faith. As Catholics we also need to know what it truly means to “believe”.

1.1 The longing for God is rooted in all our hearts I am a human being. I was born a boy or a girl, born of a father and a mother; I have brothers and sisters, perhaps, and belong to a family. I live in the midst of 9

I believe in God

the human community, among numerous other human beings, among the animals and the plants and all the life that flourishes on the earth. As humans we can see and hear, learn and remember, observe and compare, think and make plans. We can create beautiful things, build houses, train animals, heal the sick, give life to others. We can explore the universe, cross the oceans, fly to the moon and achieve many other scientific advances. But we can also place our intelligence and our will at the service of evil, for example by destroying the life of others, of children, the old, the sick... People talk to one another, learn from one another. We need one another. Things that are difficult become easy when there is someone to whom I can say: You are my friend; you always help me to get back on my feet again and you give me hope. I listen to what you say; I count on you, I entrust myself to you. This is friendship. But since the heart of man is made for the infinite, such experiences, however beautiful they may be, do not completely satisfy it. Rather they push us to go further, to search for something higher, to ponder and reflect: Why am I here on the earth? Why do we have to die? Where does this life come from, with all its variety? Is there an ultimate purpose that gives meaning to life and even to suffering? “With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence” (§33). [NB: the symbol § is used throughout this book to refer the reader to the relevant paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church]. You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. SAINT AUGUSTINE, CONFESSIONS (SEE §30)

In every age and in every nation men have sought after God. They seek him in order to learn from him how to understand themselves and how to understand the world. Every person can recognise the work of God in the order and diversity of creation. These works are the reflection of the One who made them. Recognise the work of God. “Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man, and to give him the grace of being

I believe in God

able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God’s existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason” (§35). “Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.” Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God’s revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created “in the image of God” (§36).

1.2 God comes to meet man - he reveals himself

It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will... VATICAN COUNCIL II, ON DIVINE REVELATION 2 (SEE §51)

All down the ages God has spoken to the heart of man in order to reveal himself to him and gradually lead him to the truth. Out of all the peoples on earth he chose and formed one small nation, the people of Israel, in order to establish a covenant with them. Through this people all the peoples on earth would learn that God exists and that he has a plan for mankind. The history of this divine covenant with Israel is contained in the books of the Old Testament which form the first part of the Bible. In this way God prepared us “to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ” (§53). The Letter to the Hebrews tells us: In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son. LETTER TO THE HEBREWS 1:1-2

Through the Bible accounts of his meetings with man we come to know God better. We learn what he is like and what he wishes of man and for man. 11

I believe in God

God speaks to the heart of Abraham and says to him: “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly... Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations... I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Gen 17:1-7). This promise marks the beginning of the “People of God”. Later, when his people are reduced to heavy slavery in Egypt, God does not abandon them. He wishes to free them and thereby show them that he is their Redeemer. Moses is tending his flock in the desert, when he sees the burning bush - which burns without being consumed. He hears a voice coming from the bush which says to him: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob... I have seen the affliction of my people... and have heard their cry... I know their sufferings” (Ex 3:6-7). The transcendent, all-powerful God has united himself to these men. Through Moses he wishes to lead them to freedom. Moses is afraid. He does not want to take on this mission. He asks the name of the one who is speaking to him from the flames. God says: “I AM WHO AM”. This is no ordinary name. God, the One Who exists from all eternity, has comes to meet man in order to free him and establish a covenant with him, a promise of friendship. This covenant is valid for every individual person and for every age.

Thus says the Lord, he who created you... ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour’. ISAIAH 43:1-3

I believe in God

At different stages in the history of the people of the first Covenant, God raises up “prophets” who are above all his friends, his intimate companions. Since his people are frequently inclined to forget their God and no longer trust in him, the Lord sends his prophets to their contemporaries to remind them of his love, of his faithfulness, of his commandments. Elijah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel were all men such as these, and the Bible recounts their deeds and teachings to us. Other writers also ponder about God, the world, their faith. These are known as the “Wisdom” writers. Among the Wisdom books we find the Book of Job, a good man who entrusts his life to God and who comes to know him in a quite particular manner - for misfortune overwhelms him. Bands of robbers steal his flocks and kill his shepherds. His children, seven sons and three daughters, are crushed when his house collapses upon them. He himself becomes a leper and his body is covered in sores. He is reduced to sitting on a heap of ashes and scratching himself with a shard of pottery. Surely it cannot be God who is heaping all these misfortunes upon Job, this just man? His wife and friends try to persuade him to turn his back on God, for his faithfulness has done him no good, they say. Job himself cannot understand it and even goes as far as to question God and challenge him to justify what he has done. But at last Job understands that the friendship of God does not simply mean good fortune and health, but that above all it demands an unshakeable trust in his plans for us, which are always for our greater good, even if we cannot understand them. This is shown at the end when God once again restores all Job’s fortunes to him, since he has remained faithful in adversity. This was the faith of the men of the Old Covenant; this should be our own faith too:

• knowing that God is there for each one of us, that he knows us and loves us; therefore we can place our trust in him.

• knowing that God is there for me, that he knows and loves me personally. • loving God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength. • listening to his Word, doing his will, saying yes to his loving plans for me. 13

I believe in God

In a ruined city, on a cellar wall, they found this statement of faith by a victim of persecution: I believe in the sun, even when it does not shine. I believe in love, even when I do not feel it. I believe in God, even when he does not speak. Bible, Old Testament. The word Bible means “Book”. This is the name we give to the book in which are gathered all the writings the Church recognises as “Sacred Scripture”. The first and larger part, the Old Testament, includes the books in which the people of Israel tell of the mighty deeds of God and of their own history. They distinguished between the Law (the Pentateuch - the five books attributed to Moses), the Prophetic Books (which recount the words and the actions of the prophets), and the “Writings” (the historical, poetic and wisdom writings). The books of the Old Testament were set down in writing during the thousand years which preceded the birth of Jesus. Some of them had been handed down orally from generation to generation before being written down. The second, and shorter, part of the Bible consists of the New Testament. Covenant. This word means the solemn agreement which the Almighty God made with Noah, Abraham and later with all the Jewish people on Mount Sinai. For Israel the Covenant is the pledge of their election - the proof that they are chosen by God: “I shall be your God and you will be my people”. The Ten Commandments are the rules of this Covenant. Every year Israel celebrates the memorial of the Covenant. Since it is the faithful God who has made this covenant with man, we may depend on it. Even in the worst of distress the upright of heart do not lose hope. They wait for a New Covenant which God has promised his people. The One through whom God will fulfil this hope and reveal himself fully is Jesus, whom the Church proclaims as the Messiah, the Christ.

1.3 The New Testament Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §65

I believe in God

The New Testament is the part of the Bible that was written by the Church which Jesus Christ founded. It consists of 27 works written by the apostles and other disciples of Christ between 50 and 100 AD. There are 21 letters, 13 of them by Saint Paul, addressed to different communities. These books quickly came to be considered as the apostolic foundation of the faith of the Church. They “hand on the ultimate truth of God’s Revelation” (§124) which the apostles proclaimed, bore witness to and faithfully handed down. The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John bear witness, each in its own way, to the deeds and words, the passion and resurrection of the Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles the evangelist Saint Luke describes the history of the early Church, which was established in Jerusalem under the leadership of Saint Peter, and the subsequent activities of the first missionaries, especially Saint Paul. He shows the Holy Spirit at work, giving light, confidence and love to the early Christians. The letters of Saint Paul, Saint James, Saint Peter, Saint John etc. are precious teachings on the mystery of God and of his Christ, the loving plan of God, the life which Christians must lead under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The final book of the New Testament, the Revelation (or Apocalypse) of Saint John, is filled with prophetic images and proclaims the final victory of God over the powers of evil. The Bible is made up of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The biblical writings recognised as true and authentic by the Church make up the Canon of Sacred Scripture. The Church believes that the Holy Spirit of God, in inspiring the men who wrote these books, preserved them from error, so that their witness is true, faithful, and sure (2 Pt 1:20-21). Through this inspiration, the Holy Spirit of God gives us a sure light, so that we can advance according to the plan of God, who desires our salvation. Since they are guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, the Sacred Scriptures are valid for all times. All down the centuries, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who guides her “into all the truth” (Jn 16:13), the Church advances in her understanding of the events and teachings handed down by the Scriptures. She does so “through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts”, and through the teaching of the bishops who, as the successors of the apostles, have received “the sure charism of truth” (Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 8; see §94). And so we have to read Holy Scripture as the Church herself reads it, in the light of her Tradition and in accordance with the explanations of the Magisterium. We hear the Word of God especially during Holy Mass, when the Church proclaims it and explains it specially for us. 15

I believe in God

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 20:30-31 Apostolic Tradition. The apostles (see also pp. 31, 87) passed onto their successors, the bishops, the ministry and authority Jesus himself had conferred upon them. This chain of sacred Tradition still unites us to these origins; through the bishops we receive the teaching the apostles received from Jesus. “Apostolic Tradition is the transmission of the message of Christ from the very beginnings of Christianity by preaching, bearing witness, institutions, worship and inspired writings” (Compendium of the CCC, 12). “Through Tradition, the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes” (§78). Gospel. “Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy maintained and continues to maintain that the four Gospels..., whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until the day when he was taken up” (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 19; see §126). That is why “The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures” (Dei Verbum, 18; see §125). Canon of Scriptures. “Canon” means a rule. Here it means those writings recognised by the Catholic Church as inspired by God. Only these books may be read out during Mass. “For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself” (§105, citing Dei Verbum, 11). Inspiration. “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” (§105). “God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more” (§106, citing Dei Verbum, 11). Magisterium. The teaching authority given by Christ to the Church. “The... authentic interpretation of the Word of God has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone... in the name of Jesus Christ.” This authority “has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome” (§85). “The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes truths contained in divine Revelation or

I believe in God, the Father almighty

also when it proposes in a definitive way truths having a necessary connection with them” (§88). “Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others” (§95).

1.4 I believe - We believe God reveals himself to man, so that man can welcome God and put all his faith in him. The profession of faith that all Christians make begins with the word “I” - for each person in the community still has his own personal relationship with God. Nobody can say “I believe” for another person. The Gospel shows us how Jesus inspires the act of faith on the part of his hearers, but never forces it. Saint Mark recounts an episode in which we clearly see the teaching method of Jesus. A man asks him to heal his son, “if he can”. Jesus replies to him that all things are possible to those who believe. The man then makes an act of faith; he begs Jesus to grant him a deep faith: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24). And so faith is a gift given us by God. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of faith. No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). But at the same time faith is a free act made by each individual in response to the grace that God gives him (see §179-180). Faith is a conscious, human act by which we commit ourselves in trust to the person of Jesus, Son of God, and to everything he has revealed to us through his apostles and his Church. We learn to believe thanks to the example of other Christians. We know the content of our faith thanks to the teaching we have received from the Church. And we ourselves must bear witness to our faith and be always ready “to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pt 3:15). And so we can see that, while faith is an entirely personal act, it is also a communal (or ecclesial) act, which is lived and shared with others. “‘I believe’ is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both ‘I believe’ and ‘We believe’” (§167). Faith is a personal commitment that is lived in the Church, together with all our fellow Christians.

1.5 I believe in God, the Father almighty As believers, we talk to God. We try to find words to express his greatness and his “otherness”. We say, You are holy, you are glorious, you are all-high. We throw ourselves down before him and adore him. 17

I believe in God, the Father almighty

Because of God’s greatness and his “otherness” many of the good people in the Old Testament - for example Moses - believe that a man who sees God face to face must die. And yet these same people desire nothing more than to see the face of God. They long only to be with him, because they believe that man can only be fully happy in his presence. They understand that God punishes sin but they also know that his love and his mercy are a thousand times stronger than his anger. They say: God is not someone who wishes to humiliate us. He does not set out to frighten us but loves us and wishes to be loved by us in return. For he himself has said: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you” (Is 66:13). And again, “I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me” (Jer 3:19). A just man who has understood God says “As tenderly as a father treats his children, so Yahweh treats those who fear him” (Ps 103:13). It is part of the mystery of God’s love that he sometimes seems far from us, remote and unattainable. For he is Spirit; he is quite different from us. And so we learn that his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways not our ways (see Is 55:8). Sometimes, when the power of evil overwhelms us, it can seem as though God is powerless. And yet, even when we are at the end of our strength, the truth is still - as God’s messenger said to Abraham when, at the age of over ninety, he doubted he would still have a son - that “nothing is impossible to God!” (see Gen 18:14). And the angel said the same thing to Mary at the moment of the Annunciation, when she was chosen to be the Mother of God (Lk 1:37). When we have laboured and are weary, God comes to meet us and takes us in his arms. When we are lonely he seeks us out and sits with us like a mother. When we weep he wipes away the tears from our eyes, when we are doubtful he calms our fears. When we lose hope his smile puts new heart into us. Nothing and no one can resist him. His arm is never too short to reach us and help us. This, above all, is what we mean when we say that God is almighty - almighty in his power to help, to forgive and do good; for evil is foreign to his nature. God’s love is like a hand that we can cling to, like a light that shines in the dark and shows us the way. 18

I believe in God, the Father almighty

God is our Father in a quite special way. Jesus has revealed to us that God is “Trinity” and he has spoken to us a great deal about his Father. And he commands us to baptise “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. From all eternity God the Father engenders - or gives life to - his Son, who is God like him and of the same substance - or nature - as he is. From all eternity the Son, who is also known as the Word, looks towards his Father. From all eternity the Father and the Son love each other with a mutual love, and the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, proceeds from this relationship which unites the Father and the Son. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, the three persons of the Blessed Trinity are “really distinct from one another” (§254), “relative to one another” (§255), and yet “by nature one God” (§253): one only God in whom the Father is the principle of the other two persons - an inexpressible mystery of light, of love, of grace. Saint Paul explains to us that the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of the Father, became incarnate in order to give us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit unites us to Jesus, the Son, and enables us to enter into his filial relationship with the Father, so that together with Jesus we can look upon his Father as our own Father: “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman... to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:4-6). Here and now, Jesus enables us to enter into the Trinitarian life of God: By the grace of Baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §265

I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

2. I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

Many people marvel at creation, saying: Where does the world come from? From where this immense diversity of life? Who set down the orbits of the stars, of the heavenly bodies that determine summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, day time and night time for us? Who gave the plants and animals their ordered lives and the earth its fruitfulness? Who wakens new life in a mother’s womb? What was there at the beginning and what will be there at the end? Others suffer and complain: Who causes the earthquakes, and the floods that sweep over the land? Who holds back the rain, so that the earth dries up? Where do disaster, sickness and death come from? Where does evil come from and who gives it the power to fill men’s hearts? Will evil overcome good in the end and will death be stronger than life? All over the world the same questions burden men’s hearts. All the world over the wisest of the people search for answers. They speak of the mystery of our first beginnings, of the workings of the Almighty and of God’s unfolding relationship with mankind. The Bible also tells us the story of our origins, the Story of Creation. The priests of Israel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, profess their faith in God as the “Creator of Heaven and earth”. This declaration of faith is so important to them that they place it at the very beginning of the Bible. The Story of Creation. People sometimes speak of the biblical “account” of creation. This could create the mistaken impression that the events described in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, must be taken literally as an exact description of what happened. For example, when we say that God made the world in six “days”, the word “day” should not be taken to mean the space of 24 hours. What the Bible is expressing here is the fact that, with God’s creation, time begins and passes, and all the different aspects of his creation are seen in relation to one another. The text that has been handed down to us in the Bible does not say how the world came about but rather Who created it. In this poem of praise, the people of Israel profess their faith in a God who existed before all things and was the origin of all things, and who remains faithful to his creation until its fulfilment.

I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

2.1 Everything comes from God “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen 1:1). The Bible begins with this sentence. “In the beginning” - this means, before any human walked the face of the earth, when there was no man, woman or child, no beast to leave its tracks in forests or field, no bird to sing its morning song, no fish to dart through the waters, no sunbeam to announce the dawn, no moon to wax and wane in the sky, no star to twinkle in the night, no dry land, no ocean, no above, no below, no left and no right... In the beginning there was only God, and “His Spirit hovered over the waters” (Gen 1:2).

• We say, “I believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth”, and by this we mean

that the world and everything in it did not come about of its own accord, or by chance. It came about, and continues to exist, because God wills it. Without him there would be no life.

• We say that he made the world out of “nothing”. Unlike a human builder, he

had no need of any existing matter or any outside help in order to create (see §296), but made everything - from the tiniest atom to the vastness of the most distant galaxies. That is why, even when they know nothing of God, people can recognise his handiwork in the creatures he has made. “For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator” (Wis 13:5).

Men set out to explore their immediate environment, the earth. They seek to explain how the great variety of living things have come about over the ages. Our own understanding of the world is different from that of the human authors of the Bible. Different people give different answers to questions about the origin and ultimate purpose of life. For our part, we do not believe in chance but in the Living God as the ultimate origin of all things. Through faith in this God we gain a perspective from which we can understand both the world and ourselves. Because we believe, we can be confident that the world and the people in it will ultimately be safe - safe with the God who created us and who will always remain close to his creation. God is good to us. The people of Israel experienced this again and again, and all who believe in him discover this in their own lives. 21

I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

A wise man, who has thought deeply about this, praises God in these words: You are merciful to all, because you can do all things and overlook men’s sins so that they can repent... How, had you not willed it, could a thing persist, how be conserved if not called forth by you? You spare all things because all things are yours, Lord, lover of life. BOOK OF WISDOM 11:23; 25-26 God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular, it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are the one, indivisible principle of creation” (§316). The Father “‘made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom’, ‘by the Son and the Spirit’ who, so to speak, are ‘his hands’” (§292, quoting Saint Irenaeus of Lyons).

2.2. Man comes from God Man came late upon the earth. Water and land, the oceans and the continents, plants and animals were there long before him. Israel acknowledges that “on the sixth day”, the last day of his creation, God created man - as his last and greatest work. But man, who shares this earth with the plants and animals, is quite “different” and “more” than they are. This is what the priests of Israel mean when they say that God has made us in his own image and likeness - as a being capable of understanding, of freely desiring, of loving. All our dignity consists in this fact - that man is made in the image of God. God has made human beings male and female, so that they can be partners and helpers to each other. Together they pass on life, pass on their knowledge, their experience, their love. It is because we humans - both men and women - are like God that we are capable of knowing and loving both God himself and our fellow men and women too. As men and women we have the whole universe at our disposal, so that we can fulfil our vocation - which is to grow in love of God and in love for one another, to share with God in building up his creation, and to prepare ourselves to meet with God, face to face, in eternity. Man can discover the earth, explore it, make use of it and shape it. He can also spoil and destroy it. He sees himself, rightly, as “master” of the earth. But his 22

I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

â&#x20AC;&#x153;greatnessâ&#x20AC;? does not come from himself. It is God who has made us, the last of his creatures, into the first so that we might care not only for ourselves and our children but for everything else that lives and thrives upon the earth. God expects us to be reliable partners with him in caring for the animals and plants. He expects us to defend and protect life; not to exploit the earth, but to care for it and give every creature what it needs. Whether man or woman, we share responsibility for the earth, for both man and woman share the same dignity before God. All praise be yours, my Lord, for Sister Earth, our mother, who nurtures and sustains us and produces all kinds of fruit, together with bright flowers and herbs. All praise be yours, my Lord, for those who forgive for love of you... and happy are those who endure in peace, for they shall be crowned by you, the Most High. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, CANTICLE OF CREATURES

Lord, our earth is no more than a tiny planet in the great universe. It is up to us to make it into a a planet whose inhabitants are not plagued by wars, tormented by hunger and fear or torn apart by senseless divisions of race, colour or ideology. Give us the courage and the foresight to begin this work today, so that our children and grandchildren may one day bear the name of man with pride. PRAYER OF THE UNITED NATIONS

2.3 Good or Evil - Life or Death We praise God. He created the earth. All life comes from him, and all life is good. We believe this and yet, in our world, in ourselves, we find that evil often seems 23

I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

to have the upper hand. Wherever we look we can find the signs of God, who is Good, but we also find signs of evil - even in our own hearts. There are some cultures that believe in two gods - one good and one evil - who are at war with each other. But we, like the people of Israel, believe in the One and Only God. He created all life and he wants his creatures to serve him in freedom. But they often abuse this freedom and refuse to serve. The people of Israel describe how, among the angels - whom God created to be near him and see his glory - there were some who rebelled against their Lord. Their leader is the one whom we now call the devil. And so they could no longer remain in the presence of God but were instead thrown down into the fires of hell “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). But they have been permitted to come into the world of man, bringing their evil with them. They try to tempt us away from God and lead us into sin. The devil is not all-powerful, for he is only a creature; but he can still cause great harm. Saint Peter warns us against the temptations of the evil one and of our own human weakness: “Be sober, be watchful. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Pt 5: 8-9). We believe that on the Last Day, when Christ returns in glory and leads the world to perfection, God will destroy the powers of evil. Then our new and perfect life will begin, a life without end (Rev 20:7-14). But as long as this world and time endure, the evil one will continue to try and deceive mankind. Man is free. He can choose the side of God, listen to his word and collaborate in the work of God as a beloved son. Or he can become the devil’s partner and do evil, both to himself and to the world. A key Bible passage relates the story of Adam - the “first man” - and Eve. This is a story that is relevant to every human being, whenever or wherever they were born into this world. Eve knows exactly what God has commanded. She knows that it is a matter of life and death. And yet she listens to the voice of the tempter: “To be like God...”, to “know what is good and what is evil” (Gen 3). This seems desirable to her. She abuses her freedom and disobeys the commandment of God. The Bible explains this with an image - she eats the fruit of the forbidden tree and gives some to Adam to eat as well. Then their eyes are opened 24

I believe in God..., Creator of heaven and earth

and they realise their frailty and weakness. They hide from God and fear the One who is their Friend. Through Eve, the mother of all the living, all her descendants come to share in this sin, which we call Original Sin - a heavy burden which we have all inherited. “All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness” (§397).

Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives. 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. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject “to its bondage to decay”. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will “return to the ground”, for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §399-400

Mankind would have been lost if God had not loved us and remained faithful to us. For God does not abandon his creation to itself but instead guards and governs the world with his divine Providence - this is the source of our unshakeable confidence in God, Our Father. We must seek Him first of all, seek his kingdom and his justice, and he will take care of all our other needs, for he knows them so well (see Mt 6:31-33). And he even goes so far as to send us his own Son to save us. Jesus himself tells us: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17). 25

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I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore. PSALM 121:1-5; 7-8 Angels. Spiritual beings who surround God’s throne, praising and adoring him. God has commanded them to watch over and protect mankind. “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life” (St. Basil, see §336); that is why we speak of “guardian angels” (Ps 91:11). God sends his angels as messengers on earth. The Angel Gabriel tells Mary that she has been chosen to be the mother of Jesus (see Lk 1:2638). On the first holy night of Christmas the angels rejoice at the Salvation brought by the birth of the Son of God, and they sing the praises of God over the hills outside Bethlehem (see Lk 2:8-14). Devil. The enemy of God. The Bible uses many names for him, names which express the evil of his deeds, such as Satan, Beelzebul, the evil one, tempter, prince of darkness, father of lies, prince of this world. Original Sin (inherited sin, original guilt). This means the continuing effects of that first sin which burdened mankind’s relationship with God from the very beginning. Every human being is an “inheritor” of this guilt. “It is a sin “contracted” and not “committed” - a state and not an act” (§404). “As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin” (§418). “Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle” (§405).

And in Jesus Christ

3. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord

When Jesus is 30 years old he leaves his home in Nazareth and is baptised by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. After this he travels as a wandering preacher through the villages and towns around the Sea of Galilee. He proclaims the Good News of God and announces: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:14-15). The people he meets recognise at once that he is somebody special. They crowd around him; they want to be near him, to hear what he says and see what he does. They are astonished and awe-struck, for he speaks about God and about man with authority, and not like the teachers in the synagogues.

• To those who come to him Jesus says: God is good to you. He wants to lead

you to happiness. He does not despise the poor. He wants to forgive the sins of those who have done wrong.

• Jesus says: You should love God, rather than fear him. He wants one thing only, and that is that you should believe in my message of Good News. Jesus says: The Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost. GOSPEL OF SAINT LUKE 19:10 John the Baptist (John the Baptizer). The son of the priest Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth who were old and childless. The Angel Gabriel announces to Zachariah in the temple of Jerusalem that a son will be born to him, a son who must be named John (which means: “God has shown himself merciful”) (see Lk 1:5-21). John is a man chosen by God. He lives in the desert. To those who come to him he says: “The kingdom of God is near. Be converted” (Mt 3:1-2). In the Jordan he baptises them with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He is the last prophet of Israel and, by preparing the people to welcome the Messiah, he is also the “precursor” or forerunner of Jesus. Synagogue. This is the name of the Jewish prayer houses. At that time sacrifices were offered only in the Temple of Jerusalem. But every village and town had its own place of prayer, the synagogue.

And in Jesus Christ

3.1 Jesus, the Christ The Jewish people have a long history with God. But they also share a long history with other nations. They come to understand that, when they are unfaithful, God lets them go their own way and suffer the consequences, including invasion by their mighty neighbours. In the end the country of the Jews is conquered and occupied by the Romans. Many give up hope. They ask: Has God forgotten us? Does his Covenant no longer mean anything? Does he no longer remember that he has promised us a saviour, through his prophets? A saviour who will restore our freedom and our joy in being human; who will drive out the foreigners from our land. Someone to whom justice means more than wealth and power, someone who will restore the dignity of the poor and give back their own names to the slaves; someone who will show us how to serve and honour God “in holiness and justice, all the days of our lives in his presence” (Lk 1:75).

• As Christians, we believe and proclaim that Jesus is this Christ, the promised

Messiah. God has sent him and anointed him with his Spirit (Is 61:1; Lk 4:18). He is the Saviour whom God has promised to his people and to all the nations. He will redeem his people from their sins (Mt 1:21). He is the One for whom all the upright people of Israel have been waiting. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee, Son of God and son of Mary, A man sent by God, A man who fully shares our humanity, A man who defends the “little ones”, A man who does not fear the powerful, A man who wills to save us all. Because he suffered for love of us, Our suffering too has meaning, Because he trusted in God, his Father, He is the refuge of those who doubt. Because he has died for us, We have hope in him. Because he has risen from the dead, we praise the Father and sing: Alleluia!

Jesus Christ... his only Son

Jesus. The name Jesus - short for Jehoshua, or Joshua - was quite common in Israel. It means “God (Yahweh) saves”. Jesus does what his name implies. He is the Saviour, he brings salvation. That is why we call him our Saviour and Redeemer. Christ. This is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word “Messiah”, and means the “Anointed One”. This was the title held by Israel’s kings. Both they and the priests were anointed with holy oil when they were enthroned - a sign that they were consecrated, or authorised to act in God’s name. When people in Israel spoke of the “Anointed” - the “Messiah” - they meant the expected king who, under God’s protection and with God’s authority, would come and liberate their people from the Romans and rule on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Christians profess Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Son of God. But he is no ordinary king. At Caesarea, when Peter acknowledges him as the Messiah, Jesus begins to foretell his passion. His true messianic royalty will be revealed fully on the Cross where he gives his life for his people (see §440). When they are baptised and confirmed, Christians too are anointed with holy oil - known as Holy Chrism - a potent sign of their belonging to the community of Jesus Christ, who gives them his Spirit.

