The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 48: Creation in Order (2024)

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

God created all of the visible world in richness, diversity, and order, and everything owes its existence to God. Because all of creation comes from God, every creature has its own goodness and perfection and God wills the interdependence of all creatures. Father Mike helps us to see that God gave us the world for our use, but not for our abuse. Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and we are charged with caring for the natural world and all of its creatures. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 337-343. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 48, we're reading paragraphs 337 through 343, the visible world, the beginning of the visible world. At least I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism with the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your Catechism in a year reading

planned for free whenever you want by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. Also, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, today we're looking at the visible world. We also talk, we talked the last couple of days about angels in the life of the church, angels as they are, angels in what their purpose is. You know, their nature is spirit,

but their function is messenger, right? their function is is messenger, right? Their function is angel Now today we have the visible world that was the unseen world the the invisible world that the part I guess that would maybe abide in the heavens, but here's also the visible world a couple things We're gonna note is every paragraph if you're looking at your ascension edition of the catechism You recognize that every paragraph begins more or less, begins with some italicized phrases or italicized words. And for example, in paragraph 338, it says, nothing exists that does not owe

its existence to God the Creator. So every, um, essentially every paragraph has kind of a thesis statement. And then the rest of the paragraph kind of breaks it down. Then paragraph 339 says, each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. Again, talking about that, the recognition that since God created all things, all things essentially are good. They all possess their own particular goodness and perfection. God wills the interdependence of creatures is another thing that we, you know, we rely on each other. In fact, none of us are really truly independent of the rest of creation. I mean one of the articles of faith we have is that

when it comes to the people of God, right, the body of Christ, the church, is that the hand cannot say to the foot I don't need you that I cannot say to the ear. I don't need you. We all need each other but also that structure that that interdependence is actually baked into built into the created world as well. That, you know, like it or not, in some way we need mosquitoes. I mean, that's kind of a thing. Also, in 341 we talk about the beauty of the universe. So not only is this universe created by God and has its own goodness and perfection, but also the beauty of the universe reflects the beauty and goodness of the Creator. There's also such a thing, even though there's interdependence of creatures, there's also a

hierarchy of creatures. And that's something that I think is very important. We hold some of these things, well, all these things, we have a balance. They're often held in tension. So you can say, yes, we, God wills the interdependence of creatures in that sense that yeah, so we need each other at the same time There's a hierarchy there with paragraph 343 our final paragraph today Man is the summit of the Creator's work so when it comes down to it out of all that God has created in the visible world human beings are at the top or humanity is at the top and What's the reason for that? Not our own,

not nothing that we've done, but the fact that we've been created in God's image and likeness. Now, to assert that doesn't take anything away from the rest of creation. Because remember, there's the interdependence of creatures, the beauty of the universe, that the entire, every all the creative world has its own particular goodness and perfection. It doesn't take anything away from them. It's like it doesn't take anything away from the color red to point out that something else is the color blue. It doesn't take anything away from that. It doesn't take anything away from the ground floor of an apartment building to point out that the penthouse is the top floor. Like that doesn't take anything away from this because it's all part of what's necessary. You couldn't have a penthouse without a ground floor. You couldn't have a floor 15 without a floor 14.

And so we recognize that there is a hierarchy, there's value, and there's good and bad. And so there's a recognition of there's more perfect and less perfect. And there's something about how it all fits together. We don't have to all be the same in order to still be good. That's really, really important as we kind of move forward today as well as tomorrow because we're gonna talk tomorrow about the Sabbath and how there's this uniqueness about that Sabbath day.

And then even as we go forward, we're gonna talk about how human beings are created in God's image and likeness and male and female and talk about differences there but also how we're united male and female as well. And so as we move forward, it's really beautiful because we get to look at the paradoxes that exist in our faith. Paradoxes are what? They're things that are seemingly contradictory, but actually are not at all. They're just held in tension. We have to, we get to assert two things at the same time. Anyways, so because we're

entering into this, not murky, but into this great area that might even challenge Well, our preconceptions might challenge how we see the world. We of course need God's grace So let's pray father in heaven. We know that you love us. We know that you are with us. We thank you for this day We thank you for all you have created Everything invisible and also everything visible for all you have created. Everything invisible and also everything visible. Everything we don't see and everything we do see. We thank you because all of it reflects your beauty.

