48. There is no other reason for creation than love.

There is no other reason for creation than love.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 48

Ave Maria series

48.  Why did God create the world?

“The world was made for the glory of God”  (First Vatican Council).  [293-294, 319]

The Tetons and the Snake River by Ansel Adams. “Praising” God means being grateful for his own existence together with all creation. .......48

There is no other reason for creation than love.  In it God’s glory and honor appears.  To praise God, therefore, does not mean applauding the Creator.  After all, man is not a spectator to the work of creation.  For him, “praising” God means being grateful for his own existence together with all creation.  489

“The glory of God is man fully alive; moreover, man’s life is the vision of God.”  St. Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 135-202)

293-294, 319

"THE WORLD WAS CREATED FOR THE GLORY OF GOD"

293 Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: "The world was made for the glory of God."( Dei Filius, can. § 5: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 3025.)¹³⁴ St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it",( St. Bonaventure, In II Sent. I,2,2,1.)¹³⁵ for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: "Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand."( St. Thomas Aquinas, Sent. II, Prol.)¹³⁶ The First Vatican Council explains:

This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power", not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal. . ."( Dei Filius, I: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 3002; cf. Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800.)¹³⁷ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

294 The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. God made us "to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace",(Ephesians 1:5-6.)¹³⁸ for "the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word's manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God."( St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,20,7: Patrologia Graeca 7/1,1037.)¹³⁹ The ultimate purpose of creation is that God "who is the creator of all things may at last become "all in all", thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our beatitude."( Ad Gentes 2; compare 1 Corinthians 15:28.)¹⁴⁰ –CCC

IN BRIEF

319 God created the world to show forth and communicate his glory. That his creatures should share in his truth, goodness and beauty - this is the glory for which God created them. --CCC