The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude with the words ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ’. The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words ‘blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus’. The Eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, says: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’. Many Christians, such as Saint Joan of Arc, have died with the one word ‘Jesus’ on their lips. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §435

3.2 Jesus Christ, Son of God Jesus Christ, the Messiah, speaks of God as no other person does - directly and intimately. In all he says or does he is one with the Father. He knows the will of God. That is why he can contradict the scribes, or doctors of the law (the learned men of Jerusalem) who claim the authority of God while seeking to curb the freedom of the people who have been entrusted to their care, and making life difficult for them. Jesus brings people closer to God. He heals the sick, eats with the tax collectors, and does not avoid those who, because of their infirmities, have been excluded from 29

Jesus Christ... his only Son

the community and the religious ceremonies. To those who have sinned he offers forgiveness, in God’s name, and gives them the courage to change their lives. Many men and women meet Jesus. Some ask, Who is this man? Is he a prophet of God? Others marvel and believe in him. Some ask suspiciously: Who gave him this authority? Others say: He is blaspheming against God. Others again ask thoughtfully: When the Christ appears, will he do still greater signs than this man has done? (see Jn 7:31). But all of them, whatever their opinion of him, sense that the mystery of his being has something to do with God. When people in Israel wanted to describe someone as being especially close to God, they would say he is a “son of God”. And, because he has specially chosen them, God calls the entire people of Israel “my first-born son” (Ex 4:22). And the Kings of Israel, who ruled the people as the representatives of God, also heard these words on the day of their coronation: “You are my son” (Ps 2:7). But when we say “Jesus is the Son of God”, we mean much more than this. For Jesus is God himself, the Son of God. And in fact there is nothing in our human world that can be compared to his relationship with the Father. The evangelists make this clear when they witness that God himself declares Jesus to be his “Beloved Son” at two crucial moments in his earthly life. The first is after his baptism in the River Jordan, before Jesus begins his public life (Mk 1:9-11). The second is at his Transfiguration on the mountain, before he sets out for Jerusalem, to suffer and die there (Mk 9:2-10). When Peter, the first of the apostles, declares: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Jesus replies to him: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Mt 16:16-18). Jesus says to Nicodemus: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 3:16 Tax collectors (or “publicans”). These were the men who collected the taxes on behalf of the Roman occupying power and at the same time made a living for themselves. They

Jesus Christ... our Lord

often demanded too much. The people despised them and would have nothing to do with them. Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God because he is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of the Father. He is, as the Church teaches us in the Creed, “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father”. Apostles. The word “apostle” means “envoy” or “messenger”. Jesus himself is the envoy of the Father. He chooses twelve men from among his many disciples. Their names are Simon Peter, James and John (the two sons of Zebedee), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the man who was to betray him (see Mk 3:16-19). Peter is the first among them. Jesus chooses them to continue his own mission, saying “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21) (see §858-860).

3.3 Jesus Christ, our Lord The first People of God live in a Covenant agreement with God. Their kings are reminded constantly by the prophets that they must rule in God’s name. Their priests offer sacrifice in God’s honour. His commandments are accepted by all and are the one “Law” that is binding on all - on the powerful and on the lowly alike. In their prayers the Jewish believers address themselves to their “Lord”. The name Yahweh means “I AM WHO AM” and is so holy to them that they dare not speak it or write it for fear of profaning it. They give thanks to God the Lord, who is close to his people, kind and merciful, and who asks only that they love him “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Dt 6:5). Christians use the title “Lord” to address not only God the Father but also Jesus Christ who rose from the dead. In doing so they are acknowledging him as God, while proclaiming themselves to be his People and expressing all their trust in him. They likewise express their desire to serve him and to serve one another as he himself commanded them to do on the night before he suffered: You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 13:13-14

Jesus Christ... our Lord

For the early Christians, to acknowledge Jesus as Lord could have fatal consequences. For the Roman emperors also called themselves “lords of the world”. Many Christian men and women gave their lives as martyrs for witnessing to Christ as the One and Only Lord and refusing to deny him. The Catholic Church begins the celebration of Holy Mass with the Greek prayer Kyrie eleison - “Lord, have mercy”. And in the Gloria, the hymn of praise, she declares “You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the most high, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father”.

The title “Lord” indicates divine sovereignty. To confess or invoke Jesus as Lord is to believe in his divinity. “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §455

This is how we are recognised as Christians: If you confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is the Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS 10:9

Jesus Christ... conceived by the Holy Spirit

4. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary

We believe and we profess that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God. From all eternity he lives in the glory of the Father. He came into the world and became man like us - the living, human proof of the Father’s love. It is proof of a love greater than anything we can imagine or express. The first theologians and disciples of Jesus have their own way of expressing this mystery of the Incarnation, of God becoming Man. Saint John begins his Gospel with a hymn to Christ, proclaiming “The Word was made flesh (that is, ‘became man’), he lived among us, and we saw his glory” (Jn 1:1-18). In his letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul quotes from a baptismal hymn. He describes the Incarnation (the becoming man) of the Son of God as a sort of journey - from “above” to “below” - from God down to man - and back “above” again: “Though he was in the form of God... he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, the likeness of men... and became obedient... even to death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil 2:6-11). In his letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul describes the life of Jesus in a single sentence: “When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law..., to enable us to be adopted as sons” (Gal 4:4-5). Saint John writes still more clearly to his community: “God sent into the world his only Son, so that we could have life through him... We have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world” (1 Jn 4:9; 14). Two of the evangelists, Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, describe how Jesus came into the world. They begin their accounts with the “infancy narratives” (Mt 1-2; Lk 1-2). 33

Jesus Christ... conceived by the Holy Spirit

Conceived by the Holy Spirit 34

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

4.1 The Son of God comes into the world With the birth of Jesus a completely new phase begins in the history of God’s dealings with mankind. That is why we record our present time as AD (Anno Domini - “in the year of our Lord”). In the person of Jesus of Nazareth God himself has come into the world - as our brother. And so we cannot speak of his birth without speaking of God. Likewise Saint Matthew and Saint Luke cannot simply speak of the person of Jesus as they would of any human child. Instead their Gospel accounts bear witness not merely to what happened, but also - in order to bear witness to the whole truth - to what these events mean in God’s plan. Both of them insist on the fact that Jesus, the Saviour of the world, is born of a Virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

• Saint Luke tells how the Angel Gabriel is sent by God to the Virgin Mary in

Nazareth. He greets her with the words: “Hail, full of grace”, and tells her that she will become the Mother of God by the power of the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk 1:35). Saint Luke also tells us how Mary says “Yes” to God’s plan and has absolute faith that for God nothing is impossible. He tells how Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem and how the city of King David thus becomes the birthplace of Jesus. He tells of the shepherds, and how the heavens open above their heads on that holy night, how the angels’ hymn of praise rings out over the earth, and how the shepherds, members of the Jewish people, go and find Mary, Joseph and the Holy Child (Lk 2:1-20).

• Saint Matthew tells us how Joseph, the carpenter who is betrothed to Mary, is

tested in his faith, when he discovers that she is expecting a child. Only after a profound inner struggle and the painful decision to take what seems to him to be the most just course of action - sending away his wife - does he learn in a dream what God wishes of him. And so Joseph, the descendant of the great King David, will give his own name to the Son of God, making him a member of the family of David and caring for him as a father (Mt 1:18-24). Matthew has already seen how Jesus was rejected by the majority of his own people. But at the same time he has seen how, in every nation on earth, there are men willing to go in search of Jesus until they find him. And not only after his death and resurrection! That is why he tells us of the star that leads the wise men from distant lands to Bethlehem, to lay their gifts before Jesus, the King of the Jews. Matthew also tells how Herod, the king then ruling in Jerusalem, tries to kill the Child Jesus. That is why Mary and Joseph flee with the Child to Egypt (Mt 2). 35

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Born of the Virgin Mary 36

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

The message of the angel in the Holy Night of Christmas: To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. GOSPEL OF SAINT LUKE 2:11 Grace. God is holy, eternal, perfect in himself. Man is mortal, a sinner, imperfect. But he is open to God. And yet there would be no history of God’s encounter with man if the eternal and holy God had not given man the possibility of finding him and, in this encounter, given himself. It is this gift of God that we mean when we speak of “grace”. No human creature can ever deserve “grace”; it is the free, unmerited gift of God, who in his freedom desires the salvation of all men (see 1 Tm 2:4). But man can refuse this grace. Through the grace of God we become like him: “Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life” (§1997). We become sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ, called to eternal life, face to face with God. “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor 15:10). There are some people to whom God gives a special mission, and he gives them special graces to go with it.

4.2 Mary, the Mother of Jesus In every human life the mother pays a decisive role. Why should it have been any different for Jesus? Of course, he often speaks of the Father, his Father in heaven. And even in the writings of the New Testament there are few specific references to Mary. Yet we can and should ask, what sort of a woman was she, who gave Jesus life and followed him so closely?

• Mary is a girl from Nazareth, betrothed to the carpenter Joseph. According to

the custom of the time she is probably no more than 14 years old at her betrothal; a girl who takes fright when the Angel of the Lord comes and speaks to her. She hears the greeting, hears that she is “full of grace”. The Angel explains to her that she has been chosen by God. She does not blindly say “yes”, but first of all asks the question that is troubling her: “How is this to happen...?” Then she accepts God’s call to be the Mother of the Son of God, while remaining a Virgin, for “nothing is impossible to God”. And so she pronounces her Fiat, her “yes”, with the words: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:35; 37-38). 37

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

• The Virgin Mary is expecting a child. She is on the road with her husband. Her

Child comes into the world “far from home”, in surroundings of great poverty, hidden from the world. When the shepherds come - they are poor people too they glorify God for all that he has done for his people. Mary listens closely, she treasures what she hears and ponders it in her heart (see Lk 2:15-19).

• Forty days later, Mary and Joseph bring their Son to Jerusalem, to the Temple,

to present him to God as the Jewish Law requires. In the Temple he is recognised by Simeon and Anna, two people who have been waiting with longing for the coming of the Messiah. Simeon praises God for letting him see “salvation” with his own eyes. And he addresses these prophetic words to Mary: “This child is destined to be a sign that is rejected... and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:22-35).

• When Jesus is twelve years old he goes with his parents to Jerusalem for the

feast of Passover. On the way home Mary and Joseph realise that Jesus is no longer with them. They search for him for three days, as any parent would search for a lost child. At last they find him in the Temple and he speaks to them of “my Father’s house”. And Saint Luke tells us again: “His mother treasured all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51).

• Jesus is around 30 years of age. Together with his disciples he travels about as

a wandering preacher. At Cana in Galilee he is invited to a wedding. Mary is there too among the guests. She sees that they have run out of wine and turns to Jesus with an implicit question: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). She trusts in him to help, even though he at first seems to reject her: “My hour has not yet come”. She tells the servants to do whatever he tells them. And she does not trust him in vain. There are six stone water jars, each containing around 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus tells the servants to fill these jars with water. They do so, and when the chief steward tastes the water he finds it has turned into wine. This, as the evangelist Saint John tells us, was the first “sign” that Jesus worked. His disciples witnessed it and believed in him (see Jn 2:1-11).

• Jesus has left his parents’ home in Nazareth. He has gathered around him his own “family” of disciples. One day, as the crowds are pressing around him, they tell him: “Your mother and your brothers are outside and want to speak to you”. But Jesus gestures towards his disciples and says: “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:46-50).

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

They find him in the Temple and hear him speak of “my Father’s house” 39

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

• For the evangelist Saint John, everything that Jesus says and does has a hidden

meaning. This is the case when he relates how Mary and “the disciple whom Jesus loved” are standing at the foot of the Cross. Jesus says to his Mother: “This is your son”, and to the disciple: “This is your Mother” (Jn 19:25-27). From that moment on the disciple takes Mary into his own home. And Mary, the Mother of Jesus, now becomes the Mother of all Christians.

• The New Testament makes a final reference to Mary at the feast of Pentecost. Following the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the disciples are gathered together in Jerusalem. They pray and wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. “We also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation” (§965, citing Lumen Gentium, 59). Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is among the disciples at the birth of the Church of her Son (Acts 1:12-14). And so she is the Mother of the Church. Mary declares: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour; because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid. Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name, and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him. He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away. He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy - according to the promise he made to our ancestors his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever. THE MAGNIFICAT. GOSPEL OF SAINT LUKE 1:46-55

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

4.3 Mary, Mother of the Church Christians honour Mary as the Mother of their Lord. In every Catholic church you will find her image. Many women bear her name. “Ever Virgin”, “full of grace”, “handmaid of the Lord”, all her being is oriented towards the Church, which is the work of her Son. She is entirely mother, and “co-operates with a mother’s love” in the action of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men (Lumen Gentium 63). We remember Mary and honour her especially on the following four great feasts, or solemnities: January 1st:

On the first day of each year we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. In the Entrance antiphon we pray: “Hail, holy Mother, the Child to whom you gave birth is the King of Heaven and earth for ever”, and in the concluding prayer we call her “Mother of the Church”.

March 25:

On the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, nine months before Christmas, the Church honours both our Lord and his Mother. She is the one who, when God’s will was announced to her, said: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Let it to be done to me as you have said” (Lk 1: 38).

August 15:

The Solemnity of the Assumption commemorates the day when Mary was taken up into Heaven. We believe that “when the course of her earthly life was finished”, she was “taken up body and soul into heavenly glory” (Lumen Gentium 59; see §966). She now sees God face to face and fully lives the life that we are destined one day to share.

December 8:

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. We honour her as “Virgin conceived without Original Sin, and Mother of God”. It sounds difficult, but reflects a simple truth: God chose Mary specially. In order to be the Mother of the Saviour, in order to be able to freely accept the unique maternal vocation to which the Angel invited her at the Annunciation, Mary was “enriched from the first instant of her conception with the splendour of an entirely unique holiness” (Lumen Gentium 56; cited in §492). “By a singular grace and privilege” and “by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ” our Saviour, Mary was “preserved immune from all stain of original sin” and its consequences (see §490-493). 41

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

As Catholic Christians, we honour the Blessed Virgin Mary in many different ways. We sing her praises and ask her, as the Mother of Jesus, to intercede for us. Throughout the world, wherever Catholics pray, we pay tribute to Our Lady and greet her with the words of the Angel: Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Jesus Christ... born of the Virgin Mary

Mary, Mother of the Church 43

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

5. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried

• Jesus says:

Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again. GOSPEL OF SAINT MARK 10:33-34

• Peter is speaking at Pentecost:

Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and signs that God worked through him when he was among you, as you all know. This man, who was put into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you took and had crucified by men outside the Law. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 2:22-23

“Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan” (§599). For “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16), so that the world might be saved. If we are to understand how it was possible for him to come to this shameful end, then we must look to the testimony of the evangelists. For Jesus wanted to prepare his apostles, and “himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God’s suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles” (§601). In proclaiming the Kingdom of God, Jesus goes freely to his death. He encounters men who reject his message and who eventually put him to death. They are not the only ones responsible, however, since, in a certain sense, all men of every age are to blame for the death of Jesus. “Through his wounds we are healed” says the prophet Isaiah of the suffering Servant (Is 53:5), and we too can say, with 44

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

Saint Paul, that the Son of God has “loved me and sacrificed himself for my sake” (Gal 2:20).

5.1 For or against Jesus The evangelists tell of the signs, wonders and mighty deeds that Jesus performs, so that people will understand that the Kingdom of God is near. For Jesus heals the sick; at his touch lepers become clean, he liberates the possessed from the power of the evil one - in short he performs all the deeds that the people of Israel expect of the Messiah. Jesus also speaks of God in a new way. He speaks in parables and teaches in such a way that the ordinary people can understand and welcome what he tells them about the Father and how to respond to the Father’s love. Indeed, so successfully does he do this that one day, “filled with joy by the Holy Spirit”, he exclaims: I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Lk 10:21-22). Jesus finds disciples who are ready to leave everything and entrust their lives to him. But he also meets with rejection and unbelief. His followers are for the most part the little people, without influence. Of his closest friends, the apostles, not one is a scribe (or doctor of the law). The religious leaders, the high priest and scribes are watching to see that no false teachers emerge in Israel. Right from the start they view Jesus and his followers with deep mistrust. When he forgives the sins of a paralysed man, they say to themselves: “He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God?” (Mk 2:5-7). When he heals a man’s crippled hand on the Sabbath, they are indignant: He does not respect the law of Moses. He is a sinner; it is forbidden to heal on the Sabbath day. And they start plotting to kill him (Mk 3:1-6). When he frees a possessed man from the power of evil, they say: He must be possessed himself, otherwise he would have 45

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

no power over the evil spirits (Mk 3:22). But Jesus does not stand on the sidelines, indifferent. In the village of Nain, he comes upon a funeral procession. Seeing the mother’s grief, he goes up to the coffin and restores her dead son to life (Lk 7:11-17). Wherever Jesus goes, sorrow is eased and death gives way to life. Some say: He is a good man; he is a prophet, even: He is the Messiah. But others say: No, he is leading people astray; he is a false prophet (see Jn 7:12; 40-43). The Pharisees and scribes try to set a trap for Jesus. They send their servants to listen in on his every word, but they can find nothing bad to report about him. But because these Pharisees and scribes refuse to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they become his enemies and decide to bring him to trial, to accuse him of blasphemy and have him condemned to death. When the high priest asks Jesus: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the living God?” Jesus replies: “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven”. Then the high priest tears his robes and says: “What need of witnesses have we now? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your finding?” And they all condemn him and sentence him to death (Mk 14:61-64). On many occasions Jesus affirms his identity and his mission. He does so right at the start of his ministry in Nazareth - something that arouses the opposition of his fellow countrymen: Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen’. GOSPEL OF SAINT LUKE 4:16-21

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

High priest. The head priest, the chairman of the Sanhedrin, or supreme council, and gobetween with the Roman occupying powers, to whom he owed his appointment. From 6-15 AD Annas was the high priest in Jerusalem. From 18-36 AD the post was occupied by his five sons and by his son-in-law Caiaphas. When the leaders of the Jews are talking about Jesus, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, says to them: “You don’t seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.” And Saint John comments: “He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation - and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God” (Jn 11:49-52). Sabbath. The seventh day of the week is celebrated by Jews as a day of joy and service of God. Over the course of time many rules and regulations arose, covering what was permitted and what was forbidden on the Sabbath, the obligatory day of rest. Pharisees. Literally “those set apart”. They were a religious and political party of pious men who campaigned for the strict observance of the teachings of Moses and themselves claimed to live by them. But Jesus reproached many of them, because they believed themselves to be spiritually superior, when in reality they were refusing to recognise the work of God that was being accomplished in Jesus himself.

5.2 The New Covenant The Gospel accounts of the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus are among the most sacred texts of the Church. Every year, during Holy Week, the Church commemorates these last days of Jesus in Jerusalem. On Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) Jesus goes up to Jerusalem with his disciples to celebrate the Passover, or Pasch. He rides on a donkey; he comes as Prince of Peace, just as the prophet Zechariah had foretold (Zech 9:9). The people acclaim him as the son of David, in other words, as the Messiah (Mk 11:8-10). He teaches in the Temple. But Judas, one of the Twelve apostles, accepts a bribe and agrees to betray Jesus. On Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) Jesus celebrates the Paschal meal with his disciples. On this night, according to their custom, the Jews sacrificed the Paschal lamb as a memorial of the first Passover meal, the lamb they had eaten on the eve of the Exodus from Egypt. The blood of this lamb had been smeared 47

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

on the doorposts and lintels of their houses to save the people from the death which that night struck all the Egyptians. “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was” (Jn 13:1). It is the eve of his Passion. Jesus transforms this Last Supper with the apostles “into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men” (§610). Prefiguring (anticipating) the sacrifice that he is about to offer on the cross, he takes the bread, breaks it, gives it to his disciples and says: “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.” Then he takes the cup, or chalice, gives it to his disciples and says: “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood, the blood of the new and eternal Covenant, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me” (Mt 26:26-28, Mk 14:22-24, Lk 22:19-20). Jesus gives the Jewish Passover a new meaning. No longer are animals offered in sacrifice. Instead, Jesus now willingly offers himself for the salvation of the world. And so that they may receive life, thanks to their faith, Jesus gives his disciples his own body to eat and his own blood to drink, under the species (or outward form) of bread and wine. In this way he establishes the new Covenant and seals it with his own blood. By asking them to “do this in memory of me”, Jesus “includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it. By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant” (§611). Saint John relates how, during the evening of this Last Supper, Jesus kneels before his disciples and washes their feet. He does this so that they may understand, by his example, just what sort of an order he is establishing by this New Covenant. Now whoever is “great” must make himself “little”, just as Jesus has done, in order to serve his brothers and sisters. Since he has given himself, we can give. Since he shares, we can share. Since he came to serve, we can serve. Since he has died, we may live. Since he has sealed the Covenant with his blood, we have become children of God and brothers and sisters in him.

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

Palm Sunday. The Church celebrates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem shortly before his death. In many parishes processions are organised with palms. On this day the entire account of the Passion is read out at Mass, in place of the usual Gospel. Passover (or Pasch). Then and now the most sacred festival of the Jewish year. It commemorates that first Passover night when God led his people Israel out of Egyptian slavery and into freedom. Jesus chose this great festival for the moment of his death and resurrection for the salvation of the world. In this way he is inaugurating the New Covenant and leading to complete fulfilment what God has begun in the Old Covenant with the Jewish people. Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday. On the morning of this day the bishop of each diocese blesses the holy oils that will be used for baptisms, confirmations, the anointing of the sick and the ordination of priests. In the evening every parish celebrates the memorial of the Last Supper. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, which fills us with the Holy Spirit, unites us with the offering of Jesus, draws us towards eternal life with the risen Christ and makes us brothers and sisters in love and mutual service.

5.3 Betrayed into the hands of sinners After the Last Supper Jesus goes out into the garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives. His disciples go with him. In the garden Jesus says to them: “Stay here and wait, while I go over there to pray.” He takes Peter, James and John with him. Then he says to them: “My soul is sorrowful, to the point of death. Wait here and keep awake with me.” Then, going a little further, he falls on his face and prays: Father, I know that you can save me from this suffering and death if you choose. But may your will be done, not mine. Then he returns to his disciples and finds them sleeping. He wakes them and says to Peter: “So you had not the strength to keep awake with me one hour?” Then he leaves them again and goes to pray alone. And once again he comes back to find them sleeping. And for a third time he goes into the night alone to pray. Then he wakes the disciples, saying: What, still sleeping? “Now the hour has come when the Son of Man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Mt 26:36-46). Outwardly, it seems as though Jesus has failed in his mission. Men have rejected him and his message. But he remains true to his mission and to the One who has sent him. He does not waver or go back on his word. He is ready to give his life and accept death for the salvation of the world. 49

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

And he does not have long to wait. For Judas, one of the twelve apostles, is already entering the garden of Gethsemane with a band of armed men. They arrest Jesus and take him to be interrogated in the high priest’s house. When the members of the Sanhedrin, the supreme council, ask him: Are you the Son of God? Jesus replies: You have said so. I am. In the morning they bring Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea (from 26 to 36 AD). They accuse Jesus: He has blasphemed, for he claims to be the Son of God! Pilate has Jesus scourged. The soldiers plait a crown of thorns and set it on his head, they throw a red cloak over his shoulders, mock him and beat him. Pilate hesitates, but finally he passes sentence on Jesus: he must die on the cross. Jesus carries his own cross up the hill of Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem. On Good Friday, at midday, he hangs on the cross between two thieves, who have also been condemned to death. At the ninth hour, or Three O’Clock in the afternoon, he utters a loud cry and dies on the cross. The evangelists bear witness to these events. And at the same time they show how, in everything, God’s plan is fulfilled and our salvation accomplished. For Jesus has been betrayed into the hands of sinful men and yet remains in God’s hands. He suffers and dies - and wins our salvation. Saint John, who was at the foot of the cross, reports an event to which he attaches great importance. In order to make sure that Jesus is truly dead, a soldier pierces his side with a lance. And at once, blood and water pour out from the heart of Jesus. Saint John gives this testimony so that we may truly believe that Jesus is the source of our life. He explains to us that this had already been foretold by the prophet Zechariah, who wrote: “They will look on the one whom they have pierced... When that day comes, a fountain will be opened for the House of David and the citizens of Jerusalem, for sin and impurity” (Zech 12:10 and 13:1). John also reports the words of Jesus: “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who believes in me!” And he adds: “As Scripture says: From his breast shall flow fountains of living water” (Jn 7:37-39). God’s love for mankind is revealed in the suffering and death of Christ, a death from which life springs forth. This is a mystery of our faith. The messengers of Christ bear witness:

• He is our mediator - he has given himself as a ransom for all (1 Tm 2:5-6). 50

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

• He is the Lamb of God - he takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). • He is the Son of God - his death has reconciled us to God (Rom 5:10). • He is the obedient Son - he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation (Heb 5:8-9).

• He is our Redeemer - in him God has cancelled the debt of our sin by nailing it to the Cross (Col 2:14).

• He is our sinless Saviour - through his wounds we are healed (1 Pt 2:24). Christ’s death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the “blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §613

A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 15:13 Sanhedrin (supreme council). The highest Jewish authority. It had 71 members, made up of elders, priests and scribes (doctors, or teachers, of the law), under the leadership of the high priest. Good Friday. The Church celebrates this day in a special way. In the afternoon or evening the community assembles to commemorate the passion and death of our Lord. In the Liturgy of the Word we hear the prophetic song of the suffering of God’s Servant (Is 52:13 and 53:12), a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews and the witness of the evangelist Saint John, who saw Jesus raised on the cross. In the “General Intercessions” we Christians - speaking on behalf of all mankind - bring before God all the great needs and the suffering of our age. After this we venerate the Cross, the symbol of our Salvation. Finally, in Holy Communion, we receive Christ, the Bread of Life, given for the world.

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On Good Friday, at midday, he hangs upon the Cross 52

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

5.4 Buried Joseph of Arimathea cannot bear the thought of Jesus being left hanging on the cross all night. He is an influential man who, out of fear, has so far not shown that he is a follower of Jesus. But now he plucks up courage. He goes to Pilate and asks permission to take down the body of Jesus from the cross and bury it. Pilate agrees. So Joseph wraps the body of Jesus in a burial cloth and lays him to rest in a new grave hewn out of the rock. He seals up the entrance to the tomb with a large round stone. Some of the women, who have come with Jesus to Jerusalem, watch from a distance. The poem of the Suffering Servant in the Book of Isaiah: Despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering... he was despised and we took no account of him. And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low. Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed... Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughterhouse... By force and by law he was taken... Yes, he was torn away from the land of the living; for our faults struck down in death... If he offers his life in atonement, he shall see his heirs, he shall have a long life and through him what Yahweh wishes will be done... By his sufferings shall my servant justify many... Hence I will grant whole hordes for his tribute... for surrendering himself to death and letting himself be taken for a sinner, while he was bearing the faults of many and praying all the time for sinners. ISAIAH 53:3-12

Jesus Christ... suffered, crucified, died and was buried

We praise you and we bless you O God, We give you thanks for Jesus Christ your Son. He has shared his life with us, he has shared death with us, he has shared the grave with us. We shall live with him for ever!

Jesus Christ... rose again from the dead

6. He descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead

So many men and women lived and died on earth before Christ died on the cross. Some did not know God, or lived in defiance of him, while some loved him as best they could. Among these were Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses, Sarah, Rebecca and Miriam, David and Solomon, Elijah and Amos, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, John the Baptist and all the other little people whose names and whose love are known to God alone. Did they hope in vain? Does God forget their faithfulness? We believe that Jesus brought the Good News of salvation not only to the living. We believe that he “descended into hell”, or went down into the abode of the dead. Here too he announced: The time has come. God’s Kingdom has begun and you are redeemed. God is merciful to all who love him. In other words, death has lost its power. It can no longer hold those who love God. Jesus Christ our Lord has died for all. All the just now belong to the community of the living which he has established.

In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §637

Hell (abode of the dead). In the Bible accounts we are handed down “the words of God, expressed in the words of men”(§101, citing DV 13). In other words, the biblical writers express their experience of God in the words and images of their own time. For them the earth is a flat disc. Above it is the dome of Heaven, the “zone” where God is Lord of the living. Beneath it is the Underworld (“Sheol” - also called Hades or Hell), the “place” where death reigns over the dead. That is why they speak of Jesus “descending” into hell, into the “abode of the dead”. “This ‘hell’ was different from the hell of the damned. It was the state of all those, righteous and evil, who died before Christ. With his soul united to his divine Person Jesus went down to the just in hell who were awaiting their Redeemer so they could enter at last into the vision of God” (Compendium of the CCC, 125).

