The Catechism of the Catholic Church
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE
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 invite and
receive them into his own company."[1] The adequate response to this
invitation is faith.
143 By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.[2]
With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred
Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the
obedience of faith".[3]
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 is
guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such
obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most
perfect embodiment.
Abraham - "father of all who believe"
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,
Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to
receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to
go."[4] By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land.[5]
By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith
Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.[6]
146 Abraham thus fulfils the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen":[7]
"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."[8]
Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all
who believe".[9]
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 ancestors
who "received divine approval".[10] Yet "God had foreseen something better
for us": the grace of believing in his Son Jesus, "the pioneer and
perfecter of our faith".[11]
Mary - "Blessed is she who believed"
148 The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By
faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel,
believing that "with God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her
assent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me
according to your word."[12] Elizabeth greeted her: "Blessed is she who
believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from
the Lord."[13] It is for this faith that all generations have called Mary
blessed.[14]
149 Throughout her life and until her last ordeal[15] when Jesus her son
died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe
in the fulfilment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the
purest realization of faith.
To believe in God alone
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 God has
revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian
faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to
entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It
would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.[17]
To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God
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
pleased"; God tells us to listen to him.[18] The Lord himself said to his
disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me."[19] We can believe in Jesus
Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever
seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him
known."[20] Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one
who knows him and can reveal him.[21]
To believe in the Holy Spirit
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 say
"Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit",[22] who "searches everything,
even the depths of God. . No one comprehends the thoughts of God, except
the Spirit of God."[23] Only God knows God completely: we believe in the
Holy Spirit because he is God.
The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Faith is a grace
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
flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven".[24] Faith is a gift
of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be
exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must
have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and
converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for
all to accept and believe the truth.'"[25]
Faith is a human act
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 human
act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is
contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human
relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons
tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises
(for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life
with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity
to "yield by faith the full submission of... intellect and will to God who
reveals",[26] and to share in an interior communion with him.
155 In faith, the human intellect and will co-operate with divine grace:
"Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by
command of the will moved by God through grace."[27]
Faith and understanding
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 believe
"because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither
deceive nor be deceived".[28] So "that the submission of our faith might
nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs
of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy
Spirit."[29] Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the
Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the
most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of
all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which
show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the
mind".[30]
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, revealed
truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty
that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of
natural reason gives."[31] "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one
doubt."[32]
158 "Faith seeks understanding":[33] it is intrinsic to faith that a
believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and
to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge
will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love.
The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts"[34] to a lively
understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of
God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other
and with Christ, the centre of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy
Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be
more and more profoundly understood."[35] In the words of St. Augustine, "I
believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to
believe."[36]
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
reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on
the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict
truth."[37] "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge,
provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not
override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things
of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble
and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it
were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver
of all things, who made them what they are."[38]
The freedom of faith
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.
The act of faith is of its very nature a free act."[39] "God calls men to
serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in
conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest
manifestation in Christ Jesus."[40] Indeed, Christ invited people to faith
and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth
but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His
kingdom... grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross,
draws men to himself."[41]
The necessity of faith
161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our
salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.[42] "Since "without
faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of
his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification,
nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"]
Perseverance in faith
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
warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience,
certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith."[44] To live, grow and
persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of
God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith;[45] it must be "working
through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the
Church.[46]
Faith - the beginning of eternal life
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", "as
he is".[47] So faith is already the beginning of eternal life:
When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a
reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful
things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.[48]
164 Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";[49] we perceive God as
"in a mirror, dimly" and only "in part".[50] Even though enlightened by him
in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to
the test. The world we live in often seems very far from the one promised
us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death,
seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a
temptation against it.
165 It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in
hope... believed against hope";[51] to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her
pilgrimage of faith", walked into the "night of faith"[52] in sharing the
darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let
us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus
the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."[53]
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 act.
No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone.
You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The
believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others.
Our love for Jesus and for our neighbour impels us to speak to others
about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of
believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others,
and by my faith I help support others in the faith.
167 "I believe" (Apostles' Creed) is the faith of the Church professed
personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. "We believe"
(Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by
the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical
assembly of believers. "I believe" is also the Church, our mother,
responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both "I believe" and
"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
Lord: "Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in
the hymn Te Deum; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to
confess: "I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church that we
receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum,
the minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's
Church?" And the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer you?" "Eternal
life."[54]
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 the
mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author
of our salvation."[55] Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in
the faith.
