THE CATECHISM OF
THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH
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THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
CHAPTER ONE - I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
198 Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the
Last,[1] the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God
the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy
Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for
creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God's works.
ARTICLE I
"I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH"
199 "I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is
also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also
speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. The other
articles of the Creed all depend on the first, just as the remaining
Commandments make the first explicit. The other articles help us to know
God better as he revealed himself progressively to men. "The faithful
first profess their belief in God."[2]
I. "I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD"
200 These are the words with which the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed
begins. The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine
revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of
God's existence and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only
one God: "The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature,
substance and essence."[3]
201 To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O
Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."[4]
Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the
one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.. . To me every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are
righteousness and strength.'"[5]
202 Jesus himself affirms that God is "the one Lord" whom you must love
"with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and
with all your strength".[6] At the same time Jesus gives us to understand
that he himself is "the Lord".[7] To confess that Jesus is Lord is
distinctive of Christian faith. This is not contrary to belief in the One
God. Nor does believing in the Holy Spirit as "Lord and giver of life"
introduce any division into the One God:
We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one
true God, eternal infinite (immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible,
almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three
persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple.
II. GOD REVEALS HIS NAME
203 God revealed himself to his people Israel by making his name known to
them. A name expresses a person's essence and identity and the meaning of
this person's life. God has a name; he is not an anonymous force. To
disclose one's name is to make oneself known to others; in a way it is to
hand oneself over by becoming accessible, capable of being known more
intimately and addressed personally.
204 God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his
people, but the revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both
the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the divine name to
Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus
and of the covenant on Sinai.
The living God
205 God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that bums without being
consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob."[9] God is the God of the fathers, the One who
had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. He is the
faithful and compassionate God who remembers them and his promises; he
comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the God who, from
beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God who will
put his almighty power to work for this plan.
"I Am who I Am"
Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them,
'The God of your fathers has sent me to you', and they ask me, 'What is
his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."
And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'.
. . this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all
generations."[10]
206 In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO
AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be
called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at
once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence
it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that
we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable,
and he is the God who makes himself close to men.[11]
207 By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness
which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the
God of your father"), as for the future ("I will be with you").[12] God, who
reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always
there, present to his people in order to save them.
208 Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers
his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his
sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness.[13] Before the
glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost; for
I am a man of unclean lips."[14] Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus,
Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."[15] But
because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a
sinner before him: "I will not execute my fierce anger. . . for I am God
and not man, the Holy One in your midst."[16] The apostle John says
likewise: "We shall. . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our
hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows
everything."[17]
209 Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not
pronounce his name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed name
(YHWH) is replaced by the divine title "LORD" (in Hebrew Adonai, in Greek
Kyrios). It is under this title that the divinity of Jesus will be
acclaimed: "Jesus is LORD."
"A God merciful and gracious"
210 After Israel's sin, when the people had turned away from God to
worship the golden calf, God hears Moses' prayer of intercession and
agrees to walk in the midst of an unfaithful people, thus demonstrating
his love.[18] When Moses asks to see his glory, God responds "I will make
all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name "the
LORD" [YHWH]."[19] Then the LORD passes before Moses and proclaims, "YHWH,
YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a
forgiving God.[20]
211 The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is", expresses God's faithfulness:
despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it deserves, he
keeps "steadfast love for thousands".[21] By going so far as to give up his
own Son for us, God reveals that he is "rich in mercy".[22] By giving his
life to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that he himself bears the divine
name: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will realize that
"I AM"."[23]
God alone IS
212 Over the centuries, Israel's faith was able to manifest and deepen
realization of the riches contained in the revelation of the divine name.
God is unique; there are no other gods besides him.[24]
He transcends the world and history. He made heaven and earth: "They will
perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment....but you
are the same, and your years have no end."[25]
In God "there is no variation or shadow due to change."[26] God is "HE WHO
IS", from everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to
himself and to his promises.
213 The revelation of the ineffable name "I AM WHO AM" contains then the
truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures, and following it the Church's Tradition, understood the divine
name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection,
without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are
and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself
everything that he is.
III. GOD, "HE WHO IS", IS TRUTH AND LOVE
214 God, "HE WHO IS", revealed himself to Israel as the one "abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness".[27] These two terms express summarily the
riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his
kindness, goodness, grace and steadfast love, but also his
trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness and truth. "I give thanks to your
name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness."[28] He is the Truth,
for "God is light and in him there is no darkness"; "God is love", as the
apostle John teaches.[29]
God is Truth
215 "The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your righteous
ordinances endures forever."[30] "And now, O LORD God, you are God, and your
words are true";[31] this is why God's promises always come true.[32] God is
Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon
oneself in full trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all
things. The beginning of sin and of man's fall was due to a lie of the
tempter who induced doubt of God's word, kindness and faithfulness.
