1.1 Where from? Where to? Why?
At a certain point in his or her life, every man and woman asks the questions: where did I come from? where am I going? why do I exist? The Church helps us explore these questions. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), no 282, it says:
"Where do we come from?" "Where are we going?" "What is our origin?" "What is our end?" "Where does everything that exists come from and where is it going?" 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.
We ask ourselves these questions because we seek meaning in our lives. That meaning is what gives value, and it is only when something has value that we treasure it. When something has no value, or is of little worth, we discard it, we throw it away. Victor Frankl, in Man's Search for Meaning, showed that among those who were incarcerated with him in the German concentration camps and were not killed, whoever had a reason to live survived, and whoever had none perished.
Now the question of our origin and our destination is closely linked to the question of creation. Christianity offers an answer that makes it possible to discover the reason and the value of each person's existence.
Furthermore, we ask not only about ourselves, but about the world and the universe. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no 284, says:
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"? And if the world does come from God's wisdom and goodness, why is there evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any liberation from it?
All these are basic questions which, sooner or later, every one asks himself. Thanks to our Catholic Faith, the answers are not difficult to come by.
1.2 What answers do other people offer?
Some philosophical schools try to give us an answer (cf CCC no 285). Among these are the following:
2.1 What does our Faith tell us?
Where do we find the answers?
The answers to these questions can be found in the first three chapters of the book of GENESIS. That is why these chapters are of utmost importance to every human being (cf CCC 289). In Genesis 1:1, it states:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Our Faith tells us that:
Who created us: Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?
"In the beginning, God created...." It is clear from these opening words that it was the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity who created us. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCCC), no 52 (see also CCC 290-292, 316) tells us:
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the one and indivisible principle of creation even though the work of creating the world is particularly attributed to God the Father.
What does the Bible mean when it says "In the beginning"?
When it says "In the beginning", what the Sacred Scripture means is that the world was not created in eternity by God--the world is not eternal as God is eternal, it has a beginning. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that creation from eternity is possible, but we know through God's revelation in the Bible that this was not so, that the world was created in time.
What does the term "create" mean?
The Hebrew original of the Bible uses the word "bará". The Bible uses this word only when it speaks of God, never of human beings or any other creatures. The use of this verb indicates that God's act is something that only He can do.
We say that God created the world "ex nihilo"--out of nothing. God did not need any previously-existing raw material to fashion the universe. He started from zero! Another way of saying this is that created everything that exists aside from Himself, and hence, absolutely every single thing (from the smallest subatomic particles to the biggest star in the universe) depend on Him. Moreover, this also means that he needed no helper (what Saint Thomas calls "secondary cause"); He did it all by Himself! A consequence of this is that only God is Creator and Lord. There is no room left for superstition--thinking that some beings have some powers that only God has.
The expression "ex nihilo" comes from II Maccabees 7:28 (a book written around 200 BC and written in Greek). A Jewish mother was encouraging her children not to fear martyrdom:
I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.
2.2 Why create?
Was God obliged to create?
God, because He is infinite Truth, Goodness, Beauty, did not need anything else. Creation was an absolutely free decision. God was under no obligation to create anything. If you and I exist, it was because He wanted us to exist.
Was there any purpose in creation, or was it done out of pure whim?
God is infinitely Intelligent, and also infinitely Loving. When He acts, He acts for a purpose which is in consonance with His infinite Wisdom, Knowledge and Love. That purpose is God's own glory and man's happiness. CCCC 53 (cf also CCC 293-294, 319) teaches us:
The world was created for the glory of God who wished to show forth and communicate his goodness, truth and beauty. The ultimate end of creation is that God, in Christ, might be "all in all" (I Corinthians 15:28) for his glory and for our happiness.
"The glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God." (Saint Irenaeus)
Psalm 8 exclaims:
3 When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
4 what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
5 Yet thou hast made him little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honor.
6 Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
2.3 Creation is rational, is good, is beautiful
Creation is rational, it is true
Since creation has been conceived by God who is all-Wise, it is orderly, systematic, rational. The CCC 295 quotes the book of Wisdom (11:20) which says:
You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight.