Jesus Christ... rose again from the dead

On the third day he rose again from the dead 56

Jesus Christ... rose again from the dead

Therefore, O Lord, as we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption, we remember Christ’s death and his descent to the realm of the dead; we proclaim his Resurrection and his Ascension to your right hand; and as we await his coming in glory, we offer you his Body and Blood, the sacrifice acceptable to you which brings salvation to the whole world. FROM THE FOURTH EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

6.1 Jesus lives The Son of God became man. He was born a human child in Bethlehem and died a man on the cross. His body was laid in the grave. This was seen by witnesses. Not only by the men and women who had come with him to Jerusalem, but also by his accusers, the executioners, Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers... All four evangelists tell of the women who, in the early morning of that Easter Day, go with oils for anointing to the tomb of Jesus. When they get to the tomb they find that the heavy stone that sealed it has been rolled away. The women go into the tomb and see a man, dressed in white, sitting on the right. They are frightened, but the angel says to them: “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen, he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee” (Mk 16:1-7). Saint John relates how Mary Magdalen meets the risen Lord on that same Easter morning. She is standing, weeping, before the empty tomb. Then she sees Jesus but does not recognise him. Not until he speaks her name: “Mary”. Then her eyes are opened. She replies to him in Hebrew: “Rabboni”, which means “Master”. The risen Jesus commands her: “Go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Magdalen goes and tells the disciples: “I have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:11-18). The disciples say: Jesus, who was dead, has now conquered death and has risen, just as he told us. He has appeared to us. We have seen him. Our life with him, his life with us, is not over. And all the men and women who are ready to vouch 57

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for this incredible message are witnesses too. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul lists these people (1 Cor 15:5-8). First of all is Peter, the “rock” upon whom Jesus builds his Church. Then the Twelve, whom he has chosen as apostles. Then five hundred of the brethren, most of whom are still alive at the time, as Saint Paul states in his letter. After this Jesus appears to James, the leader of the Christian community in Jerusalem, and then to all the disciples. Finally he appears to Paul himself, who is on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians. From this moment on Saul, the passionate persecutor of the Christians, becomes Paul, the equally passionate defender of Christ. For all these witnesses the empty tomb and their meeting with the risen Christ are like a call, a vocation. They have to pass on what has been revealed to them. Their faith is now so strong that they are willing to die for Christ. And the faith and the witness of these disciples is the soil in which our own faith is rooted: “As witnesses of the Risen One, they remain the foundation stones of his Church” (§642). Just what happened between Good Friday and the morning of Easter Sunday, and just how Jesus rose, living and victorious, from his tomb, remains a Mystery of God. It is this Mystery we are speaking of when we say: “He is risen from the dead” or “God has raised him to life”. The men and women who meet the risen Lord have also known him during his earthly life. They recognise him. It is Jesus himself - and yet he is somehow quite different. By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognise that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’s humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father’s divine realm. For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §645

Jesus Christ... rose again from the dead

The disciples are terrified when Jesus passes through locked doors. Their hearts are filled with joy when he speaks to them. He gives them a command to go out and to teach the Good News to all the world: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. And he adds: “And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Mt 28:18-20). Lord, our God, we praise you. On this night of all nights you let your light shine forth. In the empty tomb you give us new hope. Jesus, our Brother, we praise you. On this night of all nights your risen life removes our fear of living and of dying. Now we can believe and trust. God, Holy Spirit, we praise you. On this night of all nights you let us understand that love, not death is the measure of our humanity.

6.2 We shall live The resurrection of Jesus Christ lies at the very heart of our faith. The Liturgy of the Easter Vigil is the holiest celebration in the Church’s year. And every Sunday commemorates Easter and praises the God who raised his Son from death, making his life triumphant in us. In one of the early Christian communities there were some who doubted the resurrection of our Lord. Saint Paul writes to them: “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless... For then you are still in your sins... And all who have died in Christ have 59

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perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, then we are the most unfortunate of all people” (1 Cor 15:14-19). 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. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §654

• We believe that “the Father’s power ‘raised up’ Christ his Son and by doing so per-

fectly introduced his Son’s humanity, including his body, into the Trinity” (§648).

• We believe that the risen Christ, our Lord, is the source of hope for all who put

their faith in him, for he has shared his Life with us. And so, at the end of our lives, we will find not emptiness but eternal life and the fullness of God. For he has “called us out of darkness into his own wonderful light” (1 Pt 2:9).

• We believe that in Christ, the conqueror of sin and death, the universe is reborn and renewed (as we say in the fourth Preface of Easter).

• We believe that the Holy Spirit of the risen Jesus lives and moves on this earth. • We believe that Jesus Christ will come again on the Day of the Lord - the Day

of Judgement. Then he will free those who have done his will from all evil and all suffering, he will raise them up and give them everlasting Life. We pray: And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad, even my body shall rest in safety, for you will not leave my soul among the dead, nor let your beloved know decay; you will show me the path of life, the fullness of joy in your presence, at your right hand happiness for ever. PSALM 16:9-11

Jesus Christ... rose again from the dead

Easter Vigil. The Liturgy of the Easter (or Paschal) Vigil consists of four parts. The Service of Light starts with the blessing of the Easter fire. The Paschal Candle is lit from this fire and then the priest, or deacon, carries it in solemn procession through the darkened church, proclaiming â&#x20AC;&#x153;Christ our Light!â&#x20AC;? Next comes the Liturgy of the Word, which consists of seven readings from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament, reminding us of all the wonderful things God has done for his people. Then comes the Liturgy of Baptism, when the baptismal waters are blessed, and sometimes children or adults are baptised All present renew their baptismal promises at this time. Finally, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we praise the Father and give thanks to him through, with and in the risen Christ, who frees us from slavery to sin and death, pours out his Spirit upon us and remains with us until the end of time.

Jesus Christ... ascended into heaven

7. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty 7.1 God has raised him above all things The disciples of Jesus have lived through the events of Good Friday, when Jesus hung, helpless and abandoned, upon the Cross. They saw him die, they laid his body in the tomb, which they sealed with a huge stone - a sign that death had finally triumphed over life. But now they encounter the risen Lord - and everything they thought they knew about life and death has been stood on its head. Jesus comes to meet them; they recognise him - the same person, the Crucified - yet he is alive. He is familiar, and yet different. He passes through locked doors; he is there one moment and then disappears the next. No one can hold him. The disciples had been afraid and had doubted; now they are filled with joy. For God has indeed raised his Son from death and taken him up into glory, in all his humanity. They can bear witness to this, and they tell us: Jesus has ascended into heaven, where God has given him the place of honour, enthroned at the right hand of the Father. The expression “at the right hand of the Father” means that Jesus enters the divine glory in which, for all eternity, the Son and the Holy Spirit live, in perfect unity with the Father, in the most Holy Trinity. As God, the Son has never left this glory. But through his Incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary he has taken to himself a humanity just like our own, in order to live among us and share our life. Now that he has risen from the dead, Jesus lives henceforth in the glory of the Father, not only in his divinity but also in his humanity - that means both with his soul and with his body. Jesus really is seated “at the right hand” of the Father. This means that the Father has made his Son the Lord of all creation. In one of the earliest professions of their faith Christians would say: “He is the Lord, higher and mightier than all the lords of the world”. This profession lies at the very heart of our faith. And so in Jesus Christ the prophecy of the psalms is perfectly fulfilled; it is addressed by God to the king, whom devout Jews understood as the Messiah, the Saviour: “Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps 110:1). And as Saint Paul explains to us, the last of these enemies is death (1 Cor 15:26). 62

Jesus Christ... ascended into heaven

Together with Saint Paul the Christian community proclaims its risen and glorified Lord: God raised him on high and gave him the name which is above all other names, so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11

7.2 He ascended into heaven At the end of his Gospel Saint Luke describes the Ascension, the way in which Jesus departs from his disciples. He goes out with them to Bethany, then he raises his hands and blesses them, while they fall down and worship him. And as he blesses them, he is carried up into heaven (Lk 24:50-52). And at the beginning of his second book, the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke again writes about Jesus being taken up into heaven, in order to make it clear that the earthly life of Jesus has led into the life of his Church. He tells us how for forty days - a sacred period the risen Lord appears to his disciples and speaks to them of the Kingdom of God. Then, before the very eyes of the apostles, he is taken up, and a cloud - indicating God himself - takes him from their sight. Stunned and enthralled, the disciples are still staring after him when two men in white appear. “Why are you standing gazing up into the sky?”, they ask. “Jesus has been taken from you up into heaven. He will come back just as you have seen him go there” (Acts 1:9-11). The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: Christ’s body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. But during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and 63

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teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus’ final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolised by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul “as to one untimely born”, in a last apparition that established him as an apostle (§659). Now the apostles understand. It is time for them to go out to the world as Jesus has commanded them - to baptise new believers and proclaim the Good News, to heal the sick, forgive sins, drive out evil spirits and bring new hope. On earth you have no other body but ours, no other feet but ours, no other hands but ours. Our eyes to show your love for the world, our feet to carry you, to do good. Now you will bless with our hands. SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Ascended into heaven (the Ascension). This is not like someone travelling from one place to another in our world. Instead it is the definitive entry of Jesus, with his body and soul, into the glory of the Father. Here he will prepare a place for us, and from here he will come again for us. Acts of the Apostles. This is the second book of the evangelist Saint Luke. It tells of the deeds done by the apostles, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of the mission given them by the risen Christ. They establish communities, make many converts, and are persecuted. The first part (chapters 1-12) tells above all of Saint Peter, the first of the apostles, and of Saint John. They are mainly active in the Christian community in Jerusalem. The second part (chapters 13-28) tells of the deeds of Saint Paul of Tarsus, the missionary to the pagans, and his three missionary journeys. The Acts of the Apostles ends with Saint Paul preaching in the Universal City of Rome. Tradition tells us that both he and Peter died as martyrs in Rome. In this way Rome, the city of the apostles, becomes the centre of the Church. Forty days. Forty is a holy number. During their forty years wandering in the desert, the people of Israel learn to trust in God. After being baptised by John, Jesus goes and fasts for forty days in the desert. After this, consecrated by the Holy Spirit, he resists the temptations of Satan and prepares for his public life. Saint Luke also tells us that the Ascension of the risen Christ to his Father took place forty days after Easter.

Jesus Christ... ascended into heaven

7.3 Farewell and new community Through faith we can understand the testimony of Saint Luke, himself a Christian believer, in his Gospel of Jesus Christ. He tells us that the Son of God has become Man in order to free us from all that separates us from God. He has lived for us and he has died for us. God has raised him up and set him at his own right hand. This means that we can no longer have direct access to Jesus, as a man among his fellow men. We can no longer directly see him, hear him, touch him or ask him questions, as when he walked on earth among others. This separation is also a kind of departure. Saint John’s Gospel contains “farewell discourses” - words of comfort and enlightenment spoken by our Lord to his disciples as he takes leave of them.

• Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too (Jn 14:1-3).

• If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth (Jn 14:15-17).

• It is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I do go, I will send him to you (Jn 16:7).

• I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I leave the world to go to the Father (Jn 16:28).

Jesus is no longer visible, but the Church experiences, in the Holy Spirit and in faith, the truth of his promise: “And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time (Mt 28:20). The Catholic Church still waits for the return of her Lord, Jesus Christ, at the end of time. Through faith we can be certain that he is preparing a home for us with 65

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the Father. He wants us to be with him. That is why the heaven to which we “lift up our eyes” is for us no longer merely the “place” where God and Jesus Christ dwell, but also the sign of our own future destiny. As long as we live in the world of men, we can only use images to describe the world of God. Only when we have followed in the footsteps of Jesus - through death and through the grave - will our eyes be opened on our own Easter morning. Then we will truly see him - Our Lord... And we shall be like him (see 1 Jn 3:2). We pray: It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. For the Lord Jesus, the King of glory, conqueror of sin and death, ascended today to the highest heavens, as the angels gazed in wonder. Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of hosts, he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before. Therefore, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, sing together the unending hymn of your glory... FROM PREFACE I OF THE ASCENSION

Jesus Christ... will come to judge the living and the dead

8. He will come to judge the living and the dead

Jesus has returned to the Father. The men and women who have put their faith in him remain behind, in all their fragile humanity and all the imperfections of their world. But the light that Jesus has brought into the world has not been extinguished. The hope his words and deeds have inspired lives on in men’s hearts.

8.1 Jesus will come again The first disciples believe that their Lord will come again soon, even during their own lifetime. But no longer as a mortal man this time, a man like others, whom people might disbelieve or reject. No, this time he will return in the power and glory of God. In other words, no man will be able to challenge his authority or question his absolute power. For all will recognise that he is the One sent by God, the Messiah, the Saviour, the Judge, who will pass sentence with all the power of God, and so bring creation to perfection. Thus the Kingdom of God will truly have become a reality. Very soon, however, these first Christians realise that their impatience has given them the wrong impression. They understand that God’s time cannot be measured in human terms. And so the truth of our Lord’s own words, foretelling his return, have become clearer: “But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father” (Mk 13:32). The first Christians also realise that with the ascension of Jesus a new age has begun - their age, and our age - the age of the Church. That is why they cannot remain standing there on the “mountain top” gazing up into heaven after their Lord. Their mission is to go out to men, wherever and however they may live. Their mission is to the earth - to the very ends of the earth. Now it is up to them to make 67

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sure that the light that enlightens all men is not extinguished, but spread throughout the world. Now they must ensure that the hope rooted in Jesus Christ does not die, so that all may be able to cling in faith to the God who loves them. But it remains for God alone to decide when to bring the earth, that he created in the beginning, to its final perfection through the Second Coming of his Son. By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God, ‘a kingdom of justice, love and peace’. They do not, for all that, abandon their earthly tasks; faithful to their master, they fulfil them with uprightness, patience and love. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §2046

When time drags, hope begins to dim. Believers may perhaps become unsure and doubtful: Will God keep his word? Will the Lord return? Is it worth the wait? Sometimes they become immersed in the things of this world. Sometimes they forget that this world is not the end and that they still have a great destiny to look forward to. Quite rightly, the apostles and evangelists remind us all: Stay awake, for you do not know when the Lord will come. The Catholic Church understands herself as a community which lives in communion with her Lord, while awaiting his return in glory and at the same time preparing his way before him. Each year she celebrates Advent as a community ready to go out and meet the One who comes - and to pave the way for his coming. We proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, and we celebrate your resurrection, until you come in glory. Marana tha - Come, Lord Jesus!

Second Coming of the Lord. Ever since the earliest times there have been, and still are, individuals and groups (sects) who claim to predict the end of the world and the date of our Lord’s second coming. They detect signs in the events of their own day which point, they think, to the “end of the world” and they demand blind obedience of all who would be saved. Some of these sects cause great confusion. All such movements must fail, for God’s plans cannot be foreseen by men. But to those who watch and wait with trust in him, he gives fulfilment at the proper time.

Jesus Christ... will come to judge the living and the dead

8.2 He will judge the living and the dead When Saint Peter speaks in the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius, he tells him that Jesus “has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to tell them that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name” (Acts 10:42-43). The idea of judgement makes us afraid, for we are only ordinary mortals. And who can stand before the face of God? But when we learn who the Judge is, we can draw new courage. For we know Jesus. And we need not fear him, for he brings us Good News. He sees how men struggle to do God’s will, to observe the commandments of Moses, the Ten Commandments. And he says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-30). On another occasion Jesus tells us what the Last Judgement will be about. Have we loved God, lived for love of him and given our brothers and sisters what they need? Have we given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, shelter to the homeless, clothes to the naked? Have we cared for the sick and for those in prison? Those who have done these things have done them for Jesus - even if they did not know it. And so the Lord will say to them: Come, the Father is waiting for you. Now you will discover just how happy it is possible to be, for you will share with him in the new life that we call Heaven. As for the others, those who hate God and live in contempt of him, those hardened and indifferent ones who have refused their brothers and sisters what they need - refused to give bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty, shelter to the homeless and clothes to the naked, to care for the sick and those in prison. They have refused all these things to Jesus - even if they did not know it. Now they will discover just how unhappy it is possible to be. For they have cut themselves off from communion with God, from the everlasting sharing in his life, and now find themselves in Hell - in a state of total unhappiness, “where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth” (Mt 25:30; 31-46). 69

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Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God’s grace as nothing be condemned. Our attitude about our neighbour will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §678-679

Lord, you will come at the end of time. The end of my time on earth is my death. Lord, come to meet me, help me to arrive where you live. Be a merciful judge to me, and may the day of my death be the day when I see the Father. Help me to live in perfect joy with you, blessed among the blessed. Last Judgement (The Day of the Lord). The day which God has fixed as the last day of the old world of men. It is the day of judgement for all men. God will create a new heaven and a new earth. Heaven - Hell - Purgatory. Heaven means life in everlasting communion with Jesus. It means the perfect joy and happiness of seeing God and being forever with him. Hell means the exclusion from communion with Jesus, the misery and unhappiness of those who have voluntarily separated themselves from God. Purgatory means that there are people who on the day of their death are not yet worthy to meet God and live in full communion with him. We believe that God is full of mercy and greatly forgiving. He will purify such souls and prepare them to meet him. We have a duty to pray for the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit

9. I believe in the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Blessed Trinity. We cannot see him or touch him or point to him. Nor is he someone we can simply “conjure up” at will, for he is God and works mysteriously in the world and in human hearts. As Jesus says to Nicodemus, a teacher of the law in Israel: “The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:8). But at the same time we can know and be aware of his presence. He is there whenever a person speaks of God in such a way that others come to faith; when someone suffers or gives their life for the Gospel; whenever someone experiences a sense of peace and joy, when he promotes justice or devotes himself selflessly to the service of others. He is there when two people settle a quarrel and are reconciled with each other; when someone who has done wrong makes amends for the damage done; when someone embittered by hatred begins to forgive and to love again; when someone who has only ever thought of himself opens his eyes and begins to see the needs of others. He is there whenever someone begins to show concern for the animals and the plants, the water and the air - for all God’s creation, so threatened by man... Saint Paul tells us: The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS 5:5

9.1 The Spirit, the giver of life The Bible begins with the earliest origins of the world. At that time - before God spoke his first word - there was only a formless void, brooding waters, darkness, 71

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emptiness. (see Gen 1:1-2). But Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spirit moved over the waters of the deep and there was life. Through such images as these the sacred writers are expressing the fact that God is in all and above all that lives, grows and flourishes on earth. His Spirit is the proof that creation is never God-less. And therefore it is not at the mercy of chance, still less of evil spirits. We pray: Yahweh, what variety you have created, arranging everything so wisely! Earth is completely full of things you have made: You give breath, fresh life begins, you keep renewing the world. PSALM 104:24; 30

One of the biblical teachers tells us how the life of Adam, the first man, began: God himself breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and the man became a living being. In other words all people - men, women and children - receive their life from the Life of God. That is why they resemble God and can learn to know him and to do his will. They are made in his image. The symbols of the Spirit are water, fire, cloud, breath, wind. He is sometimes compared to a dove, and also represented as such, since it was in the form of a dove that he appeared at the baptism of Jesus. For the men of those times - and for us today as well - the dove is the symbol of peace and of love made visible. We pray: Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that I may think holy thoughts. Move me, O Holy Spirit, that I may do holy deeds. Attract me, O Holy Spirit, that I may love holy things. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, that I may nurture holiness. Nurture me O Holy Spirit, that I may never lose holiness. ATTRIBUTED TO SAINT AUGUSTINE (354-430)

â&#x20AC;˘ We make the Sign of the Cross: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 72

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9.2 He has spoken through the prophets The Book of Wisdom is also referring to the Holy Spirit when it speaks about the Wisdom of God: “In each generation she (Wisdom) passes into holy souls, she makes them friends of God and prophets” (Wis 7:27). The Bible speaks of men and women to whom God has given his Spirit. Kings received the Spirit through the anointing with holy oil. Through the Spirit, those he has chosen are empowered to carry out a specific task. With courage they are ready to confront bad kings, to accuse false prophets and unfaithful priests, to unmask false teaching and sin. Their fervour inspires, their conviction persuades. All who come across them sense that God is at work in them, that his Holy Spirit is speaking through these men and women. The prophet Elijah, whom the apostles see with Moses and the transfigured Jesus, is the great representative of these men, filled with the Holy Spirit and sent out to the people to bring them back to the Lord (see 1 Ruth 17-19; 2 Ruth 1-2). Right down the ages, the Spirit has formed us through his prophets. He has inspired the writers of the Old Testament, who tell us of the words and deeds of these prophets, of their teachings about God, the world and man; of their meditations on the love of God for his people and on his promise of salvation. The people of Israel have a special way of speaking of the Spirit when referring to the Messiah, the king of justice of the house of David, through whom God’s reign of peace will be established on earth. One of the prophets says of him that God will give him “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of piety and the fear of the Lord” (Is 11:2). This is the prophetic text we have in mind when we speak of the “seven gifts” of the Holy Spirit. The number seven is a sign of fullness. For when the Spirit is given, he overwhelms us with light and love, with power and with peace; he sends us out on a mission so that, under his guidance, we may accomplish the work of God in ourselves and among others. God himself speaks of the Messiah - as the Servant, who will be sent by God and rejected by men; the one who gives his life for his people: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have endowed him with my Spirit that he may bring true justice to the nations” (Is 42:1). The Spirit of God which rests upon the Messiah is a gift given not only to specially chosen individuals. Salvation is nothing else but the gift of the Holy 73

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Spirit, whom the risen Jesus sends to the apostles and to all his disciples (Jn 20:22). The Spirit wishes to give himself in fullness to all, as the prophets had already longed for: “I will pour out my spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your children” (Is 44:3). And again: “I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men see visions. Even on the slaves, men and women, will I pour out my spirit in those days” (Joel 3:1-2). We pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, enkindle in them the fire of your love.

9.3 Jesus Christ baptises us in the Holy Spirit Jesus lives and acts in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Likewise it was through the working of the Holy Spirit that his Mother, the Virgin Mary, conceived him. That is why we praise her with the words: “Hail, full of grace”. Saint John the Baptist was moved by the Holy Spirit when he said: “I baptise you with water, but the one who follows me... will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Mt 3:11). When Jesus goes to the Jordan to be baptised by John, the heavens open above him and a voice from heaven declares: “You are my Son the Beloved; my favour rests on you” (Mk 1:11). Again, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus resists Satan, who tries, with different temptations in the desert, to deceive him and divert him from his mission (Mk 1:12-13). Jesus knows why he has been sent. In the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth he reads out this passage by the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me...” (Lk 4:18-21). On the most solemn day of a Jewish festival, Jesus stands up in the Temple and cries out: “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who believes in me!” And Saint John explains: “As scripture says: ‘From his 74

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breast shall flow fountains of living water’. He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive” (Jn 7:37-39). Jesus prepares his disciples for the time when he will no longer be visibly among them. Saint John tells us how Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure:

• He promises to send them a Comforter, a Helper, a Paraclete, someone who

will remind them of everything that Jesus has said to them and who will introduce them to the fullness of the truth; someone in whom they can put their trust, because he will give them the words to defend themselves when they are accused and persecuted on behalf of Jesus.

• He promises them his Holy Spirit, the same Spirit whom he gives to all men through his death and resurrection. This is the Spirit whom he will send from the Father’s side, like the warming rays of the sun; the Spirit whom we adore and glorify together with the Father and the Son, because he proceeds from the Father and the Son. For the Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial - of the same nature, or substance - with the Father and the Son.

The creating Word, who had breathed his breath of life on man at the beginning of the world (Gen 2:7), this same Word now comes into this world when the times are fulfilled: The risen Jesus appears to the apostles, breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22). Jesus, on whom the Holy Spirit rests in all fullness, renews all things by giving the Spirit “without reserve” (Jn 3:34). He overwhelms his disciples with the Gift of God - the Gift that is the Holy Spirit himself, who introduces them to a new life, the Christian life. This then is the essence of the Christian life: The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us (Rom 5:5), for we are God’s temple, and the Spirit of God is living among us (1 Cor 3:16). Since the Spirit is our life, he guides all our actions (See Gal 5:16-25) and, as Saint Paul tells us, everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God (Rom 8:14). This is why Saint John declares of Jesus: “From his fullness we have, all of us, received - yes, grace in return for grace” (Jn 1:16-17). This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church presents the Christian life, the moral life as “life in the Spirit”. This is explained further in Chapter 16. The Spirit lives in the heart of each believer and it is he who incorporates each person into the Church - for at the same time it is he who guides the Church, from 75

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her birth until the end of time. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that: The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ’s faithful to share in his communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them, recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God, that they may ‘bear much fruit’ (§737). We pray: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Temptations. As Christian believers, we must decide whom we wish to serve - God or Satan. By resisting Satan, Jesus gives us a sign to show that Satan has lost his power. When Jesus comes again in glory, the devil will be utterly defeated.

The Holy Catholic Church

10. The Holy Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is a worldwide (universal) community. To those who are joined to her by baptism she passes on the Catholic Faith, rooting them in Christ and helping them to live as Christians. In this way she is fulfilling the command of her Lord Jesus Christ - until he comes in glory.

10.1 In the beginning was the Holy Spirit “The Church is, in a phrase used by the Fathers, the place ‘where the Spirit flourishes’.” CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §749

Sometimes Christians ask: When, where and how did the Church begin? The Christians of the first centuries said: “The world was created for the sake of the Church” (see §760). In fact the word “Church” (in its Latin form, ecclesia) means “convocation” or “assembly”. “God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a communion brought about by the ‘convocation’ of men in Christ; and this ‘convocation’ is the Church” (§760). And so, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church adds, the Church, who will find her fulfilment only in the glory of heaven, is “the goal of all things” (§760). God began to gather his people together from the moment of his first promises, and especially with the calling of Abraham, to whom he promises that he will become the father of a great nation (see Gen 12:2; 15:5-6). The election (or choosing) of the people of Israel, the twelve tribes, as the People of God, is the sign of the future gathering of all nations. But the prophets announce that God will one day make a New and Eternal Covenant (see Jer 31:31-34; Is 55:3). It is Christ, the Messiah, who will institute this New Covenant. 77

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And indeed, right from the beginning of his public life, Jesus proclaims that “the kingdom of God is close at hand” (Mk 1:15). He organises the new People of God by appointing the twelve apostles. To them and to the other disciples he gives the authority to continue his mission. He changes Simon’s name to Peter - meaning the “Rock” - for this apostle is to be the rock upon which Jesus will build his Church (Mt 16:18). And he later confirms him in his mission as head by teaching him his role; this is to serve humbly and to confirm his brethren in the Faith by feeding the flock of God in love. “By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church” (§765). And this Church is “the Reign of Christ already present in mystery” (§763, quoting Lumen Gentium, 3). But it is above all in the Passion of Christ that the Church is born. On Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), when Jesus says over the bread: “This is my body”, and over the chalice: “This is my blood” he is proclaiming and already anticipating the total gift of himself, in love, to his Father, in the sacrifice of the Cross. At the same time he is making this reality truly present in the blessed Eucharist, which he likewise offers for our salvation. He institutes the Holy Eucharist and perpetuates his sacrifice by commanding his apostles: “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19). On Good Friday, in order to make sure that he is truly dead, a soldier pierces his side, and water and blood pour out. Saint John, who witnesses this, relates it so that we too may believe that salvation has been given to us thanks to Jesus’ death for us on the Cross. This is why the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church have chosen to tell us that “The origin and growth of the Church are symbolised by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus” (§766, Lumen Gentium, 3). In the first two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles Saint Luke tells us the history of the “public manifestation” of the Church. It begins in Jerusalem, the city of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostles and disciples are gathered together in a house. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is there too, along with a number of other women. They are waiting for the Paraclete - the Helper - whom Jesus has promised them, and they are praying together. Then, on the fiftieth day - the first Pentecost - it happens: with the rush of a mighty wind, the Spirit of God comes down from heaven, filling the house and setting their hearts aflame. All their fear of those who persecuted and condemned Jesus vanishes. The disciples are filled with strength and joy. They can no longer remain in the house. They simply have to go out and proclaim the Good News to others. In front of the house a large crowd has gathered - people from many different countries. They too have sensed the rushing of the Spirit. Fired with the enthusiasm 78

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of the apostles, they listen to them as they bear witness to Jesus, the Son of God. And each one of them hears and understands the message in his own language. People in whom the Spirit of Jesus lives understand one another even when they do not speak the same language. They are no longer strangers to one another, no matter what nation or race they belong to. On that first Pentecost day, Peter, the leader of the apostles, speaks up and gives the first missionary sermon about Christ. His words are so compelling that all who hear him are “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). On that very day, as Saint Luke tells us, some three thousand people come to believe and embrace the Faith. They are baptised and become members of the new community in Jesus Christ - brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ. These people came from many different countries, and thus their baptism is a first fulfilment of the commandment of Jesus: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). Right from the start we see how “the Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christ to all the nations to make disciples of them” (§767). And we also know how the Church existed from her earliest beginnings. The first Christians remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles and to the “Breaking of the Bread”. They shared all their possessions in common and gave each person what he or she needed.