All of it reflects your power and your goodness. Your love for us. Keep us in your love. Help us never to wander away from it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As I said, it is day 48. we're reading paragraphs 337 to 343.

The Visible World God Himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine work concluded by the rest of the seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, preventing us to recognize the inner nature, the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God. Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator.

The world began when God's word drew it out of nothingness. All existent beings, all of nature, and all human history are rooted in this primordial event, the very Genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun. Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. For each one of the works of the six days it is said, And God saw that it was good. By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth, and excellence, its own order and laws.

Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way, a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment. God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and a little flower, the eagle and the sparrow, the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient.

Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other. The beauty of the universe. The order and harmony of the created world results from the diversity of beings and from the relationship which exists among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They call forth the admiration of scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and not to inspire the respect and submission of man's intellect and will.

The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the six days, from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said, You are of more value than many sparrows, or again, of how much more value is a man than a sheep. 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. Okay, so there we have it, paragraphs 3, 37, to 3, 43, and in there, what would we have? We have the

reiteration of the fact that God himself, himself alone, remember, with no help whatsoever, he created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. This is so important. That's not only rich, it's diverse, right? There's a depth there and there's a diversity there, but there's also an order here. One of the things that we recognize is that because of our belief about how God created the world in order, that paves the way for science to exist. Before the recognition was that God created the world outside of himself. Before the recognition was that God created a world that was based off of him being reason, him being logos, right? God is revealed as the word, the logos.

In the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. You know, there are some schools of thought that would say that, no, God is all powerful, which means that nothing happens without God directly, directly willing it. Now, we recognize that God is the primary cause of so many of, you know, all that exists. But he also, he allows secondary causes. So those secondary causes are things that like he's created. We are weak, he's human beings, right? Free creatures, we can be secondary causes. Another secondary cause can be something like

that God created. For example, gravity is a secondary cause now. So the fact that God has created a world that is ordered has, as I said before, paves the way for there to be a science. Now, if someone were simply to affirm and assert God's, God's omnipotence, right? His, his, he's all powerful, but they didn't also acknowledge that God is order. They might be tempted to conclude that, well, then that means the rain falls

simply because God wants it, doesn't fall because of gravity, doesn't fall because of this thing that happens in clouds where there's condensation and all the things that happen to make the rainfall. They were told, no, it just happens because God directly immediately wills it. Now, obviously, everything falls under God's either perfect or permissive will. But in order to maintain that God's omnipotence, right, to not take away from God's power,

that might actually force some people in their logic to conclude that everything that happens is God directly willing it, even the sun coming up in the morning. Now, Christians escaped this trap. It is a trap. Christians escaped this trap by recognizing that actually no, God is reason, right? God created a world because God is reason. He created a world that is order. It's a reflection of his order. It's a reflection of his reason. And so he can create a world outside of himself

according to certain principles. And as it says here in the very briefly in this paragraph 337, he created a world with richness, diversity and order. And there's something remarkable about that because God permits us to recognize the inner nature, the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God. So because of that, we recognize, yes, of course, God is all powerful. And at the same time, we can have science because we recognize

that God created a world that is a reflection of Him, meaning it's a reflection of His being order, His being reason. Does that make sense? Hopefully it makes sense. But we're moving on either way because maybe I emphasized that a little too much. I don't think I did, but we're moving on. Nothing exists that does not always exist in the to God the Creator. Yes, 100% we recognize that. Now remember, we're going to talk about this in the future, but Yes, 100% we recognize that now remember we're gonna talk about this in the future, but Evil isn't a thing evil is the absence of a thing or the distortion or misuse of a good thing

So nothing exists so evil doesn't like is it doesn't have existence in the same way the good has it has it in existence So keep that in mind that that God created everything out of nothing So everything owes its existence to God our Creator. Also, because our Source is God, each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. And there's something so powerful. The quote here in paragraph 339 is from Gaudi Metzpez, which is from the Second Vatican Council. It states, By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth, and excellence, its own order and laws." So we recognize this, that sense of that because it comes from the Lord, there is a truth, stability, and excellence. So every every creature has its own particular

goodness and perfection. Because of this, this is important, this is the implication, one of the implications of this. The last sentence in paragraph 339 says, man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment.

