CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION
Paragraphs 201–300
- 201 To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD…
- 202 Jesus himself affirms that God is "the one Lord" whom you must love "with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,…
- 203 God revealed himself to his people Israel by making his name known to them. A name expresses a person's essence and identity and the…
- 204 God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people, but the revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for…
- 205 God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of…
- 206 In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to…
- 207 By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the…
- 208 Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his…
- 209 Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not pronounce his name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed…
- 210 After Israel's sin, when the people had turned away from God to worship the golden calf, God hears Moses' prayer of intercession and agrees…
- 211 The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is", expresses God's faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it deserves, he…
- 212 Over the centuries, Israel's faith was able to manifest and deepen realization of the riches contained in the revelation of the divine…
- 213 The revelation of the ineffable name "I AM WHO AM" contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the…
- 214 God, "HE WHO IS", revealed himself to Israel as the one "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness". These two terms express summarily…
- 215 "The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever." "And now, O LORD God, you are God, and your…
- 216 God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world. God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone…
- 217 God is also truthful when he reveals himself - the teaching that comes from God is "true instruction". When he sends his Son into the world…
- 218 In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for…
- 219 God's love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God…
- 220 God's love is "everlasting": "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you."…
- 221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love": God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love…
- 222 Believing in God, the only One, and loving him with all our being has enormous consequences for our whole life.
- 223 It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty : "Behold, God is great, and we know him not." Therefore, we must "serve God first".
- 224 It means living in thanksgiving : if God is the only One, everything we are and have comes from him: "What have you that you did not…
- 225 It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men : everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.
- 226 It means making good use of created things : faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it…
- 227 It means trusting God in every circumstance , even in adversity. A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust: Let…
- 228 "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD..." ( Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29). "The supreme being must be unique, without equal. . . If God is not…
- 229 Faith in God leads us to turn to him alone as our first origin and our ultimate goal, and neither to prefer anything to him nor to…
- 230 Even when he reveals himself, God remains a mystery beyond words: "If you understood him, it would not be God" (St. Augustine, Sermo 52, 6,…
- 231 The God of our faith has revealed himself as HE WHO IS; and he has made himself known as "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (…
- 232 Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a…
- 233 Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names , for there is only one God,…
- 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…
- 235 This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine…
- 236 The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology ( theologia ) and economy ( oikonomia ). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's…
- 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…
- 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"…
- 239 By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent…
- 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…
- 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…
- 242 Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial"…
- 243 Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having…
- 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…
- 245 The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): "We believe in the Holy…
- 246 The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque) ". The Council of Florence in…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 250 During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and to…
- 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…
- 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)…
- 253 The Trinity is One . We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity". The divine persons do not…
- 254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another . "God is one but not solitary." "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply…
- 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…
- 256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:…
- 257 "O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!" God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy…
- 258 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does…
- 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…
- 260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we…
- 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…
- 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,…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 267 Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 271 God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary: "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.…
- 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…
- 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…
- 279 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Holy Scripture begins with these solemn words. The profession of faith takes them…
- 280 Creation is the foundation of "all God's saving plans," the "beginning of the history of salvation" that culminates in Christ. Conversely,…
- 281 And so the readings of the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the new creation in Christ, begin with the creation account; likewise in the…
- 282 Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life: for it makes explicit the…
- 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…
- 284 The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of…
- 285 Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient…
- 286 Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to the question of origins. The existence of God the Creator can be…
- 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…
- 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…
- 289 Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint these…
- 290 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth": three things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave…
- 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…
- 292 The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the…
- 293 Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: "The world was made for the glory of God." St.…
- 294 The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. God…
- 295 We believe that God created the world according to his wisdom. It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 299 Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight." The universe,…
- 300 God is infinitely greater than all his works: "You have set your glory above the heavens." Indeed, God's "greatness is unsearchable". But…