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Our story gets better and better
We are going to hear that God Creates an Ordered and Good World
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!
Why?
Because God Himself is REASON
GOD IS REASON ITSELF!!
It is not CHAOTIC
It has an ORDER TO IT, for lack of a better term
IT IS ORDERED!!
IT IS GOOD!!
THIS IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!
One of the articles of the Gospel story is that GOD IS GOOD
We’ve established that
We want to maintain that every step along the way
GOD IS GOOD
AND…
HE MADE THIS WORLD GOOD
SO IMPORTANT!!
God Transcends Creation and is Present to it
We have talked about this before
God is OUTSIDE of Creation
Because God is LARGER than Creation
Because God is MORE than Creation
At the same time…
God is present to EVERY ASPECT
From the GREATEST THING to the MOST MINUTE DETAIL of Creation
HE IS PRESENT TO IT!!
He is both IMMANENT and TRANSCENDENT
God Upholds and Sustains Creation
THROUGH God all things exist
FOR God all things exist
IN God all things exist
So…
FROM God and FOR God
The ORIGIN and the PURPOSE
BUT ALSO…
They STAY in existence IN GOD
So God is SUSTAINING all of Creation
So these first main points…
God Creates an Ordered and Good World
SUPER IMPORTANT!!
God Transcends Creation and is Present to it
God is IMMANENT to it
God is CLOSE to it
God is PRESENT to it
God Upholds and Sustains Creation
Then we will PIVOT to GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE PROVIDENCE (PIVOT!! PIVOT!! Friends | Bloopers Couch Scene ''PIVOT'' [HD] 🤣🤣🤣)
What is God’s Will in this world?
IT IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!
God is the PRIMARY CAUSE of all things
BUT ALSO…
God ALLOWS there to be REAL secondary causes in this world
There are things that God does DIRECTLY
He says, “Let there be light” and BOOM there is light
He doesn’t NEED any mediator
He doesn’t NEED any other thing
AND YET…
God CHOOSES to use secondary causes
That is, other creatures to assist in creation and the governing of the universe
God can make the stars and the sun by BREATHING THEM INTO EXISTENCE
OR…
He might use physical forces and particles to act according to the nature He gave them to produce the stars
At the same time, God creates beings that are FREE
You might call them HUMAN BEINGS
You might call them ANGELS
God FREELY CHOOSES to create these FREE BEINGS and allows them to actually participate…
In His Providence…
In His Creation…
In His Plan of Salvation for the world…
IN A FREE WAY!!
So we can say YES to God
We can say NO to God
God actually gives us the DIGNITY of being CAUSES
Fr. Mike is now repeating the headings we are going to talk about in The Catechism for the third time (Do you really need me to write it all again? 😉)
Oh who am I kidding??
All of those pieces…
God Creates an Ordered and Good World
God Transcends Creation and is Present to it-He is Immanent and Transcendent
God Upholds and Sustains Creation-God is pure act
GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE PROVIDENCE
God is the PRIMARY cause
God also CREATES SECONDARY CAUSES
God allows those secondary causes to be TRULY FREE
To cooperate WILLFULLY
And even to cooperate UNCONSCIOUSLY with His own plan
OR…
To REJECT His plan
That’s what it means to be FREE
You can say YES
OR…
You can say NO
So that’s where we are
Let’s say a prayer and ask the Lord to come meet us so that we can say YES to His plan!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we thank you. We thank you for this day. We thank you for creating this good world. We know that we broke it. We know that we broke it in our Original Sin. And you called us to live in this broken world as people with broken hearts. But, you have also entered into this broken world. You are immanent. You are present to us. You did not abandon us to the domain of death. For you came in mercy to the aid of all. Come to our aid now, with your mercy, with your love, and with your Divine Providence. Help us to say YES to you this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”
There was A LOT today!!
God Creates an Ordered and Good World
SO GOOD!!
Not just Scripture attests to this
Paragraph 299 says, “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.”
We can GRASP what God is revealing to us by means of His Creation
BUT…
It takes A LOT of effort
We also have to have the proper HUMILITY AND RESPECT
The reality is the world is ORDERED
IN FACT…
The only thing that made science possible was the Judeo-Christian vision of the world being created OUTSIDE OF GOD
The laws of the universe are not CAPRICIOUS (I didn’t do all that great on the verbal portion of the SATs back in the day so CAPRICIOUS means “impulsive or unpredictable” 🤓)
It’s not as if the rain goes down because that’s how God wants it
God created the world according to certain laws of physics and chemistry
We realize through revelation that God is REASON ITSELF
In the beginning was the WORD
Word is LOGOS
Logos is REASON
GOD IS REASONABLE!!
GOD IS REASON!!
Which means that God is not CAPRICIOUS
Which means that God created the world according to certain LAWS
That paved the way for there to be such a thing as SCIENCE
Because God creates an ORDERED AND GOOD WORLD
We will talk about the MYSTERY OF SUFFERING tomorrow
God is GOOD
God made this world GOOD
BUT…
THEN WE BROKE THE WORLD!!
God Transcends Creation and is Present to it
Paragraph 300 says, “God is infinitely greater than all his works.”
At the same time, GOD IS SO CLOSE
St. Augustine says, “God is ‘higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self.’”