If something is orderly, systematic, rational, then it can be studied and understood by our human mind. There is no such thing as chance. This is why Christianity brings about the development and progress of science, because Christianity teaches us that the world is not ruled by irrational forces. Our Faith tells us that God placed a certain order, a pattern or system in the world which our mind can discover and grasp and which we can make use of for our daily life. On the other hand, when we deny the existence of a Wise Creator, it is so easy to fall into superstition. Christianity provides the right setting for scientific study; atheism breeds superstition.
Creation is good
The book of Genesis (1:4,10,12,18,21,31) says:
And God saw that it was good. . . very good.
Saint Josemaría Escrivá once preached (Passionately Loving the World):
There is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary things of every day. And it is up to each one of you to discover it.
This point is not always obvious to us. When we see goodness in other people, when things go our way, it is easy to conclude: God is good. Faith tells us that God's doings are good, but also when things don't go the way we planned. Everything that comes from God's hands is good. What we need to cultivate is faith, that helps us see beyond the merely material, the merely human things. We need to see beyond these, in order to discover that "divine something" that is hidden in the commonplace things of every day.
The problem arises when our definition of "good" is often limited to goods we can touch and enjoy here on earth. But God did not intend us to live this life forever. As far as God is concerned, "good" first of all refers to everything that will lead us back to our real home. This partially answers the question of why there is "evil". This question will be answered later.
From the CCC (no 305):
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."[Matthew 6:31-33; cf 10:29-31]
Creation is beautiful
Beauty, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is what pleases us when we perceive it. God's beauty is reflected in the things He created. When we contemplate nature, we are naturally led to the one who designed and made it. CCC (no 341) says:
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.
2.4 God transcends creation and is present to it
Does God become part of His creation?
No. God is not part of His creation, though He is, in some way, present in the things He has created. If He were not present in them, they would cease to exist. The CCC, no 300, teaches us:
God is infinitely greater than all his works: "You have set your glory above the heavens" [Psalm 8:2; cf Sirach 43:28]. Indeed, God's "greatness is unsearchable" [Psalm 145:3]. 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"[Acts 17:28]. In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self" [Confessions, 3,6,11].
So God does not leave creation to itself?
Creatures cannot keep themselves in existence unless God upholds and sustains them. The CCC, no 301, tells us:
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:
"For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living." [Wisdom 11:24-26]
3.1 What is Providence?
Our Lord Jesus Christ frequently spoke of how the Father cares for His creation:
26 Look at the birds of the air:
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
27 ... Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they neither toil nor spin;
29 yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:26-29)
[E]ven the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Luke 12:7)
Number 55 of the CCCC (cf also CCC 302-306, 321) explains what Providence is.
Divine Providence consists in the dispositions with which God leads his creatures toward their ultimate end. God is the sovereign Master of his own plan. To carry it out, however, he also makes use of the cooperation of his creatures. For God grants his creatures the dignity of acting on their own and of being causes for each other.
Here is an initial answer to why there is evil (or what we call "evil"). While everything that God created is good, it does not mean that they are perfect. Everything on earth is in statu viae, on the way towards an ultimate perfection not yet attained. Before He created Adam and Eve, "there was no man to till the ground" (Genesis 2:5). So when God placed our first parents in Eden, He commanded them to "fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28). We are all called to contribute to the perfection of all creation, including our own perfection.
3.2 Does God employ anyone to carry out His plan?
Although God cares for each one and in an immediate way (cf CCC 303), God also makes use of His creatures to execute His plan of Providence. Saint Thomas Aquinas calls these "secondary causes" (God being the Primary and Principal Cause). The CCC, no 306, teaches us:
God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' co-operation. 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, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of co-operating in the accomplishment of his plan.
