THE CATECHISM OF
THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH
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THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO
279 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."[116] Holy
Scripture begins with these solemn words. The profession of faith takes
them up when it confesses that God the Father almighty is "Creator of
heaven and earth" (Apostles' Creed), "of all that is, seen and unseen"
(Nicene Creed). We shall speak first of the Creator, then of creation and
finally of the fall into sin from which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came
to raise us up again.
280 Creation is the foundation of "all God's saving plans," the "beginning
of the history of salvation"[117] that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the
mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and
reveals the end for which "in the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth": from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new
creation in Christ.[118]
28 I And so the readings of the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the new
creation in Christ, begin with the creation account; likewise in the
Byzantine liturgy, the account of creation always constitutes the first
reading at the vigils of the great feasts of the Lord. According to
ancient witnesses the instruction of catechumens for Baptism followed the
same itinerary.[119]
282 Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the very
foundations of human and Christian life: for it makes explicit the
response of the Christian faith to the basic question that men of all
times have asked themselves:[120] "Where do we come from?" "Where are we
going?" "What is our origin?" "What is our end?" "Where does everything
that exists come from and where is it going?" The two questions, the first
about the origin and the second about the end, are inseparable. They are
decisive for the meaning and orientation of our life and actions.
283 The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the
object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our
knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of
life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even
greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give
him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives
to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is he who gave
me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world
and the activity of the elements. . . for wisdom, the fashioner of all
things, taught me."[121]
284 The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly stimulated by
a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of the
natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the
universe arose physically, or when man appeared, but rather of discovering
the meaning of such an origin: is the universe governed by chance, blind
fate, anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good
Being called "God"? And if the world does come from God's wisdom and
goodness, why is there evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible
for it? Is there any liberation from it?
285 Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by
responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient
religions and cultures produced many myths concerning origins. Some
philosophers have said that everything is God, that the world is God, or
that the development of the world is the development of God (Pantheism).
Others have said that the world is a necessary emanation arising from God
and returning to him. Still others have affirmed the existence of two
eternal principles, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, locked, in
permanent conflict (Dualism, Manichaeism). According to some of these
conceptions, the world (at least the physical world) is evil, the product
of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or left behind (Gnosticism). Some
admit that the world was made by God, but as by a watch-maker who, once he
has made a watch, abandons it to itself (Deism). Finally, others reject
any transcendent origin for the world, but see it as merely the interplay
of matter that has always existed (Materialism). All these attempts bear
witness to the permanence and universality of the question of origins.
This inquiry is distinctively human.
286 Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to
the question of origins. The existence of God the Creator can be known
with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason,[122] even if
this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error. This is why
faith comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understanding
of this truth: "By faith we understand that the world was created by the
word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not
appear."[123]
287 The truth about creation is so important for all of human life that
God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is
salutary to know on the subject. Beyond the natural knowledge that every
man can have of the Creator,[124] God progressively revealed to Israel the
mystery of creation. He who chose the patriarchs, who brought Israel out
of Egypt, and who by choosing Israel created and formed it, this same God
reveals himself as the One to whom belong all the peoples of the earth,
and the whole earth itself; he is the One who alone "made heaven and
earth".[125]
288 Thus the revelation of creation is inseparable from the revelation and
forging of the covenant of the one God with his People. Creation is
revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal
witness to God's all- powerful love.[126] And so, the truth of creation is
also expressed with growing vigour in the message of the prophets, the
prayer of the psalms and the liturgy, and in the wisdom sayings of the
Chosen People.[127]
289 Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three
chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint
these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have
placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn
language the truths of creation - its origin and its end in God, its order
and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the
hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred
Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, these texts remain
the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the "beginning":
creation, fall, and promise of salvation.
290 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth":[128] three
things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God
gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself; he alone is
Creator (the verb "create" - Hebrew bara - always has God for its
subject). The totality of what exists (expressed by the formula "the
heavens and the earth") depends on the One who gives it being.
291 "In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God.
. . all things were made through him, and without him was not
anything made that was made."[129] The New Testament reveals that God
created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved Son. In him "all
things were created, in heaven and on earth.. . all things were created
through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things
hold together."[130] The Church's faith likewise confesses the creative
action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of life", "the Creator Spirit"
(Veni, Creator Spiritus), the "source of every good".[131]
292 The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative
action of the Son and the Spirit,[132] inseparably one with that of the
Father. This creative co-operation is clearly affirmed in the Church's
rule of faith: "There exists but one God. . . he is the Father, God, the
Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself,
that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom", "by the Son and the Spirit" who,
so to speak, are "his hands".[133] Creation is the common work of the Holy
Trinity.