HE IS SO IMMANENT
HE IS SO CLOSE TO ME
God Upholds and Sustains Creation
Remember we talked about Deism before
The “clock-maker” god
That is NOT what we are holding onto
Paragraph 301 says, “With creation, God does not abandon his creators to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end.”
SO GOOD!!
Realizing this should fill us with FREEDOM, WISDOM, JOY, AND CONFIDENCE
WHICH IS SO IMPORTANT!!
God is HELPING US!!
God is PRESENT TO US!!
God IS NOT DISTANT TO US!!
GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SO GOOD!!
Paragraph 302 says, “Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created ‘in a state of journeying’...”
Those people who say, “This universe is growing, it’s developing.”
The theories in which life on earth developed has some theories
It’s pretty clear that life on earth has been developing
Even the Church agrees
THAT’S OK!!
THAT’S REALITY!!
THAT IS WONDERFUL!!
Why??
Paragraph 302 continues, “By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made…”
Even the process of the development of His Creation is PART OF HIS PLAN
The planets, stars, galaxies, and all these things are IN PROCESS
EVEN YOU AND I ARE IN PROCESS!!
THAT IS REMARKABLE!!
God is a PRIMARY CAUSE
He SPEAKS and they were made
BUT ALSO…
He creates secondary causes WITH A DESTINY
He created you and I WITH A DESTINY
NOT FATE
BUT DESTINATION
God wants us to enter into relationship with Him in the most PERFECT BEAUTIFUL BEATITUDE WAY
Right?
Paragraph 304 says, “...God’s primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the world, and so of educating his people to trust in him.”
One of the key things about the story of Scripture is NOT God trying to get people to BELIEVE in Him or to BELIEVE that He exists
BUT…
To draw His people INTO A RELATIONSHIP OF LOVE
How can LOVE exist if TRUST isn’t there?
This story of God winning our hearts back is the story of the Bible
IT IS INCREDIBLE!!
Paragraph 305 says, “Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest needs…”
SO SO IMPORTANT!!
Let’s highlight Paragraphs 306-308
SO IMPORTANT!!
God is the PRIMARY CAUSE
AND YET…
Paragraph 306 says, “God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures’ cooperation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God’s greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan.”
Sometimes we cooperate UNKNOWINGLY
Other times we cooperate KNOWINGLY
BY SURRENDERING OUR HEARTS!!
BY SURRENDERING OUR LIVES!!
BY DELIBERATELY ENTERING INTO HIS PLAN!!
This is what it is to be a Christian
God has called me to pick up my cross, deny myself, and follow Him
God has called me to love Him with everything I have and to love my neighbors as myself
God has called me to take care of the widowed, the orphan, the poor, the neglected
God has called me to be true to my promises
God has called me to intercede on behalf of other people
All of these elements that God has called you and I to do is not just so you and I can be good boys and good girls
It is so that you and I can PARTICIPATE IN HIS PLAN OF REDEEMING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE
So when we say YES to the Lord…
When we COOPERATE WITH HIS PLAN…
When we TRUST IN HIM…
WE ARE BECOMING CAUSES!!
When someone asks, “Why do we pray? Prayer doesn’t change God’s mind, so why do we do it in the first place?”
St. Augustine (Or some other BIG-TIME saint) said, “We pray because God hears our prayers and He grants us the dignity of being causes.”
This is true when it comes to PRAYER
It is also true when it comes to ANY DECISION you and I make in our lives
If we want to eat, we have to go and get our food
WE GET TO BE CAUSES
If we want SOMEONE ELSE to eat for the day, we get to go and FEED THEM
Does that make sense?
This POWER and INCREDIBLE DIGNITY that God gives us of being FREE…
And of COOPERATING…
Entering DELIBERATELY into the divine plan by our actions, our prayers, and our sufferings (Paragraph 307)
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS??
IT IS INCREDIBLE!!
We can enter DELIBERATELY into the DIVINE PLAN by our ACTIONS, our PRAYERS, and our SUFFERINGS
There are people in our community in Catechism in a Year that are suffering today
One of the things The Catechism is reminding us is that OUR ACTIONS MATTER
OUR PRAYERS MATTER!!
OUR SUFFERINGS ALSO MATTER!!
IT IS INCREDIBLE!!
INCREDIBLE!!
We cannot obtain our ULTIMATE END without God’s Grace
God has given us the GRACE TO ACT
God has given us the GRACE TO PRAY
God has given us the GRACE TO SUFFER WITH HIM
If you are in the midst of suffering right now, KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE
If you are in the midst of suffering right now, KNOW THAT IT IS NOT FOR NOTHING
YOUR SUFFERING MEANS SOMETHING!!
YOUR SUFFERING DOES SOMETHING!!
When you DELIBERATELY unite it to Jesus, it accomplishes God’s PROVIDENTIAL PLAN FOR THIS UNIVERSE
IT MATTERS BECAUSE YOU MATTER!!
BECAUSE GOD MADE YOU!!
BECAUSE GOD KNOWS YOU!!
BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU!!
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
Scripture References & Reflections
- compiled by Andrew Adamany
Bible Translation - RSVCE
--Notes to come shortly
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