Catechism Paragraphs
279 – 324
“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. 280
It will be the definitive realization of God’s plan to bring under a
single head ‘all things in (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.’
(Eph 1:10) 1043 Catechesis on creation is of major
importance. It concerns the very
foundations of human and Christian life: for it makes explicit the response of the
Christian faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked
themselves: ‘Where do we come from?
Where are we going? What is our origin? What is our end?’ The two questions, the first about the origin
and the second about the end, are inseparable.
They are decisive for the meaning and orientation of our life and
actions. 282 It is not only a
question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically, or when man
appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin: is the
universe governed by chance, blind fate, anonymous necessity, or by a
transcendent, intelligent and good Being called God? 284 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, 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 the 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.’ 286 God progressively
revealed to Israel the mystery of creation.
287 Creation is revealed as the first step
toward this covenant (with the Jewish people), the first and universal witness
to God’s all-powerful love.” 288
“The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the
creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the
Father. This creative cooperation 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.’ Creation is the common work of
the Holy Trinity.” 292
“Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate
this fundamental truth: ‘The world was made for the glory of God.’ St. Bonaventure explains that God created
all things, not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate
it, for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness. 293 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.’ (Eph 1:5-6) 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 beatitude. (1Cor 15:28) 294 We believe (God’s
creation) proceeds from God’s free will; he wanted to make his creatures share
in his being, wisdom, and goodness, ‘For you created all things, and by your
will they existed and were created.’ (Rev 4:11) 295 Since God could create
everything out of nothing, he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual
life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them.” (Cf Ps 51:12) 298
“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. Because
creation comes forth from God’s goodness, it shares in that 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.’ (Acts 17:28) 300 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.”
301
“The universe was created in a state of journeying 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 his perfection. 302 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the
providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest
needs: ‘Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? … Your heavenly
Father knows that you need them all. But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be
yours as well’” (Ps 22; 32; 35) 305
“God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it our he also makes use of his
creatures’ cooperation. This use is not
a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God’s greatness and
goodness. For God grants his creatures
not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own … and
thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan. 306 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.’ (Phil 2:13) Far
from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it.” 308
“But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil
could exist in it? … With infinite
wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world ‘in a state of
journeying’ toward its ultimate perfection.
In God’s plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of
certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more
perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of
nature. With physical good there exists
also physical evil as long as
creation has not reached perfection. 310
Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey
toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential
love. They can therefore go astray. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the
cause of moral evil. He permits it,
however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously,
knows how to derive good out of it. 311
God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of
an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures. From the greatest moral evil ever committed –
the rejection and murder of God’s only Son, caused by the sins of all men –
God, by his grace that ‘abounded all the more’ (Cf Rom 5:20), brought the
greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a
good. 312 We know that in
everything God works for good for those who love him. (Rom 8:28) 313
Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God ‘face
to face,’ will we fully know the ways by which --- even though through the
dramas of evil and sin --- God has guided his creation to that definitive Sabbath
rest for which he created heaven and earth.” 314
This last paragraph, above, is so well done. The words I excerpted from the catechism tell
clearly the Church’s teaching on the existence of good and evil in creation, a
subject so confusing to so many --- especially at a time when evil or suffering
enters their lives. In their fears and
sorrows, confusion reigns, but the catechism can clear the mists, for those who
would seek to understand.
Can God do
anything? Is he almighty? Anyone who calls on God in need believes that
he is all-powerful. God created the
world out of nothing (science has never done this, nor ever will). He is the Lord of history. He guides all things and can do everything. How he uses his omnipotence is of course a
mystery. Through the prophet Isaiah he
tells us “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. (Is
55:8)” YOUCAT Q40
Does science make the
Creator superfluous? The creation
account is not a scientific model for explaining the beginning of the
world. “God created the world” is a
theological statement that is concerned with the relation of the world to
God. God willed the world; he sustains
it and will perfect it. YOUCAT Q41
Can someone accept the
theory of evolution and still believe in the Creator? Yes, although it is a different kind of
knowledge; faith is open to the findings and hypotheses of the sciences. Theology has no scientific competence, and
natural science has no theological competence.
Natural science cannot dogmatically rule out the possibility that there
are purposeful processes in creation; conversely, faith cannot define
specifically how these processes take place in the course of nature’s
development. A Christian can accept the
theory of evolution as a helpful explanatory model, provided he does not fall
into the heresy of evolutionism, which views man as the random product of
biological processes. EVOLUTION
presupposes the existence of something that can develop. The theory says nothing about where this “something”
came from. Just as “evolutionism”
oversteps a boundary on the one side, so does CREATIONISM on the other. Creationists naively take biblical data
literally. YOUCAT Q42
EVOLUTION: Viewed from a Christian perspective, evolution
takes place as God’s continuous creation in natural processes.
CREATIONISM: The idea that God himself by his direct action
created the world all at once, as if the book of Genesis were an eyewitness account.
“We are not some casual and meaningless product of
evolution. Each of us is the result of a
thought of God. Each of us is willed;
each of us is loves; each of us is necessary.”
Pope Benedict XVI (Apr 4, 2005)
Next week we’ll look at all that God created: angels, the visible world, and man.
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