skip to Main Content

Dipping into the catechism 67-75

Why, for what purpose did God create man and woman?
God has created everything for them; but He has created them to know Him, and to serve and love God, to offer all of creation in this world in thanksgiving back to Him and to be raised up to life with Him in Heaven. Only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of the human person come into true light. Man and woman are predestined to reproduce the image of the Son of God made Man, who is the perfect “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15)
Why does the human race form a unity?
All people form the unity of the human race by reason of the common origin which they have from God. God has made “from one ancestor all the nations of men” (Acts 17:26). All have but one Saviour and are called to share in the eternal happiness of God.
How does the soul and body form a unity in the human being?
The human person is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. In man, spirit and matter form one nature. This unity is so profound that, thanks to the spiritual principle which is the soul, the body which is material, becomes a living human body and participates in the dignity of the image of God.

Where does the soul come from?
The spiritual soul does not come from one’s parents but is created immediately by God and is immortal. It does not perish at the moment when it is separated from the body in death, and it will be once again reunited with the body at the moment of the final resurrection.

What relationship has God established between man and woman?
Man and woman have been created by God in equal dignity insofar as they are human persons. At the same time, they have been created in a reciprocal complementarity insofar as they are masculine and feminine. God has willed them one for the other to form a communion of persons. They are also called to transmit human life by forming in matrimony “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). They are likewise called to subdue the earth as “stewards” of God.
What was the original condition of the human person according to the plan of God?

In creating man and woman, God had given them a special participation in His own
divine life in holiness and justice. In the plan of God, they would not have had to suffer or die. Further, a perfect harmony held sway within the human person, a harmony between creature and Creator, between man and woman, as well as between the first human couple and all of creation.
How should we understand the reality of sin?
Sin is present in human history. This reality of sin can be understood clearly only in the light of divine revelation and above all in the light of Christ the Saviour of all. Where sin abounded, he made grace to abound all the more.
What was the fall of the angels?
Satan and the other demons, about which Sacred Scripture and the Tradition of the Church speak, were angels created good by God. They were, however, transformed into evil because with a free and irrevocable choice they rejected God and his Kingdom, thus giving rise to the existence of hell. They try to associate human beings with their revolt against God. However, God has wrought in Christ a sure victory over the Evil One.
What was the first human sin?
When tempted by the devil, the first man and woman allowed trust in their Creator to die in their hearts. In their disobedience they wished to become “like God” but without God and not in accordance with God (Genesis 3:5). Thus, Adam and Eve immediately lost for themselves and for all their descendants the original grace of holiness and justice