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On Pentecost day it happened Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Holy Spirit came down on them from Heaven

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We speak of Saint Peter, and think of the Pope, who leads the Church as his successor. We speak of Saint Paul or Saint Boniface and think of all those, from the apostles onwards, who have preached the Gospel. We speak of Saint Francis Xavier of Spain, or Saint Lorenzo Ruiz of the Philippines and think of all those who have carried faith in Christ to the very ends of the earth. We speak of Saint Charles Lwanga of Uganda or Saint Paul Miki of Nagasaki and think of all those who have died as martyrs, witnessing by their absolute fidelity to Christ. We speak of Saint Benedict or Saint Teresa of Avila and think of all those who have consecrated their lives to God. We speak of Saint Francis or Saint Clare of Assisi and think of all those who have shared their poverty with the poor. We speak of Saint Vincent de Paul or Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and think of all those who have devoted themselves to the service of others. We speak of Saint Maximilian Kolbe of Poland or Blessed Father Damien of Molokai and think of all those who have given their lives for their brothers and sisters. We speak of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha of Canada or Saint Juan Diego of Mexico and think of all those little ones who have lived their faith in Christ as the poor in spirit. We speak of Christians and think of all those enlivened by the Holy Spirit, throughout the world and down through the centuries. Fiftieth day, Pentecost. (Greek: Pentecost = â&#x20AC;&#x153;fiftiethâ&#x20AC;?) This is the day when the Jewish people celebrate the memorial of the Covenant God made with them on Mount Sinai. The Church celebrates this day as her own Pentecost, and recalls the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first Christian community in Jerusalem, fifty days after Easter.

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10.2 The Church - One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic

• The Church is One The Holy Spirit not only brought about the beginning of the Church. He continues to be active in her and made manifest through her. That is why the Church can only be “one” in this one Spirit (see §813). Clearly, in a community made up of many different people, there will be many discussions, even differences of opinion. Some follow one leader, while others listen to another (1 Cor 3:4-8). Some still consider the Jewish customs and practices to be important, while others find them irrelevant or even alien. This diversity of gifts and approaches can be an enrichment for the community - indeed even for the whole Church - just as long as Christians do not forget that they have only one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism and one God, who is Father of all (Eph 4:5-6). The whole Church suffers when individuals or groups quarrel over the interpretation of her teachings and rules for living and so allow the unity of the community to be broken; for the Church forms only one body, moved by one Spirit and with one hope. We have to remind ourselves of the ancient saying: “in essentials unity, in debatable matters liberty, in all things charity”. It is sad indeed when individuals or groups break away from this unity and proclaim themselves “church” in their own fashion. Likewise it is sad when the Church is forced to exclude one of her teachers, or a group of people, from the Church on account of their heresy, or false teaching. For the sake of unity, and for love of Jesus, the Church must never cease to seek reconciliation, especially by fostering ecumenism. Nor must she cease to ask forgiveness for the sins both of her own members and of others. For otherwise, Jesus will have asked in vain when he prayed: “Father, may they all be one, as you are in me and I am in you” (Jn 17:20-22). 82

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This is the prayer prayed by one community during the First Century after Christ: Remember your Church, O Lord, free her from all evil and perfect her in your love. Gather together from all four quarters, those whom you have sanctified, into your kingdom that you have prepared for them. For yours is the power and the kingdom for all eternity. May your grace come and this world pass away! Hosanna to the God of David! Let him who is holy approach! Let him who is not, convert! Marana tha, Come, Lord Jesus! Amen. FROM THE DIDACHE, OR TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES 10: 5-6 A BOOK OF THE EARLY CHURCH, 1ST OR 2ND CENTURY

• The One Church is Holy Holy, because the Church is one with Christ our God, who alone is the Holy One and who loves her as his bride. He gave himself up for her in order to sanctify her, or make her holy, and he has given her his Word and his Sacraments - “the fullness of the means of salvation” (§824). And like Mary, “in whom the Church is already the all-holy” (§829), countless of her members, right down the ages, have responded faithfully to God’s love, to the point of becoming, themselves, holy, fully sanctified - or in other words, saints. Indeed, Saint Paul calls all the Christians “saints” because of the power of the Spirit of holiness, who acts in the hearts of those who have been baptised in Christ. But not all of her children correspond fully to the work of the Spirit in them. That is why the Catholic Church is at the same time a Church of sinners. She is a community of saints and of shining examples of holiness, but at the same time she is a community of men and women who take false turnings, betray love, break the covenant, condone evil and themselves do evil. They are people who need forgiveness and mercy, so that they may be able to forgive others and show mercy in their turn. 83

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It is God who sanctifies the Church, despite all the frailty and human weakness of her children, both those who lead and those who are led. That is why the Church will always remain for the world the visible sign of the holiness of God. It is because the Spirit of Jesus is at work in her that the Church can face the forces of evil and spread the Good News in the world. And not even the gates of hell can prevail against her.

We pray: You are indeed Holy, O Lord, and all you have created rightly gives you praise, for through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit you give life to all things and make them holy... FROM THE THIRD EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

â&#x20AC;˘ The One, Holy Church is Catholic The One God is the God of all mankind. He looks on all his children with loving affection and longs to bring us to salvation, no matter where or in what age we live, for he himself is the sole source of this Salvation. The Catholic Church safeguards the inheritance of her Lord and proclaims him as the hope of all mankind. She is the sign and pledge of his saving love. And not only for those who have been baptised into the visible Catholic Church, but for all who live at peace with God. Even those who serve God in other faith communities and religions, and even those who know nothing of God, are called to become members of the one Church. Provided they faithfully follow their consciences, they already participate in the grace of Jesus Christ, and this grace is at work within them, preparing their minds for the discovery of Jesus in person. That is why the Church of Christ is by her very nature open to all - in other words catholic, meaning universal. 84

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Today, as never before, the Church has the opportunity of bringing the Gospel, by witness and word, to all people and nations. I see the dawning of a new missionary age, which will become a radiant day bearing an abundant harvest, if all Christians, and missionaries and young churches in particular, respond with generosity and holiness to the calls and challenges of our time. Like the apostles after Christ’s Ascension, the Church must gather in the Upper Room ‘together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus’ (Acts 1:14), in order to pray for the Spirit and to gain strength and courage to carry out the missionary mandate. We too, like the apostles, need to be transformed and guided by the Spirit. POPE JOHN PAUL II - REDEMPTORIS MISSIO, 92

• The One, Holy, Catholic Church is Apostolic Right from the beginning of his public ministry Jesus calls disciples to follow him, to hear what he says and see what he does. From them he chooses twelve men to be his witnesses, from his baptism in the River Jordan right up to his resurrection. These Twelve - the apostles - he then sends out to carry the Good News and bring healing on his behalf to those places where he himself has not gone. To Peter, as the first of the apostles, the Risen Lord entrusts special responsibility for the Church. United with Peter, the Twelve Apostles are the foundation of the Church. They proclaim the Gospel, defend the teachings of Jesus and, sustained by the Holy Spirit, are the guarantors of the whole and undistorted truth. They exercise their role of shepherds and guides in governing the Church, so that she may fulfil her mission of salvation and sanctification of the whole world. “To fulfil this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals” (§890). The apostles hand on their mission and their mandate to other men - these are the bishops. The succession of the bishops of Rome - the Popes - goes right back in unbroken succession to Saint Peter. And united in communion with the Pope and under his direction, all the bishops - who themselves are the successors of the apostles - guide the Church down through the centuries. 85

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Saint Paul is concerned for the unity of the Church and exhorts his fellow Christians: Lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and one God who is Father of all. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS 4:1-6 Unity - ecumenism. Because she is One, the Church must always search for unity with all those Christians who are still separated from her: “The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptised who are honoured by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter... Those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptised are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church... With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist” (§838). In obedience to the commandment of the Lord “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21), the Church makes every effort to re-establish full communion with all these separated Christian brethren. In order to achieve this goal we have to learn to approach one another in mutual esteem and respect, while the theologians of the different churches and communities engage in dialogue with one another, in the hope that one day we may all be able to profess the same faith, that of the one Church. This movement is called “ecumenism”. Holy. God is not like men. He is the Totally Other - transcendent, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present. He is more than everything we can say, think or imagine. Above all he is infinite love, so much so that his omnipotence is expressed in his goodness, and his selfgiving love. This infinite perfection of God, the mystery of his being, is what we mean when we say: he is holy. The Church sometimes declares individual men and women to be holy - or saints - (in other words she canonises them) because of the witness they have borne for Christ, through their lives entirely transformed in love. These saints - or holy ones - and above all Our Lady - are examples for us to follow, and they intercede for us before God. “The Church is holy: the Most Holy God is her author; Christ, her bride-

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groom, gave himself up to make her holy; the Spirit of holiness gives her life. Since she still includes sinners, she is ‘the sinless one made up of sinners’. Her holiness shines in the saints; in Mary she is already all-holy” (§867). Catholic. The word “catholic” means “universal”: “The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is ‘missionary of her very nature’ (§868, citing the Vatican II document, Ad Gentes, 2). Apostle, apostolic. It means “one who is sent out” (see note, p. 31). The apostle speaks with the authority of the one who sent him. The number of Twelve Apostles corresponds to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and points to the fact that Jesus is gathering together the new and definitive People of God. In the same way the Church is apostolic, because her bishops are the direct successors of the first apostles and guard the deposit of faith which they themselves have received from the Lord. Infallibility. “The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys... infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful... 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. When the Church through her supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine ‘for belief as being divinely revealed’, and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions ‘must be adhered to with the obedience of faith’. This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself” (§891, citing Lumen Gentium, 25 and Dei Verbum, 10).

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Proclaim the Gospel in the name of Jesus

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10.3 Hierarchy and ministries The risen Lord sends out twelve men as his apostles to all the nations of the earth. But can such a mission succeed? The apostles begin in Jerusalem. They preach, baptise and celebrate the Holy Eucharist in memory of their Lord. Even when they are persecuted and forbidden to speak, they do not allow themselves to be intimidated. They move out from Jerusalem to the villages and towns. By the laying on of hands they appoint trusted individuals as community leaders, and they commission missionaries and wandering preachers. The person we know most about is Saint Paul, who was chosen by the risen Lord as the apostle to the Gentiles. Saint Paul moves from town to town, from country to country, arriving at last - as a prisoner - in Rome. Everywhere he goes he establishes Christian communities and appoints men to lead them. To these leaders and their communities he writes letters. These letters tell us today the sort of questions that were important to these emerging communities, and the problems they had to contend with. When a problem crops up that Paul cannot resolve alone, he goes back to Jerusalem. Here the apostles gather. They consult together, trusting in the Holy Spirit, and decide on the rules that are to govern the Church of Jesus Christ. These words of Our Lord apply especially to all those entrusted with a ministry in the Church: Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me. GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 10:40

You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant. GOSPEL OF SAINT MARK 10:42-43

Time passes and the Church grows. So that nothing of the sacred Tradition given them by Jesus might be lost or distorted in the telling, his followers begin to write down what he has taught them. Our Faith tells us that the Holy Spirit watched 89

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over the writers of these sacred texts to ensure that what they wrote bears true and faithful witness to Christ. The men and women who had followed Jesus to Jerusalem die. The Church has now established a clear hierarchy and well-defined ministries, so that she can continue the mission of Christ on earth. The first and highest of these ministries is that of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope - who is at the same time “the servant of the servants of God”. In communion with the Pope and with one another, the other bishops, who are also successors of the apostles, watch over the faith and the growth of the Church, each within his own “local church”, or diocese. They ordain priests as helpers, usually as leaders of individual parishes. These priests proclaim the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, celebrate the Eucharist, lead the people in prayer and intercede with Christ, the sole Mediator, on their behalf. Under the direction of their bishop and in communion with the other priests of the diocese, each is a guide and shepherd to his own community, sustaining and helping those entrusted to his care and accompanying them on their journey towards God. “At a lower level of the hierarchy are to be found deacons, who receive the imposition of hands ‘not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry’...” (§1569, citing Lumen Gentium). “Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity” (§1570). The various ministries exist for the sanctification of all the faithful: There is no such thing as a member that has not a share in the mission of the whole Body. Rather, every single member ought to reverence Jesus in his heart and by the spirit of prophecy give testimony of Jesus. Since they share in the function of the apostles in their own degree, priests are given the grace by God to be the ministers of Jesus Christ among the nations, fulfilling the sacred task of the Gospel, that the oblation of the Gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Spirit. For it is by the apostolic herald of the Gospel that the People of God is called together and gathered so that all who belong to this people, sanctified as they are by the Holy Spirit, may offer themselves “a living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1). VATICAN COUNCIL II, PRESBYTERIUM ORDINIS, 2 90

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I believe in the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies the Church of Jesus Christ and each single one of us by filling our hearts with the free gift of love that is offered to us. I believe in the Holy Spirit, who is at work in the Church of Jesus Christ and enables every one of us to forgive, to listen and to love one another. I believe in the Holy Spirit, who accompanies the Church of Jesus Christ and leads each one of us to bear witness before the world within the vocation to which we have been called.

10.4 The laity The word “lay” or “laity” comes from the Greek word “laos”, meaning “people”. Hence a “lay person” means “one of the people”. As such it is a very beautiful expression. As Christians, when we speak of the “laity” we mean ourselves - the members of the People of God who live in the midst of the world and are involved in the ordinary situations of family and social life. As such we must seek the Kingdom of God by working, so to speak, from within, for the sanctification of the world, like the yeast which has to be mixed as a leaven, throughout the dough. As lay persons, we are called to live out and “raise up” the ordinary realities of everyday life by constant reference to the demands of the Gospel. Hence, although we, the laity, are called to live “in the world” we must not be “of the world”, since we are baptised Christians working in the world as the adopted children of God. And so all the laity “ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him” (§899, see John Paul II, Christifideles laici, 9). 91

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By the very fact of our baptism and confirmation, we the laity are called to play our part in the mission entrusted by Christ to the entire People of God, since we have been made sharers, each in our own particular way, in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ.

• The priestly office. Jesus is the only High Priest who has offered himself to

the Father for the Father’s glory and the salvation of the world. He gives his Spirit to the baptised so that they may become like him and bear rich fruits of the Spirit for the world. And Jesus draws them up into his own offering to the Father, so that their whole lives may give praise and glory to God: “For all their works, prayers and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit - indeed even the hardships of life, if patiently borne - all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And when they join in the celebration of the Eucharist, they themselves and all these activities “may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so... the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives” (§901, citing Lumen Gentium, 34).

• The prophetic office. Many people imagine that the proclamation of the

Gospel is something reserved to priests and religious only. But in fact Jesus, the great Prophet, commands all the baptised to be his witnesses. He has given each one of us the mission to make the power of the Gospel shine forth each day in our own lives, in our families and through all our dealings with others. In every place where we, the laity, live, in every area of activity in which we are involved, we are called to bear witness to our Faith by our words and our manner of life; for in this way we can give real impetus to the new evangelisation.

• The kingly office. Christ the King makes all the baptised share in his kingship

by liberating them from the slavery of sin. The saints are no longer dragged along, at the mercy of their passions and of the forces of evil. They have attained self-mastery, because everything in them has been purified, pacified and illuminated by the Holy Spirit. They are free. This is our Christian vocation too. And it has important consequences for us, for if we have learned how to master the forces of our human nature, by the light of the Gospel, then the simplest of activities, the most ordinary actions are united with the efforts of all people of goodwill who are working to improve the conditions of life for humanity. In this way we lay Christians can collaborate in the work of the Creator. Each

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working in our own sphere, we can together promote a new culture and a civilisation of life and of truth, of justice and peace, of solidarity and love, which will enable Christ to be all in all. This is why the specific role of the laity in the Church demands of each one of us a deep spiritual life which aspires daily towards holiness. It is through our own personal commitment to this sanctification in the midst of the world that the laity have a share in the holiness of the Church. In short, the Church is holy and all her members are called to be holy. This vocation to holiness is the same for all of us, whether bishops, priests, religious or laity, whether rich or poor. The degree of holiness does not depend on our position in society or in the Church, but solely on the degree of charity we possess (see 1 Cor 13).

10.5 Life consecrated to God Man is ordered to woman, and woman to man. And yet there are and have always been men and women in the Church who have freely chosen to remain single, or celibate, for the sake of the Kingdom of God. God has given us the earth to use and develop our talents, to provide for our sustenance and to find joy in the work of our hands. And yet there are, and have always been, women and men in the Church who have chosen to live in poverty and detachment, without possessions, since for them their sole riches lie in Christ. God has given us freedom and imagination and the desire to seek and follow our own way in life. But there are, and always have been, men and women in the Church who voluntarily promise obedience to a Superior. They do this because the words Our Lord spoke to the fishermen working by the shores of the Sea of Galilee mean more to them than everything else in the world: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Come, follow meâ&#x20AC;?. These men and women have left everything and find their happiness only in following Christ and in building up his Kingdom. Many men and women live according to this ideal. They wish to be free and open to God - as a sign to show that he is there in our human world. Usually these men and women, understanding that they have been called by God, join together in a spiritual family or community in which they can live and serve him. Throughout the history of the Church such religious communities have constantly arisen, and 93

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they continue to do so today, often in response to a particular need of their time. Some consecrate themselves completely to prayer, centred around the Mass and Eucharistic adoration, while others combine a life of prayer and active charity. Some teach and proclaim the Gospel, while others care for the poor, for unwanted children, for the sick, the handicapped and the dying. We distinguish between “contemplative” and “active” communities, and in our time there are also communities whose members are entirely consecrated to God but live and work normally in the world, outwardly indistinguishable from the other people around them. The religious orders and communities are often named after their founders, such as Saint Benedict, Saint Francis, or Saint Vincent de Paul. Others express their chosen mission by their name, for example the Sisters of Mercy, the Missionaries of Charity, the School Sisters. Each community follows a “Rule” which expresses their particular character. What they all share in common are the three vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience - the three main ways in which they seek to follow the example of Jesus. These are called the three “Evangelical Counsels”. Living according to the evangelical counsels is no easy thing. Anyone who chooses such a life must first undergo years of training and testing before being allowed to commit himself or herself for a period of time, or even for a lifetime (this commitment is called taking “temporary” or “perpetual” vows). Saint Teresa of Avila instructs her sisters: Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you. Everything passes. God never changes. Patience obtains all. Whoever has God wants for nothing; God alone is enough. (CITED IN §227)

The Communion of Saints

11. The Communion of Saints

11.1

Jesus establishes the community of the “saints”

Our profession of faith in the “Holy Catholic Church” and our profession of faith in the “Communion of Saints” in fact go together. For the Church is the Church of Christ. All those who belong to the Church are in communion of faith and love with Christ. They receive everything from him, especially through the sacraments. They receive the sacrament of his Body and Blood, pardon for their sins all the riches of Christ. The Spirit of Christ, who is given to believers, pours the love of God into their hearts (Rom 5:5). In this way all the members of the Church have a share, or communion, “in holy things” (see §947-948). ...Grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ. FROM THE THIRD EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

But there is also another communion, and that is the communion between all the members of the Church, whom Saint Paul calls the “saints”. The Church understands this as including three different “states”. First ourselves, who are still pilgrims on this earth advancing towards holiness and the Kingdom of the Father, where we will see him face to face; then those brothers and sisters of ours who have died and are now undergoing purification; and finally those who are now already in the glory of God in heaven, where the risen Christ has gone ahead to prepare a place for us. But whichever of these three states they are in, “All, indeed, who are of Christ and who have his Spirit, form one Church and in Christ cleave together” (§954). It is only within a community that a person can truly become what he really is. Only within a community can we develop our own particular gifts and bring into play what is unique and special to our nature - and so fulfil our own personality. We know that community is something essential for us - and for us as Christians this community is the Church. 95

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• In this community it is the little ones who are our models, to make it clear to

us that things do not depend upon the will or the strength of man but only on God and on his mercy (Rom 9:16). Jesus takes a child and sets him in front of the adults and says: “Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3). And he chooses fishermen from the Sea of Galilee, “uneducated laymen” (Acts 4:13), as his apostles and trusts them to gather in and lead his Church, under the guidance of his Holy Spirit.

• This is a community where everyone has a chance, where each is welcomed and has the opportunity to be transformed by the Spirit. Jesus accepts the invitation of the tax collectors and eats with them (Mk 2:15); he speaks of the Kingdom of God to a Samaritan woman - a foreigner, despised by the Jews (Jn 4). He tells repentant sinners: God has forgiven you; do not sin again. And to the rich he says: Give to the poor, for then you are giving to me.

• This is a community where the damaged and the disadvantaged learn of the hope held out to them. For Jesus heals the sick and the crippled and restores freedom to those enslaved by evil.

• This is a community in which the Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Redeemer,

is at the same time truly the Mother of all the members of the Church. For by giving birth to Jesus - the Head of the Body which is the Church - she has “by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head” (§963). By her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity she has become a mother to us in the order of grace, and she continues her maternal intercession for us in the Church (see §968-969).

• This is a community in which all the members support and pray for one an-

other. The saints in heaven intercede for those on earth. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux once wrote: “I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth” (Final Conversations, cited in §956). And we who are still on this earth pray for the souls of those who have died, that they may enter into the glory of the Father. In charity and in a spirit of solidarity we pray for one another, so that we may be supported by the Spirit in our Christian lives. Each year the Church celebrates the feasts of All Saints and All Souls (1st and 2nd November) as a way of commemorating the communion of saints.

The Communion of Saints

When Jesus had washed their feet... he said to them: ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am. If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example, so that you may copy what I have done to you.’ GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 13:12-15

11.2

Learning to live in Christian community

In the Christian community all sorts of different people gather together - people who in ordinary life would probably have little to do with one another. There are Jews and former pagans, rich and poor, men and women, traders and peasants, teachers and manual workers, young and old, the successful and the down-at-heel, the healthy and the sick, landowners and day labourers. They share in common what has become the most important thing to them - their Faith in Jesus, their trust in his Word, their place at his Eucharistic Table, their hope in the Life that he promises to all who follow him. When they pray, they pray as he has taught them: “Our Father...” They refer to one another as “brothers” and “sisters”. Such an attitude of fraternal harmony is far from obvious in a world where the status people enjoy tends to depend on their ability to dominate others. Nor is this outlook automatically bestowed on Christians with their baptism. Each person in the Christian community can still make mistakes, offend others, fail. This was something the earliest communities soon discovered. We can learn from their example how to live in harmony, despite our own faults and mistakes. The community in Corinth, founded by Saint Paul, is a good example, for we know the problems it faced and the guidance Saint Paul gave it. Here are Christians - “saints” - quarrelling with one another and taking their quarrels before the courts of the “unjust” - in other words the pagans (1 Cor 6:1-11). Saint Paul urges them forcefully to make peace and to be reconciled with one another. 97

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Others are unsure about meat that has been sacrificed to idols. Is it alright to buy it at the market, or eat it when they are invited to people’s houses? Saint Paul reassures them of their freedom as Christians. For such idols are in fact meaningless, and so this meat is no different from any other meat. But at the same time he cautions them to have consideration for those whose conscience is “weak” and who might be scandalised at seeing other Christians eat such meat. Otherwise they might sin by being “the cause of a brother’s downfall” (1 Cor 8:1-13). Another discussion concerns the different kinds of Christian service in the community. Which has the most value in the sight of God? (1 Cor 12:12-31). Saint Paul resolves the problem with a comparison that at the same time makes clear what he thinks a “community” - or parish - should be. He tells them that the Christian community is like a body, with various different parts - eyes to see with, ears to hear with, hands to hold with, feet to walk with. No limb can replace another. When one limb suffers, all the others suffer with it - and so the whole body suffers. For the body is a unity. And so is the community. Each person has his own task - one as an apostle, the other as a teacher, another as a healer... It is through this diversity of ministries that the Christian community is built up and develops. And Saint Paul adds: charity must be the foundation and the summit of everything (1 Cor 13). This is what unites us in Christ: We are baptised in the name of the one God. We are inhabited by the one Spirit. We have faith in the one Word. We share in the one hope. We are united in the one commandment of love. We share the one Eucharistic Bread. We form the one Church People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Spirit.

If we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity - all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ - we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church. VATICAN COUNCIL II, LUMEN GENTIUM, 51 (SEE §959)

The forgiveness of sins

12. The forgiveness of sins As Christians we profess our faith in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints and the forgiveness of sins. All these phrases are connected; each refers to the others and all of them have to do with the mission our Lord entrusted to his apostles when he sent them out: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:15-16). Whoever has sealed his faith in Jesus Christ through baptism has been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus. This means that his sins have been forgiven. That is why baptism is the first and most important sacrament for the forgiveness of sins - for it is Jesus himself who baptises us in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who has been sent for the forgiveness of sins.

12.1 Commissioned by Our Lord The risen Lord entrusted a mission to his apostles and gave them full authority to carry it out. It was to baptise believers and so incorporate them into the Church for this sacrament fills us with the grace of the Holy Spirit and completely wipes out all our sins.

• Saint John testifies to this mission in his Gospel. He describes how, on the

evening of that first Easter Day, the disciples were gathered together in one place; they had locked the doors, for they were afraid. But then “Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’... The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’” (Jn 20:19-23).