216 God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and
governs the world.[33] God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone
impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself.[34]
217 God is also truthful when he reveals himself - the teaching that comes
from God is "true instruction".[35] When he sends his Son into the world it
will be "to bear witness to the truth":[36] "We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true."[37]
God is Love
218 In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had
only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing
them from among all peoples as his special possession: his sheer
gratuitous love.[38] And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it
was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning
their unfaithfulness and sins.[39]
219 God's love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son. His
love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God
loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be
victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most
precious gift: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."[40]
220 God's love is "everlasting":[41] "For the mountains may depart and the
hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you."[42]
Through Jeremiah, God declares to his people, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."[43]
221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love":[44]
God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love
in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret:[45] God
himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and
he has destined us to share in that exchange.
IV. THE IMPLICATIONS OF FAITH IN ONE GOD
222 Believing in God, the only One, and loving him with all our being has
enormous consequences for our whole life.
223 It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty: "Behold, God is
great, and we know him not."[46] Therefore, we must "serve God first".[47]
224 It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One, everything we
are and have comes from him: "What have you that you did not receive?"[48]
"What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?"[49]
225 It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone is
made in the image and likeness of God.[50]
226 It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only
One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings
us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us
away from him:
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.[51]
227 It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity. A
prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust:
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.[52]
IN BRIEF
228 "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD..." (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29).
"The supreme being must be unique, without equal. .
. If God is not one, he is not God" (Tertullian, Adv. Marc.,
1, 3, 5: PL 2, 274).
229 Faith in God leads us to turn to him alone as our first origin and our
ultimate goal, and neither to prefer anything to him nor to substitute
anything for him.
230 Even when he reveals himself, God remains a mystery beyond words: "If
you understood him, it would not be God" (St. Augustine, Sermo 52, 6, 16:
PL 38, 360 and Sermo 117, 3, 5: PL 38, 663).
231 The God of our faith has revealed himself as HE WHO IS; and he has
made himself known as "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Ex
34:6). God's very being is Truth and Love.
232 Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit"[53] Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a
three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the
Spirit: "I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity."[54]
233 Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit: not in their names,[55] for there is only one God, the
almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity.
234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of
Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is
therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that
enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the
"hierarchy of the truths of faith".[56] The whole history of salvation is
identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles
and unites with himself those who turn away from sin".[57]
235 This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed
Trinity was revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of
the faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of
the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfils the "plan of his
loving goodness" of creation, redemption and sanctification.
236 The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and
economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's inmost life
within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which God
reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the
theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the
whole oikonomia. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of
his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is,
analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his
actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his
actions.
237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the
"mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they
are revealed by God".[58] To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian
being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old
Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is
inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the
Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
II. THE REVELATION OF GOD AS TRINITY
The Father Revealed by the Son
238 Many religions invoke God as "Father". The deity is often considered
the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father"
inasmuch as he is Creator of the world.[59] Even more, God is Father because
of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son".[60]
God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is
"the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under
his loving protection.[61]
239 By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main
things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent
authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for
all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the
image of motherhood,[62] which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy
between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the
human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of
God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are
fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought
therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the
sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human
fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard:[63] no
one is father as God is Father.
240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father
not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to
his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: "No
one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except
the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."[64]
241 For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God";
as "the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God
and the very stamp of his nature".[65]
242 Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first
ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with
the Father, that is, one only God with him.[66] The second ecumenical
council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its
formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only- begotten Son of
God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from
true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father".[67]
The Father and the son revealed by the spirit
243 Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another
Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having
previously "spoken through the prophets", the Spirit will now be with and
in the disciples, to teach them and guide them "into all the truth".[68] The
Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the
Father.
244 The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in
time. The Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the
Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had
returned to the Father.[69] The sending of the person of the Spirit after
Jesus' glorification[70] reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy
Trinity.
245 The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second
ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): "We believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."[71] By
this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as "the source and
origin of the whole divinity".[72] But the eternal origin of the Spirit is
not unconnected with the Son's origin: "The Holy Spirit, the third person
of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son, of the
same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is not called the
Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of both the Father and the
Son."[73] The Creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople
confesses: "With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and
glorified."[74]
246 The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit "proceeds
from the Father and the Son (filioque)". The Council of Florence in 1438
explains: "The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his
nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and the Son. He
proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one
spiration... And, since the Father has through generation given to the
only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being
Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is
eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son."[75]
247 The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed
in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope St. Leo I, following an ancient Latin
and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically in 447,[76]
even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to recognize
and receive the Symbol of 381. The use of this formula in the Creed was
gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh
centuries). The introduction of the filioque into the
Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover,
even today, a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches.
248 At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the Father's character
as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he "who
proceeds from the Father", it affirms that he comes from the Father
through the Son.[77] The Western tradition expresses first the
consubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says this,
"legitimately and with good reason",[78] for the eternal order of the divine
persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the Father, as "the
principle without principle",[79] is the first origin of the Spirit, but
also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single
principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds.[80] This legitimate
complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the
identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed.
III. THE HOLY TRINITY IN THE TEACHING OF THE FAITH
The formation of the Trinitarian dogma
249 From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at
the very root of the Church's living faith, principally by means of
Baptism. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith,
formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the Church. Such
formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this
salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: "The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all."[81]
250 During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her
Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and
to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification
was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the
Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people's sense of the faith.
