Inasmuch as they are Creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God. the same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator.

Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and Truthful. It formulates its judgments according to Reason, in conformity with the true good Willed by the Wisdom of the Creator. the education of conscience is indispensable for human Beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

Law is a rule of conduct enacted by competent authority for the sake of the common good. the moral law presupposes the rational order, Established among Creatures for their good and to serve their final end, by the power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator. All law finds its first and ultimate Truth in the eternal law. Law is declared and established by Reason as a participation in the providence of the living God, Creator and Redeemer of all. "Such an ordinance of reaSon is what one calls law." 2

Man participates in the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good.

The natural law, the Creator's very good work, provides the solid foundation on which man can build the structure of moral rules to guide his choices. It also provides the indispensable moral foundation for building the human community. Finally, it provides the necessary basis for the civil law with which it is connected, whether by a reflection that draws conclusions from its principles, or by additions of a positive and juridical nature.

God, our Creator and Redeemer, chose Israel for himself to be his people and Revealed his Law to them, thus preparing for the coming of Christ. the Law of Moses expresses many Truths naturally accessible to Reason. These are stated and authenticated within the Covenant of salvation.

With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.

The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation. In recalling the prescriptions of the natural law, the Magisterium of the Church exercises an essential part of its prophetic office of proclaiming to men what they truly are and reminding them of what they should be before God. 78

God Created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a perSon who can initiate and control his own actions. "God Willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him." 26

The human perSon participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his Reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things Established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is true and good." 7

At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: "He took bread...." "He took the cup filled with wine...." the signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the Goodness of Creation. Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine, 152 fruit of the "work of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine" - gifts of the Creator. the Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own offering. 153

In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; 154 their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God's Faithfulness to his promises. The "cup of blessing" 155 at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup.

The presentation of the offerings (the Offertory). Then, sometimes in procession, the bread and wine are brought to the altar; they will be offered by the priest in the name of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice in which they will become his body and blood. It is the very action of Christ at the Last Supper - "taking the bread and a cup." "The Church alone offers this pure oblation to the Creator, when she offers what Comes forth from his Creation with thanksgiving." 175 The presentation of the offerings at the altar takes up the gesture of Melchizedek and commits the Creator's gifts into the hands of Christ who, in his sacrifice, brings to perfection all human attempts to offer sacrifices.

"The intimate community of life and Love which constitutes the married state has been Established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws.... God himself is the author of marriage." 87 The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and Woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, 88 some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual perSon and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life." 89

God who Created man out of Love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the Image and likeness of God who is himself love. 90 Since God created him man and Woman, their mutual love beComes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. and this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over Creation: "and God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'" 91

Holy Scripture affirms that man and Woman were Created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone." 92 The woman, "flesh of his flesh," i.e., his counterpart, his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom Comes our help. 93 "Therefore a man leaves his Father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." 94 The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh." 95

According to Faith the disorder we notice so painfully does not stem from the nature of man and Woman, nor from the nature of their relations, but from sin. As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were distorted by mutual recriminations; 96 their mutual attraction, the Creator's own gift, changed into a relationship of domination and lust; 97 and the beautiful vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of work. 98

In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and Woman as the Creator Willed it from the beginning permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts. 106 The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it "what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." 107

"Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his Love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation." 2 It is in Christ, "the Image of the invisible God," 3 that man has been Created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God. 4

Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy. 13

Tempting God consists in putting his Goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act. 49 Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." 50 The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the Respect and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his Love, his providence, and his power. 51

The seventh commandment enjoins Respect for the integrity of Creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate Beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. 194 Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation. 195

Human work proceeds directly from perSons Created in the Image of God and called to prolong the work of Creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. 209 Hence work is a duty: "If any one will not work, let him not eat." 210 Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work 211 in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. 212 Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.

The practice of Goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, Truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of Created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of Creation, the work of his Word, of his Wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos - which both the child and the scientist discover - "from the greatness and beauty of created things Comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "for the author of beauty created them." 289

Created "in the Image of God," 293 man also expresses the Truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living Creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being's inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical Wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, 294 to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and Love of Beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man. 295

Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in Faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of Truth and Love visible in Christ, who "reflects the Glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." 296 This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.

