I. THE ANGELS
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 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 its beginning until 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.
II. THE VISIBLE WORLD
337 God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order.
Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of
divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day.[204] On the subject of
creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation,[205]
permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of
creation to the praise of God."[206]
338 Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. The world began
when God's word drew it out of nothingness; all existent beings, all of nature, and all
human history are rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world
was constituted and time begun.[207]
339 Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. For each one of
the works of the "six days" it is said: "And God saw that it was good." "By the very
nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence,
its own order and laws."[208] Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being,
reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore
respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things
which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences
for human beings and their environment.
340 God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and
the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle of their countless diversities and
inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence
on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.
341 The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created world results
from the diversity of beings and from the relationships which exist among them. Man
discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They call forth the admiration of
scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to
inspire the respect and submission of man's intellect and will.
342 The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the "six days", from the less
perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures[209] and takes care of each one,
even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: "You are of more value than many
sparrows", or again: "Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!"[210]
343 Man is the summit of the Creator's work, as the inspired account expresses by
clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures.[211]
344 There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same
Creator and are all ordered to his glory: May you be praised, O Lord, in all your
creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful,
radiating great splendour, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High. . .
May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious
and chaste. . .
May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and
produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses. . .
Praise and bless my Lord, give thanks and serve him in all humility.[212]
345 The sabbath - the end of the work of the six days. The sacred text says that "on the
seventh day God finished his work which he had done", that the "heavens and the earth
were finished", and that God "rested" on this day and sanctified and blessed it.[213]
These inspired words are rich in profitable instruction:
346 In creation God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm, on which
the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakeable
faithfulness of God's covenant.[214] For his part man must remain faithful to this
foundation, and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it.
347 Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore for the worship
and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation.[215] As the rule of
St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over "the work of God", that is,
solemn worship.[216] This indicates the right order of human concerns.
348 The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the commandments is to
correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in his work of creation.
349 The eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ's Resurrection.
The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new creation.
Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first
creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendour of
which surpasses that of the first creation.[217]
IN BRIEF
350 Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his
saving plans for other creatures: "The angels work together for the benefit of us all" (St.
Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 114, 3, ad 3).
351 The angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve him especially in the
accomplishment of his saving mission to men.
352 The Church venerates the angels who help her on her earthly pilgrimage and protect
every human being.
353 God willed the diversity of his creatures and their own particular goodness, their
interdependence and their order. He destined all material creatures for the good of the
human race. Man, and through him all creation, is destined for the glory of God.
354 Respect for laws inscribed in creation and the relations which derive from the nature
of things is a principle of wisdom and a foundation for morality.
Paragraph 6. Man
355 "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and
female he created them."[218] Man occupies a unique place in creation: (I) he is "in the
image of God"; (II) in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material worlds; (III) he
is created "male and female"; (IV) God established him in his friendship.
I. "IN THE IMAGE OF GOD"
356 Of all visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator".[219] He is
"the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake",[220] and he alone is
called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was
created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity:
What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by
which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for her;
for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of
tasting your eternal Good.[221]
357 Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person,
who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of selfpossession
and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other
persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a
response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.
358 God created everything for man,[222] but man in turn was created to serve and love
God and to offer all creation back to him:
What is it that is about to be created, that enjoys such honour? It is man that great and
wonderful living creature, more precious in the eyes of God than all other creatures!
For him the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the rest of creation exist. God
attached so much importance to his salvation that he did not spare his own Son for the
sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to work, trying every possible means, until he has
raised man up to himself and made him sit at his right hand.[223]
359 "In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man
truly becomes clear."[224]
St. Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and Christ. . .
The first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to
give him life... The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created
him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order
that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last
Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the
first; as he himself says: "I am the first and the last."[225]
360 Because of its common origin the human race forms a unity, for "from one ancestor
[God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth":[226]
O wondrous vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its
origin in God. . . in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material
body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its mission in the world;
in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature, may
use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God himself, to
whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining this end;. . . in the unity
of the redemption wrought by Christ for all.[227]
361 "This law of human solidarity and charity",[228] without excluding the rich variety
of persons, cultures and peoples, assures us that all men are truly brethren.
