295. Along these lines, Saint John Paul II proposed the so-called "law of gradualness" in the knowledge that the human being "knows, loves and accomplishes moral good by different stages of growth".323 This is not a "gradualness of law" but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law. For the law is itself a gift of God which points out the way, a gift for everyone without exception; it can be followed with the help of grace, even though each human being "advances gradually with the progressive integration of the gifts of God and the demand of God's definitive and absolute love in his or her entire personal and social life".324
323 Apostolic Exhortation Familaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 34: AAS 74 (1982), 123.
324 Ibid., 9: AAS 74 (1982), 90.
