Creation
To create is to make things out of nothing, with no material at all being used. We cannot ask: why did God wait so long before creating the world, because before creation, there is no time. Time is a measure of change on a scale of before and after (Aristotle, Physics 4:11). Therefore when–if we may use that word at all in speaking of eternity–there was no change, there was no time. Time began to be when changing creatures came into being. Time is a restless continuous set of changes. Ahead is a moment we call future–it quickly changes into present–then quickly changes into past.
God could have created an everlasting world, without beginning or end. But he chose to create a world with a beginning–a time “before” which there was nothing. Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And Christ told His Father :”You loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).
Why did God create? The purpose of the created world is tied up with the purpose of man. St. Irenaeus wrote: “In the beginning God formed Adam, not because He was in need of humans, but so He might have someone to receive His benefits” (Against Heresies 4. 14. 1). So we can say He always loved us, since He always willed us the most basic good, existence. Beyond that, He wills that, “all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). If to will good to another is to love, then this is really love. But when we love, we need a starter, we need to see something good or fine in another. But God loved us when we did not exist.
When we say that He created for His own glory, we must understand these words the way Vatican I meant them: He made a creature that by its very nature would give glory to God, even though God gains nothing by that glory. (We read this in the acts and decrees of Vatican I, found in Collectio Lacensis , VII. 116). Similarly, He wants us to obey because all goodness says creatures should obey their Creator, and because as St. Irenaeus said, He wanted to have someone to whom to be generous in infinite goodness–but we must cooperate to receive his gifts.
God keeps all things in existence by the same power by which He brought them up out of nothing. “And how could anything continue in being if you did not will it?” (Wisdom 11:25). Our dependence on Him for continued existence is like that of the images on the movie screen on the projector.
By William G. Most. (c)Copyright 1990 by William G. Most
Electronic text (c) Copyright EWTN 1997. All rights reserved.
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