Day 41: Origins and Ends

Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint, these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn language the truths of creation - its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, these texts remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the "beginning": creation, fall, and promise of salvation. CCC 289

In today's reading, the Catechism completes the section on the Catechesis on Creation. Even with our finite minds, we can use reasoning to question the origins of everything and come to know the existence of God, even if that "knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error". It is with faith that we confirm what our reasoning tells us about these and leads us to a "correct understanding of truth". To be sure, we have found ourselves led astray in seeking faith in God, even to this day, mistaking other views for the truth. As the Catechism Companion notes:

Ancient religions and cultures have many myths about the origin of the world. Polytheism, Manichaeism, Gnosticism, Deism, and materialism are some of the worldviews that are incompatible with Christianity (see CCC 285). (p. 86)

It is through divine revelation that we have come to know God, as He slowly revealed the truth about Himself and Creation. From the patriarchs to prophets, to finally, the coming of His Son, we have been given more insight into God beyond what our reasoning can discern from the wonders found in science and the splendor of His creation. It is through His grace, by faith, that we gain this more so than anything our intellect alone can muster. 

I like how the Catechism Companion wraps up this section in pointing us to what is most important in this:

God has revealed everything we need to know (but not every fact there is) about creation. God created the world so that we could have a relationship with him. (p. 86)

The first day of creation, by Jean Colombe from the Heures de Louis de Laval

 

Day 40: God Is the Creator

Creation is the foundation of "all God's saving plans," the "beginning of the history of salvation" that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth": from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ. CCC 280

Today's reading is about God and Creation. The majesty and splendor of the cosmos and everything that was, is now, or ever will be, all things "visible and invisible", come from God Almighty. Creation reveals the omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence of the Eternal God. In our modern world, this can be ignored or pushed aside as a "fairy tale" in favor of science. Yet the Catechism makes clear that while science has its role, the mystery of Creation is still bound with the mystery of God. Science cannot give us "meaning and orientation of our life and actions". Only by faith in God and His grace can we receive both.

As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

In a purely material world, there is no such thing as free will, no right, no wrong, no objective morality. God made heaven and earth; he created all that is visible and all that is invisible. This is why there is a world instead of no world; this is why there is something rather than nothing: because God loves us, and he wants each of us to have eternal life with him. (p. 84)

So we can see how science answers the "how" questions about Creation, while faith the "why" and "Whom" ones. For the former one may wonder whether Catholics can believe in evolution. The Catechism Companion has an answer to that:

If the term "evolution" means the theory that life on earth developed from random chance or purely "natural selection" (the view of Darwin) with no divine role or direction, then the answer is no... Some theories which have suggested that God used an evolutionary process to create the world, do not contradict revealed truth. (p. 85)

God remains at the center of all life and Creation. That is the supreme truth when it comes to this.

The Ancient of Days, a 14th-century fresco from Ubisi, Georgia.

Day 39: The Father Almighty

"Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God. Once our reason has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily and without any hesitation admit everything that [the Creed] will afterwards propose for us to believe - even if they be great and marvellous things, far above the ordinary laws of nature." CCC 274

In today's reading, we get more than in previous days, but it is just as densely packed. Such is to be expected when speaking about how almighty God truly is. The Catechism is right that the "Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God" (CCC 269). He is omnipotent with everything and everyone is subject to His will. There is nothing that He cannot do, which unfortunately leads sometimes in our fallible minds to cry out about His allowing suffering in this life. Yet, as the Catechism says,

[I]n the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." CCC 272

We sometimes get angry and confused about this in times of pain and grief. As the Catechism Companion puts it: 

God's power is absolute but also loving. God does not remove suffering; he redeems it. (p. 82)

God is all-loving, even when we think He isn't showing us love. It is through the sacrifice and redemption of Christ that we can come to understand that.

William Albrecht Open Mic Discussion on the Canon

Good discussion by William Albrecht taking questions from many people. I'm on there for a bit as well, starting at the 15:40 mark!

Day 38: Summary of the Trinity

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. CCC 261

In today's reading, we are given another "In Brief" section summarizing what has gone over the past few days. There's really not much to add to what I've already said on this, but I did like this from the Athanasian Creed:

"Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal." CCC 266 

As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

There is a sense that when one Person of the Trinity is present, all are present. When one acts, all act, yet in a distinctive way. (p. 80) 

Representation of the Trinity in the form of the mercy seat (epitaph from 1549)

 

Day 37: The Divine Economy

For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle." However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. CCC 258

Today's reading is yet another short one, though densely packed again, on the divine oikonomia or "the ways in which God has acted in time" (Catechism Companion, p. 78). The Catechism has some rich material on this, like this part:

Being a work at once common and personal, the whole divine economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and their one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him. CCC 259

For ease in understanding though, I thought this summation in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "49. How do the three divine Persons work?" was good:

Inseparable in their one substance, the three divine Persons are also inseparable in their activity. The Trinity has one operation, sole and the same. In this one divine action, however, each Person is present according to the mode which is proper to him in the Trinity.

The revelation of the Trinity at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, depicted here by Francesco Albani, we have a theophany - a revelation of God that includes the Father in the heavens, the Son baptized by John, and the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus in the form of a dove (see CCC 258). [Catechism Companion, p. 79]

The Resurrection of Jesus and the Sign of Jonah

I recently finished Dr. Brant Pitre's outstanding book, The Case for Jesus. He does a superb job in defending the divinity of Christ, but he also had some excellent material on the historicity of the Gospels. There is much in the book that I could talk about, but I'd have to say that this part on the sign given by Christ of Jonah in the whale or fish (Matt 12:38-42) and His own death and resurrection was amazing. I confess to having had a similar view of Dr. Pitre at one time concerning the story of Jonah. It seemed more fairy tale or mythical to me rather than real. In his book though, and in the presentation he makes below, Dr. Pitre shows how the sign Jesus uses has more meaning than I or he knew: Jonah died in the whale/fish and was resurrected by God after 3 days. Likewise, Jesus died and was resurrected by God after 3 days. The story & sign I knew, this crucial detail I did not and it really blew my mind.