II. "BODY AND SOUL BUT TRULY ONE"
362 The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and
spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms
that "then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."[229] Man, whole and entire,
is therefore willed by God.
363 In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human
person.[230] But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of
greatest value in him,[231] that by which he is most especially in God's image: "soul"
signifies the spiritual principle in man.
364 The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body
precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that
is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:[232]
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he
sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus
brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the
Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to
regard his body as good and to hold it in honour since God has created it and will raise
it up on the last day 233
365 The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be
the "form" of the body:[234] i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of
matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures
united, but rather their union forms a single nature.
366 The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not
"produced" by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it
separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final
Resurrection.[235]
367 Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that
God may sanctify his people "wholly", with "spirit and soul and body" kept sound and
blameless at the Lord's coming.[236] The Church teaches that this distinction does not
introduce a duality into the soul.[237] "Spirit" signifies that from creation man is ordered
to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to
communion with God.[238]
368 The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense
of the depths of one's being, where the person decides for or against God.[239]
III. "MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED
THEM"
Equality and difference willed by God
369 Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one
hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as
man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by
God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately
from God their Creator.[240] Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity
"in the image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the
Creator's wisdom and goodness.
370 In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit
in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
"perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God:
those of a mother and those of a father and husband.[241]
"Each for the other" - "A unity in two"
371 God created man and woman together and willed each for the other. The Word of
God gives us to understand this through various features of the sacred text. "It is not
good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him."[242] None of
the animals can be man's partner.[243] The woman God "fashions" from the man's rib
and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an exclamation of love and
communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."[244] Man
discovers woman as another "I", sharing the same humanity.
372 Man and woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made
and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be
"helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and
complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way
that, by forming "one flesh",[245] they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth."[246] By transmitting human life to their descendants, man
and woman as spouses and parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's
work.[247]
373 In God's plan man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth[248] as
stewards of God. This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination.
God calls man and woman, made in the image of the Creator "who loves everything that
exists",[249] to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their responsibility
for the world God has entrusted to them.
IV. MAN IN PARADISE
374 The first man was not only created good, but was also established in friendship with
his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state
that would be surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ.
375 The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in
the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and
Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice".[250] This grace of
original holiness was "to share in. . .divine life".[251]
376 By the radiance of this grace all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long as
he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die.[252] The inner
harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman,[253] and finally
the harmony between the first couple and all creation, comprised the state called
"original justice".
377 The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the beginning was
realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and
ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence[254] that
subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and selfassertion,
contrary to the dictates of reason.
378 The sign of man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden.[255]
There he lives "to till it and keep it". Work is not yet a burden,[256] but rather the
collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation.
379 This entire harmony of original justice, foreseen for man in God's plan, will be lost
by the sin of our first parents.
IN BRIEF
380 "Father,. . . you formed man in your own likeness and set him over the whole world
to serve you, his creator, and to rule over all creatures" (Roman Missal, EP IV, 118).
381 Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God's Son made man, the "image of
the invisible God" (Col 1:15), so that Christ shall be the first-born of a multitude of
brothers and sisters (cf. Eph 1:3-6; Rom 8:29).
382 "Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity" (GS 14 # 1). The doctrine of the
faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God.
383 "God did not create man a solitary being. From the beginning, "male and female he
created them" (Gen 1:27). This partnership of man and woman constitutes the first form
of communion between persons" (GS 12 # 4).
384 Revelation makes known to us the state of original holiness and justice of man and
woman before sin: from their friendship with God flowed the happiness of their
existence in paradise.
Paragraph 7. The Fall
385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the
experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations
proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come
from? "I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution", said St. Augustine,[257]
and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God.
For "the mystery of lawlessness" is clarified only in the light of the "mystery of our
religion".[258] The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the
extent of evil and the superabundance of grace.[259] We must therefore approach the
question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its
conqueror.[260]
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