Paragraph 2. The Father
I. "IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF
THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT"
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 in relation to his only Son, who is eternally 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 onlybegotten
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.
Paragraph 3. The Almighty
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?
Paragraph 4. The Creator
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]
I. CATECHESIS ON CREATION
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.
II. CREATION - WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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 cooperation
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.
III. "THE WORLD WAS CREATED FOR THE
GLORY OF GOD"
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]
IV. THE MYSTERY OF CREATION
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]
V. GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE
PROVIDENCE
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.
Paragraph 5. Heaven and Earth
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]
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