As we have mentioned above, God engages us to continue the work of making creation more perfect. CCC no 307 says:
To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it [cf Genesis 1:26-28] God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbours. Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers and their sufferings [cf Colossians 1:24]. They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and co-workers for his kingdom [I Corinthians 3:9; I Thessalonians 3:2; Colossians 4:11]
When we are aware that God counts on us, it makes us realise that we have to always count on Him. We cannot build a better world without Him. Here is what CCC no 308 has to say:
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" [Philippians 2:13; cf I Corinthians 12:6]. 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" [Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 36, section 3]. Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace [cf Matthew 19:26; John 15:5,14:13].
3.3 And how about evil?
We have seen above a partial explanation for the existence of "evil" in the world. We can actually distinguish two kinds of evil: physical evil and moral evil. The only absolute evil is moral evil, or sin.
Evil came into the world through sin. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans (5:12) reminds us:
Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned....
In the next lesson, we will study in more detail the results of the sin of our first parents. Nonetheless, because God is truly good and merciful, He has made it possible for us to draw good from evil. Saint Paul, in Romans 8:28, writes:
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him....
When Joseph was found again by his brothers, he told them (Genesis 50:20)
As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
CCCC no 58 teaches us:
Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil. This was realized in a wondrous way by God in the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, from the greatest of all moral evils (the murder of his Son) he has brought forth the greatest of all goods (the glorification of Christ and our redemption).
Finally, CCC (no 314) reminds us that only at the end will we know the why's and wherefore's :
We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face" [I Corinthians 13:12], will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest [cf Genesis 2:2] for which he created heaven and earth.
4.1 Who and What are Angels?
Number 60 of the CCCC (cf also CCC 328-333, 350-351) explains what angels are and what they do.
The angels are purely spiritual creatures, incorporeal, invisible, immortal, and personal beings endowed with intelligence and will. They ceaselessly contemplate God face-to-face and they glorify him. They serve him and are his messengers in the accomplishment of his saving mission to all.
The existence of angels is a truth of our Faith. Jesus Christ Himself explicitly teaches their existence. According to Saint Augustine (Enarratione in Psalmis 103,1,15), the term "angel" indicates their role and function, not their nature. Angels are servants and messengers of God.
But if we were to ask what angels are, we should say they are pure spirits endowed with intelligence and will, and who surpass all visible creatures in perfection.
4.2 The angels in the life of the Church and of Christians
The CCCC, no 61 (cf CCC 334-336, 352), says:
The Church joins with the angels in adoring God, invokes their assistance and commemorates some in her liturgy.
"Beside each believer stands an angel as a protector and shepherd leading him to life." (Saint Basil the Great)
5.1 The work of six days
Sacred Scripture also tells us about how God created the visible world. CCCC, no 62 (cf CCC 337-344) teaches:
Through the account of the "six days" of creation Sacred Scripture teaches us the value of the created world and its purpose, namely, to praise God and to serve humanity. Every single thing owes its very existence to God from whom it receives its goodness and perfection, its proper laws and its proper place in the universe.
5.2 Evolution?
Does this mean that there is no such thing as evolution? Not necessarily. Before he became Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger (A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall) wrote:
We cannot say: creation or evolution, inasmuch as these two things respond to two different realities. The story of the dust of the earth and the breath of God, which we just heard, does not in fact explain how human persons come to be but rather what they are. It explains their inmost origin and casts light on the project that they are. And, vice versa, the theory of evolution seeks to understand and describe biological developments. But in so doing it cannot explain where the "project" of human persons comes from, nor their inner origin, nor their particular nature. To that extent we are faced here with two complementary -- rather than mutually exclusive -- realities.
[Click here for a concise explanation on creation and evolution.] [Click here for the The July 2004 Vatican Statement on Creation and Evolution.]
5.3 Rest
Genesis 2:2-3 narrates that:
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.
The CCC (nos 345,347-349) says that we can learn from these words.
