Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
(Symbol of Faith)
(Symbol of Faith)
Lord of heaven and earth and of all creation visible and invisible.
(Anaphora of the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great)
(Anaphora of the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great)
A. The Creator and His Creation
- Our faith in the Creator gives us the opportunity to grasp the sense and essence of the created world. Biblical Revelation unveils for us the presence of God within the reality of the world: we come to know the Creator, and the world—his creation.
- The word creation points to the connection between the world and the Person of the Creator; for the world is “the work of his hands.” This is why it is impossible to know creation separately from the Creator. God’s Revelation brings to our attention not so much the laws of nature as the actions of the Creator’s Divine Economy. In the light of faith, the true beauty of creation is revealed to us as a reflection of the beauty and magnificence of its Creator: “Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all” (Ps 103[104]:24).
1. The Father Creates through the Son in the Holy Spirit
- In loving humankind, God moved forth from the unapproachable light of his inner divine life and revealed himself in the world created by him: “Today the Sun that never sets has risen and the world is filled with splendour by the light of the Lord.”(Trebnyk, Rite of the Great Blessing of Water for the Feast of Theophany, Second Prayer). The foundation of the world is “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”(Liturgicon, The Divine Liturgy of our Holy Father John Chrysostom, Anaphora.) (see 2 Cor 13:13). On the participation of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity in the creation of the world, Saint Basil teaches: “When you consider creation, I advise you to first think of him who is the first cause of everything that exists: namely, the Father, and then of the Son, who is creator, and then of the Holy Spirit, the perfecter.”(Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, 16, 38) Created in love, this world becomes a temple, the place and environment of God’s relationship with human-ity. The presence of God in the world, as if in a temple, is a prefigurement of the entry of the Son of God into human flesh, the incarnation (see Heb 10:5).
- The Incarnation of the Son of God reveals the purpose of the created world. At the appointed moment of history, the Son of God descends into creation in order to raise creation to God. This is accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit. In the six days of creation, the Holy Spirit prepares an environment for humanity (see Gn 1). In the Old Testament, God prepares humanity for the encounter with the incarnate Son of God, so that through Jesus Christ all creation might be brought to the Father, and “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).
From Christ Our Pascha,
the Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church
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