Chapter 13: Creation

God is almighty. He can make anything from nothing, by a mere act of His divine will. It was thus that He created the heavens and earth and everything that is in them. Man can make many wonderful things, but he must make them out of something. He must use the things God created. Before he can make a stone house, he must have stone, cement, brick, etc. But God needs nothing to make anything. Only God could create the very first thing or matter in the universe.

What do we mean when we say that God is the Creator of heaven and earth? -- When we say that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, we mean that He made all things from nothing by His almighty power.
"All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing" (John 1:3) "For in him were created all things" (Col. 1:16).

1. In the beginning God alone lived. Then out of nothing, by His almighty power, He created heaven and earth, and all things in heaven and on earth. Only God can create; that is, He alone can make something out of nothing. Time began with this creation. Before it there was only eternity.
   
   

   "Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed, from eternity Thou art God" (Ps. 89:2).

2. God created heaven and earth, and everything in heaven and earth. By this is meant everything which is not God. "Heaven" refers to the angels and their abode; and "earth" to all the material universe, including the earth, stars, planets, and all things and beings in them.
   
   

   God created everything by an act of his will. "He spoke and they were made; he commanded and they were created" (Ps. 32:9).

3. In its first book, Genesis, Holy Scripture tells the story of Creation. In the beginning all was void and empty and dark; that is, there was nothing but chaos, which God Himself had created. Then out of this chaos God brought about order and law, creating heaven and earth.
   
   

   "In the beginning God created heaven and earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters" (Gen. 1:1-2).

In how many days did God create the world? -- God created the world in six days, resting on the seventh day.

1. These "days" of creation were not necessarily days of twenty-four hours like those we have today, since our sun had not yet appeared. Catholic theologians commonly interpret them as long periods of time. Thus the “seventh day” is still going on. For Holy Scripture says that on that day God rested; that is, He ceased to create new kinds of things.
   
   

   The Hebrew word for “day” may stand for a day, a week, a month, a century, or any indefinite period of time. Fundamentalism is an enemy of Science; it takes the “days” of Creation as of 24-hour periods, like the periods we call “days” in our time.

2. Very probably the sacred writer divides creation into six days in order to consecrate each day of the week by connecting it with one or more of the Creator's works; and to impress on the Jews the divine command to sanctify the seventh day.
   In the creation, God worked from the lower to the higher: He first made plants, and then He created the animals that would use them for food. Man was the crown of His earthly creations; all other works in the material universe, were for man’s enjoyment and use.
   
   
   
   1. On the first day, God said: "Be light made," and light was made. Then He divided light from darkness, and called the light Day and the darkness Night. On the second day, God made the sky or firmament and divided the waters.
      
      

      The "heaven" thus made is the material heaven in which the stars, the moon, and the sun pursue their courses.

   2. On the third day, God made dry land to appear, bade it bring forth plants.
      
      

      In its account Holy Scripture concerns itself chiefly with our earth. Originally a fiery ball of gaseous matter, it gradually lost its heat, and land began to appear, apart from the sea. The moisture and warmth encouraged the development of organic life, the beginning of which had been implanted by God in the original primary matter.

   3. On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day He made creeping things, birds, and fishes. On the sixth day, He made beasts and cattle. Finally, "God created man to His own image."
      
      

      Man is different from the animals in his possession of reason and free will. Surpassing them all in dignity, he is the crown of God's creations, the one for whom the world had been made ready.

   4. On the seventh day, God "rested ... from all His work which He had done."
      
      

      On the seventh day God ceased to make new kinds of things. This "seventh day" continues to the present; everything that is "made" now is a development or a combination of already existing matter. It is true that "nothing is new under the sun." However, God continues to work in this sense: that He preserves and governs created things, and that He creates souls for those to be born.

Is there no contradiction between the account in the book of Genesis, and the latest discoveries of science, concerning the origin of matter? -- No, there is not the least contradiction between the account in the book of Genesis, and the latest discoveries of science, concerning the origin of matter.An apparent contradiction arises through the mistake of uninformed persons, who forget that the Church reads the Bible bearing in mind the principal object of the sacred writers.

1. In writing the account of the creation, the sacred writer, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, wished to impress upon the Jews (for whom he was writing) that there is but one God, and that He created the entire universe, living and lifeless.
   
   

   At that time the Jews were surrounded by idolatrous peoples who believed in the existence of many gods, and worshipped all kinds of creatures, even the sun, moon, plants, animals, and images.

2. In pursuing his aim, the sacred writer used the form that was most effective, under the circumstances, to convey his meaning. It is a popular form: that is, it relates historical events in popular expression and order.The words used, while in themselves not scientifically exact, are in conformity with ordinary speech, and understandable by ordinary people. In the same way today we say, "The sun rises in the east", even when we know through the investigations of science that the sun does not "rise" at all. Events are set down in an order not necessarily scientific, but suited to the understanding of a primitive people, and therefore of all mankind. We must remember that the sacred writer was not aiming to teach physics or anthropology, but Faith.