by which God is everywhere.

Omnipresence is the actual exercise of the attribute of immensity in the created world. Even before creation God is immense; after creation He is also omnipresent.

Wisdom is that attribute in virtue of which God always proposes to Himself ends worthy of His perfection and takes the best means to realize those ends.

The goodness of God is that attribute by which God does good to His creatures.

The omnipotence of God is that attribute by

which God can do all possible things.

The power, wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested by the creation of the universe and all it contains, and by the Providence of God.

The Works of God

Creation is the act by which God makes out of nothing whatsoever beings He pleases. To make from nothing means to cause beings to pass from a state of non-existence to that of real existence. When we say creation is the act by which God makes beings out of nothing we do not wish nothing to mean matter, but the absence of matter as an element from which created things were produced. Early pagan philosophers believed that the world was made from pre-existent, uncreated matter, by God. They acknowledged God to be the architect but not the creator of the world. We know from Revelation that their belief was erroneous. Reason tells us that God's power would be limited if it required pre-existent matter for the production of things. This, of course, cannot be true since God is omnipotent. The idea of matter existing necessarily is contradictory. Matter is contingent since it was possible for it not to exist. Hence, it does not exist necessarily. Therefore, it depends for its existence on some non-contingent being which brought it into existence. Hence, we conclude the world was created by God.

If one should say that matter is not contingent he would have to admit that it exists of itself and, consequently, of necessity. It must then be infinitely perfect, absolutely simple and immutable. (See the attributes of God.) This it is not as is manifest in the world about us. It is limited, compound and changeable as must have been the original matter itself of which it is composed.

The Church teaches us that "God, by His goodness and omnipotence and by His sovereignly free will, made from nothing in the beginning of time, two kinds of creatures, spiritual and corporeal; i.e., the angels and the world; and afterwards man, who formed of a body and a soul, participates in both these natures. (Vatican Council, Const. Dei Filius,

Chapt. 1).

He

God made the world of His own free will. was not obliged or forced to create it. This is easy to show if we consider the nature of God and the nature of the world.

God is infinitely perfect and sovereignly happy. There is nothing that can augment His perfection and His happiness. Consequently, since the world is not necessary to Him, He wished it and created it freely. Let us remark that our world is not the only possible one; there are an infinity of them which have not been and which will not be created. But, if creation were necessary to God, if He were obliged to create, He could not refrain from bringing them into existence.

From the fact that the world is contingent it has no say as to its existence or non-existence. Its creation is, therefore, the effect of the free will of God. The only reason one can assign to creation is the divine goodness. Because God is good He wished to communicate His goodness to some beings distinct from Himself. Since He is infinitely wise He had to propose to Himself in creation an end worthy of Himself. The end proposed would have to be the highest possible. Consequently, He could

propose to Himself no other end than sovereign goodness and this is Himself. In other words, God made us to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and thereby attain to the happiness of heaven. As everything comes from Him so everything should be returned to Him. "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Apoc. xxii, 13).

"If any one does not confess that the world and all it contains, both spiritual and material, has, as to its whole substance, been drawn by God from nothing; or if he say that God has not created the world of His free will free from all necessity, but that He created it necessarily, and of the same necessity as that by which He loves Himself: or if he deny that the world has been created for the glory of God, let him be anathema. (Vat. Council, Const. Dei Filius c.1.5).

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The following account of the creation of the world was written by Moses and is contained in Chapters i and ii of the book of Genesis.

In Chapter V we shall show that the Scriptures are trustworthy historical documents. It is as historical documents that we are quoting them now. At the outset we must make it clear that Moses did not propose to teach the Hebrews science. His style is not that of a scientist. He always writes in a popular manner and in harmony with the ideas which were common then of the universe.

"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.

Night:

"And God said: Be light made. And light was made... And He divided the light from the darkness. And He called the light Day and the darkness and there was evening and morning one day." "And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from those

that were above the firmament...And God called the Firmament Heaven: and the evening and morning were the second day.

"God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together in one place: and let the dry land appear... And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, He called Seas.... And He said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth... And the evening and the morning were the third day. "And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years...And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day, and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars...And the evening and morning were the fourth day.

"God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven. And God created the great whales and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, every winged fowl according to its kind...And the evening and morning were the fifth day.

"And God said:

Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so done....

"And He said:

Let us make man to Our Image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to His own image: to the image of God He created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the

E

fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth... And God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.

"God....rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. And He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

We may consider the work of the creation of the universe as having been done in three parts or phases. The first is the creation of the elements of matter. This is creation properly so called. The second phase is the bringing of order out of chaos by separating light from darkness, the waters under the firmament from those above it and the earth from the seas. The third phase is the ornamentation of the earth. It contains the production of plant life, the making of the sun, moon and stars, and the creation of aquatic life, animals and, finally, man, the masterpiece of terrestrial creation. "The human body is a masterpiece of divine power and wisdom in its admirable structure, in the diversity and delicacy of its organs, in the multiplicity and harmony of its operations. It is distinguished from the body of an animal by the fact that man walks erect, his face looking towards heaven, whither his destiny calls him, while the brute, made for man's service, moves from place to place with its head inclined toward the earth." (Dogma)

"What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty; in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel; in apprehension how like a god; the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. (Hamlet)

According to the divine plan irrational creatures are subordinated to man. They are not the equal of man. "Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. not you of much more value than they?" (Matt. VI, 26). Since man is to have dominion over all

Are