Pope John Paul II once said that in the same way that we imitate God's six days of work, we also imitate His rest. Just as God contemplated His works, we also contemplate God's works, and the works he performs through us. The Sabbath permitted the Israelites to meditate on the works that God has made in order to thank and praise Him. The Lord's Day gives us an opportunity to worship and bless God for His wonderful works. Psalm 92 sings:
1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to thy name, O Most High;
2 to declare thy steadfast love in the morning,
and thy faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
4 For thou, O LORD, hast made me glad by thy work;
at the works of thy hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are thy works, O LORD!
In the first two chapters of Genesis, we read about the creation of man. Let us take the first chapter and examine it in greater detail.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it;
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." 29 And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
This image of God is not yet perfect. Our task is to learn to be good and beloved children, as Jesus Christ was, in order to become alter Christus ("another Christ"), or in Saint Josemaría Escrivá's words, ipse Christus ("Christ Himself"). The Christian life helps us to accomplish God's big project of making us authentic children in Jesus Christ. As CCCC no 67 teaches:
God has created everything for them; but he has created them to know, serve and love God, to offer all of creation in this world in thanksgiving back to him and to be raised up to life with him in heaven. Only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of the human person come into true light. Man and woman are predestined to reproduce the image of the Son of God made Man, who is the perfect “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).
We can say that man is God's image in the four ways outlined below.
6.1 Union of Body and Soul. The spiritual soul is an image of God who is Pure Spirit
Chapter 2 of Genesis tells us how God created man:
7 then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
CCC, no 362, tells us that this is the symbolic language that the Bible uses to teach us that the human person is both body and soul. The next two points of CCC (363 and 364) also teach us that the term "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man. But because man is both body and soul, it is not only the soul that God is interested in. He wants the whole person, body and soul, to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Both body and soul, because they are the image of God, are sacred. Both have to be respected, both have to be made holy and offered to God.
One important point of Catholic teaching is that each soul is created by God. CCC no 366 (cf CCCC no 70) says:
The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection [cf Pius XII, Humani generis: DS 3896; Paul VI, CPC # 8; Lateran Council V (1513): DS 1440].
The spiritual soul is a reflection of God in His creature.
6.2 Intellect and Will. Freedom. Personality and Dignity
CCCC no 66 (cf CCC 356, 1731, 357) also teaches us:
The human person is created in the image of God in the sense that he or she is capable of knowing and of loving their Creator in freedom. Human beings are the only creatures on earth that God has willed for their own sake and has called to share, through knowledge and love, in his own divine life. All human beings, in as much as they are created in the image of God, have the dignity of a person. A person is not something but someone, capable of self-knowledge and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with God and with other persons.
6.3 Male and Female
CCCC, no 71 (cf also CCC 369,371-372,383,2335) explains:
Man and woman have been created by God in equal dignity insofar as they are human persons. At the same time, they have been created in a reciprocal complementarity insofar as they are masculine and feminine. God has willed them one for the other to form a communion of persons. They are also called to transmit human life by forming in matrimony "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). They are likewise called to subdue the earth as "stewards" of God.
This does not mean that God is male or female. CCC 370 explains:
In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective "perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband [cf Isaiah 49:14-15; 66: 13; Psalm 131:2-3; Hosea 11:1-4; Jeremiah 3:4- 19].
6.4 Lords and Masters of material creation
Man is also God's image because God made him (and her) masters of all creation and masters of themselves. CCC 373 and 377 tell us:
In God's plan man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth [Genesis 1:28] 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" [Wisdom 11:24], to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them.
The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence [cf I John 2:16] that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.
Finally, it is important to emphasise the common origin of all men. This is called "monogenesis". CCCC, no 68 (cf CCC 360-361), explains:
Why does the human race form a unity? All people form the unity of the human race by reason of the common origin which they have from God. God has made "from one ancestor all the nations of men" (Acts 17:26). All have but one Savior and are called to share in the eternal happiness of God.