Day 43: Creation is Good

To human beings, God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it. God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors. Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their sufferings. They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and co-workers for his kingdom.  CCC 307

In today's reading, the Catechism wraps up in this section about God and Creation. Through the infinite power and wisdom of God, he willed Creation into being. Out of His love, He "willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him". There are times when we can look around and weep or feel ashamed of what we have done with that gift of love, but God still created an "ordered and good world". He is not a part of Creation, He is "infinitely greater than all his works", and "transcends creation and is present to it". Part of what this means is that He is always there for us as a Father, with a love for us that is far greater than anything or anyone else. As is written in Scripture, and which the Catechism quotes:

For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had 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 all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living. (Wis 11:24-26)

God didn't just create everything and then take quite a long break, letting us do as we please. No. As the Catechism notes, "God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' cooperation." He wants us to cooperate with Him, for as this poem attributed to St. Teresa of Ávila states: "Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours".

I like how the Catechism Companion, Vol I finishes out this section:

God chose to create us as free beings, with the ability to freely participate in the providence and his plan of salvation for the world We can say yes to God or no to him. Our Father in heaven watches over us, and so Jesus calls us to have a child's trust in his care (see CCC 305). (p. 90)

Jesus Christ the Divine Architect