So this lays the groundwork for the fact that, you know, at the beginning, all the way back in Genesis, in the very first chapters, it talks about how God placed the all of creation under the dominion of human beings. He gave us dominion over everything, all of creation. Some people have taken that to mean, well, that means you can do whatever you want with creation. That, yeah, it's, it's, we're more important, therefore, to whatever you want with the rest of the world. Now, the church does not say that. Here, very clearly in paragraph 339, it says,

we have to respect the particular goodness of every creature to avoid any disordered use of things, which would be in contempt of the Creator and bring disastrous consequences for human beings and for our environment. That means, you know, there's a difference between being a steward and an owner. Stewardship and ownership are very, very different. Ownership is, you know, I own my own vehicle. And so if I wanted to, I could drive however I wanted off-road, you know, obviously keeping other people, other people's safety in mind,

but I can do whatever I want with my own car, right? That kind of idea. But if it's someone else's car, that it's being loaned to me, that I'm merely the steward, I'm not the owner, then I need to take care of it because it's not mine. And one of the things that we keep being reminded of is that this world, yes, we get to be stewards of it,

but we're not the owners of it. That, yeah, there's creatures on this earth that are for our use, but they are not for our our abuse. And we're going to talk about that later on when we get to the moral life when it comes to like, what is our relationship and how do we actually treat animals? Or how do we treat the rest of creation? The church has its foundation for how we treat the rest of creation by this particular paragraph that reminds us that if every creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection then we must treat those creatures in that way. They

come from God and therefore, yes, in many ways they are for our use but they're for our wise use and that's very important. Anyways, I don't want to be that hoarse on that one. We also recognize that we belong to each other and you know we're gonna talk about this when it comes to human beings. We're gonna talk about this when it comes to human beings. We're gonna talk about this when it comes to us Christians. But here is this interdependence of creatures as well. And it's kind of a little poetic where in paragraph 340 it says,

the sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow, the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient. We need each other going on. There's the beauty of the universe, which of course is I want to say self-evident, but sometimes we just miss it. Sometimes we don't notice it. Of course, there's also a hierarchy of creatures that while each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection,

there is a sense that, not a sense, there is the affirmation that human beings are the crown of God's creation, that human beings are the summit of the Creator's work, that because we're made in God's image and likeness, we have, we are called higher. And not just are we called higher, more is expected of us. We recognize this for the many gifts that we have that the rest of creation doesn't have. We recognize this for the many gifts that we have that the rest of creation doesn't have. We recognize that while the earth is good, like truly like why rocks are good, mountains are good, hills are good,

valleys are good, oceans, they have their own goodness and perfection. Vegetation is good, right? It grows, it's alive, it's incredible, it reproduces. Insects and animals are good. They're not only alive, it's alive, it's incredible, it reproduces. Insects and animals are good. They're not only alive, they can reproduce, they can move, they can build things at times. There's a goodness and a perfection in the squirrel,

in the hedgehog, in the elk. But there's a goodness and a perfection in humanity that doesn't exist in any of those others. And that goodness and perfection is that ultimately we're meeting God's image and likeness. And in particular ways that, you know, we have an intellect. We have a will in a way that even the most advanced gorilla,

you can learn sign language, doesn't have the same kind of intellect, the same kind of will as human beings do, are dolphins, right? That sense of being able to say that a dolphin does what a dolphin does always, and a gorilla does what a gorilla will do always. But human beings are unique.

Because God has given us that gift, He's also given us that responsibility, that He's also given us that call to use our intellect in a will, to use the fact that He's made us as the summit of his work. To what? Well, to be responsible for the rest of creation, to be responsible for himself and as we're going to learn tomorrow to choose to not just be here in this earth and here be here on this planet but also to choose to recognize there's more than this earth, there's more than just this

planet, there's more than just this life. And we're called even higher. And so that's, that's the call for every one of us, right? To use the gifts we've been given in a wise way, to use the gifts we've been given very, very well, but also to go even higher, to recognize that God has made you and me in his image and likeness. Now we can choose down to go down one road and we can choose to go down another road, but ultimately,

ultimately God is calling us to walk after him, to follow him. And so that's what I'm praying for today, for all of us. We are stewards of our, even our own lives. We're not even the owners of our own lives. We're not even the owners of our own bodies. We are stewards. And so because of that,

we just say thank thank you, God, help me to walk the right way. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.