The Catechism Explained


PART I - FAITH. 
THE APOSTLES' CREED. 
FIRST ARTICLE OF THE CREED: "I BELIEVE IN GOD, 
THE FATHER ALMIGHTY." 
11. THE SUPERNATURAL ENDOWMENTS OF MAN. 
Our first parents before the Fall had a happiness almost equal to 
that of the angels when first created. Hence the Psalmist says of 
man, " Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels ; Thou hast 
crowned him with glory and honor" (Ps. viii. 6). Heathen nations 
have legends of the happiness of the first man; they termed it the 
golden age. Hesiod says that men lived then like gods, in perfect 
happiness. 
1. Our first parents were created in the grace of God, and there- 
fore possessed singular perfections of soul and body. 
" Adam was created," says the Council of Trent, " in justice and 
holiness; he was a partaker of the divine nature." This justice and 
holiness he did not have of himself, but God gave it to him; just as 
the eye does not possess light from within, but absorbs it from with 
out. 
The special privileges granted to the soul of man at his first 
creation were as follows: An enlightened understanding, a will 
free from all weakness, and the possession of sanctifying grace. 
Through means of these he was the child of God, the heir of 
heaven, and well-pleasing in the sight of God. 
" God filled them with wisdom and the knowledge of understand- 
ing," says the Wise Man (Ecclus. xvii. 5, 6). He gave Adam an in- 
sight into the inner nature of things, so that he was able to give ap- 
propriate names to all the animals. He also knew by inspiration 
the indissolubility of marriage. The will of man was weakened by 
no sensual desires. Adam and Eve were naked, but felt no shame, 
because in them there was no rebellion of the flesh against the spirit, 
no struggle necessary to avoid sin. They also had the Holy Spirit 
dwelling within them, and His sanctifying grace; they were like to 
God, full of love for Him, and children of God ; and because children, 
also heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. 
The special perfections of their bodies were that they were 
immortal, and free from all liability to sickness and disease; they 
were in paradise, and had dominion over all the creatures around 
them. 
God created man immortal (Wisd. ii. 23). Death only came in as 
the punishment of disobedience (Gen. ii. 17). The death threatened 
was bodily as well as spiritual death, for the punishment of their sin 
was "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Gen. iii. 19). 
Man had indeed to work in paradise, but this work was part of his 
happiness, and caused him no fatigue. He had no sickness, for sick- 
ness is the forerunner of death. Paradise was a lovely garden, full 
of noble trees and lovely flowers, and the fairest fruits ; many beauti- 
ful animals were there, who were perfectly obedient to his behests. 
There was also a river in paradise divided into four branches. In the 
midst of the garden was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
and close by it the tree of life, the fruits of which were a protection 
against disease and death. Paradise is said to have been situated 
between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Man had also a complete 
dominion over all the wild beasts. Not that their nature was then dif- 
ferent from now, but the grace and dignity of man rendered them 
submissive to his will, and made them fear and obey him (Ecclus. 
xvii. 4). Something of this power still remains to man; it is said 
that no wild beast can look a man steadily in the face. We see the 
same thing in the natural order now, in the wild beast tamers; and 
in the supernatural in the power that many of the saints possessed 
over the wild beasts, e.g., St. Francis of Assisi, and many of the 
martyrs before whose feet the fiercest of the animals in the Roman 
amphitheatre lay down in prostrate homage. This was due to their 
great purity and freedom from sin. 
2. These special perfections of our first parents we call super- 
natural gifts, because they are something altogether beyond, and 
were added to, human nature. 
Thus a rich man out of compassion provides a poor orphan with 
food, clothing, lodging, instruction in a trade. These would cor- 
respond to the natural gifts given by God to man. But the rich man 
in his bounty goes further; he adopts the orphan, clothes him as if 
he were his own son, gives him a room in his own house, and the edu- 
cation of a gentleman. These would correspond in some way to the 
supernatural gifts given by God to man. The first of natural gifts 
bestow upon the orphan a sort of likeness to the giver, but the second 
impart to him a far closer likeness. So the supernatural gifts of God 
to man impart to him a far closer likeness to God than the natural. 
Or to take another illustration; a painter can trace the portrait of a 
man with a few strokes in black and white. But if he takes his 
brush and colors the drawing, if he paints the eyes blue, the cheeks 
red, the hair brown, etc., the likeness becomes more beautiful and 
corresponds more closely to the original. So it is with the natural 
and the supernatural gifts of God. When God at man's creation said, 
" Let us make man in our image and likeness," the image refers 
to the natural, the likeness to the supernatural gifts of God.
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PART I - FAITH.

INTRODUCTION

PART I - FAITH.