251 In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to
develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of
philosophical origin: "substance", "person" or "hypostasis", "relation"
and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the faith to human wisdom,
but gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then
on would be used to signify an ineffable mystery, "infinitely beyond all
that we can humanly understand".[82]
252 The Church uses (I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times by
"essence" or "nature") to designate the divine being in its unity, (II)
the term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit in the real distinction among them, and (III) the term "relation"
to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of
each to the others.
The dogma of the Holy Trinity
253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three
persons, the "consubstantial Trinity".[83] The divine persons do not share
the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and
entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the
Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by
nature one God."[84] In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215),
"Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance,
essence or nature."[85]
254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one
but not solitary."[86] "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply names
designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct
from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he
who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the
Son."[87] They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin:
"It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy
Spirit who proceeds."[88] The divine Unity is Triune.
255 The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not
divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one
another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one
another: "In the relational names of the persons the Father is related
to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they
are called three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one
nature or substance."[89] Indeed "everything (in them) is one where there is
no opposition of relationship."[90] "Because of that unity the Father is
wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the
Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the
Father and wholly in the Son."[91]
256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this
summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:
Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and
fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me
bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith
in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today.
By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I
give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you
but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the
three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or
nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that
casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person
considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together.
. . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in
its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity
grasps me. . [92]
IV. THE DIVINE WORKS AND THE TRINITARIAN MISSIONS
257 "O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!"[93] God is eternal
blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed
life. Such is the "plan of his loving kindness", conceived by the Father
before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: "He destined us in
love to be his sons" and "to be conformed to the image of his Son",
through "the spirit of sonship".[94] This plan is a "grace [which] was given
to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began", stemming immediately from
Trinitarian love.[95] It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history
of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit,
which are continued in the mission of the Church.[96]
258 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine
persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does
it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle."[97] However,
each divine person performs the common work according to his unique
personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament,
"one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things
are".[98] It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and
the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine
persons.
259 Being a work at once common and personal, the whole divine economy
makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and their one
divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of
the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who
glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone
who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit
moves him.[99]
260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's
creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.[100] But even now
we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: "If a man loves
me", says the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him, and make our home with him":[101]
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to
establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already
in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you,
O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your
mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling
and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be
there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely
adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.[102]
IN BRIEF
261 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the
Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us
by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
262 The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father
and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in
the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.
263 The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the
Son (Jn 14:26) and by the Son "from the Father" (Jn 15:26), reveals that,
with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. "With the Father and the
Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).
264 "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and,
by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the
Father and the Son" (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL 42, 1095).
265 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 (cf. Paul VI, CPG # 9).
266 "Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and
the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the
substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the
Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed: DS
75; ND 16).
267 Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable
in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth
what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of
the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
268 Of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is named in the
Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe
that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules
everything and can do everything. God's power is loving, for he is our
Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it "is made
perfect in weakness".[103]
"He does whatever he pleases"[104]
269 The Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God. He
is called the "Mighty One of Jacob", the "LORD of hosts", the "strong and
mighty" one. If God is almighty "in heaven and on earth", it is because he
made them.[105] Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his works
according to his will.[106] He is the Lord of the universe, whose order he
established and which remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal.
He is master of history, governing hearts and events in keeping with his
will: "It is always in your power to show great strength, and who can
withstand the strength of your arm?[107]
"You are merciful to all, for you can do all thing"[108]
270 God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on
one another: God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care
of our needs; by the filial adoption that he gives us ("I will be a father
to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty"):[109] finally by his infinite mercy, for he displays his power at
its height by freely forgiving sins.
271 God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary: "In God, power, essence,
will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore
can be in God's power which could not be in his just will or his wise
intellect."[110]
The mystery of God's apparent powerlessness
272 Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the
experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and
incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father
has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and
Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is
thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."[111] It is
in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth
"the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe".[112]
273 Only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power.
This faith glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself Christ's
power.[113] The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she
believed that "nothing will be impossible with God", and was able to
magnify the Lord: "For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and
holy is his name."[114]
274 "Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it
fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God. Once our reason
has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily and without
any hesitation admit everything that [the Creed] will afterwards propose
for us to believe - even if they be great and marvellous things, far above
the ordinary laws of nature."[115]
IN BRIEF
275 With Job, the just man, we confess: "I know that you can do all
things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted" (Job 42:2).
276 Faithful to the witness of Scripture, the Church often addresses her
prayer to the "almighty and eternal God" ("omnipotens sempiterne Deus. .
."), believing firmly that
"nothing will be impossible with God" (Gen 18:14; Lk 1:37; Mt 19:26).
277 God shows forth his almighty power by converting us from our sins and
restoring us to his friendship by grace. "God, you show your almighty
power above all in your mercy and forgiveness. . ." (Roman Missal, 26th
Sunday, Opening Prayer).
278 If we do not believe that God's love is almighty, how can we believe
that the Father could create us, the Son redeem us and the Holy Spirit
sanctify us?
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