e."

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descended from heaven and brought into
the world a truer and fuller knowledge of God. The ancient people knew
there was a God, but they knew Him not. The knowledge of the true God
was drowned in paganism. Even among the Jews small had become the
number of those who still possessed an undefiled knowledge of God. In
the Old Testament there was only an intimation of the blessed Trinity,
not a clear knowledge. Then Jesus Christ brought to us the knowledge of
the Triune God. In Him the divine attributes of love, sanctity,
justice, wisdom, omnipotence and mercy were presented to our minds so
that we can comprehend them. He made known to us the merciful decrees
which God had ordained for our temporal and eternal welfare. Through
His bitter passion and death He reconciled us to the Father, and
acquired for us the heirship of heaven. He founded the Church, the
kingdom of God upon earth, and He rules it through the Holy Ghost, who
proceeds from Him and the Father.

Through this Church are applied the glorious fruits of the redemption.
Through this Church God would sanctify all mankind and lead them to
eternal salvation. The Church and the communion of the saints reveal to
us God's glory and love far more than all the wonders of the world. A
single saint is a greater miracle of the divine grace than the whole
universe. The redemption made of earth a preparatory school for heaven,
and it behooves us, as St. Augustine says, in this life to give praise
to God, because in heaven our work will be an eternal proclamation of
the divine praises. Our whole earthly life, as a befitting preparation
for heaven, should be an imitation of the life of the blessed in
heaven. It ought to be a perpetual praise of God, until after a happy
death we are admitted to the ranks of the celestial choirs.

II. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, who has brought to us the
true knowledge of God, taught us also the true worship of God. After He
had accomplished the work of the redemption and had founded the Church,
He returned to heaven. Before this, however, He provided that He should
also remain here upon earth. He instituted the most Holy Eucharist, the
holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and thus remains in His Church until the
end of time. Jesus, the Head of the Church, offers Himself to the
Father unceasingly in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Thus the
glorification of God takes place here upon earth as unceasingly as it