Week 6: Passages 290-349

This week we read passages 290-349. These passages discuss Divine Providence, Angels, and Creation.

II. Creation –Work of the Holy Trinity
God, the Father created the world and everything in it. The New Covenant reveals that the Son and Holy Spirit are one with the Father and so cooperate in the work of creation. They can be thought of as God’s hands.

III. The World was Created 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.” (CCC 293)

IV. The Mystery of Creation
God created the world using His wisdom. It is not a product of chance. God, out his own free will created us to share in his being, wisdom, and goodness. In addition, God created out of nothing. Humans can create but we need material to work with.

“Since God can create everything out of nothing, he can also, through the Holy
Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them and
bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection.” (CCC 298)

God has created an ordered and good world. It is a gift to us and we are capable of understanding it, (with difficulty and humility) through our understanding because as images of God we share in the light of the divine intellect.
God is greater than all his works:

“You have set your glory above the heavens.” (CCC 300)

But he is still present to his creatures’ inmost being. He does not abandon us to ourselves, but also upholds and sustains us and guides us to our 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 the things that
exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have
made anything if you 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 things for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the
living.” (CCC 301)

V. God Carries Out His Plan: Divine Providence
The universe was created “in a state of journeying” (CCC 302). God has destined the world for a perfection it has not yet attained. We call God’s guidance towards perfection “divine providence” (CCC 302).
God cares for us all, in small matters and large, and his care is concrete and immediate. God’s absolute sovereignty is affirmed in Sacred Scriptures:

“Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases.”
“And so it is with
Christ, ‘who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.’”
“Many
are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will
be established.” (CCC 303)

Jesus asks us to trust in the divine providence with childlike abandonment.
God gives us the dignity of acting on our own and allows us to cooperate in his work. We are often unconscious of our role in God’s plan but we can also be active participants though our actions, prayers and sufferings. We are secondary causes in God’s work, God acts through us.

“’For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good
pleasure.’ 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.’ Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end
without the help of God’s grace.” (CCC 308)

So why do we have evil in the world if God is the Father Almighty? I’m sure this is a question everyone struggles with.
The Catechism gives a long answer! We need to look at the entire Christian message:

“…the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the patient love of God who
comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his
gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments,
and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in
advance, but from which by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in
advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not
in part an answer to the question of evil.” (CCC 310)

God’s plan involves a state of journeying, with the more perfect appearing among the less perfect. With physical good, there is also physical evil. Because angels and men are given free will, there also exists moral evil, when free creatures go astray.
I was confused about these two types of evil, I found this link helpful in explaining the difference.
God permits evil because he respects our freedom and because he can derive good from it. St. Augustine explains:

“For almighty God…, because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil
whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to
cause good to emerge from evil itself.” (CCC 311)

Examples are given of Joseph who was sent to Egypt by his brothers’ evil act, but God brought good out of it, and the ultimate example of Jesus who was put to death by men but through God’s grace brought about the salvation of man.
We believe that God is the master of the world, but for the most part the divine providence remains a mystery to us, and will remain so until the end when we see God face to face.

Paragraph 5. Heaven and Earth
God made heaven and earth, or all that exists. “Earth” refers to the world of men while “heaven” could mean the sky, the realm of God, and the place of the saints and spiritual creatures.
First God created the spiritual and corporeal creatures, then he made man who is a combination of body and spirit.

I. The Angels
The existence of creatures composed only of a spirit (angels) is a truth of faith confirmed by Scripture and Tradition.
“Angel” is actually the name of their office, “spirit” is the term for their nature. They are “spirit” and what their job position is “angel” or the servants and messengers of God.
Angels are purely spiritual creatures with intelligence and will, personal and immortal, more perfect than all visible creatures.
Christ is the center of the angelic world. The angels belong to him, they were created “through him and for him” (CCC 331). The angels have been present and played a role in salvation since the beginning, from the closing of the earthly paradise to the angel Gabriel’s annunciation of the birth of Jesus. Through Christ’s life on earth the angels are always present, serving Him and worshipping Him. They will be present at Christ’s return.
The Church also benefits from the help of the angels. The Church joins with the angels to adore God in the Liturgy and celebrates the memory of certain angels (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Rapheal, and the guardian angels). The angels are also with us in a personal way surrounding us with their care and intercession:

“Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to
life.” (CCC 336)

II. The Visible World
Scripture presents the story of creation “symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work,’ concluded by the ‘rest’ of the seventh day” (CCC 337). The story of creation found in Genesis teaches us the truths revealed by God for our salvation:

• Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator.





• Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. We must respect the particular goodness of each creature and avoid a disordered use of things which would have disastrous consequences.





• God wills the interdependence of creatures. Creatures exist to complete each other and to serve each other.





• The beauty of the universe. The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator.





• The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the six days from the less perfect to the more perfect.





• Man is the summit of the Creator’s work, as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures.





• There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory.





• The Sabbath- the end of the work of the six days. The scriptural text describing day seven is rich in instruction:
  
  
  
  
  

  “In creation God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm, on
  which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of
  unshakeable faithfulness of God’s covenant. For his part man must remain
  faithful to this foundation and respect the laws which the Creator has written
  into it.” (CCC 346)
  “Creation was fashioned with a view to the Sabbath and
  therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in
  the order of creation. As the rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should
  take precedence over ‘the work of God,’ that is, solemn worship. This
  indicates the right order of human concerns.” (CCC 347)

  The eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ’s Resurrection.
  

This made me really excited to go read Genesis in the light of these truths!

Here are some reflection questions:

• CCC 303-305 discuss the need to trust in divine providence with child like abandonment. I loved this quote: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.” This reminded me of an excellent blog post by Jen at Et Tu? on the topic of divine providence and finding your place within God's plan. What helps you to discern and trust God's will for your life? Can you share a time when you realized that your plans were not necessarily God’s plans?





• CCC 311-312 discuss God’s ability to bring good out of our evil. Can you think of any examples of this that you have witnessed?





• What special things do you do to keep the Sabbath in your home? Catholic author Nancy Carpentier Brown has a new series of posts at her blog called Keeping Sunday, which I am following with interest, because I really need to improve in this area.





• CCC 347 quotes the rule of St. Benedict “nothing should take precedence over ‘the work of God,’ that is, solemn worship.” How can we keep this requirement while fulfilling our duties as wives and mothers? I know I need to work on this, as this post from my GrayFamilyCircus blog shows, I have trouble making time for prayer amidst the demands and clamor of my little ones.