YOUCAT Question n. 44 - Who created the world?
(Youcat answer) God alone, who is beyond time and space,
created the world out of nothing and called all things into being. Everything
that exists depends on God and continues in being only because God wills it to
be.
A deepening through
CCC
(CCC 290) "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth" (Gen 1:1): three things are affirmed in these first words of
Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that exists outside of
himself; he alone is Creator (the verb "create" - Hebrew bara - always has God for its subject).
The totality of what exists (expressed by the formula "the heavens and the
earth") depends on the One who gives it being. (CCC 291) "In the beginning
was the Word… and the Word was God… all things were made through him, and
without him was not anything made that was made" (Jn 1:1-3). The New
Testament reveals that God created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved
Son. In him "all things were created, in heaven and on earth… all things
were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all
things hold together" (Col 1:16-17). The Church's faith likewise confesses
the creative action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of life",
"the Creator Spirit" (“Veni,
Creator Spiritus”), the "source of every good" (Cf. Nicene Creed:
DS 150; Hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus”;
Byzantine Troparion of Pentecost vespers, "O heavenly King, Consoler").
Reflecting and
meditating
(Youcat comment)
The creation of the world is, so to
speak, a “community project” of the Trinitarian God. The Father is the Creator,
the Almighty. The Son is the meaning and heart of the world: “All things were
created through him and for him” (Col 1:16). We find out what the world is good
for only when we come to know Christ and understand that the world is heading
for a destination: the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Lord. The Holy Spirit
holds everything together; he is the one “that gives life” (Jn 6:63).
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 316) Though the work of creation is attributed to the
Father in particular, it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit together are the one, indivisible principle of creation. (CCC 292)
The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative action of
the Son and the Spirit (Pss 33: 6 104: 30; Gen 1: 2-3) inseparably one with
that of the Father. This creative co-operation is clearly affirmed in the
Church's rule of faith: "There exists but one God… he is the Father, God,
the Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by
his Wisdom", "by the Son and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are
"his hands" (St. Irenaeus, Adv.
haeres. 2, 30, 9; 4, 20, I: PG 7/1, 822, 1032). Creation is the common work
of the Holy Trinity.
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