In the Church the authority - the power - which Christ gave to his apostles to forgive sins has been handed down right to this day - to our bishops and priests. And 99

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it is a good thing that it has. For we are only weak, erring human beings, easily led astray. Saint Paul puts it wonderfully well when he writes to the Christians in Rome: “The Law... is spiritual; but I am unspiritual; I have been sold as a slave to sin. I cannot understand my own behaviour. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself doing the very things I hate” (Rom 7:14-15). We who are baptised would be lost if we were not constantly being offered forgiveness. For in the Sacrament of Penance Christ himself offers reconciliation and forgiveness to those who repent, feel genuinely sorry for all their sins and confess them to a priest. As we explain again in connection with the Sacrament of Reconciliation (see Chapter 15.5), every serious sin must be confessed and forgiven through this sacrament. But it is also a good thing to turn to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for lesser sins (venial sins), even though we can also receive forgiveness through practical acts of contrition, through reading the Holy Scriptures in a spirit of penance, through the use of sacramentals (see note, p. 121) such as Holy Water, and above all through participation in the celebration of the Eucharist and the practice of charity. Saint Peter reminds us that “love covers over many a sin” (1 Pt 4:8). What sort of world would our world be, if there were no word “forgiveness”? If the love that word embraces were no longer there for each of us to experience? If there were no more outstretched hands to offer pardon? If every guilty person had to stay guilty? If each of us had to live with his guilt, alone? If retribution were all that counted, and not pardon? King David asks God’s forgiveness: Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offence. O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin... A pure heart create for me, O God. PSALM 51 (50), VERSES 3, 4 & 12 100

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12.2 I do not condemn you Saint John the Evangelist tell us about the scribes and Pharisees and how they drag a woman before Jesus and say: Master, this woman has been caught committing adultery. She is guilty. The law of Moses says she must be stoned to death. What do you say? Jesus says nothing at all. When they persist with their questions, he says: “If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Her accusers hear what Jesus says and they understand. One after the other, they slink away. Finally, Jesus is left there alone with the woman. He asks her: “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Sir”, she replies. “Neither do I condemn you”, says Jesus. “Go away, and don’t sin any more” (Jn 8:1-11). This account of the meeting between Jesus and the woman caught in adultery is an example for us all. Jesus does not shun sinners but rather he is there waiting for them, to lead them to repentance. He meets with them. One of his apostles, Matthew, was once a tax collector. And when Jesus is close to death, on the Cross, he tells the “good thief” who has been “justly” crucified alongside him: “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). Jesus never condemns us when we have sinned. Instead he lifts the burden of guilt from our backs when we are crushed by our sins, so that we can stand up tall again. He is not concerned to see the guilty condemned and punished but rather to acquit them, so that they may live a new life and never again forget that God loves them. Now that God has welcomed them back, they can rediscover their true selves and try to live a better life in future. We cannot buy forgiveness, nor earn it either. We have no right to forgiveness, but can only ask it, humbly. For ourselves and for others, since God’s love is endless. When we are forgiven, freely, by God we can accept ourselves and start afresh, grow in courage and humility, love and forgive in our turn in a world that condemns and punishes. 101

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Your sins are forgiven you

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12.3 As we forgive... When we do wrong and cannot repair the damage, we are usually happy to be forgiven. But when we ourselves are asked to forgive our neighbour, we find it much harder to give up our “right”. That is what the following parable of Jesus is all about: There are two men who both serve the same master. One of them owes his master so much that he could never pay it back in a lifetime. He falls on his knees before his master and begs. His master takes pity on him and cancels his entire debt. As he goes away he meets a fellow servant, who happens to owe him a very small sum of money - but this man is so poor he cannot afford to pay him back. Now he in turn falls on his knees and begs his fellow servant for mercy. But the first servant will not forgive him and has him thrown into prison. When the master hears what has happened, he is furious. He has the hard-hearted servant arrested and thrown into prison - until he has paid off all of his huge debt. And Jesus adds: “That is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart” (Mt 18:23-35). It is not hard to understand what this parable means. But what is much harder is to do as Jesus tells us. Forgiving, not demanding reparation, not bearing a grudge, refusing to exploit our advantage, our power over someone who is beholden to us in some way these are attitudes that demand something of us as human beings. For they go against our natural, sin-damaged inclinations. Saint Peter wants to get it quite clear. He asks Jesus: “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” In itself Peter’s attitude is not ungenerous. But when he hears the answer Jesus gives him, he understands that true forgiveness is measured in completely different terms: “Seventy-seven times seven”, says Jesus - and by this he means: Don’t count. Always forgive - as often as your brother is in need of forgiveness (Mt 18:21-22). It is certainly not by chance that Saint Peter, of all people, should ask this question and be given this answer. For it is to Saint Peter that Our Lord has given 103

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the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, so that whatever he binds or looses on earth - whatever he forgives or does not forgive - will likewise be bound or loosed by God in heaven (Mt 16:19).

• Go out to one another, hand outstretched.

Say the first word, take the first step. Accept the other, with all his faults; let love be stronger than revenge and spite. Break through the vicious circle of blame and claim and walk on together, merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful, witnessing by our love to the infinite goodness of the Father.

Jesus says to his disciples: “If you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.” GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 6:14-15

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The resurrection of the body

13. The resurrection of the body and life everlasting

Some people live to a good old age, dying only after a rich and full life. But sometimes death comes to children and young people - whether through accidents, disasters, sickness, hunger or cold. God alone knows how many die through the callous indifference of their fellow men, who refuse to share their bread and their medicines, their homes and their lands. Or through the cruelty of those who prefer to wage war rather than search for peace.

• When Christians say that they believe in the resurrection of the dead and in life everlasting, that does not mean they are trying to avoid suffering and death.

• Nor are they simply trying to soothe their more unfortunate and downtrodden fellow men with talk of a better life in the world to come.

• When Christians say they believe in the resurrection of the body and in life

everlasting, they mean: “We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day” (§989). We believe that we are called to live one day with our entire being transfigured, in a way that is so much more beautiful than anything we can possibly dream or imagine. For it is God himself who will grant this future to us.

13.1 He is God of the living, not of the dead... The books of the Bible are full of human stories. People tell of their plans and dreams, of their joy when life goes well, of their sadness and rejection when disaster strikes. They tell of the evil they have done and the evil they have suffered. And of death too, which puts an end to every man’s self-made plan of life. They 105

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ask questions: Why are we here on earth? What is the point of all our striving, since all men know they must one day die? Why are some granted a long life, while others die before their lives have even truly begun? These are questions to which, of ourselves, we humans can find no adequate answers. The people we read about in the Bible come to know their limitations. But they also learn to hope beyond these human limitations. They are aware of their openness towards God, and they place their trust in him. In his preaching, Jesus has told us that the dead will rise again. When his friend Lazarus dies, he speaks to the dead man’s sister, Martha, in the same words of consolation that he repeats to each sorrowing soul who mourns by the grave of a loved one: I am the resurrection. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he will live. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 11:25

On that first Easter Sunday God showed us, through Jesus Christ, that he is stronger than death. The tomb of Jesus is empty, and the risen Christ appears to his apostles. He shows them his hands and his feet, pierced by the nails on the Cross, and tells them: “Look at my hands and feet; yes, it is I indeed” (Lk 24:39). The resurrection of Jesus gives us the certainty that we too will rise with him. Saint Paul tells us: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS 8:11

Jesus had already warned them: Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his voice: those who did good will rise again to life; and those who did evil, to condemnation. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 5:28-29 106

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13.2 How will the dead rise again? Our language and our words relate to the realities of this world. But when it comes to the world of God and its realities they are quite simply inadequate. This is already evident to the earliest Christians when they ask: How will the resurrection take place? What will happen to the body that is decaying in the tomb? If a man is crippled, what sort of body will he have when he is raised? When a child dies, will he be an adult in heaven? What will happen to all those people who have died, trusting in God and believing in Jesus Christ? Faced with these and many other similar questions, we can do no better than to turn our eyes to the risen Jesus himself, both transfigured in glory and yet bearing on his body the marks of the Passion, the signs of the great love that has led him to give his life for us. On the one hand there is the empty tomb, the marks of the nails and yet, on the other, there is the new and mysterious appearance of the risen Jesus. Together, they enable us to affirm that the dead too will rise with their own bodies. And yet they will be different nonetheless, because they will be glorified - just as the grain of wheat which falls to earth has been transformed in death and now yields a rich harvest (see Jn 12:24). What is “rising”? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §997

Saint Paul expresses this mystery of life and love, which rests “on the power of God”, when he expresses to the Christian community in Corinth, about the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. FIRST LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 2:9 107

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When we share in the Eucharist, we feed our bodies with the food that is the risen Body of our Lord. The Eucharist is a pledge of eternal life. “Our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ’s transfiguration of our bodies” (§1000). Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 6:54

In expectation of that day, the believer’s body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person, especially the suffering (§1004). The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God, who raised the Lord from the dead, will by his power raise us up too. You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ? You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God. FIRST LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 6:13-15; 19-20

13.3 Christians and death Death frightens people - even those who trust in God. For death means departure and separation. Everything that until now has made up the life of a person - all his possessions and his loved ones - is left behind. Each man dies alone, and with nothing. But none of us should be ashamed of our fear at the moment of death. Jesus himself called out to his Father from the Cross. And so, united with him, every dying person can call on the Father when his hour has come. Like the “good thief” who was crucified with Jesus, each of us can place all our trust in the Redeemer who 108

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told him: “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). With Jesus every one of us can be sure that, when we die, the merciful God will turn all our fear into joy and fill our empty hands once more. “For those who die in Christ’s grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection” (§1006). We believe that when we die, we will come face to face with God. Our eyes, closed by death will be opened once again. We will stand before God, each one of us with our own story, our love and our sins; with all that we have done, both good and bad; whether out of love for God and our fellow men or out of contempt and hatred. This encounter, we firmly believe, will be decisive for all eternity. The prophets of Israel, and Jesus too, describe this meeting as a judgement. God’s eyes search the very depths of our being. There will be no way to hide or make excuses. The infinitely just God knows our weakness and takes account of it; the infinitely merciful God searches to see if we humbly acknowledge our faults and place all our hope in his mercy. At this judgement the sentence will fall: reward or punishment, happiness or damnation, the bosom of Abraham or eternal fire, hymns of praise or weeping and grinding of teeth (Mt 8:12), dancing at the Wedding Feast or fruitless hammering on closed doors (Mt 25:1-13). These are powerful images. They are intended for us who are on our journey, so that we may be converted, change our lives, root ourselves firmly in the love of Christ - in faith, hope and charity. Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven. PREFACE OF THE MASS FOR THE DEAD Death marks the end of our earthly life and the beginning of eternal life. The soul separates from the mortal body. It faces God first of all in the individual, or particular, judgement. On the Day of the Lord, when Jesus comes again in glory, all the dead will rise and their souls will be reunited with their bodies - a transfigured and glorified body for the just, but a body filled with suffering for the damned. Judgement. Distinction is made between the particular or “personal” judgement and the general or “Last” judgement. The individual judgement is linked to the moment of death. It involves the decision over our ultimate fate - whether we will be included in the

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everlasting community with God, or excluded for ever from it. The individual will be judged according to the extent that he has fulfilled the will of God in his life, and according to his faith in Jesus Christ. This judgement is final. The Last Judgement, or general judgement - the judgement of the world - is linked to the Day of the Lord, or “Last Day” - the day when Jesus will return to establish fully the Kingdom of God, his own Kingdom. On that day all the dead will be raised, and each one will be judged, with his soul and his body, in the presence of all the nations, assembled before Christ (Mt 25:32). Sentence. The verdict, or sentence will depend on the free choice of the individual during his earthly life. Those who have consciously and deliberately separated themselves from God will have no place among the community of the blessed - or “elect”. Instead their place will be among the excluded (Mt 25:41) - in other words in Hell. Those who basically do believe in God and his Christ but who, at the moment of their death, are not fully ready or worthy to meet him are granted a time of purification, of waiting and of growing to maturity, which we describe with the name of Purgatory. These souls must wait to be admitted into full communion with God. We can help them with our prayers. The elect, who have been open to the love of Christ, allowing it to penetrate and transform them during their earthly life, will hear the words of Christ: “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34). And they will see God face to face - just as he is - and become like him (1 Jn 3:2). They will live eternally united with him. They will be in Heaven (see pp. 55, 70).

13.4 Life everlasting To live with God, to live fully and for ever, to be the person that God always intended us to be when he first called us by our name, to live - not in everlasting rest but in unimaginable fullness, totally freed from all fear - even fear of our own weakness... Who can begin to imagine how such a life will be?

• Saint Augustine, one of the great Fathers of the Church, once wrote: Then we will be free and will see, will see and will love, will love and will praise. See, in the end it will be without end. The prophets of Israel, and Saint John, the author of the Book of Revelation and Christian prophet of the end times, speak to us in images of how this new life will 110

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be for us. These prophets speak of heaven not as some unimaginable place, far above the clouds, but rather as the place where God dwells, where we shall live with him as his own people. The old sin-soaked world, sullied by men, has passed away and a new earth has become our home - the kind of earth that God had always willed and planned for us from the beginning, lit up by the light of the risen Christ. A world where human beings, his own people, live with him and are filled with joy at the sight of his face, for he is their Light and their Life. That is why there will be no more need of sun or moon. And in the new Jerusalem there will no longer be houses built of stone, no temple where we will go to find God. For God himself will be there, living among us. A new and fertile earth, described by numerous images in the Bible - a place where springs of water well up in the desert, where trees flourish and bear fruit twelve times a year, a world where no living creature will harm another, where the lamb lies down beside the wolf, for they can now live without the one preying on the other. The little child will put his hand in the viper’s nest and not be bitten (Is 11:6-8). Men will experience at last what it is to be fully and perfectly human. There will be no sickness, no death, no loneliness, no mourning, no tears, no hatred, no enmity, no oppression. Other images again describe this world to us, for it is impossible to describe it in all its fullness. The eyes of the blind will be opened, the deaf will hear again, cripples will dance and the dumb will sing (Is 35:5-6). Spears and swords will not be needed; they will be beaten into ploughshares and pruning hooks and men and will no longer think of war. Every man will be able to sit in peace beneath his vine or his fig tree, and no one will cause him to fear (Mic 4:3-4). God himself, with tender hand, will wipe away the tears of those who have wept. Yes, indeed, the old world has passed away. They will see his face and his name will be written on their foreheads. REVELATION 22:4 Saint John. Not John the Baptist, but the prophet and visionary who wrote the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse (which means “revelation” or “drawing aside the veil”). In other words, God has allowed us a glimpse of hidden secrets, through Saint John. These concern the final victory of God and of his Christ and the defeat of the godless powers; eternal salvation and the happiness of the elect, who will live for ever with God.

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Rejoicing in the Feast of Eternal Life

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Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, To make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight. He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth. And it is in him that we were claimed as Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came. Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance, which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS 1:3-14

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14. Amen - Yes, it is so indeed

This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches in a tiny grain, so too this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and the New Testaments. SAINT CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

Each phrase, each statement of the Creed has been formulated - often after long discussion - in such a way that believers can live by them and at the same time distinguish the true Christian faith with certainty from false beliefs. The Creed, or profession of faith, is held throughout the Catholic Church, and every single person who is baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ commits himself to it. And each year, during the Easter Vigil, the whole assembly of the faithful together renew their individual baptismal promises. Each individual should join in and repeat for himself the words of this Creed, the profession of faith of the whole universal Church. Not without reason it begins with the words “I believe” and ends with the word “Amen”. By saying the word “Amen” we confirm our decision. We mean: Amen - Yes, it is so indeed. This is what I hold; this is what I stand for. This Gospel I hold to be true. And I thank God for it. Amen. The Hebrew word means to stand firm, to be reliable, dependable. But at the same time the words “faith”, “truth”, “faithfulness” are implied by it. When Jews and Christians say “Amen” at the end of their prayers, it means that each person, individually, is saying: Yes, this is the truth; this is what I believe!

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Rejoice, for Jesus has died upon the Cross! Amen. Rejoice, for he is risen from the dead! Amen. Rejoice, for through baptism he has washed away our sins! Amen. Rejoice, for Jesus has come to set us free! Amen. And rejoice, for he is the Lord of our life! Amen. Alleluia! POPE JOHN PAUL II

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PART TWO

THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY THE SACRAMENTS

The Church and the Sacraments

CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS 15. Life in Christ - the Sacraments “I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Mt 28:20). This is what the risen Christ has promised his disciples. On the day of Pentecost they discover just how Jesus intends to keep this promise. For he pours out his Holy Spirit upon them, configuring them to Christ - that is to say, he makes them sharers in his own life, so that they can truly say, as he does, to God: “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6). They are so filled with enthusiasm that they have to go out into the streets and tell people. Everyone must be told about it! Jesus of Nazareth - this Jesus who was nailed to the Cross and died there - he is the Lord and Messiah. He has risen! God has raised him on high and given him the place of honour at his own right hand. And he will come again in glory. Put your faith in him and trust in the Good News we are proclaiming to you! And indeed, many of their hearers are deeply moved and are baptised that very day (Acts 2). Wherever the Good News of the Gospel is preached, the community of believers grows. Local communities are established. There is a new People of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. She is united to him - like the limbs to the body, like the vine to the rootstock. He now acts through her and in her, and the actions of the Church become the continuation of the saving actions of Christ. These are the Sacraments. The Lord has willed that his Church, by making him present among men and for the sake of men, and by celebrating her sacraments with them, should show that God is loving to all and wishes to offer them the gift of Salvation. The Church herself is a sign of the love and closeness of the hidden God; she truly communicates his saving love. That is why we say that she herself is the “universal sacrament of salvation”(§776) from which flow all the sacraments that she offers to those who embrace the Faith. The Church, in Christ, is like a sacrament - a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men. VATICAN COUNCIL II, LUMEN GENTIUM, 1 (SEE §775) 119

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15.1 Seven Sacraments Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian’s life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §1210

In bestowing these sacraments the Church is not merely speaking symbolic words about redemption and belonging to God. The Sacraments are “efficacious signs of grace”(§1131) - that is, they actually make us belong to God and they bestow salvation on us. From his fullness we have, all of us, received yes, grace in return for grace. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 1:16

The sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos and of social life. Further, they fulfil the types and figures of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation wrought by Christ, and prefigure and anticipate the glory of heaven (§1152). Sacraments. Outward signs of the salvation that Jesus Christ has given to his Church. They are pledges, or proofs, that he actually exists - in and with the Church. Baptism establishes us as members of the Church of Christ at the beginning of our lives as Christians. In Confirmation the baptised are strengthened and hallowed through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist (Holy Communion) makes us sharers in the life of our Lord and forges us together into a community. When we sin, the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) brings us forgiveness and reconciliation with God and the Church. The Anointing of the Sick brings strength and consolation to those who are seriously ill. The sacrament of Holy Orders confers upon deacons, priests and bishops a special service in the Church. In the sacrament of Matrimony (marriage) the couple themselves promise each other love and loyalty; the communion that they form becomes an image of our communion in Christ. The Sacraments are visible signs of the invisible reality of salvation which they signify. Because it is God who bestows them, they truly bring about the reality they signify. Through them we receive the gift of grace - that is to say, the very life of God himself.

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Sacramentals. “Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy” (§1667, quoting Vatican Council II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 60). The Church has instituted sacramentals in order to hallow - or sanctify - certain offices and situations in our Christian life, and also the use of certain objects. They usually involve a prayer, often accompanied by a particular gesture or action (e.g. laying on of hands, Sign of the Cross, sprinkling with Holy Water). We usually speak of “consecration” when a person (for example the Abbess in a convent) or an object (an altar, a church, a bell) is dedicated exclusively for the service of God. We speak of “blessing” when people (children, travellers, pilgrims) or things (houses, food, cars, animals) are entrusted to the protection of God.

15.2 Baptism When Saint Peter stands up and speaks at Pentecost in Jerusalem, his words go right to the hearts of many of his hearers. They ask him and the other apostles: “What must we do?” Obedient to the commandment of Our Lord (Mt 28:19), Saint Peter tells them: “You must repent, and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37-38). Saint John the Baptist had preached a baptism of water and repentance in order to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus himself chose to receive this baptism from John in the River Jordan, as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). “Baptism” comes from a Greek word which means to “plunge” or “immerse”. Jesus himself, who has been plunged, or “baptised” in death for the salvation of the world (see §1225), has given us baptism in the Spirit, so that all men can now be “born of water and the Spirit” and so enter into the Kingdom of God (see Jn 3:5). But the new community of believers - the Church - does not grow only among the Jews. In the Acts of the Apostles (8:26-40) Saint Luke tells of Philip, one of the seven deacons. Inspired by God’s Spirit, he sets out on the road leading to Gaza. There he finds a chariot with a very important man from Ethiopia sitting in it. The man has been to Jerusalem, to pray in the Temple there, and now he is on his way home. He is sitting in his chariot, reading the book of the prophet Isaiah (Is 53:7-8). Philip listens to the stranger reading and asks: “Do you understand what you are reading?” “How can I, unless I have someone to guide me?” the man answers. So Philip climbs into the chariot and explains how the words of Isaiah have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. For Jesus came to reconcile mankind to 121

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God. He was rejected, but he accepted this suffering and did not resist, not even death on a cross. He was killed, like a lamb that is led to slaughter. But God has raised him up. He is alive, and we are witnesses to that fact. He is our Saviour and Redeemer. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah - the Saviour - and is baptised, will become a new man, a Christian. As they travel along, they come to some water and the Ethiopian asks: “Look, here is water. Why should I not be baptised?” Philip goes into the water with him and baptises him “in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. This man was the first Christian of Africa.

• Baptism is the sacrament common to all Christians. The Church administers bap-

tism by the command and authority of Our Lord who said: “Go, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). The ordinary minister of Baptism is a bishop, priest or deacon. “In case of necessity, any person, even someone not baptised, can baptise, if he has the required intention. The intention required is to will to do what the Church does when she baptises, and to apply the Trinitarian baptismal formula” (§1256).

• Baptism is valid for all eternity. No one can take it away or repeat it, for it marks, or seals, the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (or character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation (see §1272).

• Baptism establishes a personal relationship with each of the three persons of the

Blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit fills us with sanctifying grace, which makes us “partakers in the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4). That means that we are adopted sons of God, in Jesus Christ, who is himself the Only Son of the Father. Sanctifying grace brings with it the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, enabling us to know God in a fashion similar to that in which he knows himself, to love him as he loves himself and to hope to live for ever in communion with him, just as he desires. Sanctifying grace also includes the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through which we are given the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit (§1266). Baptism also makes us sharers in the priesthood of Christ, in his mission of priest, prophet and king - that means it enables us to offer ourselves with him to the Father, to bear witness to the Gospel and to consecrate the world to God. This is known as the common priesthood of the faithful.

• Baptism wipes away Original Sin, it achieves the forgiveness of all our per-

sonal sins and makes us children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ himself - members of the Church. It also makes us brothers and sisters of one another, so that we can truly pray: “Our Father, who art in Heaven...”.

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• Baptism is a beginning, a sort of advance gift from God; we must spend our

whole lives trying to make it bear fruit. If we remain faithful to Christ, in faith, hope and charity, then the grace we have received in Baptism works and grows in us. And so Baptism finds its complete fulfilment in the holiness to which we have all been called and which is brought about progressively through the growth of the life of God in us. You have been buried with Christ in Baptism; and by Baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS 2:12

The Church calls children to Baptism as well as adults. People who receive Baptism as adults first spend a period of time in preparation in order to learn the Faith. This period is called the catechumenate and it leads them in stages to Baptism and their full incorporation into the Church. From the earliest times the Church has also baptised infants, for it would be wrong to “prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism” (§1261). When parents and godparents bring a child to be baptised, because they wish to pass on to him not only the gift of life but also the gift of faith, they must promise to accompany and lead their child along the path of faith - the Faith of the Church. That is why they promise to bring up the child as a Christian and teach him or her the Catholic Faith. Baptism can be given at any time, but it is especially linked to the Easter Vigil, when we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. This is also the time when all the faithful - adults and children - renew their baptismal promises. During the Paschal Vigil the baptismal water is blessed: O God..., look now, we pray, upon the face of your Church and graciously unseal for her the fountain of Baptism. May this water receive by the Holy Spirit the grace of your Only Begotten Son, so that human nature, created in your image and washed clean through the Sacrament of Baptism from all the squalor of the life of old, may be found worthy to rise to the life of newborn children through water and the Holy Spirit.

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The form of Baptism is as follows: The Minister of Baptism either immerses the candidate three times in the baptismal font, or else pours water three times over the candidate’s head, saying as he does so: “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Baptism. The word means “plunging” or “immersing” into water - the element of life. When an unbaptised person gives his life for Christ (martyrdom) he receives the Baptism of blood. The Church also speaks of Baptism of desire when an unbaptised person does good, seeks the truth, gives himself for his fellow men and thus - whether he knows it or not - follows Christ. We also believe that, when children die before Baptism, God in His mercy will not allow them to fall from his loving hands. Catechumenate. In the case of adult Baptism, this is a time of preparation for Baptism, through initiation into Christian Faith and life. When infants are baptised, this catechumenate must of necessity take place after Baptism, when they reach an age when they can understand and desire to grow in the grace which they received as babies. This is where the catechism plays its part (see §1231).

15.3 Confirmation The sacrament of Confirmation bestows on us a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as it was once given to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. This sacrament is “necessary for the completion of baptismal grace” (§1285). The bishop - or his official representative - extends his hands over all those who are to be confirmed and calls down upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he lays his hand on each individual candidate, addresses him or her by name and anoints the candidate’s forehead with chrism (specially consecrated oil) and says to him: “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit”. This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrolment in his service for ever, so that all may see to whom we belong - just as in the past slaves were marked with the seal of their master. Before this the candidates have renewed the baptismal promises and profession of faith that were made at their Baptism. In the Eastern Church, Confirmation - and Communion too - are given even to babies, immediately after Baptism. In the Western Church things are done differently. Formerly it was the bishop, as head of the local Church, who administered Baptism. But, as the number of parishes grew, the bishop was no longer able to be present at every Baptism. And 124

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so the two aspects of Baptism and Confirmation were separated in time and the sacrament of Confirmation - which is the completion of Baptism - was reserved to the bishop. However, adults who are being baptised also receive Confirmation at the same time. Under the impulse of the Holy Spirit the candidates for Confirmation say “Yes” to Christ and so profess their readiness to speak up for him and not deny their Faith. At the same time they declare their readiness to stand up for the Church and to stand by their brothers and sisters in the Faith. The Church does not wait until they have become fully adult, for “baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need ‘ratification’ in order to become effective” (§1308). Instead, it is through the grace of Confirmation that the Christian can fully make his own the grace of his Baptism. That is why Confirmation is generally administered to adolescents as the “sacrament of Christian maturity” - though this maturity does not necessarily coincide with physical maturity. Like Baptism, Confirmation confers a “character” on the soul - an indelible spiritual seal or mark. That is why this sacrament can be received only once. This “character” opens us still more to the gifts and action of the Holy Spirit within us, enabling us to grow in our relationship as children of the Father. It roots us still more profoundly in the Church; it brings us light, strength and love, so that we can live and witness to Jesus Christ in all our life and actions - so that those around us can see that ours are the words and actions of a Christian (see §1303).

During the Confirmation ceremony the bishop prays: All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgement and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

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Saint Paul tells us: What the Spirit brings is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE GALATIANS 5:22-25 Confirmation. “Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds” (§1316). Adults receive Confirmation at the same time as Baptism (see §1298).

15.4 The Eucharist The sacrament of the Eucharist is the centre and the heart of the entire Liturgy of the Catholic Church. For in it she fulfils, day after day and all over the world, the command that Christ gave to his apostles on the night before he suffered, when he said to them: “Do this in memory of me”. And so our celebration is rooted in the commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus, in a sacred tradition to which Saint Paul testifies:

• For this is what I received from the Lord and in turn passed on to you: that on

the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me’. In the same way he took the cup after supper and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ (1 Cor 11:23-25).

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being by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Thus she is also a community of thanksgiving and praise, a community united in shared communion. The Eucharist is the memorial of the Last Supper of Jesus and of his sacrifice on the Cross. It is not simply a matter of recalling past events but of making these events truly present. In each Eucharist Christ is present and active in the very act of his Passover, that is to say in his death and resurrection, by which he saves us, gives us his life and unites us to himself. The Eucharist is also a sacrifice, because it makes present the sacrifice by which Christ gave himself, once and for all, on the Cross (see §1363-1366). When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, we, as Christians, are united individually with Christ. And when we eat the same Bread, which is the very Body of Christ, we are equally united, as Christians, with one another in the deepest and most intimate manner possible. That is why the Eucharist makes the Church. Our union in the Eucharistic Body establishes the Mystical Body of Christ: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:16-17). More than this, the Eucharist is a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet, a pledge of the life to come, the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9). And so, during Mass in the Latin rite, the priest invites us to Holy Communion with the words: “Behold the Lamb of God... Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb” (see §1130 and §1402-1403). The Eucharist is inseparable from fraternal charity. Our Lord has taught us: If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 5:23-24

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Holy Mass can be divided into four parts: 1. The Opening Celebration and mutual greeting, the Penitential Rite (Confiteor, Kyrie), the Gloria (the hymn of praise) and the Opening Prayer. 2. The Liturgy of the Word. This consists of three (on weekdays two) Bible readings. The first is taken either from the Old Testament or the Acts of the Apostles, the second from the letters (or epistles) of one of the apostles, and the third from the Gospels. After this the priest explains the Word of God, so that each one of us may understand how to live as a Christian in our day. On Sundays and on special feasts (solemnities) we recite the Creed, or Profession of Faith. In the Prayer of the Faithful (or Bidding Prayers) the priest and people bring before God the needs of the Church and of the world. 3. The Liturgy of the Eucharist. The worshipping community now celebrates the Sacred Feast of their Lord. They gather around the altar, which is at once the Cornerstone, representing Christ, the Altar of the Sacrifice and the Table of the Lord (see §1182 and 1383). Bread and wine are brought to the altar, where they are presented to the Lord in the Offertory. Then, the celebrant, speaking in the person of Christ, recites the Eucharistic Prayer. This starts with the Preface, the great prayer of thanks, then continues with a prayer in which “the Church asks the Father to send down his Holy Spirit on the gifts of bread and wine, so that by his power they may become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit” (§1353). This prayer is called the epiclesis (a Greek word, meaning to “invoke” or “call down). There now follows the institution narrative, when the priest speaks the words of the Consecration - the words Our Lord spoke at the Last Supper.

