Credo in Unum Deum

Why did God create the world?  Why did he create anything at all?  These eternal questions are ones that all men, in one way or another, must consider as it relates to their relationship with God.  God is not some distant, isolated being, concerned only with Himself and His perfections, as pagans believed of their gods.  He is who is.  He exists in Trinitarian perfection, as three persons, one God.  And there are only two ways to exist:  to be God, or to be made by God. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 295 states, “We believe that God created the world according to His wisdom.  It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance.  We believe that creation proceeds from God’s free will; he wanted to make his creatures share in his being, wisdom and goodness.” 

Paragraph 295 is essentially stating that creation was not compelled by any external force or necessity but was a deliberate act of God’s free will.  God chose to bring about creation as an expression of His being, wisdom and goodness.  God does not “need” creation, but creation is solely and wholly dependent up God.  Going further, paragraph 296 states, “We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance.  God creates freely ‘out of nothing.’”

The Separation of Light and Darkness by Caravaggio

God simply is.  God is existence itself, the uncaused cause.   God is completeness itself.  God, in the 3 persons of the Trinity, is eternally complete.  The Father is the Son is the Holy Spirit; i.e. the Father eternally generates the Son; the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son  The Trinitarian “Family.”  The perfect family.  The Trinitarian Family is the perfect example of relationship, consisting of three divine persons that live in intimate loving communion and need nothing to fulfill themselves.  God did not need to share His glory, but he chose to out of love, for God is love. 

 So what does it mean to say the God the Father is maker of heaven and earth?  In Hebrew, the expression for the whole world is “heaven and earth.”    As the Catechism says, “The Scriptural expression ‘heaven and earth’ means all that exists, creation in its entirety.  The two are bound together, but also separate. 

So why did God bother?  Looking to the Book of Genesis, in the beginning God created the Heavens, the angels, the Earth and on the sixth day he created man in His image and likeness, resting on the seventh day.  The point of revealing this to us is not to present a scientific treatise on how the world came to be, but rather to reveal to creation that God did this out of His goodness, wisdom and love and a desire to demonstrate and communicate His glory. 

CCC 319 states, “God created the world to show forth and communicate his glory.  That his creatures should share in his truth, goodness and beauty – this is the glory for which God created them.”

Genesis 1:26:  “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 

In order to be worthy of being His adopted children, God created Adam and Eve in his image and likeness.  This is the spiritual part of human nature, including the soul and its faculties of intellect and free will.  This is how, albeit in our imperfect way (of our own doing), how humanity reflects the glory of God. 

CCC 357 states, “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.  He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons.  And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.” 

As most learn as children, we are created to “know God, to love Him, and to serve Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.”  This was not for our benefit, but rather for His glory. 

God Saw That It Was Good

These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good,

Almighty, Thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair; Thyself how wondrous then!

Unspeakable, who sit’st above these Heavens

To us invisible or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works, yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond though, and Power Divine:

Speak ye who bet can tell, ye Sons of Light,

Angels, for ye behold Him, and with songs

And choral symphonies, Day without Night,

Circle His throne rejoicing, ye in Heaven;

On Earth join all ye Creatures to extol

Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end

John Milton

From Paradise Lost

The morning prayer of Adam and Eve