The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 48: Creation in Order (2025)

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

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 to 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 337-343, 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 of the Catholic Church. Also you can download your Catechism and year reading plan 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 talked, 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 angel. Now today we have the visible world. That was the unseen world, the invisible world that that part I guess that would maybe abide in the heavens. But here is 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, 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 3.41 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, 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 is 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 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 created world has its own particular goodness and perfection It doesn't take anything away from them. Um, it's like 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. 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 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, 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, permitting 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 the 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 ought 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 337 to 343 in there what would we? We have the reiteration of the fact that God himself, himself alone, remember, with no help whatsoever, 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 that's also in 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, yeah, God is the primary cause of so many, of all that exists, but he also, he allows secondary causes. So those secondary causes are things that, like he's created,

we, his 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 omnipotence, right, his 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. It doesn't fall because of gravity, doesn't fall because of this, you know, 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, directly, immediately wills it. Now obviously, God, 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, because 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 emphasize that little too much I don't think I did but we're moving on nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the creator Yes, 100 we recognize that now remember we're going to talk about this in the future, but Yes, hundred percent. 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 that good has a 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 Gaudium et Spes, 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, 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 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 will 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 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 do 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 abuse. And we're going to talk about that later on 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 that

they come from God and therefore yes in many ways they are for our use but therefore our wise use and that's very important anyways I can I don't want to beat a dead horse 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 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 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 that while the earth is good, like but truly like by why rocks are good, mountains are good, hills are good, valleys are good, oceans, they have their own goodness and perfection. And vegetation is good, right? It grows, 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 made in God's image and likeness. And in particular ways that 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, our dolphins. That sense of being able to say that a dolphin does what a dolphin does always And the 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 these 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 gonna 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 planet, there's more than just this life, and we're called even higher. And so 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 to go down one road and we can choose 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 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 you God, help me to walk the right way. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mac. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.