God, Creation and the Trinity: sixteen questions
The Creed begins with God: one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who made all things out of love. Short answers in plain language, each with the paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church where you can read further.
Is there only one God? CCC 200–202
Yes. God revealed himself to Israel as the only One: "Hear, O Israel" (Deuteronomy 6:4). Jesus confirmed it, and at the same time showed that he himself is "the Lord". Confessing Jesus as Lord, and the Holy Spirit as Lord, does not divide the one God.
What is God's name? CCC 206
To Moses at the burning bush God revealed the name YHWH, "I am who I am" (Exodus 3:14). The name tells us that God is, and that he is beyond everything we can understand or say. It is both a name given and a mystery kept.
What is God like? CCC 214, 221
God is truth and love. Saint John goes furthest when he says "God is love" (1 John 4:8). By sending his Son and the Spirit, God revealed his inmost secret: he is himself an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he means us to share in it.
What is the Holy Trinity? CCC 232–234
The mystery of one God in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the central mystery of Christian faith and life, the source of all the other mysteries. That is why we are baptised "in the name", not the names, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Could we have worked out the Trinity for ourselves? CCC 237
No. God left traces of himself in creation and in the Old Testament, but his inmost being as Trinity could only be known when he revealed it, through the coming of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Three Gods, or one? CCC 253–255
One God in three Persons. The Persons do not share the divinity out in parts; each of them is God whole and entire. They are really distinct from one another only in their relations of origin: the Father begets, the Son is begotten, the Holy Spirit proceeds.
What do "substance" and "person" mean here? CCC 251–252
The Church borrowed words from philosophy and gave them a new meaning. "Substance" (or nature, essence) names the one divine being. "Person" (or hypostasis) names the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in their real distinction. "Relation" says that the distinction lies in how each is related to the others.
What is the "filioque"? CCC 245–248
The Latin form of the Creed says the Spirit proceeds "from the Father and the Son" (filioque). The Creed of Constantinople (381) says "from the Father". The Catechism explains that the Eastern way stresses the Father as first origin, that the Spirit comes from the Father through the Son, and that the Western way, legitimately, stresses the communion of Father and Son. Rightly understood, the two are complementary and do not touch the identity of faith.
Do the three Persons act separately? CCC 258
No. All God's works are the common work of the three Persons, for they have one and the same nature and one operation. Yet each Person does the common work according to what is proper to him.
Why and how did God create the world? CCC 290, 293–296
Not to increase his glory but to show it and share it; God had no other reason than his love and goodness. The world is not the result of chance or necessity but of his wisdom and will. He created "out of nothing": he needed nothing that existed before, and no help.
Does the Church accept what science says about origins? CCC 283–284
The Catechism welcomes the scientific study of the age of the universe, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man, and invites us to admire the Creator all the more. Science asks when and how; faith asks the further question of meaning: whether the world comes from chance or from a wise and good God.
Does God still care for the world? CCC 301–303
Yes. God does not abandon what he made. At every moment he holds his creatures in being and guides them toward their goal. This care, reaching from the smallest things to the great events of history, is called divine providence.
If God is good, why is there evil? CCC 309–314
No quick answer will do; only the whole Christian faith answers it. God is in no way the cause of moral evil. He permits it because he respects the liberty of his creatures, and he knows how to bring good out of it, as he did from the death of his Son. Only at the end shall we fully understand his ways.
Are angels real? CCC 328–330, 336
Yes. The existence of angels, spiritual beings without bodies, is a truth of faith. "Angel" names their task: they are servants and messengers of God. From infancy to death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and prayer.
What makes the human person special? CCC 355–357, 362–366
Man is made in the image of God, as male and female, body and spirit in one. Each person is someone, not something, called to know and love God. Every spiritual soul is created directly by God, not produced by the parents, and it is immortal.
What is original sin? CCC 397, 404–405
Tempted by the devil, the first man stopped trusting God and disobeyed him. All humanity shares in the effects: we are born without the original holiness and justice, wounded and inclined to sin, but not totally corrupted. It is not a personal fault in us. Baptism gives the life of Christ's grace and takes original sin away, though its effects on our nature remain.
Sit with this
- God is an eternal exchange of love, and he wants me inside it. What does that change today?
- Where do I see his care in the small things of my life?
- When I make the sign of the cross, do I remember whose name I am called by?
Sources: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part One, Section Two, Chapter One (paragraphs 198 to 421), checked on vatican.va. Scripture references follow the NRSV.