United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

54 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed

• Creation reflects God’s goodness and wisdom . The creation story in Genesis affirms the goodness of creation: “God looked at every thing he had made, and found it very good” (Gn 1:31). Because the universe is destined for the human family, whom he calls to a per sonal relationship with himself, it is ordered in a way that allows the human intellect to perceive God’s hand working in and through it. As the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation ( Dei Verbum ) of the Second Vatican Council teaches, “God who creates and con serves all things by his Word (see Jn 1:3), provides men with con stant evidence of himself in created realities” (DV, no. 3; see Rom 1:19-20). The answers to questions about the origins of the world and human ity provided by God’s own Revelation are intimately linked with the meaning and purpose of the world and humanity. This provides a dis tinctive worldview that differs dramatically from those shaped by other philosophies and points of view. In Pantheism, the development of the world is identified with the development of God. In Dualism, our ori gins are explained by the perpetual conflict of good and evil. According to Deism, God abandons the world, once made, to itself. There is also materialism, in which the world is understood to have come from pre existing matter that developed naturally and not as a result of any type of divine action or plan. THE ANGELS It is a truth of faith that God, the “maker . . . of all that is seen and unseen,” created a realm of spiritual beings who do not share the limita tions of a physical body and yet exist as the result of his all-powerful, loving act of creation. We call these spiritual beings angels . “As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness” (CCC, no. 330). Angels glorify God and work for our salvation. The Church celebrates the memory of certain angels (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael) who were God’s messengers.