Man is in search of God. In the act of Creation, God calls every being from nothingness into existence. "Crowned with Glory and honor," man is, after the angels, capable of acknowledging "how majestic is the name of the Lord in all the earth." 1 Even after losing through his sin his likeness to God, man remains an Image of his Creator, and retains the desire for the one who calls him into existence. All religions bear witness to men's essential search for God. 2

God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each perSon to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the Faithful God's initiative of Love always Comes first; our own first step is always a response. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a Covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation.

Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a Creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us 99 and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the "King of Glory," 100 Respectful silence in the presence of the "ever greater" God. 101 Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of Love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications.

The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal mystery. What is Revealed of it in Creation and history, Scripture calls "Glory," the radiance of his majesty. 68 In making man in his Image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, man fell "short of the glory of God." 69 From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator. 70

The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who Willed that marriage be indissoluble. 173 He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law. 174 Between the baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any Reason other than death." 175

Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and Fatherhood of God. 153 "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the Love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility." 154

Rejection of false oaths is a duty toward God. As Creator and Lord, God is the norm of all Truth. Human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God who is Truth itself. When it is truthful and legitimate, an oath highlights the relationship of human speech with God's truth. A false oath calls on God to be witness to a lie.

The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all." 109 Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.

Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely Revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. the Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired Truth about God and man:

"Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being." 56

Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: "Do not slay the innocent and the righteous." 61 The deliberate murder of an innocent perSon is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. the law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere.

Each of the two sexes is an Image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. the union of man and Woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: "Therefore a man leaves his Father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." 120 All human generations proceed from this union. 121

The married couple forms "the intimate partnership of life and Love Established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal Covenant, that is, in their irrevocable perSonal consent." 146 Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. They are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. the covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble. 147 "What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." 148

By a discernment according to the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. This distinction is not a separation. Man's vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies and means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace. 93

God speaks to man through the visible Creation. the material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. 16 Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.

Those who belong to Christ through Faith and Baptism must confess their baptismal faith before men. 16 First therefore the Catechism expounds revelation, by which God addresses and gives himself to man, and the faith by which man responds to God (Section One). the profession of faith summarizes the gifts that God gives man: as the Author of all that is good; as Redeemer; and as Sanctifier. It develops these in the three chapters on our baptismal faith in the one God: the almighty Father, the Creator; his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour; and the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, in the Holy Church (Section Two).

"In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God. . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." 129 The New Testament reveals that God Created everything by the eternal Word, his beLoved Son. In him "all things were created, in heaven and on earth.. . all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." 130 The Church's Faith likewise confesses the creative action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of life", "the Creator Spirit" (Veni, Creator Spiritus), the "source of every good". 131

The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, 132 inseparably one with that of the Father. This creative co-operation is clearly affirmed in the Church's rule of Faith: "There exists but one God. . . he is the Father, God, the Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom", "by the Son and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands". 133 Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity.

The Glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his Goodness, for which the world was Created. God made us "to be his Sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace", 138 for "the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's revelation through Creation has already obtained life for all the Beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word's manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God." 139 The ultimate purpose of creation is that God "who is the Creator of all things may at last become "all in all", thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our beatitude." 140

Because God creates through Wisdom, his Creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight." 151 The universe, Created in and by the eternal Word, the "Image of the invisible God", is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a perSonal relationship with God. 152 Our human understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and only in a spirit of humility and Respect before the Creator and his work. 153 Because creation Comes forth from God's Goodness, it shares in that goodness - "and God saw that it was good. . . very good" 154 - for God Willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world. 155

God is infinitely greater than all his works: "You have set your Glory above the heavens." 156 Indeed, God's "greatness is unsearchable". 157 But because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause of all that exists, God is present to his Creatures' inmost being: "In him we live and move and have our being." 158 In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self". 159

With Creation, God does not abandon his Creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with Respect to the Creator is a source of Wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:

Creation has its own Goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. the universe was Created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:

The Truth that God is at work in all the actions of his Creatures is inseparable from Faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." 171 Far from diminishing the Creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, Wisdom and Goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the creature vanishes." 172 Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace. 173

If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his Creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian Faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the Goodness of Creation, the drama of sin and the patient Love of God who Comes to meet man by his Covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free Creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

"In the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth": 128 three things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself; he alone is Creator (the verb "create" - Hebrew bara - always has God for its subject). the totality of what exists (expressed by the formula "the heavens and the earth") depends on the One who gives it being.

