Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 59.

YOUCAT Question n. 59 - Why did God make man?

(Youcat answer) God made everything for man. Man, however, who is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake” (GS 24, 3), was created in order to be blessed. This happens when he knows, loves, and serves God and lives in gratitude toward his Creator.       

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 358) God created everything for man (Cf. GS 12 § 1; 24 § 3; 39 § 1),  but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him: What is it that is about to be created, that enjoys such honor? It is man that great and wonderful living creature, more precious in the eyes of God than all other creatures! For him the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the rest of creation exist. God attached so much importance to his salvation that he did not spare his own Son for the sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to work, trying every possible means, until he has raised man up to himself and made him sit at his right hand (St. John Chrysostom, In Gen. sermo II, 1: PG 54, 587D-588A).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Gratitude is love that has been acknowledged. Someone who is grateful turns freely to the giver of the good and enters into a new, deeper relationship with him. God wishes us to acknowledge his love and even now to live our whole life in relation with him. This relationship lasts forever.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 299) Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight" (Wis 11:20). The universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the invisible God", is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a personal relationship with God (Col 1:15, Gen 1:26). Our human understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and only in a spirit of humility and respect before the Creator and his work (Cf. Ps 19:2-5; Job 42:3). Because creation comes forth from God's goodness, it shares in that goodness - "and God saw that it was good… very good" (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 31) - for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world (Cf. DS 286; 455-463; 800; 1333; 3002).    

(The next question is: Why is Jesus the greatest example in the world?)