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275 With Job, the just man, we confess: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted’ Uob 42:2). 276 Faithful to the witness of Scripture, the
Church often addresses her prayer to the ‘almighty and
eternal God’ (‘omnipotens sempiterne Deus..
believing firmly that ‘nothing will be impossible with
God’ (Gen 18:14; Lk 1:37; Mt 19:26). 277 God shows forth his almighty power by
converting us from our sins and restoring us to his
friendship by grace. ‘God, you show your almighty power
above all in your mercy and forgiveness...’ (Roman
Missal, 26th Sunday, Opening Prayer). 278 If we do not believe that God’s love is
almighty, how can we believe that the Father could create
us, the Son redeem us and the Holy Spirit sanctify us? 279 ‘In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth.”6 Holy Scripture begins with these
solemn words. b 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. 280 Creation is the
foundation of ‘all God’s saving plans’, the
288 ‘beginning of the history of salvation”7
that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the mystery of Christ
casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and
reveals the end for which ‘in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth’: from the beginning, 1043
God envisaged the glory of the new creation in
Christ.”8 281 And so the
readings of the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the new
creation in Christ, begin with the creation account;
likewise in the Byzantine liturgy, the account of creation
always constitutes the first reading at the vigils of the
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