The Truth about Creation is so important for all of human life that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is salutary to know on the subject. Beyond the natural knowledge that every man can have of the Creator, 124 God progressively Revealed to Israel the mystery of creation. He who chose the patriarchs, who brought Israel out of Egypt, and who by choosing Israel Created and formed it, this same God reveals himself as the One to whom belong all the peoples of the earth, and the whole earth itself; he is the One who alone "made heaven and earth". 125

All Creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, Created in the Image and likeness of God. the manifold perfections of Creatures - their Truth, their Goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things Comes a corresponding perception of their Creator". 15

Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and Creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude"; 17 and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other Beings stand in relation to him." 18

Many religions invoke God as "Father". the deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. 59 Even more, God is Father because of the Covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born Son". 60 God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection. 61

By calling God "Father", the language of Faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time Goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the Image of motherhood, 62 which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and Creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor Woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: 63 no one is father as God is Father.

Jesus Revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." 64

"In the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth." 116 Holy Scripture begins with these solemn words. the profession of Faith takes them up when it confesses that God the Father almighty is "Creator of heaven and earth" (Apostles' Creed), "of all that is, seen and unseen" (Nicene Creed). We shall speak first of the Creator, then of Creation and finally of the fall into sin from which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to raise us up again.

The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and Wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements. . . for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me." 121

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, 122 even if this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error. This is why Faith Comes to confirm and enlighten reaSon in the correct understanding of this Truth: "By faith we understand that the world was Created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear." 123

The Apostles' Creed professes that God is "Creator of heaven and earth". the Nicene Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes "all that is, seen and unseen".

God himself Created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day. 204 On the subject of Creation, the sacred text teaches the Truths Revealed by God for our salvation, 205 permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God." 206

God Created man in his Image and Established him in his friendship. A spiritual Creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. the prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die." 276 The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" 277 symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and Respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of Creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. 278 All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his Goodness.

The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." 55 If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." 56 The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right hand." 57

The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the Faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." 330

"By Reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will.... It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the Glory of the Creator and Redeemer." 431

God Revealed the resurrection of the dead to his people progressively. Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead Established itself as a consequence intrinsic to Faith in God as Creator of the whole man, soul and body. the creator of heaven and earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his Covenant with Abraham and his posterity. It was in this double perspective that faith in the resurrection came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed:

Death is a consequence of sin. the Church's Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the world on account of man's sin. 569 Even though man's nature is mortal God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. 570 "Bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned" is thus "the last enemy" of man left to be conquered. 571

The first man was not only Created good, but was also Established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the Creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the Glory of the new creation in Christ.

In God's plan man and Woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth 248 as stewards of God. This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination. God calls man and woman, made in the Image of the Creator "who Loves everything that exists", 249 to share in his providence toward other Creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them.

Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. the world began when God's word drew it out of nothingness; all existent Beings, all of nature, and all human history are rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun. 207

Each Creature possesses its own particular Goodness and perfection. For each one of the works of the "six days" it is said: "and God saw that it was good." "By the very nature of Creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, Truth and excellence, its own order and laws." 208 Each of the various Creatures, Willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite Wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore Respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human Beings and their environment.

The beauty of the universe: the order and harmony of the Created world results from the diversity of Beings and from the relationships which exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They call forth the admiration of scholars. 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.

Man is the summit of the Creator's work, as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the Creation of man from that of the other Creatures. 211

There is a solidarity among all Creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his Glory: May you be praised, O Lord, in all your Creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendour, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High. . .

In Creation God laid a foundation and Established laws that remain firm, on which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakeable Faithfulness of God's Covenant. 214 For his part man must remain faithful to this foundation, and Respect the laws which the Creator has written into it.

Of all visible Creatures only man is "able to know and Love his Creator". 219 He is "the only Creature on earth that God has Willed for himself", 220 and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was Created, and this is the fundamental Reason for his dignity: What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good. 221

Being in the Image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a perSon, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. and he is called by grace to a Covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of Faith and Love that no other Creature can give in his stead.

Man and Woman have been Created, which is to say, Willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human perSons; on the other, in their Respective Beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which Comes to them immediately from God their Creator. 240 Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the Image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's Wisdom and Goodness.

Man and Woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he Created them to be a communion of perSons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", 245 they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." 246 By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's work. 247

Blessing is a divine and life-giving action, the source of which is the Father; his blessing is both word and gift. 4 When applied to man, the word "blessing" means adoration and surrender to his Creator in thanksgiving.