293 Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this
fundamental truth: "The world was made for the glory of God."[134] St.
Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase his
glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it",[135] for God has no
other reason for creating than his love and goodness: "Creatures came into
existence when the key of love opened his hand."[136] The First Vatican
Council explains:
This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power", not for
increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in
order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on
creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of
time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the
corporeal. . ."[137]
294 The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and
communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. God made
us "to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his
will, to the praise of his glorious grace",[138] for "the glory of God is
man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's
revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings
that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word's manifestation of the
Father obtain life for those who see God."[139] The ultimate purpose of
creation is that God "who is the creator of all things may at last become
"all in all", thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our
beatitude."[140]
God creates by wisdom and love
295 We believe that God created the world according to his wisdom.[141] It
is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance.
We believe that it proceeds from God's free will; he wanted to make his
creatures share in his being, wisdom and goodness: "For you created all
things, and by your will they existed and were created."[142] Therefore the
Psalmist exclaims: "O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you
have made them all"; and "The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is
over all that he has made."[143]
God creates "out of nothing"
296 We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order
to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine
substance.[144] God creates freely "out of nothing":[145]
If God had drawn the world from pre-existent matter, what would be so
extraordinary in that? A human artisan makes from a given material
whatever he wants, while God shows his power by starting from nothing to
make all he wants.[146]
297 Scripture bears witness to faith in creation "out of nothing" as a
truth full of promise and hope. Thus the mother of seven sons encourages
them for martyrdom:
I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave
you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of
you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man
and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and
breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of
his laws. . . Look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is
in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that
existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.[147]
298 Since God could create everything out of nothing, he can also, through
the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart
in them,[148] and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection. God
"gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not
exist."[149] And since God was able to make light shine in darkness by his
Word, he can also give the light of faith to those who do not yet know
him.[150]
God creates an ordered and good world
299 Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have
arranged all things by measure and number and weight."[151] The universe,
created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the invisible God", is
destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God"
and called to a personal relationship with God.[152] Our human
understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can
understand what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without
great effort and only in a spirit of humility and respect before the
Creator and his work.[153] Because creation comes forth from God's
goodness, it shares in that goodness - "And God saw that it was good. . .
very good"[154]- for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an
inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the
Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the
physical world.[155]
God transcends creation and is present to it
300 God is infinitely greater than all his works: "You have set your glory
above the heavens."[156] Indeed, God's "greatness is unsearchable".[157] But
because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause of all that
exists, God is present to his creatures' inmost being: "In him we live and
move and have our being."[158] In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher
than my highest and more inward than my innermost self".[159]
God upholds and sustains creation
301 With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He
not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment,
upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to
their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the
Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:
For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you
have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How
would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would
anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all
things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.[160]
302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not
spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was
created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate
perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call
"divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation
toward this perfection:
By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made,
"reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering
all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those
things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of
creatures.[161]
303 The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude of divine
providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least
things to the great events of the world and its history. The sacred books
powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events:
"Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases."[162] And so it is
with Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one
opens".[163] As the book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind
of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established."[164]
304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred
Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any
secondary causes. This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound
way of recalling God's primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the
world,[165] and so of educating his people to trust in him. The prayer of
the Psalms is the great school of this trust.[166]
305 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly
Father who takes care of his children's smallest needs: "Therefore do not
be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?". . .
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his
kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as
well."[167]
Providence and secondary causes
306 God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also
makes use of his creatures' co-operation. This use is not a sign of
weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. For
God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of
acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and
thus of co-operating in the accomplishment of his plan.
307 To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his
providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the
earth and having dominion over it.[168] God thus enables men to be
intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to
perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbours.
Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also
enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers
and their sufferings.[169] They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and
co-workers for his kingdom.[170]
308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is
inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who
operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both
to will and to work for his good pleasure."[171] Far from diminishing the
creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by
God's power, wisdom and goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from
its origin, for "without a Creator the creature vanishes."[172] Still less
can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace.[173]
Providence and the scandal of evil
309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world,
cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as
pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick
answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the
answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and
the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the
redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering
of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life
to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which,
by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a
single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to
the question of evil.
310 But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist
in it? With infinite power God could always create something better.[174]
But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world
"in a state of journeying" towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan
this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the
disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the
less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With
physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not
reached perfection.[175]
311 Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey
toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential
love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has
moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the
world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral
evil.[176] He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his
creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it:
For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any
evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and
good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.[177]
312 In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring
a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his
creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me
here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good,
to bring it about that many people should be kept alive."[178] From the
greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's
only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded
all the more",[179] brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of
Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.
