The Adequate Response

By His Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of His love, addresses men as His friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into His own company." The adequate response to this invitation is faith.

By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith". ---Universal Catechism Ref. Nos. 142-143

Fullness of Truth for All Generations

God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth": that is, of Christ Jesus. Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth: God graciously arranged that the things He had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.---Universal Catechism Reference No.74

Fully Revealed

"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." 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. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2: In giving us His Son, His only Word (for He possesses no other), He spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and He has no more to say. . . because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts, He has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending Him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.---Universal Catechism Reference No. 65

God Makes Himself Known

"God, who creates and conserves all things by His Word, provides men with constant evidence of Himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation - He manifested Himself to our first parents from the very beginning." He invited them to intimate communion with Himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice.

This revelation was not broken off by our first parents' sin. "After the fall, [God] buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption; and He has never ceased to show His solicitude for the human race. For He wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing." Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the power of death. . . Again and again You offered a covenant to man.---Universal Catechism Reference No. 54-55

Ultimate Happiness

The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it: We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated. How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.
God alone satisfies.

The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to His own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live from it in faith. ---Universal Catechism reference nos. 1718-1719

Holy Eucharist

"As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins. By giving Himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in Him: Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the memorial of His death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We humbly pray that in the strength of this love by which Christ willed to die for us, we, by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the world as crucified for us, and to be ourselves as crucified to the world. . . . Having received the gift of love, let us die to sin and live for God." ---Universal Catechism reference no. 1394

Written In The Human Heart

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for: The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator." ---Universal Catechism reference No. 27