Catechism of the Catholic Church — paragraphs 101

101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God,…
102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely: You…
103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the…
104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it…
105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture . "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred…
106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them…
107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed…
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a…
109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human…
110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention , the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the…
111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture…
112 1. Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture" . Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is…
113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church" . According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written…
114 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith . By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within…
115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being…
116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound…
117 The spiritual sense . Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it…
118 A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses: The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; The Moral how to act;…
119 "It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred…
120 It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This…
121 The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old…
122 Indeed, "the economy of the Old Testament was deliberately so oriented that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of…
123 Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The Church has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament…
124 "The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most…
125 The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures "because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our…
126 We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels: 1. The life and teaching of Jesus . The Church holds firmly that the four…
127 The fourfold Gospel holds a unique place in the Church, as is evident both in the veneration which the liturgy accords it and in the…
128 The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two…
129 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the…
130 Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when "God [will] be everything to everyone." Nor do the…
131 "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church…
132 "Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching,…
133 The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by…
134 All sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, "because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture…
135 "The Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because they are inspired, they are truly the Word of God" (DV 24).
136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by means of them. He thus gives assurance…
137 Interpretation of the inspired Scripture must be attentive above all to what God wants to reveal through the sacred authors for our…
138 The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New.
139 The four Gospels occupy a central place because Christ Jesus is their center.
140 The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation. The Old Testament prepares for the New and the…
141 "The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord" (DV 21): both nourish and govern the whole…
142 By his Revelation , "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to…
143 By faith , man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred…
144 To obey (from the Latin ob-audire , to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth…
145 The Letter to the Hebrews , in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith,…
146 Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not…
147 The Old Testament is rich in witnesses to this faith. The Letter to the Hebrews proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the…
148 The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel…
149 Throughout her life and until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe…
150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that…
151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well…
152 One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can…
153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from…
154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically…
155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by…
156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we…
157 Faith is certain . It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure,…
158 "Faith seeks understanding ": it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to…
159 Faith and science : "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who…
160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will.…
161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since "without faith it…
162 Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good…
163 Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face",…
164 Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight"; we perceive God as "in a mirror, dimly" and only "in part". Even though enlightened by him…
165 It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith : to Abraham, who "in hope... believed against hope"; to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her…
166 Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated…
167 "I believe" ( Apostles' Creed ) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. "We believe"…
168 It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the…
169 Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as…
170 We do not believe in formulas, but in those realities they express, which faith allows us to touch. "The believer's act [of faith] does not…
171 The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints". She guards…
172 Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received…
173 "Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the…
174 "For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same. The Churches established in Germany…
175 "We guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of…
176 Faith is a personal adherence of the whole man to God who reveals himself. It involves an assent of the intellect and will to the…
177 "To believe" has thus a twofold reference: to the person, and to the truth: to the truth, by trust in the person who bears witness to it.
178 We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
179 Faith is a supernatural gift from God. In order to believe, man needs the interior helps of the Holy Spirit.
180 "Believing" is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the human person.
181 "Believing" is an ecclesial act. The Church's faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all…
182 We believe all "that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely…
183 Faith is necessary for salvation. The Lord himself affirms: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe…
184 "Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come" (St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol . 1, 2).
185 Whoever says "I believe" says "I pledge myself to what we believe." Communion in faith needs a common language of faith, normative for all…
186 From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formula normative for all. But already very early on,…
187 Such syntheses are called "professions of faith" since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. They are called "creeds" on…
188 The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, for example, a seal presented as a token of recognition. The broken parts were…
189 The first "profession of faith" is made during Baptism. The symbol of faith is first and foremost the baptismal creed. Since Baptism is…
190 And so the Creed is divided into three parts: "the first part speaks of the first divine Person and the wonderful work of creation; the…
191 "These three parts are distinct although connected with one another. According to a comparison often used by the Fathers, we call them…
192 Through the centuries many professions or symbols of faith have been articulated in response to the needs of the different eras: the creeds…
193 None of the creeds from the different stages in the Church's life can be considered superseded or irrelevant. They help us today to attain…
194 The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient…
195 The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils…
196 Our presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles' Creed, which constitutes, as it were, "the oldest Roman catechism". The…
197 As on the day of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the "standard of teaching", let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving…
198 Our profession of faith begins with God , for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with…
199 "I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it…
200 These are the words with which the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed begins. The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the…

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