United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Chapter 5. I Believe in God • 53

Third, the Divine Persons are in relation to each other. The distinc tion of each is understood only in reference to the others. The Father cannot be the Father without the Son, nor can the Son be the Son with out the Father. The Holy Spirit is related to the Father and the Son who both send him forth. All Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity illumines all the other mysteries of faith. GOD IS CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH The first line of the Bible says, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1). The first three chapters of the Book of Genesis have shaped the religious thought of Jews and Christians; indeed they have shaped the literature of the Western world—about God as “Creator of heaven and earth” (Apostles’ Creed), “of all that is seen and unseen” (Nicene Creed), and about the creation of the human race, of the Fall, and of the promise of salvation through the story of Adam and Eve. These three chapters must be read by anyone who wants to understand the meaning of the world and humanity. Catechesis on creation is of major importance. Where do we come from? Where are we going? These two questions about our origin and our end are the underlying issues of the human search for meaning. These are the questions that the Bible helps us to answer. Beginning with Genesis, all Scripture states the following truths in relation to God’s work of creation: • God created the world out of his wisdom and love . Creation is not the result of blind fate or complete chance. • God made the universe “ out of nothing .” This means that the world is not a “part” of God or made from some pre-existing substance. The world depends on God for its existence; God is independent of his creation and distinct from it, even though creation is sustained in existence by his Providence: “In him we live and move and have our being,” as St. Paul preached to the people of Athens (Acts 17:28).