The First Article of Faith - A Summary

Let’s sum up the First Article of Faith as contained in Catechism of the Catholic Church before we move on to the Second Article of Faith next week.

I believe in God

• God exists. There is only one God. He has revealed himself as "He who Is". His very being is Truth and Love. Even though he has revealed himself, he remains a mystery beyond understanding (Catechism, 178, 199, 200, 230, 231)
• God is at the same time one, and three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the central mystery of Christianity. (178, 261)
• Man responds to God's revelation by faith: believing God and adhering to his will. (176)
• Faith is necessary for salvation. (183)
• What God has revealed through Scripture and Sacred Catholic Tradition (what Christ taught to the Apostles) has been reliably written & handed down to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (96 & 97)

the Father almighty

• God the Father is the first Person of the one God, the Trinity.
• We dare to call God Father only through the merits of Jesus. He taught us to call God Father. (2798, 322, 742)
• We can call God Father only because of our union with his Son, Jesus. Through union with Jesus, we become adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. This is called divine filiation, and is the essence of the Good News. (422, 742, 1110, 1279, & Pope John Paul II, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope")
• God is Father because he is the first origin of all things, and because of his loving care for all of us as his children. (239)
• God is almighty because he is all powerful. The Catholic liturgy says, "God, you show your almighty power above all in your mercy and forgiveness" — by converting us from our sins and restoring us to his friendship by grace. (277)

creator of heaven and earth

• God created everything in existence, material & immaterial. (317, 320, 338)
• "The world was made for the glory of God." He freely chose to create to show forth & communicate his "glory" — his unlimited love and goodness. (293)
• Heaven exists; it is the immaterial dwelling place of God. (326, 2802, 1023-5)
• God upholds & sustains creation, is actively involved in its unfolding and development in time, and is the loving master of the world and of its history. (301-5, 314)
• We can perceive God's work of creation through the apparent order & design in the natural world. (286, 299)
• This belief in God as the first cause of all creation is compatible with various scientific theories and investigations of the secondary causes of development in the natural world. (283-4, 306-8)
• God deliberately created man, male and female, in his image and likeness and placed him at the summit of creation. Man alone was created for his own sake, and alone is called to share in God's own life. We are not a product of blind chance. (295, 355-6)
• God created man as male & female: equal in value & dignity, different in nature, and complementary in purpose. (369-372)
• While the creation accounts in Genesis may use symbolic language, it teaches profound truths about creation, man, the fall, evil, and the promise of salvation. (289, 389-90)
• The devil, a fallen angel, is real. He is the ultimate source of all evil. (391-5, 413-15)
• Adam, as the first man, freely chose disobedience to God, resulting in the loss of man's original holiness and justice, and brought about death. We call this state of deprivation original sin. (416-19)
• The victory of salvation won by Christ is greater than our loss due to sin. (420)
• The question of evil is a profound mystery. Every aspect of the Christian message is in part an answer to the question of evil. (309)