1691“Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God.”St. Leo the Great, Sermo 22 in nat. Dom., 3:PL 54,192C.

1692The Symbol of the faith confesses the greatness of God’s gifts to man in his work of creation, and even more in redemption and sanctification. What faith confesses, the sacraments communicate: by the sacraments of rebirth, Christians have become “children of God,”Jn 1:12; cf. 1 Jn 3:1. “partakers of the divine nature.”2 Pet 1:4. Coming to see in the faith their new dignity, Christians are called to lead henceforth a life “worthy of the gospel of Christ.”Phil 1:27. They are made capable of doing so by the grace of Christ and the gifts of his Spirit, which they receive through the sacraments and through prayer.

1693Christ Jesus always did what was pleasing to the Father,Cf. Jn 8:29. and always lived in perfect communion with him. Likewise Christ’s disciples are invited to live in the sight of the Father “who sees in secret,”Mt 6:6. in order to become “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”Mt 5:48.

1694Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord.Cf. Rom 6:11; 6:5; Col 2:12. Following Christ and united with him,Cf. Jn 15:5. Christians can strive to be “imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love”Eph 5:1-2. by conforming their thoughts, words and actions to “the mind . . . which is yours in Christ Jesus,”Phil 2:5. and by following his example.Cf. Jn 13:12-16.

1695“Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God,”1 Cor 6:11. “sanctified . . . [and] called to be saints,”1 Cor 1:2. Christians have become the temple of the Holy Spirit.Cf. 1 Cor 6:19. This “Spirit of the Son” teaches them to pray to the FatherCf. Gal 4:6. and, having become their life, prompts them to act so as to bear “the fruit of the Spirit”Gal 5:22, 25. by charity in action. Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation.Cf. Eph 4:23. He enlightens and strengthens us to live as “children of light” through “all that is good and right and true.”Eph 5:8-9.

1696The way of Christ “leads to life”; a contrary way “leads to destruction.”Mt 7:13; cf. Deut 30:15-20. The Gospel parable of the two ways remains ever present in the catechesis of the Church; it shows the importance of moral decisions for our salvation: “There are two ways, the one of life, the other of death; but between the two, there is a great difference.”Didache 1, 1:SC 248, 140.

Catechesis has to reveal in all clarity the joy and the demands of the way of Christ.Cf. John Paul II, CT 29. Catechesis for the “newness of life”Rom 6:4. in him should be:

• a catechesis of the Holy Spirit, the interior Master of life according to Christ, a gentle guest and friend who inspires, guides, corrects, and strengthens this life;
• a catechesis of grace, for it is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life;
• a catechesis of the beatitudes, for the way of Christ is summed up in the beatitudes, the only path that leads to the eternal beatitude for which the human heart longs;
• a catechesis of sin and forgiveness, for unless man acknowledges that he is a sinner he cannot know the truth about himself, which is a condition for acting justly; and without the offer of forgiveness he would not be able to bear this truth;
• a catechesis of the human virtues which causes one to grasp the beauty and attraction of right dispositions towards goodness;
• a catechesis of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity, generously inspired by the example of the saints;
• a catechesis of the twofold commandment of charity set forth in the Decalogue;
• an ecclesial catechesis, for it is through the manifold exchanges of “spiritual goods” in the “communion of saints” that Christian life can grow, develop, and be communicated.

1698The first and last point of reference of this catechesis will always be Jesus Christ himself, who is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”Jn 14:6. It is by looking to him in faith that Christ’s faithful can hope that he himself fulfills his promises in them, and that, by loving him with the same love with which he has loved them, they may perform works in keeping with their dignity:

I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head, and that you are one of his members. He belongs to you as the head belongs to its members; all that is his is yours: his spirit, his heart, his body and soul, and all his faculties. You must make use of all these as of your own, to serve, praise, love, and glorify God. You belong to him, as members belong to their head. And so he longs for you to use all that is in you, as if it were his own, for the service and glory of the Father.St. John Eudes, Tract. de admirabili corde Jesu, 1, 5.

For to me, to live is Christ.Phil 1:21.

1699Life in the Holy Spirit fulfills the vocation of man (chapter one). This life is made up of divine charity and human solidarity (chapter two). It is graciously offered as salvation (chapter three).

1700The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God (article one); it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude (article two). It is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment (article three). By his deliberate actions (article four), the human person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience (article five). Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth (article six). With the help of grace they grow in virtue (article seven), avoid sin, and if they sin they entrust themselves as did the prodigal son to the mercy of our Father in heaven (article eight). In this way they attain to the perfection of charity.Lk 15:11-32.

1701“Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation.”GS 22. It is in Christ, “the image of the invisible God,”Col 1:15; cf. 2 Cor 4:4. that man has been created “in the image and likeness” of the Creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.Cf. GS 22.

1702The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons among themselves (cf. chapter two).

1703Endowed with “a spiritual and immortal” soul,GS 14 § 2. the human person is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.”GS 24 § 3. From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude.

1704The human person participates 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.”GS 15 § 2.

1705By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with freedom, an “outstanding manifestation of the divine image.”GS 17.

1706By his reason, man recognizes the voice of God which urges him “to do what is good and avoid what is evil.”GS 16. Everyone is obliged to follow this law, which makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God and of neighbor. Living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the person.

1707“Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very beginning of history.”GS 13 § 1. He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of original sin. He is now inclined to evil and subject to error:

Man is divided in himself. As a result, the whole life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between light and darkness.GS 13 § 2.

1708By his Passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had damaged in us.

1709He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having matured in grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of heaven.

1710“Christ . . . makes man fully manifest to man himself and brings to light his exalted vocation” (GS 22 § 1).

1711Endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and with free will, the human person is from his very conception ordered to God and destined for eternal beatitude. He pursues his perfection in “seeking and loving what is true and good” (GS 15 § 2).

1712In man, true freedom is an “outstanding manifestation of the divine image” (GS 17).

1713Man is obliged to follow the moral law, which urges him “to do what is good and avoid what is evil” (cf. GS 16). This law makes itself heard in his conscience.

1714Man, having been wounded in his nature by original sin, is subject to error and inclined to evil in exercising his freedom.

1715He who believes in Christ has new life in the Holy Spirit. The moral life, increased and brought to maturity in grace, is to reach its fulfillment in the glory of heaven.