Genesis 1:1-31
In the Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
God LOVES beauty...As God spoke creation into existence, He said that it was good...And on the sixth day, when all things were made -God saw all that He had made, and said it was very good....
Dionysius the Areopagite wrote, “And so it is that all things must desire, must yearn for, must love, the Beautiful and the Good...And we may be so bold as to claim also that the Cause of all things LOVES all things in the superabundance of His Goodness, that because of this Goodness He makes all things, brings all things to perfection, holds all things together, returns all things...The divine longing is Good seeking good for the sake of the good.”...
Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century...He was appointed a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II, but died shortly before the consistory...Hans Urs von Balthasar talks about beauty, courage, and decision as sisters...And he adds that Truth and Goodness help shape beauty in our lives...“We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it...Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance...We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past -- whether he admits it or not -- can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.”...
Beauty is something we seek...Thomas Aquinas asserts, God “is beauty itself”...Thomas Aquinas has defined beauty, provisionally, as “that which pleases when seen.”...St. Thomas Aquinas loved the Spiritual beauty of life...Yet, saw the pleasures of the beauty seen in the physical things around him...But Aquinas holds that this spiritual beauty or moral beauty to be very, very important, while the beauty of nature and the physical are there out of God's creation of all things, which He sees as Good and Goodness from our Creator...God being Beauty how can we not seek the beauties in life...
As people are Images of God, we gravitate toward beauty, and find all kinds of ways to investigate, enjoy, create, and even market beauty...As we look at the many, many advertisements, fashion, our faces, our skin, and our bodies we want to look and feel this beauty...We see there often is a common theme, and that theme is beauty in much of what we seek...When we travel, we search out the the most beautiful places of beauty to see and to visit...We go to museums to see the beauty of art...We find beauty in music...We find beauty in drink and in what we eat...We look at the different places we go to and visit and are attracted to beauty we see...We want to live our lives around beauty and notice one thing about these statements and that is they all have this in common: beauty...Because God LOVES beauty and sees that it is Good, we too, being made in His Image want to see the beauty of things in ourselves, in our surroundings, and in our lives...So wanting beauty is inherent in us...Beauty lives on because God lives on and is eternal...
Jesus said destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up...He was speaking about the temple of His body...One thing I have asked of the LORD, is that will I seek after Him: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the Beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple...
I believe everyone wants a beautiful life...By this Spiritual Love of Jesus, we too enter into and enter into the temple of God, because Jesus is now God's Temple...Jesus is how we get to be with and see the Father...So there is this beauty in life that furthers the beauty of the physical and material, as St. Thomas reminds us...This Beauty of the Father and Son completes ones Joy in life...A beautiful life comes through having faith in Jesus and His Father...Having Jesus in your heart, believers need to strive in their lives to grow in the holy and sacred...Jesus teaches us to make our joy in Him complete, we need to love God and love neighbor...And when we believe in Him and His Father we have a faithful, spiritual heart welling up to an abundant life on earth and then on to Heaven and an eternal life with the Son and His Father...