• The priest takes the bread and says:

Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.

• Then the priest takes the chalice and says:

Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me. 129

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After this, in the memorial prayer (called the anamnesis - or “remembering”) the Church calls to mind the passion, resurrection and glorious return of Christ and presents to the Father the offering of his Son which reconciles us with him (see §1354). This is followed by the intercessions, when the Church, united with Christ, intercedes, or prays for the living and the dead, in communion with the whole Church in heaven (the saints) and on earth (the Pope, the bishops, priests, deacons and all the Christian people). The prayer ends with a solemn prayer of thanks and praise to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, to which all the faithful respond “Amen” (sometimes called the Great Amen) to show that they fully share in this prayer and sacrificial offering. After the Eucharistic Prayer the whole congregation recites the Lord’s Prayer, or Our Father, the prayer which Christ himself taught us and in which we ask him to give us our daily bread and to forgive us our sins. The priest divides up the consecrated Bread (Breaking of the Bread) and all exchange the sign of peace. Then, in the Communion, the faithful receive the consecrated Bread and sometimes also the Chalice of Salvation - these are now the Body and Blood of Christ, who gave himself for us. 4. The Mass ends with the Final Blessing and the words of dismissal, e.g.: “Go in peace”. The people respond: “Thanks be to God”. Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Bread that brings life, you are the Bread that makes us brothers, you are the Bread that the Father gives us. You are the Way we have chosen, you are the Way that leads through suffering, you are the Way that leads to joy. Yes, indeed it is right to sing to you, to bless and praise you, to thank you and adore you wherever your sovereignty extends. AFTER SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (D. 407) Eucharist. This means “Thanksgiving” and is the name given to the whole celebration of the Mass. At the same time, however, it describes the third part of the Mass, with the Eucharistic Prayer - the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as distinct from the Liturgy of the Word. And the word Eucharist is also used for the consecrated Host that we receive at Mass, and which we at all times venerate with great reverence. When we wish to make clear that the

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Sacrifice of Jesus Christ is made present in the Eucharistic celebration, we speak of the “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”. The expression “Breaking of the Bread” indicates the gesture of sharing and is the oldest name given to this sacrament (Lk 24:35; Acts 2:42; 20:7,11). The word “Mass” (From the Latin word missio - “sending out”) refers to the end of the celebration, when the faithful are “sent out” to become witnesses to Jesus Christ in the daily circumstances of their lives. “The Eucharist is the heart and summit of the Church’s life” (§1407). It is the most perfect expression of the worship we owe to God. Liturgy of the Word. This is the name of the second part of the Mass, but it is also used for other religious services, outside the Mass, when passages from Holy Scripture are read out, explained and meditated upon. Consecration. Our Lord’s words “This is my body”, “This is my blood” are no mere image or metaphor. We believe that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, the bread and wine - our gifts - are truly changed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord, without any change in their visible outward appearance. We believe that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (Council of Trent [1545-1563] - see §1374). This Real Presence of Christ is the ‘Mystery of Faith’ to which we refer when we speak of the Consecration. Sacrifice. “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to... the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection.” (Vatican Council II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 47 - cited in §1323).

15.5 Penance and Reconciliation When we recite the Confiteor at the beginning of Mass, we say together: “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God”. We pray in this way because every single one of us knows that we are only frail humans - people who can do and think evil, people who can sin against God, our fellow men and the creatures entrusted to our care. We pray like this, trusting in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who says of himself: “I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13). He begins his public life with a call to conversion: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand” (Mt 4:17). And to those who are scandalised that he talks with sinners he replies: “There will be more rejoicing in 131

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heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance” (Lk 15:7). It is Jesus who says of the woman, a sinner, who washes his feet with her tears, that “her many sins have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such great love” (Lk 7:47). It is Jesus who has come to seek out the lost sheep (Lk 15:4), who chooses to stay with the tax collector Zaccheus, since he has come to “seek out and save what was lost” (Lk 19:10). It is Jesus who confounds the accusers of the woman caught in adultery by telling them: “If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” and then tells her: “Neither do I condemn you” (Jn 8:7-11). It is Jesus who says to the repentant thief, crucified alongside him: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). And it is Jesus who forgives Peter for his threefold denial and makes him the shepherd of his flock (Jn 21:15-17). In his parables Jesus speaks of a God who loves his people as a father or mother loves a son or daughter. His love is a lasting love that does not cease to burn, even when the loved one follows a path of his own choosing and lives a life contrary to his Father’s word and commandments (Lk 15:11-24). Jesus speaks of the Father. He urges the people - each one individually - to return to the Father, who is slow to anger and quick to forgive. By the authority of the Father, Jesus offers forgiveness and reconciliation to sinners and promises them new life. His Church - the community of the brothers and sisters of Jesus - is the meeting point, the place where a straying but repentant son or daughter can receive forgiveness and be welcomed back into the open arms of the Father - and know his joy that a lost brother or son, sister or daughter has been found again. In order to prepare his Church for this mission, Jesus appears among his disciples on the evening of that first Easter Day, breathes the Holy Spirit into them and empowers them with the authority to forgive sins (Jn 20:22-23). Again, it is for this same service of reconciliation that Jesus says to Peter - the Rock upon which he will build his Church: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19). The way in which the forgiveness of sins which we profess in the Creed can be experienced in practice by each individual is through the Sacrament of Penance, or Confession. Every baptised Catholic is entitled to receive this Sacrament of Reconciliation, through the ministry of a priest who has been formally authorised by the Church. Anyone who, after Baptism, has committed a serious sin must be reconciled with God and with the Church before again receiving Christ in Holy Communion. 132

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The sinner is required to acknowledge his guilt and firmly resolve to change his way of living. In confessing his sins he must also be prepared to do all he can to put right the wrong he has done and to accept the penance the priest imposes on him. Even if he has not committed any serious sin, every baptised Catholic benefits by frequently approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Those who do so, know well that they tend to confess the same sins over and over again. That is due to the fact that we are all subject to tendencies and habits within ourselves which lead us to fall back frequently into the same sins. Regular confession enables the grace of the sacrament to wipe out our sins, purify us little by little of our evil tendencies and give us the strength to live according to the Gospel. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not merely a private matter either, for in reconciling us to God it also reconciles us to the Church by restoring the fraternal (or brotherly) communion which our sins have broken or damaged (see §1469). Through the Communion of Saints there exists a wonderful exchange between all believers, whereby the holiness of one is of benefit to all the others (see §1475), so that each one of us can help to carry our brother’s burden. That is why the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation can also be given within the context of a communal celebration. In such a celebration each person confesses privately and receives individual absolution during a Liturgy of the Word in which the examination of conscience, the prayer for forgiveness and the thanksgiving prayers are made in common by the whole community. This form expresses more clearly the ecclesial nature of penance. In case of grave necessity, when the personal, individual confession of our sins is impossible, the priest may be authorised to grant forgiveness and reconciliation to a group of people. This is called General Absolution. But each individual is still obliged to confess all serious sins, at the first opportunity, in personal, individual confession before a priest (see §1483). The words of absolution: God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 133

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Repentance. This means conversion of heart, a turning away from evil and a radical determination to make a new start. In speaking of the Sacrament of Penance we stress the sinner’s firm intention of making amends for the wrong he has done. We use the word Confession to describe the individual’s own personal confession of his sins. We also use the term Sacrament of Reconciliation, to show that God reconciles us to himself. Forgiveness. “Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church” (§1497). Sins. “Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience” (§1854). “For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: ‘Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent’.” (§1857). “One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent” (§1862).

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Anointing of the Sick

15.6 The Anointing of the Sick When people fall ill, their lives are changed. Often they can no longer care for themselves and have to depend on the help of others. They can no longer go out to others but have to wait for others to come to them. They can no longer “do” things; they no longer seem to have any “value” in society. Often they are lonely, lose courage and give up hope. Jesus did not avoid the sick. Instead he showed them that God loves them, and he healed a great many of them. Since his Church is not only a community of faith but also a community of life, every individual should be able to discover that in her he has a brother, or a sister. Visiting the sick is one of the Corporal Works of Mercy.

• From earliest times special care was shown in the Church towards the sick:

“Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders [presbyters] of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (Jas 5:14-15).

This sacrament is still administered in the same way today. The priest, the ordinary minister of this sacrament, prays for and with the sick person. Then he anoints him or her on the forehead and hands with Holy Oil and says:

• “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you

with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up”.

The Anointing of the Sick is not only for those who are at the point of death. It can also be given when anyone begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age. Indeed, every illness can make us glimpse death. It is fitting to receive this sacrament just prior to a serious operation (see §1514-1515). The anointing is not normally repeated again for a given illness (for it represents a consecration of the state of illness), but it can be repeated if the person’s condition becomes more serious. Hence it is still more appropriate to give it to those on the point of death. Where this is the case, and after the anointing, the sick person is also offered Holy Communion as viaticum (“food for the journey”). The first effect of this sacrament is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a grace of strengthening, of peace and courage. It renews the sick person’s trust and faith in God and 136

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strengthens him against “the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death” (§1520). Through this grace Christ himself “takes our sicknesses away and carries our diseases for us” (see Mt 8:17). He unites the sick person more closely with his own redemptive Passion and makes him share in his saving work - for, like Saint Paul, the suffering person can “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24). And so all our suffering is given a new meaning and, through this sacrament, “contributes to the sanctification of the Church and to the good of all men for whom the Church suffers and offers herself through Christ to God the Father” (§1522). Sometimes, if God wills it, the sacrament may bring about the healing of the sick person - a spiritual sign that God has visited his people and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. When we entrust our lives to Jesus Christ in this way, we can be confident that, even in sickness and when close to death, we will not be separated from this communion with him. As Christians we can trust in our Lord, for he knows what suffering is. We can turn to him and call on him to help us. We can unite our own suffering with his - for the life of the world. None of us lives for himself alone, and none of us dies for himself alone. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that, alive or dead, we belong to the Lord. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS 14:7-8

The sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick may be given in a hospital or in a church, or at home. It may be given to one person or to several people at the same time. Whenever possible, it is desirable that this anointing should be given in the presence of the assembled Christian community and especially during the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ’s Passover, in which the sick may also participate by receiving Holy Communion. “If circumstances suggest it, the celebration of the sacrament can be preceded by the sacrament of Penance and followed by the sacrament of the Eucharist” (§1517).

15.7 Holy Orders Christ Jesus is the unique high priest, “the one mediator between God and men” (1 Tm 2:5), for through his Incarnation he is fully God and fully Man, thus realising 137

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perfectly the union of the two natures in his unique Person. On the cross he offers the unique redemptive sacrifice which reconciles all things with God (see §1544-1545). He has founded the Church as a community of praise and thanksgiving, of life and sharing together. It is the community of those who have been reconciled with God by their Lord Jesus Christ. Every baptised and confirmed Christian has a share in the priesthood of Christ. In this sense we speak of the “common priesthood” or baptismal priesthood. This means that each one of us shares in the priestly mission of Christ, according to his or her particular vocation. For through his life of faith, hope and charity - the unfolding of our baptismal grace in the Spirit - each Christian man and woman is thereby, in Christ, a priest (offering himself and all his brothers to God), a prophet (witnessing to God and to his Good News) and a king (working for the fulfilment of creation according to the plan of God).

• In his first letter Saint Peter reminds a persecuted community of its great dignity: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light (1 Pt 2:9).

In order for the Church to be really the Body of which Christ is the Head (Col 1:18), it is necessary that Christ, as the Head, should be tangibly present to his Church even after his visible presence has been taken from us by his Ascension (see §788). This is achieved through the ministerial priesthood, which represents - that is to say, makes present - Christ. The ministers, chosen by the Church from among the community of the faithful, are at the service of this community; they are servants of the common priesthood - a service “directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians” (§1547). They must preserve the unity of this community and watch over the common fidelity of all to the faith. They are consecrated for this service this ministry - through the Sacrament of Order (Holy Orders). Already during his earthly life, Jesus himself had chosen twelve men from among his disciples and appointed them his apostles (that is, his envoys). He himself sent them out to proclaim the Gospel, to show by means of signs that the Kingdom of God is near, to baptise and to gather together the new people of God from among all the nations on earth. After Pentecost, inspired by the Holy Spirit, they preach, at first in Jerusalem and then throughout Judea and Samaria, and finally in every country, right to the very ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Everywhere they establish communities and appoint “Elders” at the head of these communities, passing on to them their own ministry, by prayer and the laying on of hands. 138

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• When conflict arises in the Christian community in Jerusalem, because one group - the widows of the Greek-speaking converts from Judaism - are being neglected, the apostles appoint helpers to take over this aspect of their work. Saint Luke describes, in Chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles, how seven deacons are chosen and how the apostles then commission them by the imposition of hands. To this day the sacramental ministry in the Church comprises three degrees bishops, priests and deacons.

• Bishop. The word comes from the Greek episkopos - meaning an “overseer”. The

bishop is a successor of the apostles. He has received the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders (§1557) by a special outpouring of the Spirit, through the consecration carried out by prayer and the imposition of hands by other bishops. Normally, the bishop oversees a diocese. Within it he is responsible for the proclamation of the Gospel, the Liturgy, the preaching of the Faith and the sanctification of the People of God, whom he must lead towards the Kingdom. And so he must have a care for all souls, especially the smallest and the poorest. As a successor of the apostles, the bishop decides to whom to entrust a ministry within the Church. He ordains the priests and deacons of his diocese. The first among the bishops is the Bishop of Rome - in other words the Pope. He is the successor of Saint Peter, to whom the risen Lord entrusted his flock (Jn 21:15-17).

• Priest. The Greek word presbyteros means an “Elder”. The priest is ordained by

the bishop as his co-worker, principally in order to preach the Gospel and celebrate the Sacraments. He shares in the authority Christ has given the bishops and normally runs a parish (a portion of a diocese) and supervises it. When a priest is ordained the bishop imposes his hands first, after which all the other priests present do the same. This is a sign of the communion of the priestly body or college (the presbyterium) united around their bishop - to whom they promise obedience.

• Deacon. (Greek: diakonos - “servant”). His ordination configures him to

Christ, who made himself the servant of all. He is consecrated to the service of the Christian community through the various ministries of charity - especially to the poor and the sick, community prayer, Word liturgies, catechesis. The deacon assists the bishop and priests in the celebration of the Eucharist and the distribution of Holy Communion, by blessing marriages, proclaiming the Gospel and preaching, and by presiding over funerals (see §1570). The bishop ordains him by the imposition of hands.

For the men entrusted with a ministry in the Church a quite special standard applies. Education, knowledge and social standing are not what count. What matters most 139

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is their faith in God, their closeness to Christ and their love for their fellow men, above all the poor. For no one can become a living witness, through whom the love of God can be seen by his fellow men, unless he adheres to the words of Jesus: “Anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all” (Mk 10:43-44). In the Church as a whole, the episcopate - the rank of bishop - can be conferred only upon men who remain celibate, or unmarried. The same general rule applies to the priests of the Latin rite. The diaconate can be administered to married men. Just as Saint Peter - who was appointed as the first among the apostles by Our Lord - was joined together with the other apostles in a single apostolic “college” or permanent assembly, so the Pope - the Bishop of Rome and the successor of Saint Peter - joins together with all the bishops (who themselves are successors of the other apostles), to form a single episcopal college in which all the bishops bear “collegial”, or shared, responsibility for all the Churches (see §1560). As the Vicar of Christ and shepherd of the whole Church, the Pope is the guarantor and the foundation of the unity of the Church. The college of bishops likewise exercises full authority over the whole Church, but only in union with the Pope, the bishop of Rome, and never apart from him. When there are conflicts to be resolved or points of faith to be explained which affect the whole Church, the Pope calls all the bishops together in a full assembly, known as a “council”. In all the history of the Church there have been 21 such councils. Their decisions are binding on the whole Church. The last such council was from 1962-1965 in the Vatican, in Rome. It is known as the “Second Vatican Council”. We pray: Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together with N. our Pope and N. our Bishop and all the clergy. FROM THE SECOND EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

15.8 Matrimony (Marriage) Normally every child is born into a family. The faces of father and mother are the first things the baby sees, their smiles are the dawning of his or her human aware140

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ness. With the help of their guiding hands the child learns to walk upright and to trust in their love. Those who are deprived of this positive experience at the start of life often find it hard to trust in others, to believe in love and accept love. It is in loving that man becomes truly himself. For God, who is love itself, has created man in his own image - both man and woman (Gen 1:27). When a man and a woman meet and fall in love and wish to spend their lives together, an important time begins for them. This is the time of their engagement, a time of preparation. It should be a school of life and of chastity, a time of grace, during which they grow together in a deeper understanding of their future commitment in marriage. In the Sacrament of Matrimony they promise to be faithful to each other for life in a free exchange of promises. It is this free consent which makes the marriage. Their human love is then transformed inwardly, by the love of God himself, in such a way that they can communicate this love of God to each other for their mutual sanctification (see §1639-1642). And because it is no longer a matter of their own shared love only, but also of the love of God, they make these promises publicly, before the assembled Church community (represented especially by the witnesses) and before the priest himself. In the name of the Church, he gives them the nuptial blessing through which the spouses - who are themselves the ministers of this sacrament - receive the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who brings about the communion of love between Christ and his Church (see §1624). Jesus himself grew up in a family, where the holiness of Mary and Joseph was outstanding. At the beginning of his public life he chose to reveal himself to his disciples by performing his first sign during a wedding feast (Jn 2:1-11). “The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence” (§1613). This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS 5:32

The union of the married couple is sealed by the mutual gift of themselves - so that they become “one body and one soul” and so find wholeness and happiness. By its very nature married love implies something beyond self, and thus an openness to fertility. And so, from the union of husband and wife, new life can arise 141

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husband and wife now become father and mother. So their life expands. Every child is a gift from God, but at the same time a sacred mission entrusted to them. That is why it is important for the married couple to reflect, in the sight of God and in the light of conscience, and to seek his will as to the number of their children and how they will raise them. Equally, and for the same reason, every child has the right to be born into a family founded on marriage. “Unity, indissolubility and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. Polygamy is incompatible with the unity of marriage; divorce separates what God has joined together; the refusal of fertility turns married life away from its ‘supreme gift’, the child” (§1664, citing Gaudium et Spes, 50). Marriage is a union for life. Jesus says: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mk 10:9). For many people this is a difficult commandment, for there is no guarantee of a successful relationship. People can be disappointed in each other, love can be stifled in sickness or adversity. It can happen that two people who once loved each other can no longer get on, no longer talk to each other. They become estranged. The truth is that the Sacrament of Marriage should not remain a simple memory of happy times. For this sacrament, once received, remains with the married couple, each day and to the end of their lives, as a source of grace. To this source they can turn, again and again, to renew their mutual love and find strength to forgive, support in times of trial and joy in mutual fidelity. In the end, though, there are marriages that fail. But even in such circumstances Christians are right to believe that they have not been abandoned by the love of God, nor indeed of Christ’s Church (see §1649-1651). “The remarriage of persons divorced from a living, lawful spouse contravenes the plan and law of God as taught by Christ. They are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic communion. They will lead Christian lives especially by educating their children in the faith” (1665). The marriage vow: I take thee... as my lawful, wedded wife (husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. 142

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What God has joined together, let no man put asunder

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PART THREE

THE VOCATION OF MAN LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

Life in the Spirit

LIFE IN CHRIST

16.

The vocation of man - Life in the Spirit

The human person is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake” (§1703, citing GS 24), and from the moment of his conception he is destined for eternal happiness. God has given him a spiritual and immortal soul which enables him to participate “in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection ‘in seeking and loving what is true and good’” (§1704).

16.1 The dignity of the human person

• Man is made in the image of God When God created man - man and woman - he created them in his own image, after his own likeness (Gen 1:26). But this original beauty was spoiled by Original Sin, so that man was no longer able to know the splendour of his calling. He had to wait until the Son of God became Man, before he could truly understand what it means to be made in the image of God. For in truth Christ himself is the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). He is the perfect Son, who made himself one of us in order to reveal to us the mystery of his Father and draw us with him into his filial love for the Father. Now, when we contemplate Jesus, the Son of God made Man, we can perceive all the beauty of man as the image of God, and we can understand the sublime nature of the calling of every human being. “It is in Christ, Redeemer and Saviour, 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” (§1701).

• “He himself made man in the beginning, and then left him free to make his own decisions” (Sir 15:14).

“God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions” (§1730). This means that man has the 147

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capacity to seek his Creator of his own accord and freely cling to him, so achieving the full perfection to which he is called. It is this freedom especially that gives our human nature its great beauty and dignity. “Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognised as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person” (§1738).

• Human liberty and sanctity In dying on the Cross, Christ won salvation for all men. He redeemed us from the sin which held us in bondage and, as Saint Paul explains, “When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free” (Gal 5:1). He is the Truth and in him we have communion with the “truth that makes us free” (Jn 8:32). He has given us his Holy Spirit, and “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17). Thanks to the salvation won for us by Jesus, the Son of God, our freedom has become the “liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). This freedom has been given us, not so that we can choose indiscriminately between good and evil, but so that we can of our own accord choose what is good and corresponds to the truth. The grace of Christ is in no way opposed to our freedom - on the contrary, the more we are docile to the prompting of grace, the more our inner freedom will grow. This is because we now have an interior strength that enables us to make real choices in favour of the good, without being swayed by the pressures and constraints of the outside world or by our selfish impulses and natural inclinations, which tend to imprison us within ourselves. The martyrs are shining examples of this freedom, for they have learned how to remain constant in their faith and love for Christ, undaunted even by the most terrible death. The Holy Spirit leads us towards spiritual freedom so that, by clinging to God’s will, we can freely co-operate in his work in the Church and the world (see §1741-42). This is what holiness means.

• The voice of conscience Every person has a voice deep within his own heart - the voice that we call conscience. This voice enables him to judge the value of what he does. Our conscience is our most intimate and secret centre, the sanctuary where we are alone with God and where we hear his voice. An upright conscience makes every man, woman and child capable of distinguishing between what is good and what is bad. That is why we can say: I have a clear conscience, I acted correctly. Or else: I 148

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have a guilty conscience, my conscience bothers me, I did wrong. “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment... For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God” (§1776, citing Gaudium et Spes, 16). By means of his conscience man recognises what God expects of him. And so everyone is obliged to listen to the voice of his conscience and to do what it tells him. Anyone who suppresses or ignores the voice of his own conscience does violence to himself and acts against his own happiness. We have to “form” our conscience - that is to train it to discern this law that we find in our hearts. The education of our conscience is the task of a lifetime. It begins in early childhood - and this is why the education given by parents and other educators is so important. For Christians “the Word of God is the light for our path; we must assimilate it in faith and prayer, and put it into practice... We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church” (§1785). And there are two important practical ways in which we can help to form our conscience correctly - frequent examination of conscience and frequent reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

16.2 Jesus - the Way, the Truth and the Life

• The way of happiness Every man holds in his heart the natural desire for happiness. This desire comes from God, who has placed it in our hearts in order to draw us to himself, for God alone can truly fulfil this longing. One day Jesus went up a mountain and, speaking to a large crowd of his disciples, proclaimed the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12). These lie at the heart of all his teaching and have struck a deep chord throughout the world, ever since they were spoken, for they correspond at the deepest level to our natural desire for happiness. And indeed they respond to the fullest extent to this longing, since our happiness can never be a purely earthly one. For it will find its complete fulfilment only in the Kingdom of Heaven. 149

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How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage. Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted. Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied. Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them. Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God. Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God. Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. THE BEATITUDES. GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 5:3-12

The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ’s disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §1717

• Jesus and morality One day a young man comes up to Jesus and asks him this question: “Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?” (Mt 19:16). Jesus replies: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” In this way Jesus shows us that the commandments of God point out to man the way of life and lead towards it. In the old Covenant, Moses gave the people the Ten Commandments of God, 150

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the Decalogue. Jesus, the Son of God and fullness of revelation, now gives us these commandments again. He confirms them definitively and presents them to us as the way and condition of salvation. The person who follows the commandments obtains eternal life - which is a sharing in the very life of God himself. This sharing is not fully achieved until after death, but in faith it is even now the light of truth and the source of meaning for our lives. Already now we are beginning to share in this fullness, thanks to our union with Jesus, whom we agree to follow.

16.3 The fullness of the Law “Your righteousness is eternal righteousness, your Law holds true for ever” (Ps 119:142). The young man in the Gospel who comes to ask Jesus what good thing he must do, does so because Jesus himself is the fullness of the Law. He himself has given us his Spirit which unites us to him, and makes us resemble him - makes us act in accordance with his will.

• The One Commandment Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him. GOSPEL OF SAINT JOHN 14:21

In the books of the Old Testament there are many commandments and precepts. They tell us what matters in God’s eyes and how to live a life that is pleasing in his sight. The teachers and the holy men of Israel ask: is there any one commandment that is more important than all the others, one that includes and sums up all the others? 151

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Is there a simple way to say what a person should be and do in order to inherit eternal life with God? The Jewish teachers searched in the holy books and found certain basic principles of this kind. And so it is not surprising that the Jewish teachers of Our Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time wanted to know what this teacher from Nazareth thought about it. Jesus links together two phrases from the Old Testament to form a single commandment. Jesus says: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 22:37-39

This commandment, which Jesus describes as the basis of all the others, is a programme for life. For the one who loves, there is no more fear of the almighty God, the God who punishes. Such a person can trust God and remain faithful to him - even when he has been crushed to the ground, like Job, and cannot understand what God is doing. He knows he can count on Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love, even when he has gone astray, like the prodigal son. The man who loves God with all his heart, with all his soul and all his mind will inherit life. Strengthened by this love, the person who commits himself to the service of others and sets his face against hatred and mistrust, fear and despair - who commits himself out of love - is the one who truly serves God and his fellow men. In doing so he assumes his true stature as a man, and in all his human relations too. For this is a love that embraces everything - God, our neighbour, and ourselves. God has loved us first. When we sin, you do not let us fall completely. When we are down, you help us up again. When we repent, you come to meet us. When we doubt, you speak your Word to us. When our sins crush us, you take us in your arms. When we believe, you save us from judgement. When we die, you call us to life. That is why we can love one another. 152

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A love that embraces everything God, our neighbour and ourselves

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• The Ten Commandments After God had liberated his People from slavery in Egypt and was leading them towards freedom in the Promised Land, he proposed a Covenant with them on which the future of the People of Israel was to depend:

You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. EXODUS 19:4-6

The memory retained by Israel of the Covenant that God concluded with his People on Mount Sinai, in the desert, is a sacred tradition. The conditions of this Covenant - the Ten Commandments - were written on two tablets of stone and kept in the Ark of the Covenant. They are a commitment for all time. For in fact the people of Israel understood well that these commandments, given by God to his own People, are founded on love. He wants men to become like him - and he is Love itself.

This Law that I enjoin on you today is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, “Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, “Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” No, the Word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance. DEUTERONOMY 30:11-14

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• The First Commandment

You shall not have strange gods before me “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength” (Dt 6:5). This first commandment tells us to believe in God, to hope in him and to love him above all things. It also means that we must acknowledge God as the One True God and pay him the genuine worship and adoration that is due to him. This is a duty we must fulfil both individually and socially. “All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it. This duty derives from the very dignity of the human person” (§2104, citing Dignitatis humanae, 1, 2). The first commandment forbids atheism, idolatry, superstition, divination and magic. It also forbids irreligion, heresy, and incredulity - which is the neglect of revealed truth or the wilful refusal to assent to it (§2089).

• The Second Commandment

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain “How great is your name, O Lord our God, through all the earth!” (Ps 8:1). The second commandment obliges us to respect the Lord’s name. The name of the Lord is holy (§2161). It also obliges us to honour the vows and promises we have made. The second commandment forbids the abuse of God’s name, especially blasphemy and false oaths; it also includes every improper use of the names of God, of Jesus Christ, and also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints (see §2162).

