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Catechism of the Catholic Church#279-421

Presented by Mike Steen

I. CreationII.Angels in the life of the church

III.The creation of manIV.The fall of man

V.Original Sin

I. Creation

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CCC 282: Catechesis on creation is of major importance:•It concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life•Specifically responds to the Christian faith the basic questions man has asked themselves since the beginning of time:

1. Where do we come from2. Where are we going3. What is our origin-What is

our end5. Where does everything

that exists come from andwhere is it going

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•CCC 286: Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to the question of origins. The existence of God the creator can be known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason. •CCC 287-The truth about creation is so important for all human life that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his people everything that is salutary to know on the subject

•CCC 288: …The truth of creation is also expressed with growing vigor in the message of the prophets, the prayer of the psalms and the liturgy, and in the wisdom sayings of the chosen people. •CCC 295: God creates by wisdom and love. He wanted to make his creatures share in his being, wisdom, and goodness.

Creation Story #1

•Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

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•Emphasis on this creation story is the creation of man and what man is to do on the Sabbath

Day #1: God created the Heavens and the EarthDay #2: God created light, and then darkness (sky)Day #3: God creates dry land. Large bodies of water are named “seas” and the ground is named “land.” God creates life in the form of plant life. He creates this life to be self-sustaining; plants have the ability to reproduce.

Day #4: God creates all the stars and heavenly bodies.Day #5: God creates all life that lives in the water. God also makes all the birds. Day #6: God creates all the creatures that live on dry landDay #7: God rests.

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Why did God Rest?

•We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea, transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday•Shabbat or Shabbos, or the Sabbath is Judaism's

day of rest and seventh day of the week. •God created the Sabbath by resting on it and

sanctified it as a blessing for mankind to observe in a similar fashion.

Creation Story #2

•This second creation story puts the emphasis on marriage.God created man and woman and they are

equal and the importance of marriage“This is why a woman leaves her father and

mother….and the 2 shall become 1…”Man and woman are equal

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What about Creationism?

Pope Francis

•Faith and creationism aren’t at odds with one another •The Big-Bang, that is placed today at the origin of

the world, does not contradict the divine intervention but exacts it,•The scientific idea that everything began at a

moment of time is very consistent with the idea that there’s a personal creator God who spake the world into existence in a moment of time

Why is There Evil

CCC 306: God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures’ co-operation.CCC 309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist?

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CCC 310: But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it?

St. Augustine“For almighty God…, because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.”

Best example of God causing good to emerge

from the most evil

From the greatest moral evil ever committed-the rejection and

murder of God’s only son, caused by sins of all men-God, by his grace that “abounded all the

more,” brought the greatest of goods; the glorification of Christ

and our redemption.

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The Fall of The Angels

• Jude 1:6• 2 Peter 2:4

• Revelation 12:7-9

9 Orders of Angels

1. Seraphim-Highest order:

Isaiah 6:2

2. Cherubim-Exodus 25:19

3. Thrones-Colossians

1:16

4. Dominions-Colossians

1:16

5. Virtues-Acts 27:23

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6. Powers-I Peter 3:22

7. Principalities-Ephesians 6:12

8. Archangels-Luke 1:26

9. Angels-Luke 4:10 (Guardian

angels)

CCC 334: …The whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.CCC 336: Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to lifeCCC 339: Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection.CCC 350: Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures.

•The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men: •Psalm 8:6•Psalm 148:2-5•Colossians 1:16-17

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Angels as God’s Messengers•Appear in the role of God’s messengers to mankind• They are His instruments by whom He communicates His

will to men• in Jacob's vision they are depicted as ascending and

descending the ladder • It was an angel who found Agar in the wilderness (Genesis

16)•Angels drew Lot out of Sodom; •An angel announces to Gideon that he is to save his people

•An angel foretells the birth of Samson (Judges 13), and the angel Gabriel instructs Daniel (Daniel 8:16), though he is not called an angel in either of these passages, but "the man Gabriel" (9:21•The same heavenly spirit announced the birth of St. John the Baptist and the Incarnation of the Redeemer•And the most glorious mission of all, that of strengthening our Lord in his agony (Luke 22:43).

CCC 341: The beauty of

creation reflects the infinite

beauty of the Creator and

ought to inspire the respect and submission of man’s intellect

and will.

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Encounter With an Angel?

(4.49)

III. The Creation of Man

CCC 355 “God created man in his own image…”God established him in his friendship.Human beings are the only creatures on earth that

God has willed for their own sake and has called to share, through knowledge and love, in his own divine life.

CCC 357: Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.

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•The enemy wants to define you by your scars Jesus wants to define you by his.• “The Lord your God, is in

your midst, a mighty savior, who will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love, who will sing joyfully because of you, as on festival days.” (Zephaniah 3:17-8)

The Compassion

of Christ

CCC 358: God created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love god and to offer all creation back to him.

God created man and woman

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•CCC 370: In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for differences between the sexes. But the respective “perfections’ of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of mother and those of father and husband.

IV. The Fall Of Man

CCC 374: The first man was not only created good, but was also established in friendship with his creator and in harmony with himself and the creation around him.CCC 376: As long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die

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•In the temptation, they were lured into trying to surpass their being human. “You will be like Gods” (Gn. 3:5). •Their sin was appropriating divine life rather than receive the gift freely from God. •What resulted was they lost paradise and its gifts. They lost the holiness and righteousness with which our first parents were created.

After the first sin the world was inundated with sin but God did not abandon man to the power of death. Rather he foretold in a mysterious way in the “Protoevangelium” (Gen 3:15) that evil would be conquered and that man would be lifted up from his fall.

Therefore, the fall would be called in the future a “happy fault” because it gained for us so great a Redeemer”.

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Christ conquered the devil using the same weapons that the devil used against us

•A Virgin, a Tree and Death. These tokens of our demise have now become tokens of our victory. Instead of Eve there was Mary; Instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the wood of the cross; Instead of Adam’s death, the death of Christ.

(St. John Cristostom)

V. Original Sin

CCC 396-421

CCC 402: All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men."

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Original sin, in which all human beings are born, is the state of deprivation of original holiness and justice. It is sin that is contracted, and not committed-a state and not an act. A state of birth and not a personal act.

“The whole of man’s history has been the story of our [relentless] combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity”. Gadium Et Specs

CCC 410: After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. •God fulfilled the promises that he made to Abraham and his descendants. sons”. (Galatians 4:4-5)•420 The victory that Christ won over sin has

given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken from us: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20).

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