313 "We know that in everything God works for good for those who love
him."[180] The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:
St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against
what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for
the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."[181]
St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter:
"Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that
whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the
best."[182]
Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I was taught by the grace of God that I
should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same time I
should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in
this time - that 'all manner [of] thing shall be well.'"[183]
314 We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history.
But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end,
when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face",[184] will
we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin
- God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest[185] for which
he created heaven and earth.
IN BRIEF
315 In the creation of the world and of man, God gave the first and
universal witness to his almighty love and his wisdom, the first
proclamation of the "plan of his loving goodness", which finds its goal in
the new creation in Christ.
316 Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular,
it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
together are the one, indivisible principle of creation.
317 God alone created the universe, freely, directly and without any help.
318 No creature has the infinite power necessary to "create" in the proper
sense of the word, that is, to produce and give being to that which had in
no way possessed it (to call into existence "out of nothing") (cf DS
3624).
319 God created the world to show forth and communicate his glory. That
his creatures should share in his truth, goodness and beauty - this is the
glory for which God created them.
320 God created the universe and keeps it in existence by his Word, the
Son "upholding the universe by his word of power" (Heb 1:3), and by his
Creator Spirit, the giver of life.
321 Divine providence consists of the dispositions by which God guides all
his creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end.
322 Christ invites us to filial trust in the providence of our heavenly
Father (cf. Mt 6:26-34), and St. Peter the apostle repeats: "Cast all your
anxieties on him, for he cares about you" (I Pt 5:7; cf. Ps 55:23).
323 Divine providence works also through the actions of creatures. To
human beings God grants the ability to co- operate freely with his plans.
324 The fact that God permits physical and even moral evil is a mystery
that God illuminates by his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose to vanquish
evil. Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he
did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall
fully know only in eternal life.
325 The Apostles' Creed professes that God is "creator of heaven and
earth". The Nicene Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes
"all that is, seen and unseen".
326 The Scriptural expression "heaven and earth" means all that exists,
creation in its entirety. It also indicates the bond, deep within
creation, that both unites heaven and earth and distinguishes the one from
the other: "the earth" is the world of men, while "heaven" or "the
heavens" can designate both the firmament and God's own "place" - "our
Father in heaven" and consequently the "heaven" too which is
eschatological glory. Finally, "heaven" refers to the saints and the
"place" of the spiritual creatures, the angels, who surround God.[186]
327 The profession of faith of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) affirms
that God "from the beginning of time made at once (simul) out of nothing
both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the
angelic and the earthly, and then (deinde) the human creature, who as it
were shares in both orders, being composed of spirit and body."[187]
The existence of angels - a truth of faith
328 The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred
Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of faith. The witness of
Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.
Who are they?
329 St. Augustine says: "'Angel' is the name of their office, not of their
nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is 'spirit'; if you seek
the name of their office, it is 'angel': from what they are, 'spirit',
from what they do, 'angel.'"[188] With their whole beings the angels are
servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my
Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word,
hearkening to the voice of his word".[189]
330 As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they
are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible
creatures, as the splendour of their glory bears witness.[190]
Christ "with all his angels"
331 Christ is the centre of the angelic world. They are his angels: "When
the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. . "[191]
They belong to him because they were created through and for him: "for in
him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things
were created through him and for him."[192] They belong to him still more
because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: "Are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to
obtain salvation?"[193]
332 Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of
salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the
accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise;
protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham's hand;
communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced
births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few
examples.[194] Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the
Precursor and that of Jesus himself.[195]
333 From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate
is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God "brings the
firstborn into the world, he says: 'Let all God's angels worship him.'"[196]
Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in
the Church's praise: "Glory to God in the highest!"[197] They protect Jesus
in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in
the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his
enemies as Israel had been.[198] Again, it is the angels who "evangelize" by
proclaiming the Good News of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection.[199]
They will be present at Christ's return, which they will announce, to
serve at his judgement.[200]
The angels in the life of the Church
334 In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the
mysterious and powerful help of angels.[201]
335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the
thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the Roman Canon's
Supplices te rogamus. . .["Almighty God, we pray that your angel..."]; in
the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels
lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the
Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more
particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian
angels).
336 From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care
and intercession.[202] "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector
and shepherd leading him to life."[203] Already here on earth the Christian
life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in
God.
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