• The Third Commandment

Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy” (Dt 5:12). “The seventh day must be a day of complete rest, consecrated to Yahweh” (Ex 31:15). The word Sabbath means “seventh”. However, since the Resurrection of Christ took place on the “eighth day” - the first day of the New Creation the day we call the Lord’s Day, or Sunday - it is this day that the Church celebrates as a day of grace and holiness. The third commandment obliges us to honour God on Sundays and feast days by acts of public worship. For Christians Holy Mass is the first and greatest form of this worship. One of the Commandments of the Church requires the faithful to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. 155

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The third commandment means that the faithful should not engage in work or any other activities that might hinder the worship owed to God, except where there is a just necessity. “The institution of Sunday helps all to be allowed sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social and religious lives” (§2194, citing Gaudium et Spes, 67).

• The Fourth Commandment

Honour your father and your mother “Honour your father and your mother” (Dt 5:16; Mk 7:10). By the fourth commandment “God has willed that, after him, we should honour our parents... and all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority” (§2197). This commandment therefore means that we must respect and obey our parents, and all those who have legitimate authority over us. “Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children, in the faith, prayer and all the virtues. They have the duty to provide, as far as possible, for the physical and spiritual needs of their children” (§2252). They must respect and encourage their children’s vocations. They should remember, and teach their children, that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus (see §2253).

• The Fifth Commandment You shall not kill

“He holds in his power the soul of every living thing, and the breath of each man’s body” (Job 12:10). “Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred, because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God” (§2319). The fifth commandment obliges us to love every human being, even our enemies, and to make amends for any physical and spiritual harm done to our neighbour. The fifth commandment forbids murder, suicide, wilful injury, blows, insults, curses, and attitudes which lead others to evil. The fifth commandment also forbids abortion, which the Church punishes with excommunication. “Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder” (§2324). 156

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• The Sixth Commandment

You shall not commit adultery “Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being” (§2392, citing Familiaris Consortio, 11). “By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity” (§2393). The sixth commandment calls us to be saints even in our physical bodies, and by showing the greatest possible respect for ourselves and for other individuals, since we are works of God and temples of the Holy Spirit. The covenant which spouses have freely entered into demands faithful love. It imposes on them the obligation to keep their marriage indissoluble. “Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage” (§1664; see p. 142). “So the Church, which ‘is on the side of life’ teaches that each and every marriage act must remain open per se to the transmission of life” (§2366). In contrast, “every action” – for example direct sterilization or contraception – “which... proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil” (§2370; see also §2399). Artificial insemination and the various forms of in vitro fertilisation are also immoral because they dissociate procreation from the intimate and mutual self-giving of the spouses and entrust “the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists”, allowing technology to dominate “the origin and destiny of the human person”. This is contrary to the “dignity and equality” of both parents and children (see §2376-2377). The sixth commandment forbids all impurity in deeds, thoughts or looks. It forbids immoral books, images and entertainments. Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication and prostitution, pornography and homosexual practices.

• The Seventh Commandment You shall not steal

“You shall not steal” (Ex 20:15; Dt 5:19). “Neither thieves, nor the greedy..., nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:10). “The seventh commandment enjoins the practice of justice and charity in the administration of earthly goods and the fruits of men’s labour” (§2451). “The seventh commandment forbids theft. Theft is the usurpation of another’s goods against the reasonable will of the owner” (§2453). 157

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“Every manner of taking and using another’s property unjustly is contrary to the seventh commandment” (§2454). The seventh commandment obliges us to make reparation for injustice committed and to restore stolen goods; we must also pay debts, and employers must pay a just wage to their workers.

• The Eighth Commandment

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour” (Ex 20:16). Christ’s disciples have “put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). “Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and guarding against duplicity, dissimulation and hypocrisy” (§2505). The eighth commandment requires us to tell the truth at all times and in all places, and to interpret the actions of others in a positive light. The eighth commandment forbids all lying, and all detraction and calumny in word or attitude. “Lying consists in saying what is false with the intention of deceiving one’s neighbour” (§2508). “An offence committed against the truth requires reparation” (§2509).

• The Ninth Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife “Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28). The ninth commandment demands perfect purity of heart. The ninth commandment warns us against all disordered desires and concupiscence of the flesh, and forbids impure thoughts and desires. “Purification of the heart demands prayer, the practice of chastity, purity of intention and of vision” (§2532). “Purity of heart requires the modesty which is patience, decency and discretion. Modesty protects the intimate centre of the person” (§2533).

• The Tenth Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21). The tenth commandment requires us to be just and moderate in our desire to improve our own condition, and to bear with patience the difficulties

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which spring from our situation. Detachment from riches is essential for entry into the kingdom of heaven. “The tenth commandment forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power” (§2552). “Envy is sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to have them for oneself. It is a capital sin” (§2553). “The baptised person combats envy through good will, humility and abandonment to the providence of God” (§2554). God’s commandments are equally valid for all people. They bind us to God, protect the rights of each individual and safeguard the peace of the community. Every man can and should be guided by them. For God’s commandments are not just a catalogue of rules and regulations that have been imposed on man from outside. They correspond to our true nature and respect our human dignity. What God commands, he makes possible by his grace. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §2082 Saint Paul writes to the Christians in Rome: Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbour as yourself. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS 13:8-10 The Commandments of the Church: The Church gives us various precepts, or commandments, in order to help us to live together as Christians in community (see §2041-2043): 1. You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation and rest from servile labour. This means that we must celebrate Sunday as the “Lord’s Day”, the memorial of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It should be a day of rest and Christian sharing. Especially, this means attending Mass, which is the central act of the Church’s worship. 2. You shall confess your sins at least once a year (see Appendix, p. 198). 3. You shall receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least once, during the Easter season. We should go to Confession and receive Communion regularly, but at least once a year

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and around Easter time (we call this “doing our Easter duties”). In the Sacrament of Reconciliation Jesus grants us forgiveness and the grace to make a fresh start. In Holy Communion he offers his very self to those who belong to him. No Christian should refuse such gifts as these. Only those in a state of serious sin are excluded from receiving Holy Communion. Instead they should go to Confession as soon as possible. 4. You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church. On these days we are required to abstain from meat and observe the fast prescribed. On Fridays - the day when Jesus died - we must make some voluntary act of selfdenial. He died for love of us; therefore we must unite with him and express our solidarity in a visible way, for example by abstaining from meat or some other food, drink or amusement, or by helping others in a spirit of Christian sharing. 5. You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church. We should actively support the Church, both the worldwide Catholic Church and our own local parish or diocese. This not only means not finding fault with others, but instead helping generously wherever we can. And it also means letting others help us when we are in need.

16.4 “Follow me” The young man in the Gospel hears the reply of Jesus: In order to do what is good we must keep the commandments. Indeed, as he says, he has followed this moral ideal, seriously and generously, “from my earliest days” (Mk 10:20). And yet he knows that he is still far from his goal. Face to face with Jesus himself, he realises that he still lacks something. The young man understands that he cannot achieve the fullness for which he longs if he contents himself with a purely legalistic interpretation of living the commandments. And so Jesus invites him to set out on the path of perfection: If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 19:21

To follow Jesus means to put into practice the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) - a teaching which refers us straight back to the Ten Commandments (Mt 5:20-48). However, it begins with the proclamation of the Beatitudes. In this way Jesus shows us that the commandments are open and directed towards the perfection of the Beatitudes. They are promises, but at the same time they are clear pointers for all those who wish to live a truly moral life. “They are a sort of self-portrait of 160

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Christ, and for this very reason are invitations to discipleship and to communion of life with Christ” (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 16).

• Love... as you love yourself Many people say: You can tell Christians by the way they love their fellow men. And it is in relation to these, our fellow men, that Jesus measures his followers’ love. He says: “Love your neighbour” - but he also says: “Love him as you love yourself”. So we might also say that you can tell a true Christian by the fact that he treats others as he would himself. Therefore we must not imagine we can just give a few coppers to a poor man and then turn away, smugly pleased at having done a “good work” and “observed the commandments”. Instead we must make no distinction; for the other person should be as precious to us as we are to ourselves. We tend to speak much more about loving others than about loving ourselves, even though - according to Jesus’ own words - love of ourselves is the precondition and the measure of love for our neighbour. Loving ourselves begins with the recognition that I myself am worthy of being loved - I, with all my qualities and faults, my successes and failures, I - a girl or boy among so many others. For it is quite true. God wants me, with everything that makes me the unique and distinct individual that I am. It is because God loves me just as I am that I can live, without envy, among others - and give praise and thanks to God. I can accept myself, discover my talents and abilities, try to overcome my faults by trusting in the grace of God. I can rejoice when others praise me, yet at the same time I can accept and learn from criticism and rebukes. In short, I can love myself with a humble love that springs from God’s loving gaze upon me; a selfrespect that rests upon the confidence that God will never abandon me. One of Israel’s wise men warns his contemporaries: A man who hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others, and others will live sumptuously on his riches. If a man is mean to himself, to whom will he be good? He does not even enjoy what is his own. No one is meaner than the man who is mean to himself. SIRACH (ECCLESIASTICUS) 14:4-6

But the person who has found himself can now go out to others, without fear that others might exploit him. Someone who knows himself to be accepted and valued can then accept and value his fellow men. 161

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O Lord, you search me and you know me. You know my resting and my rising. You discern my purpose from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down. All my ways lie open to you. PSALM 139:1-3

• Providing what the other person needs The evangelist Saint Luke records the conversation between Jesus and a Jewish lawyer who wants to know what it means to love his neighbour. He asks Jesus: “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus replies with the story of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37). A man is on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem. On the way he is attacked by robbers who beat him, take all he has and leave him lying there, half dead. A priest comes by - a man who knows all about God’s commandments. He sees the man but does not stop. Then a Levite comes by - another man whose profession it is to know the laws of God. He too sees the man, and passes by on his way. Finally, a man from Samaria comes by. He is one of the people that pious Jews will have nothing to do with because they consider that the Samaritans do not worship God in the right way. The Samaritan sees the wounded man and is moved to pity for him. He goes up to him, binds up his wounds, puts him on his own mule and takes him to an inn, where he pays for him to be looked after. In conclusion, Jesus turns to the lawyer and asks him: Now you tell me, which of these three proved himself a neighbour to the wounded man? The man understands and is shaken. For what Jesus is so obviously saying is much more than this lawyer had ever imagined before. He understands: I can and must be a neighbour to every man. Not only to those I like, or to my relatives and friends, but even to total strangers, and even to people of other faiths... On another occasion Jesus says: “You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:43-45). And so everyone I meet can become my neighbour - and I must be a neighbour to anyone who needs me. The need of the other person tells me what I must do. And if anyone should ask just how far I should go in helping, then there is a simple rule to follow: I myself am the measure. If I give someone in need the same help that I would wish to receive if I were in the same need then I will have fulfilled the commandment of Jesus. 162

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Providing what the other person needs

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He is your brother; don’t cheat him, don’t deceive him, don’t mistreat him, don’t condemn him, don’t resent him, don’t ignore him... Just love him. She is your sister; respect her, protect her, accept her, welcome her, listen to her... Just love her. “Love your neighbour”, Jesus tells us. And this love means not only giving material help. It also means reaching out to the other person - someone who may have lost all hope and all self-confidence, who may hate himself and have reached the end of his tether - and saying: I know that God loves you. And because you are worthy to be loved by God, you have every reason to love yourself. In the Book of Tobit there is a phrase we call the “Golden Rule”. It is this: “What you hate, do not do to anyone” (Tob 4:15). Our Lord phrases this rule in positive form in the Sermon on the Mount, as Saint Matthew records: “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Mt 7:12). Besides, as Jesus explains, it is his own face that we see in the face of each of our brothers; hence we must treat them as we would Jesus himself and love them with the same love that Jesus has for us: “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). And again: “This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12). We are to love, then, because he loved us first. Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. FIRST LETTER OF SAINT JOHN 4:19-21 164

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16.5 Growing through Grace - the Virtues While the commandment of love sums up all the other commandments and enables us to direct the whole of our life in imitation of Christ, it is nonetheless true that we cannot achieve this goal by our unaided human strength. It is a way of growth that is impossible without the grace of God. As Christians we can discover this power of grace, a force that day by day transforms us inwardly and enables us to truly fulfil our vocation in Christ, through the working of the Holy Spirit. The “virtues” are what provide us with this possibility of growth.

• The Virtues Anyone who has spent years learning to play a musical instrument will no doubt recall the difficulties he had at the beginning. He had to work hard, but the efforts paid off and now he can play easily, skilfully and tunefully in a way that is attractive to himself and to others. This image helps us to understand something about the virtues. “A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions” (§1803). Someone who practises doing good becomes more and more accomplished at it. The virtues take root in him and develop. Then he finds it somewhat easier to be just, true, pure, honourable...

Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS 4:8

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• The Virtues and Grace It is not easy for us men, wounded as we are by sin, to lead a virtuous life. Christ gives us the grace we need to persevere in trying to acquire the virtues. There is a grace of light and strength that we can acquire through prayer and by frequenting the sacraments. We have to call on the Holy Spirit to support us and help us to follow his promptings - to love what is good and to shun evil. And so “Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace. With God’s help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practise them” (§1810).

• The Theological Virtues - Faith, Hope and Charity Saint Paul explains that charity “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14). This means that charity animates and inspires our every activity as humans, as Christians. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, to the point where we can love like God. But charity is inseparable from faith and hope; the three together are known as the “Theological Virtues”, since they relate directly to God. They are “infused by God into the souls of the faithful in order to make them capable of acting as his children” (§1813). They dispose us to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity and are the foundation of our Christian moral activity - for if we live according to the theological virtues, then we allow the Holy Spirit to be present and active in us. The Theological Virtues are supernatural virtues, infused into our souls by God: By Faith we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief (§1842). By Hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, the eternal life he has promised and the graces to merit it (§1843). By Charity we love God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves for love of God (§1844).

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To love God as he loves himself, and love others as God loves them; to believe in God, to know him as he knows himself - even if only in the obscurity of faith for God is forever mystery; to hope for complete communion with God, so that, after death, I can see him as he is and be like him.

• The Commandments and Charity “Love is the fulfilling of the Law”, Saint Paul tells the Romans (Rom 13:10). And indeed, “the Ten Commandments state what is required in the love of God and love of neighbour. The first three concern love of God, and the other seven love of neighbour” (§2067). The Christian is called to allow himself to be penetrated and transformed by the love of God, so that God himself can freely love and act through him. Thus, “he no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who first loved us” (§1828). If we are able to live according to the commandments, then it is “because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us” (Rom 5:5). Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus experienced this in her daily life: “O Lord, I know that you never command anything impossible. You know better than me my weakness, my imperfection, you know well that I could never love my sisters as you love them, if you yourself, O my Jesus, did not love them still more in me. It is because you have wished to grant me this grace that you have made a new commandment. Oh! How I love it because it gives me the assurance that your will is to love in me all those whom you command me to love!... Yes, when I am charitable, I sense that it is Jesus alone who acts in me; the more I am united to him, the more I love all my sisters too” (Autobiographical manuscript C, folio 12). 167

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• The Gifts of the Holy Spirit Along with the Theological Virtues, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are an integral part of the grace received in Baptism. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord. They are “permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit” (§1830). Their presence is a source of great confidence, for we know that in them God gives us the means of receiving his daily help, so that we may love and act as he desires. Thanks to them the Spirit leads to perfection our virtues and all our actions as Christians. These gifts are linked to Charity; hence the more we grow in supernatural love, the more the Holy Spirit can use these gifts to guide us in accordance with what God wishes for us - and for others through us. This enables us to understand the advice of Saint John of the Cross, that it is of the highest importance to practise charity. The fruits of the Spirit should be apparent in the character and life of the Christian. They are “perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, selfcontrol, chastity” (§1832). For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God... If children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS 8:14; 17

• “I want to see God” With this cry from Saint Teresa of Avila, the Catechism of the Catholic Church concludes the section on morality, life in the Spirit. For indeed, the desire for true happiness finds its fulfilment in the vision and beatitude of God. “Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive” (§2548, citing Saint Gregory of Nyssa). This hope frees us from our immoderate attachment to the goods of this world and encourages us to struggle generously, with the grace of God, to mortify our cravings and prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power. With humility, 168

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patience and perseverance, and sustained by the working of the Holy Spirit within us, we can advance step by step towards perfect communion with God and the loving service of our fellow men. Having no other law than that of evangelical love, and together with all those who have made this same commitment, we will finally hear, on that last day, the words of Jesus, the King of Glory, addressed to us: Come, you blessed of my Father... Enter into the joy of your Father... Where I am, I have prepared a place for you. SEE MATTHEW 25:21; 34; JOHN 14:3

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PART FOUR

PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Prayer - an encounter with God

CHRISTIANS PRAY

17. Prayer - an encounter with God

17.1 Prayer in the Old Testament Throughout the Bible we see the unceasing dialogue of God with man. It is God who takes the initiative: “Where are you?” He asks Adam, who is hiding after his sin (Gen 3:9). It is God who first calls Abraham, who gives him his mission and blesses him (Gen 12:1-3). Abraham responds to the call of God; he learns to discern something of the depth of God’s mystery and of his plan. Despite the test to which his faith is submitted, he trusts in the faithfulness of God. It is the same with Moses, David, Elijah and all the prophets. They enter into a great intimacy with God, who has taken hold of them and speaks to them “face to face” (Ex 33:11). They stand before the Lord; they contemplate him in his grandeur and power, which are expressed above all in his inexhaustible mercy for his people. And, tirelessly, they intercede for their brethren and proclaim to them what they have seen and heard in the presence of the Lord.

• In their “one to one” encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength

for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to the Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Saviour God, the Lord of history. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §2584

David and the great men of prayer of the Old Covenant have left us the Psalms texts inspired by God to nourish the prayer of believers, whether in individual or communal prayer. By recalling the wondrous things God has done in the past, they revive the hope that his promises will be fulfilled. In them, we find the 173

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expression of all the most human of sentiments - joy and distress, thanksgiving and petition, contemplation and commitment, confidence and protestation, compassion and anger... But everything is imbued with a spirit of praise, even in suffering and injustice, which become reasons for blessing God in a spirit of hope. Little by little the Psalms became a part of the Jewish liturgy. When Jesus makes use of them to praise and invoke his Father he gives them a new dimension. And so it is not only from the people of Israel but above all from Jesus himself that the Church has received the Psalms.

17.2 The Prayer of Jesus 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. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §2598

Jesus knows the prayers of the Jewish community. He prays, praises and gives thanks from within the heart of the assembly of believers. On the Sabbath day he goes with his disciples to the synagogue to celebrate the divine worship. At meal times he sings the Psalms of David with them. He also retires frequently in order to pray at length. Quite alone. One morning, well before daybreak, his disciples find him praying in a lonely place (Mk 1:35). On another occasion he sends them by boat to the other side of the lake so that he can remain behind and pray in the hills (Mk 6:46). On the mountain of the Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-10) and in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mk 14:32-42), he is there, praying alone before his Father, in a prayer that sheds light on his filial attitude - for he is the beloved Son. Here the “newness of prayer” that Jesus brought 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” (§2599). 174

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The Gospels show us the prayer of Jesus as a prayer of thanksgiving to the Father, through the action of the Holy Spirit: “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children” (Lk 10:21). On another occasion it is a request: “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail” (Lk 22:32), or the expression of total confidence in a request: “I knew indeed that you always hear me” (Jn 11:42). Even in his very last moment Jesus reaffirms the gift of himself to his Father, in obedience and trust: “Abba!... But let it be as you, not I, would have it” (Mk 14:36); “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46). His last prayer is the “loud cry” with which he expires and yields up his spirit (see Mk 15:37; Jn 19:30). All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, §2606

17.3 The life of prayer How is it that Jesus stopped his work in order to immerse himself in prayer? Why is it that prayer is such a vital necessity? Why is it not enough to commit oneself generously to our family and professional duties, to evangelisation or even to the struggle for justice and peace? Life cannot be reduced to activity, to efficiency. It is also contemplation, friendship, relaxation, celebration. In prayer man places himself explicitly in a state of dependence on God and in the radiance of his love. He gives thanks for the gifts received and prepares to receive those which he is requesting. At a still deeper level, the Christian places his entire being in a filial communion with God, through Jesus. In so doing he expresses the fundamental attitude of faith, hope and charity in ways which vary according to the situation, the joys, the sorrows both personal and shared in community. 175

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In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit... Its dimensions are those of Christâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Â§2565

A relationship is a living one if it is regular and frequent. That is why a child of God gives some time each day to his Father and loves to return to his presence as often as possible - whether alone, in the family, or in the community. Always dependent on Jesus, the sole mediator, the saints too can be our helpers and the recipients of our prayers. They have given everything for God and live only for him, and so our authentic relationship with the saints cannot place any obstacles between God and ourselves. Together we form the great Communion of Saints, and they praise God and intercede with him, together with us. Their example and their writings teach us how to pray. We can pray to them and converse with them, for they are our fraternal helpers and bring before God our joys and sorrows, our petitions and our thanksgiving. And in the centre of them, Mary, the Queen of the Saints, exercises her role as Mother of the Church. As at Cana, she knows how to discern our needs; she presents them to Jesus and teaches us to do whatever he tells us ( Jn 2:1-11). Among the many other prayers to Our Lady, the Church loves the one we call the Ave Maria, or Hail Mary, for in reciting it we repeat the words of the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation and entrust ourselves to her maternal intercession. Each day at Vespers, a great number of Christians recite the Magnificat, the canticle of the poor who, together with Mary, are enfolded in the mercy of God by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Second Vatican Council tells us: The entire body of the faithful pours forth urgent supplications to the Mother of God and of men that she, who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers, may now, exalted as she is above all the angels and saints, intercede before her Son in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of people, whether they are honoured with the title of Christian or whether they still do not know our Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. LUMEN GENTIUM, 69 176

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17.4 The forms of prayer Christian prayer has several different forms of expression. In adoration we present ourselves with humility before the thrice-holy God and we acknowledge him as the King of Glory and our Creator. In the prayer of praise we praise him for his own sake and beyond everything he does for us, simply because HE IS. Prayer of petition prepares us to receive the gifts that God wishes to give us in his mercy, namely forgiveness, grace and everything else we need. By intercession we present the needs of others, including even our enemies, to the Lord. This prayer unites us to Jesus who is “living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him” (Heb 7:25). Thanksgiving fills our entire lives, for it acknowledges everything that we have received from God - the particular gifts he gives us each day, but above all our very existence, our health, and the fatherly love with which he surrounds us. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS 1:3

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus said of prayer: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy” (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, see §2558). This ‘surge of the heart’ can be expressed in various different fashions: Vocal prayer is a prayer of the heart expressed outwardly in words, gestures or rituals. The Rosary is one such vocal prayer, loved by so many Christians around the world. “Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is internalized to the extent that we become aware of him ‘to whom we speak’. Thus vocal prayer becomes an initial form of contemplative prayer” (§2704). Meditation involves quiet reflection - frequently starting from the Word of God on a truth of the Faith in order to adhere to it with a more lively awareness, a deeper understanding and a more fervent love - and with the ultimate aim of conforming our lives and actions to it in practice. Saint Teresa of Avila gives us a definition of contemplative prayer, describing it as “nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time 177

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frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us” (see §2709). Contemplative prayer is “the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love” (§2724). The greatest prayer of all is the Eucharistic Liturgy, the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11; cited in §1324). In it the Catholic faithful listen to the Word of God and, through their priest, unite themselves to the Perfect Sacrifice of Christ, in thanksgiving to the Father and for the salvation of the world. Veni Creator Spiritus Come Holy Ghost, Creator, come From thy bright heavenly throne, Come take possession of our souls And make them all thine own. Thou who art called the Paraclete, Best gift of God above, The living Spring, the Living Fire, Sweet unction and true love. Thou who art sevenfold in thy grace, Finger of God’s right hand; His promise, teaching little ones To speak and understand. O guide our minds with thy blessed light, With love our hearts inflame; And with thy strength, which ne’er decays, Confirm our mortal frame. Far from us drive our deadly foe; True peace unto us bring; And through all perils lead us safe Beneath thy sacred wing. Through thee may we the Father know, Through thee the eternal Son, And thee the Spirit of them both, Thrice blessed Three in One. All glory to the Father be, With his co-equal Son. The same to thee, great Paraclete, While endless ages run. 178

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18. The Lord’s Prayer - the “Our Father”

One day, seeing Jesus pray, one of his disciples asks him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1). And so Jesus teaches them the prayer of all Christians, the Our Father. The Our Father is recorded in Saint Luke’s Gospel (11:2-4) in a shorter form than the version in Saint Matthew (6:9-13). However, it is the longer form, in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, that has become the prayer familiar to all Christians.

18.1 Our Father who art in Heaven Jesus, the Son of God, draws all those who by faith in him have become his brothers and sisters, into the intimacy of his own relationship with his Father. As brothers and sisters of Christ they are sons and daughters of God, and so they have the right to call him, in confident trust, by a name that expresses an intimate sense of family belonging: Abba, Father - (Gal 4:6; see Mk 14:36). When we say “Our Father” we must come before him with “a humble and trusting heart that enables us ‘to turn and become like children’: for it is to ‘little children’ that the Father is revealed” (§2785). “Who art in heaven” reminds us that “the Father’s house”, is “the true homeland towards which we are heading and to which, already, we belong” (§2802). For us it is an image that expresses happiness, peace, fullness of life. Saint Augustine also tells us that the phrase: “Our Father who art in heaven” is “rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple” (§2794). This fatherhood of God includes everyone in the world - even those sons and daughters whose experience of their own earthly father or mother was not a happy one; even those who were not loved but rejected, not affirmed but undermined, not encouraged but condemned, not set free but dominated and oppressed. In God they find a true Father, and in the Christian community they find brothers and sisters through whom they can experience something of the family belonging that was denied to them. 179

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• To have a Father in Heaven means:

to have someone to trust in, even when our own father fails us; someone we can ask, even when our own mother does not reply; someone who gives us brothers and sisters... who loves us and whom we can love. Though father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. PSALM 27:10

18.2 Hallowed be thy Name To ‘hallow’ the name of God, means to give honour to God by acknowledging his holiness. It means to acknowledge and profess that Jesus is the Lord (Phil 2:9-11) and that his is the only Name by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).

• To hallow God’s name means to speak it and to sing it out loud, alone and in community.

• It means that we must make his holiness known by our lives and make it present in all the daily realities of our world.

• It means that we must let others see that God’s name is more important to us than all the names of the “mighty ones” whom the world considers great.

• It means that we must work and pray to make God our Saviour known and

acknowledged by every nation - so that they too may be included in his “plan of loving kindness”, which is that we might all “be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph 1:4; 9, see §2807).

To hallow God’s name also means respecting others who are created in the image and likeness of God, to honour each by his own name. We have no need to belittle the names of others - whether they are close to us or far away - for fear that our 180

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own name might be forgotten. For God has said: “Fear not... I have called you by your name, you are mine” (Is 43:1). We thank you, Holy Father, for your Holy Name, which you have made to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge, faith and immortality which you have made known to us through your servant, Jesus. To you be glory for ever! FROM THE DIDACHE - AN EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOK, 1

CENTURY

18.3 Thy Kingdom come Among the Jewish people many were waiting for the coming of God’s reign, his Kingdom. They believed that God would come to their aid, in the person of the Messiah, and achieve what they had so far failed to do - they believed he would defeat the enemies of his people and drive them out. He would rule from Jerusalem over all the nations - a mighty king on the throne of David. But Jesus speaks quite differently about the Kingdom of God and his reign. He says: The Kingdom of God is like the seed a farmer sows in his field (Mt 13:39). It is like the tiny “mustard-seed”, which grows into a great tree (Mt 13:31-32); like the small measure of yeast a woman mixes into a large quantity of flour (Mt 13:33); it is like a treasure hidden in a field (Mt 13:44). What he is really saying is that the Kingdom of God is already here in our midst; it is the Word of God that penetrates into our hearts, the life of God which grows secretly within us and transforms us, so that we can go out and bear fruit. Jesus tells us: “The time has come, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News” (Mk 1:15). He means the Gospel (the “good news”) that he himself brings. And so, when we pray: “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying that the Holy Spirit will “complete his work on earth and brings us the fullness of grace”, for “the 181

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kingdom of God... means righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17, and see §2818-2819). In praying for the coming of the Kingdom of God, we are awaiting the return of Christ in glory at the end of time. We make our own the cry of the Holy Spirit and of the whole Church: “Come Lord Jesus!” Marana tha! (Acts 22:20; see 1 Cor 16:22). And Jesus tells us: Stop trying to work out when this will be, for God alone knows the day and the hour. But as for you, you must be watchful, live in faith, hope and charity so that you do not miss the banquet of the Father. And pray: Thy Kingdom come! Gospel. This means Good News. The original Greek word “Evangelion” meant the good news of a great victory in battle, or the announcement of the birth of a royal son to the king. Here it means the Good News of Jesus’ message and the signs of God that he has worked. (Hence, the four Evangelists were the men who wrote down this Good News in their Gospels)

18.4 Thy will be done Since God is Lord and King, and since his Kingdom is a reality for all mankind, we find ourselves asking: What does God want? What does he want of me? For in the world, in the society that we live in, it is the will of men that so often seems to prevail - the will of the powerful and of those in authority. Such men do not always ask themselves whether their decisions are truly in conformity with the will of God.

