Introduction to

Fundamental Theology:
CCC sec. 2, ch. 1, art. 1
Let us review our journey.
Chapter 1: I Believe in God the Father
 Article I:
“I Believe In God The Father
Almighty, Creator Of
Heaven And Earth”
CCC #166
“Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person
to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an
isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live
alone.
You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself
life. The believer has received faith from others and should
hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor
impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is
thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe
without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I
help support others in the faith.”
CCC #199
“‘I believe in God’: this first affirmation of the Apostles’ Creed
is also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God,
and when it also speaks of man and of the world it does so in
relation to God. The other articles of the Creed all depend on
the first, just as the remaining Commandments make the first
explicit. The other articles help us to know God better as he
revealed himself progressively to men. ‘The faithful first profess
their belief in God.’”
I. “I believe in one God”
CCC #200
“These are the words with which the Niceno-
Constantinopolitan Creed begins. The confession of God’s
oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old
Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God’s existence
and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only one
God: ’The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature,
substance and essence.’”
Judaism’s Shema Yisrael:
“Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart. And you shall
repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when
you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie
down, and when you get up. You shall also tie them as a sign to
your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. You
shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on
your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
CCC #202
“Jesus himself affirms that God is ‘the one Lord’ whom you must
love ‘with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength.’ At the same time Jesus
gives us to understand that he himself is ‘the Lord.’ To confess
that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of Christian faith. This is not
contrary to belief in the One God. Nor does believing in the Holy
Spirit as ‘Lord and giver of life’ introduce any division into the
One God.’”
II. God Reveals His Name
CCC #203
“God revealed himself to his people Israel by making his name
known to them. A name expresses a person’s essence and
identity and the meaning of this person’s life. God has a name;
he is not an anonymous force. To disclose one’s name is to make
oneself known to others; in a way it is to hand oneself over by
becoming accessible, capable of being known more intimately
and addressed personally.”
CCC #204
“God revealed himself progressively and under different names
to his people, but the revelation that proved to be the
fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was
the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of
the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus and of the
covenant on Sinai.”
CCC #206
“In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH (‘I AM HE WHO IS,’ ‘I
AM WHO AM’ or ‘I AM WHO I AM’), God says who he is and by
what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious
just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and
something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better
expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that
we can understand or say: he is the ‘hidden God,’ his name is
ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.”
CCC #207
I AM: God always is!
CCC #209
“Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do
not pronounce his name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the
revealed name (YHWH) is replaced by the divine title ‘LORD’ (in
Hebrew Adonai, in Greek Kyrios). It is under this title that the
divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed: ‘Jesus is LORD.’”
CCC #210
After Israel’s sin, “God reveals Himself as merciful and gracious.
Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving God.”
CCC #212
“Over the centuries, Israel's faith was able to manifest and
deepen realization of the riches contained in the revelation of
the divine name. God is unique; there are no other gods besides
him.”
III. “God, ‘He Who Is’, Is Truth And Love”
CCC #215: God is truth.
“‘The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your
righteous ordinances endures forever.’ ‘And now, O LORD God,
you are God, and your words are true’; this is why God’s
promises always come true.’ God is Truth itself, whose words
cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full
trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things. The
beginning of sin and of man’s fall was due to a lie of the tempter
who induced doubt of God’s word, kindness and faithfulness.”
CCC #216: “God’s truth is his wisdom, which commands the
whole created order and governs the world. God, who alone
made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of
every created thing in relation to himself.”
CCC #217: “God is also truthful when he reveals himself - the
teaching that comes from God is ‘true instruction.’ When he
sends his Son into the world it will be ‘to bear witness to the
truth’: ’We know that the Son of God has come and has given us
understanding, to know him who is true.’”
CCC #218: God is love ( 1 Jn 4:8, 16).
“In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God
had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive
for choosing them from among all peoples as his special
possession: his sheer gratuitous love and thanks to the
prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that
God never stopped saving them and pardoning their
unfaithfulness and sins.”
CCC #219
“God’s love for Israel is compared to a father’s love for his son.
His love for his people is stronger than a mother’s for her
children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his
beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst
infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: ‘God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son.’”
CCC #221
“But St. John goes even further when he affirms that ‘God is
love’: God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the
Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his
innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in
that exchange.”
IV. The Implications Of Faith In One God
222: “Believing in God, the only One, and loving him with all our
being has enormous consequences for our whole life.”
223: “It means coming to know God’s greatness and majesty:
‘Behold, God is great, and we know him not.’ Therefore, we
must ‘serve God first.’”
224: “It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One,
everything we are and have comes from him: ‘What have you
that you did not receive?’ ‘What shall I render to the LORD for
all his bounty to me?’”
225: “It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men:
everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.”
CCC #226
“It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the
only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar
as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it
insofar as it turns us away from him:
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances
me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer
to you.
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to
you.”
CCC #227
“It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity.
A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust:
‘Let nothing trouble you / Let nothing frighten you Everything
passes / God never changes Patience / Obtains all Whoever has
God / Wants for nothing God alone is enough.’”
References
Roman Catholic Church. 2003. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Available at:
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM. Accessed: April 14,
2023.