170 We do not believe in formulae, but in those realities they express,
which faith allows us to touch. "The believer's act [of faith] does not
terminate in the propositions, but in the realities [which they
express]."[56] All the same, we do approach these realities with the help of
formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and to hand
it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and
more.
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 the
memory of Christ's words; it is she who from generation to generation
hands on the apostles' confession of faith.[57] As a mother who teaches her
children to speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our
Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the
understanding and the life of faith.
172 Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples and
nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from
the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction
that all people have only one God and Father.[58] St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a
witness of this faith, declared:
173 "Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even
to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and
their disciples. . . guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as
dwelling in but a single house, and similarly believes as if having but
one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches and hands on this faith
with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth."[59]
174 "For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the
Tradition is one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no
other faith or Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the
Celts, nor those of the East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at
the centre of the world. . ."[60] The Church's message "is true and solid,
in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole
world."[61]
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
great price, as if in an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and
causes the very vessel that contains it to be renewed."[62]
IN BRIEF
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
self-revelation God has made through his deeds and words.
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 believers. "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church
as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).
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
revealed" (Paul VI, CPG # 20).
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 will
be condemned" (Mk 16:16).
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).
The Apostles Creed
I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven
and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary
Under Pontius Pilate He was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered died and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
ENDNOTES
1 DV 2; cf. Col 1:15; I Tim 1:17; Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15; Bar 3:38 (Vulg.).
2 Cf. DV 5.
3 Cf. Rom 1:5; 16:26.
4 Heb 11:8; cf. Gen 12:1-4.
5 Cf. Gen 23:4.
6 Cf. Heb 11:17.
7 Heb 11:1.
8 Rom 4:3; cf. Gen 15:6.
9 Rom 4:11, 18; 4:20; cf. Gen 15:5.
10 Heb 11:2, 39.
11 Heb 11:40; 12:2.
12 Lk 1:37-38; cf. Gen 18:14.
13 Lk 1:45.
14 Cf. Lk 1:48.
15 Cf. Lk 2:35.
16 2 Tim 1:12.
17 Cf. Jer 17:5-6; Pss 40:5; 146:3-4.
18 Mk 1:11; cf. 9:7
19 Jn 14:1.
20 Jn 1:18.
21 Jn 6:46; cf. Mt 11:27.
22 I Cor 12:3.
23 I Cor 2:10-11.
24 Mt 16:17; cf. Gal 1:15; Mt 11:25.
25 DV 5; cf. DS 377; 3010.
26 Dei Filius: 3: DS 3008.
27 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 2, 9; cf Dei Filius 3; DS 3010.
28 Dei Filius: 3 DS 3008.
29 Dei Filius: 3 DS 3009.
30 Dei Filius: 3: DS 3008-3010; Cf. Mk 16 20; Heb 2:4.
31 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II 171, 5, obj. 3.
32 John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia pro vita sua (London Longman,
1878) 239.
33 St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem. PL 153 225A.
34 Eph 1:18.
35 DV 5.
36 St. Augustine, Sermo 43, 7, 9: PL 38, 257-258.
37 Dei Filius 4: DS 3017.
38 GS 36 # 1.
39 DH 10; cf. CIC, can. 748 # 2.
40 DH 11.
41 DH 11; cf. Jn 18:37; 12:32.
42 Cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:36; 6:40 et al.
43 Dei Filius 3: DS 3012; cf. Mt 10:22; 24: 13 and Heb 11:6; Council of
Trent: DS 1532.
44 1 Tim 1:18-19.
45 Cf. Mk 9:24; Lk 17:5; 22:32
46 Gal 5:6; Rom 15:13; cf. Jas 2:14-26.
47 1 Cor 13:12; I Jn 3:2.
48 St. Basil De Spiritu Sancto 15, 36: PG 32, 132; cf. St. Thomas Aquinas,
STh II-II, 4, 1.
49 2 Cor 5:7.
50 l Cor 13:12.
51 Rom 4:18.
52 LG 58; John Paul II, RMat 18.
53 Heb 12:1-2. Article 2
54 Roman Ritual, Rite of Baptism of Adults.
55 Faustus of Riez, De Spiritu Sancto 1, 2: PL 62, II.
56 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 1,2, ad 2.
57 I Tim 3:15; Jude 3.
58 Cf. Eph 4:4-6.
59 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. I, 10, 1-2: PG 7/1, 549-552.
60 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. I, 10, 1-2: PG 7/1, 552-553.
61 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 5, 20, I: PG 7/2, 1177.
62 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 24, I: PG 7/1, 966.
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