• When our will opposes God’s will,

when we try to magnify our own names, when we want to build up our own kingdom, when we will not share our bread, when we will not accept what we are, when we live at odds with one another, when we will not trust in our God then we are guilty.

That is why we must look to Mary, who said “yes” (fiat - let God’s will be done) when the angel came to her. And of course to Jesus, who said of himself: “My food is to the will of the One who sent me, and to complete his work” (Jn 4:34). We know too that on the night before his death, Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, 182

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let your will be done, not mine” (Lk 22:42). The next day Jesus was hanging on the Cross. Men dealt with him as they wished. But God did not abandon him. He raised his Son from the dead. And so Jesus is the pledge of our own hope. He is the one we must cling to when disaster strikes.

• It is not God’s will

that the young should become addicts, that one man should live from another’s pain, that the sick should suffer alone, that the old should count for nothing in society.

• But wherever one person

reaches out to another, shares his cloak, cares for the sick, opposes injustice, proclaims the Good News of Christ, that is indeed God’s will.

God’s will is done in us when we trust in him, trust in his presence in us at every moment of our lives, through all our sorrows and even when it seems that he is far from us. We are conscious of the will of God when we try to love others, strive tenaciously to build peace and daily seek to fulfil our Christian duty in our particular state of life; when hope sustains us through all discouragement. For it is his will that we should be true “children of God” who are “moved by the Spirit” (Rom 8:14-17). May your will be done in us, so that we may find the path of true freedom, so that all may come to you. May your will be done on earth as in heaven, “so that error may be banished from it, truth take root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, and earth no longer differ from heaven” SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, SEE §2825

We pray: May your will be done on earth, so that all men may be saved. 183

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“He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning” (Eph 1:9). God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:3-4, and see §2822-2823).

18.5 Give us this day our daily bread In the second part of the Our Father we ask the Father to give us what we need for life. We pray: Give us our daily bread.

• In the past, in the desert, the leaders of Israel learnt that God does indeed give

bread, and they discovered how he did so. Like morning dew, the manna fell from heaven and covered the earth. It was sufficient to satisfy the hunger of all. Each person could take whatever he needed - one more, the other less. But when some people tried to hoard it, because they would not trust in God each day, their bread decayed (see Ex 16).

God gives us his Word. He gives us his Bread. He gives us Jesus, his Son. In the Holy Eucharist he himself becomes our daily Bread, the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the “medicine of immortality” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch), without which we have no life within us (see §2837). He invites us to share this Spiritual Bread with others. When we ask God for our ‘daily bread’, we mean by that everything that we need for life - the Holy Eucharist, bread and water, warmth and a home, work and fellowship - his blessing. God has given us the earth, from which the wheat and rice, the manioc and maize sprout forth - “the fruit of the earth and work of human hands”. It is food we must share with those who are hungry.

• Today,

give us the bread that we need, so that we become for others what they need. Today.

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We pray: Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life. PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS (OFFERTORY PRAYER)

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18.6 Forgive us our trespasses

The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer is made up of two parts - a request and a promise.

• The request: “Forgive us our sins” is one that everyone should make, for no man is without sin. We sin before God when we do not heed his Word, when we do not seek his will, when we think that we can live without him or in opposition to him, when we try to establish a kingdom of our own.

We sin when we do not have faith in the One who has sent us his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who became Man so that we might come to God. For all people and for all time he is the pledge of the Father’s love and loving kindness towards all mankind. Jesus, who knows the Father as no one else knows him, tells us how God forgives. We sin against our fellow men when we refuse to share our bread, when we live our lives not for one another but in opposition to one another, when we belittle one another, hurt, cheat or lie to one another.

• The promise: “as we forgive those who trespass against us” is the condition

upon which the request is based - a promise that goes against our instinctive nature. For it is much harder to forgive injustice than to commit injustice. A person who has been offended, betrayed, cheated or overlooked tends to think of revenge: “He’ll be sorry for that! I’ll never forgive you for that! I’ll never speak to you again...” And so friends become enemies, neighbours become strangers. We are all trapped in a web of injustice and guilt - just as long as we continue to think of revenge as the only possible reaction when injustice is done to us. Jesus shows us how we can break free of this web, by praying for those who persecute us (Mt 5:44) and asking good things from God for them, by overcoming anger and indignation with love, by talking to the person who has hurt us, by giving them a chance - and ourselves as well. For “this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us” (§2840).

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Jesus tells us how important it is to forgive: So, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW 5:23-24

• Forgive us our sins,

just as we forgive others. Come to meet us, just as we go out to others. Reach out your hand to us, just as we reach out to others. Don’t keep count of our sins, just as we keep no count of the sins of others. Be patient with us, just as we are patient with others. Give us one more chance, just as we give others a chance. Keep us strong against temptation, just as we support others. Free us from evil, so that we may all praise you together.

• Forgive the sins that I have committed,

and forgive the sins of all mankind, my brothers. Give us light and strength to root out those collective habits that chain our world in injustice. May your forgiveness raise us up, so that in our turn we may become builders of pardon, justice and peace.

We cannot sincerely pray the prayer that Jesus taught us unless we each and every one of us forgive others from the bottom of our hearts. 187

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18.7 Lead us not into temptation God has given us freedom, and with it the capacity to make our own personal decisions - to choose a life of trust in God, in his Word and in his Commandments - or to choose a life without God. Doubt can come from within our own hearts: God does not love me. He does not see me. He does not care. And the tempter is also there, trying to discourage us: Why bother with God? He won’t help you. You’re better off without him; you’ll have an easier life; you’ll have more fun... The story of temptation, of the betrayal of love, goes right back to the first man and woman. Temptation means being put to the test, going through an experience that shakes me, that demands a decision of me, a “decision of the heart” (§2848). People can “yield” to temptation and fall into sin. When I am tempted, my freedom is at stake. It is something between me and my God. But temptation is not consenting to temptation, and we can resist (see §2847). If we want to be strong against temptation, then we must turn to Jesus in prayer. “It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter” (§2849). He remained faithful to the Father - and not in vain. And so we too can be sure that, when we are tempted, the faithful God will give us the grace to stand firm and resist the temptation (see 1 Cor 10:13). When we say: “lead us not into temptation”, we are also asking for the grace of final perseverance at the moment of our death. “Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake” (Acts 16:15; see §2849). In asking God to preserve and strengthen us in times of temptation, we too must stay close to one another, must help and support one another and be sure to see that we do not lead others into temptation or cause them to stumble. When a man stands alone he is weak and easily shaken. But when many stand together, united in their Faith, then with God’s help they can withstand the powers of evil. Lead not my feet into the power of sin and save me from the power of guilt, and from the power of temptation, and from the power of passing things. FROM THE JEWISH EVENING PRAYER 188

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18.8 But deliver us from evil Evil is everywhere in the world - there is no need to go looking for it. Natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, catastrophes of all kinds destroy the lives of many people. The victims ask: “Why? What have I done to deserve this?” Often it is men themselves who do evil to one another. We cannot trust one another. When we pray: “Deliver us from evil”, we are bringing all the misery of the world before our heavenly Father. We think of the disasters that threaten us, and also of the evil in which we ourselves are entangled or entangle others, often without wishing it. We think of the laws and the selfish practices that result in endless wars, of the powerful becoming ever more powerful, the rich ever richer, the poor ever poorer and those in need becoming increasingly dependent on others. As Christians we believe in the existence not only of “Evil” but also of “the Evil One” (Jn 17:15). Our Christian tradition tells us that this evil one is the enemy of God, the devil himself, who is always at work. He is also the enemy of man. He seeks to tempt us away from God; he deceives and he lies, trying to get man on his side. He wants to prevent us from doing God’s will and make us follow his own programme of hatred and spite, to draw us away from following Jesus into Life and lure us into following his way of damnation instead. This dark mystery of the power of evil brings suffering to us all. And yet we believe that the God whom Jesus Christ has revealed to us is stronger than all the powers of evil in the world. If we cling to him we can live without fear, trusting in the One who has defeated the power of evil. On the last day the Lord will return, and with him the new world of God in which God will be all in all.

In every Mass the celebrant prays: Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

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18.9 We praise you, we bless you, we give you thanks It is right to turn to God for his help, for he loves us and he has the power to give us everything we need. Whoever believes that God is the friend of man, that he is close to us, no matter what might happen, such a person understands that it is good to belong to God. Then his prayer is no longer merely a demand, for he loves to turn to God, to give him thanks and praise his name. For all life has been created to give glory to God. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might, for ever and ever!” REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN 5:13

From the earliest days of the Church the Lord’s Prayer has concluded with this hymn of praise by the assembled community: FOR THE KINGDOM, THE POWER AND THE GLORY ARE YOURS, NOW AND FOR EVER. AMEN!

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APPENDIX

Prayers

The Sign of the Cross In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. The Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prayer (Mt 6:9-13) Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE MASS The Confiteor I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, 191

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in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. Kyrie Lord, have mercy. – Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. – Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. – Lord, have mercy. Gloria Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father. Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. The Nicene Creed (For the Apostles’ Creed, see p. 2 of this Catechism) I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, 192

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begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. Sanctus Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Agnus Dei Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace. PRAYERS TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY The Hail Mary Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. 193

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Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The Magnificat (Canticle of the Virgin Mary, Lk 1:46-55) My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant, and from this day all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me: Holy is his name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.

The Angelus The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, - and she conceived by the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, etc. Behold the handmaid of the Lord; - be it be done to me according to your word. Hail Mary, etc. And the Word was made flesh - and dwelt among us. Hail Mary, etc. 194

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Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, - that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech you O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an angel, may be brought by his passion and cross to the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. May the divine assistance remain always with us and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The Holy Rosary In the name of the Father... I believe (on the crucifix)... Glory be... Hail Mary (three times, on the three beads next to the crucifix, in honour of the Blessed Trinity and for the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity)... Glory be... Then recite each decade of the Rosary, starting with one Our Father, followed by ten Hail Marys and one Glory be. This in turn is usually followed by the Fatima Prayer: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who most need thy mercy. As we pray each decade, we meditate on each of the following Mysteries in turn (usually in sets of five):

The Joyful Mysteries 1. The Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38) 2. The Visitation (Lk 1:39-56) 3. The Nativity (the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Lk 2:1-20) 195

Prayers

4. The Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:22-38) 5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:41-52) The Mysteries of Light 1. The Baptism of Christ in the river Jordan (Mk 1:9-11) 2. Christ reveals his power at the wedding in Cana (Jn 2:1-11) 3. Christ proclaims the Kingdom and calls to conversion (Mk 1:14-15) 4. Christ’s Transfiguration on the Mountain (Mt 17:1-8) 5. Christ’s institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper (Lk 22:19-20) The Sorrowful Mysteries 1. Christ’s Prayer and Agony in the Garden (Lk 22:39-46) 2. The Scourging at the Pillar (Jn 19:1) 3. The Crowning with Thorns (Jn 19:2-5; Mt 27:27-31) 4. The Carrying of the Cross (Jn 19:16-17; Lk 23:26-32) 5. The Crucifixion (Jn 19:16-37; Lk 23:33-49) The Glorious Mysteries 1. The Resurrection (Lk 24; Mk 16; Mt 28; Jn 20) 2. The Ascension (Mk 16:19; Lk 24:50-53) 3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit on Our Lady and the Apostles (Acts 2:1-4) 4. The Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven (Rev 12:1) 5. The Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven and the Glory of the Saints (Jd 15:9-10)

SOME DAILY PRAYERS May the Father who created me, the Son who redeemed me, and the Spirit who lives and moves in me, bless, protect and guide me throughout this day. Amen. O my God, I offer you all my thoughts, words, deeds and sufferings. Grant me your grace, that I may never offend you this day but may faithfully serve you and do your holy will in all things. Amen. May Almighty God bless us and keep us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen. 196

Prayers

Commandments

The Ten Commandments (Ex 20:2-17; Dt 5:6-21) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 1. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. 2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 4. Honour your father and your mother. 5. You shall not kill. 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. 9. You shall not covet your neighbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife. 10. You shall not covet your neighbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goods.

Five Precepts of the Church 1. You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation and rest from servile labour. 2. You shall confess your sins at least once a year. 3. You shall receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least once a year, during the Easter season. 4. You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church. 5. You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church. 197

Prayers

Sacraments

The Seven Sacraments 1. Baptism 2. Confirmation 3. Eucharist 4. Penance 5. Anointing of the Sick 6. Holy Orders 7. Marriage (Matrimony)

Going to Confession On entering the confessional, make the Sign of the Cross and say: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The priest may then invite you to trust in God, using words such as these: “May God enlighten your heart, so that you may truly acknowledge your sins and receive his loving mercy.” You reply: “Amen”. You then confess your sins, listen to any advice the priest may give you, and accept the penance he imposes. After confessing your sins you should express your sorrow in any form of words you choose, for example: “O my God, because you are so good, I am very sorry that I have sinned against you, and I firmly resolve, by the help of your grace, not to sin again.” The priest then says the words of Absolution: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the Ministry of his Church may God give you pardon and peace, 198

Prayers

AND I ABSOLVE YOU FROM YOUR SINS IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.” You answer: “Amen.” The priest may add: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” You reply: “For his love endures forever.” Priest: “God has freed you from your sins. Go in peace.” After confession, say your penance, then make your thanksgiving: God my Father, I adore you, I love you and I thank you with all my heart, for you have washed away my sins with the precious Blood of Jesus, my Saviour. Keep me close to you always. Be merciful to others as you have been merciful to me. Let not the Blood of Christ be shed in vain for anyone.

Virtues and vices

The seven deadly sins, or vices - and their contrary virtues 1. Pride 2. Covetousness 3. Lust 4. Anger 5. Gluttony 6. Envy 7. Sloth

Humility Liberality Chastity Meekness Temperance Brotherly love Diligence 199

Prayers

The Virtues, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The Theological Virtues 1. Faith An Act of Faith: My God, I believe in you and in all that your Holy Church teaches, because you are the very truth itself and can neither deceive nor be deceived. 2. Hope An Act of Hope: My God, I hope and trust in you, for grace and for glory, because you are infinitely good, all powerful and faithful to your promises. 3. Charity An Act of Charity: My God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things, because you are infinitely good and perfect. Teach me to love you daily more and more and for your sake to love my neighbour as myself. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit 1. Wisdom 2. Understanding 3. Counsel 4. Fortitude 5. Knowledge 6. Piety 7. Fear of the Lord The Four Cardinal Virtues 1. Prudence 2. Justice 3. Fortitude 4. Temperance 200

Prayers

Seven Corporal Works of Mercy 1. To feed the hungry 2. To give drink to the thirsty 3. To clothe the naked 4. To shelter the homeless 5. To visit the sick 6. To visit the imprisoned 7. To bury the dead Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy 1. To convert the sinner 2. To instruct the ignorant 3. To counsel the doubtful 4. To comfort the sorrowful 5. To bear wrongs patiently 6. To forgive injuries 7. To pray for the living and the dead The Evangelical Counsels Christian perfection, as counselled by Jesus in the Gospels (see Â§2053; Mt 19:1012; 21; 23-29) 1. Poverty - freely renouncing all surperfluous goods 2. Chastity - in celibacy, freely chosen, for the sake of the Kingdom 3. Obedience - freely renouncing oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own will, submitting to man for the sake of God, pledging obedience to a superior, or a rule, in an institute of consecrated life The evangelical counsels are lived as a way of perfection, in imitation of Christ, by those who live a consecrated life in a religious institute. But they should also serve as a guide to the life of every Christian.

The Four Last Things

(The four things that Christians should always remember and meditate upon) 1. Death 2. Judgement 3. Hell 4. Heaven 201

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS (The figures in brackets refer to the chapters of the Bible for children “God Speaks to His Children”)

Part One - The Profession of the Christian Faith The Faith of Christians - the Apostles’ Creed 1.

I BELIEVE IN GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY (→ Nos. 13, 31, 41)

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

The longing for God is rooted in all our hearts ................................. God comes to meet man - he reveals himself .................................... The New Testament ............................................................................ I believe - We believe ........................................................................ I believe in God, the Father almighty ................................................

9 11 14 17 17

I BELIEVE IN GOD..., CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH (→ No. 1) ............................................................................................

2.1 2.2 2.3

Everything comes from God .............................................................. Man comes from God ........................................................................ Good or Evil - Life or Death .............................................................

21 22 23

AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD (→ No. 40) ..........................................................................................

3.1 3.2 3.3

Jesus, the Christ ................................................................................. Jesus Christ, Son of God .................................................................... Jesus Christ, our Lord ........................................................................

28 29 31

CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY ........................................................................

The Son of God comes into the world (→ Nos. 46, 47, 48, 49) ........ Mary, the Mother of Jesus .................................................................. Mary, Mother of the Church ..............................................................

35 37 41

4.1 4.2 4.3

203

Table of contents

SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED AND WAS BURIED ...............................................................

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4

For or against Jesus (→ Nos. 54, 57, 62, 77) ..................................... The New Covenant (→ Nos. 78, 80, 81) ............................................ Betrayed into the hands of sinners (→ Nos. 82, 84, 85, 86) .............. Buried (→ No. 87) ..............................................................................

45 47 49 53

HE DESCENDED INTO HELL; ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD ............................................

6.1 6.2

Jesus lives (→ Nos. 88, 89, 90, 91) .................................................... We shall live (→ No. 97) ....................................................................

57 59

HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY (→ No. 92) ..

7.1 7.2 7.3

God has raised him above all things .................................................. He ascended into Heaven ................................................................... Farewell and new community ............................................................

62 63 65

HE WILL COME TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD ........................................................................................

8.1 8.2

Jesus will come again (→ No. 97) ..................................................... He will judge the living and the dead (→ Nos. 18, 69, 97) ...............

67 69

I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT ..................................................

9.1 9.2 9.3

The Spirit, the giver of life (→ No. 2) ............................................... He has spoken through the prophets (→ Nos. 44, 97) ....................... Jesus Christ baptises us in the Holy Spirit (→ Nos. 52, 53, 54) ........

71 73 74

10.

THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH ..................................................

10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5

In the beginning was the Holy Spirit (→ No. 93) .............................. The Church - One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic .............................. Hierarchy and ministries (→ No. 95) ................................................. The laity ............................................................................................. Life consecrated to God .....................................................................

77 82 89 91 93

204

Table of contents

11.

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS ....................................................

11.1 Jesus establishes the community of the “saints” ............................... 11.2 Learning to live in Christian community ...........................................

95 97

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS (→ No. 3) .......................................

12.1 Commissioned by Our Lord (→ No. 18) ........................................... 12.2 I do not condemn you ........................................................................ 12.3 As we forgive... (→ No. 60) ...............................................................

99 101 103

12.

13.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY AND LIFE EVERLASTING ................................................................................

105

13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4

He is God of the living, not of the dead... ......................................... How will the dead rise again? ............................................................ Christians and death (→ Nos. 69, 74, 98) .......................................... Life everlasting ..................................................................................

105 107 108 110

14.

AMEN - YES, IT IS SO INDEED ....................................................

114

Part Two - The celebration of the Christian mystery: the Sacraments Christians celebrate - The Church and the Sacraments 15.

LIFE IN CHRIST - THE SACRAMENTS (→ No. 91) ....................

119

15.1. 15.2. 15.3. 15.4. 15.5. 15.6. 15.7. 15.8.

Seven Sacraments .............................................................................. Baptism .............................................................................................. Confirmation ...................................................................................... The Eucharist (→ No. 80) .................................................................. Penance and Reconciliation (→ Nos. 73, 90) .................................... The Anointing of the Sick (→ No. 69) ............................................... Holy Orders ........................................................................................ Matrimony (marriage) ........................................................................

120 121 124 126 131 136 137 140

Part Three - The Vocation of Man: Life in the Spirit Life in Christ 16.

THE VOCATION OF MAN - LIFE IN THE SPIRIT .......................

147

16.1. The dignity of the human person .......................................................

147 205

Table of contents

16.2. 16.3. 16.4. 16.5.

Jesus - the Way, the Truth and the Life .............................................. The fullness of the Law ..................................................................... “Follow me” ....................................................................................... Growing through grace - the virtues ..................................................

149 151 160 165

Part Four - Prayer in the Christian life Christians pray 17.

PRAYER - AN ENCOUNTER WITH GOD .....................................

173

17.1. 17.2. 17.3. 17.4.

Prayer in the Old Testament ............................................................... The Prayer of Jesus ............................................................................ The life of prayer ............................................................................... The forms of prayer ...........................................................................

173 174 175 177

18.

THE LORD’S PRAYER - THE “OUR FATHER” ............................

179

18.1. 18.2. 18.3. 18.4. 18.5. 18.6. 18.7. 18.8. 18.9.

Our Father who art in Heaven (→ No. 61) ........................................ Hallowed be thy name (→ No. 46) .................................................... Thy Kingdom come (→ No. 54) ........................................................ Thy will be done (→ No. 82) ............................................................. Give us this day our daily bread (→ No. 17) ..................................... Forgive us our trespasses ................................................................... Lead us not into temptation ............................................................... But deliver us from evil ..................................................................... We praise you, we bless you, we give you thanks ............................

179 180 181 182 184 186 188 189 190

Appendix 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 206

PRAYERS .......................................................................................... COMMANDMENTS ......................................................................... THE SACRAMENTS ........................................................................ VIRTUES AND VICES ..................................................................... THE VIRTUES AND THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ............ THE FOUR LAST THINGS ..............................................................

191 197 198 199 200 201

ALPHABETICAL GLOSSARY (Page numbers in bold type refer to the footnote headings; numbers in normal type and round brackets refer to other occurrences in the text) Abba (119) Acts of the Apostles 64 (15, 63) Anointing of the Sick 120 (136) Amen 114 (114) Angels 26 (24) Apocalypse 111 (15, 110) Apostle, apostles 16 (15); 31 (30); 87 (85) apostolic 16 (15); 87 (85) ascended into Heaven; Ascension 64 (62, 63) Baptism 124 (122) Baptist/Baptizer, John the 27 (27) Bible 14 (11) Book of Revelation 111 (110) Canon 16 (15) catechumenate 124 (123) Catholic, catholic 87 (84) Christ 29 (28) Coming, Second 68 (68) Commandments (Precepts) of the Church 159 (155) Confession 134 (132) Confirmation 126 (124) Consecration 131 (129) Covenant 14 (11) Creation, Creation story 20 (20) dead, abode of the 55 (55) death 55 (55); 109 (108) devil 26 (24)

Easter Vigil 61 (59) ecumenism 86 (82) Eucharist; Liturgy of the Eucharist 130 (126) evangelist, evangelists 182 (15) Father (God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit) 22 Father, (Our Father) 179 Fiftieth day (Pentecost) 81 (78, 79) forgiveness 134 (132) forgiveness of sins 134 (132) Forty days 64 (63) Friday, Good 51 (50) full of grace 37 (35) God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) 22 God, Son of 31 (30) God, recognise the work of 10 (10) Good Friday 51 (50) Good News 182 (181) Gospel 182 (181) grace 37 (35) Hail, full of grace 37 (35) Heaven 70 (69, 110) Hell 55, 70, 110 (69) High priest 47 (45) holy 86 (83) Holy Spirit 22 Holy Thursday 49 (47) infallibility 87 (85) inspiration 16 (15)

Jesus 29 (28) John, (Saint John the Evangelist) 111 (110) John the Baptist/Baptiser 27 (27) Judgement, Last 70 (69) judgement 109 (109) kingdom of death 55 (55) Laity (91) Last Judgement 70 (69) liturgy 130 (126) Liturgy of the Eucharist 130 (129) Liturgy of the Word 131 (129) Lord (Jesus Christ) (31, 32) Lord, Second Coming of the 68 (68) Magisterium 16 (15) martyrs (32) Maundy Thursday 49 (47) New Testament 14 (15) News, Good 182 (181) Old Testament 14 (11) One (unity) 86 (82) Original Sin 26 (25) Our Father 179 (179) Palm Sunday 49 (47) Pasch 49 (47) Passover 49 (47) Penance, Sacrament of 134 (132) Pentecost 81 (78, 79) Pharisee 47 (46) priest (High Priest) 47 (45) Purgatory 70 (110) recognise the work of God 10 (10) Reconciliation, Sacrament of 134 (132)

repentance 134 (132) Revelation, Book of 111 (110) Sabbath 47 (45) Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation) 134 (132) Sacraments, generally 120 (119) sacramentals 121 (100) Sacred Scripture, Canon of 16 (15) sacrifice 131 (126, 127) Saint John the Baptist 27 (27) Saint John (author of Revelation) 111 (110) saints 86 (83) Sanhedrin 51 (50) Scripture (Canon of) 16 (15) Second Coming of the Lord 68 (68) sentence 110 (109) sick, anointing of 120 (136) Sin, Original 26 (25) sins, forgiveness of 134 (132) Son of God 31 (30) Spirit, Holy 22 story of Creation 20 (20) Sunday (Palm Sunday) 49 (47) synagogues 27 (27) Tax collectors 30 (29) temptations 74 (74) Testament (Old/New) 14 (11, 15) Thursday (Holy/Maundy) 49 (47) Tradition 16 (15) Unity 86 (82) Vigil, Easter 61 (59) Word, Liturgy of the 131 (129) Work of God (recognise) 10 (10)

AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED At the service of the Universal Church since 1947 In Great Britain: Aid to the Church in Need 12-14 Benhill Avenue Sutton, Surrey SM1 4DA Reg. Charity No. 1097984 Tel.: 0044 20 8642 8668 E-mail: acn@acnuk.org In Ireland: Aid to the Church in Need 151 St. Mobhi Road Glasnevin, Dublin 9 Reg. Charity No. 9492 Tel.: 00353 1 83 77 516 E-mail: churchinneed@eircom.net In Australia: Aid to the Church in Need P.O. Box 7246 Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 ABN: 62 418 911 594 Tel./Fax: 0061 2 9679 1929 E-mail: info@aidtochurch.org In the USA: Aid to the Church in Need 725 Leonard Street Brooklyn, NY 11222 ACN-USA is a 501 ( c) (3) non profit org. Toll free 1-800-628-6333 E-mail: info@acnusa.org In Canada: Aid to the Church in Need P.O. Box 670, Stn. H Montreal, QC H3G 2M6 Reg. Charity No. 13036 2593 RR0001 Tel.: 001 514 932 0552 E-mail: info@acn-aed-ca.org

A catechism should faithfully and systematically present the teaching of Sacred Scripture, the living Tradition in the Church and the authentic Magisterium, as well as the spiritual heritage of the Fathers, Doctors and saints of the Church, to allow for a better knowledge of the Christian mystery and for enlivening the faith of the People of God. It should take into account the doctrinal statements which down the centuries the Holy Spirit has intimated to his Church. It should also help to illumine with the light of faith the new situations and problems which has not yet emerged in the past. This catechism will thus contain both the new and the old (cf. Mt 13:52), because the faith is always the same yet the source of ever new light. (Apostolic Constitution â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fidei Depositumâ&#x20AC;?)