What does the Church teach about the Father of Jesus Christ? Part Five

In the last post, we discussed how God the Father created the world.  Tonight we will continue our series on God the Father by discussing how the Father, as Creator, guides and sustains this creation.

We mentioned in the last post that the term divine providence is used to describe how God guides the world.  The Catechism (#302) explains why it is necessary that God continue to guide creation once he began it:

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" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:

By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures.

An important point here is that the work of creation is ongoing.   It is not a thing that is over.  Yes, it had a beginning, but it continues to this day.  It is not perfect or complete: it is on the road to completeness, to ultimate perfection. 

God cares for everything in his creation, from the smallest speck of dust to the biggest ocean, from the least powerful people in the world to the most powerful.   In the words of the Catechism (#303), God’s solicitude is concrete and immediate.   He cares for every detail of our lives, and every detail of every living thing in creation.   This reality is the basis behind a lot of the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the human person, as well as the environment.   In all this, we can see him truly acting like a good Father.  Just as a father cares for every detail of all his children’s lives, so does God care about the details of all his children’s lives.

God does make use of the cooperation of his creatures (us) in the work of creation.   The Catechism (#306) notes that this is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness.  God is the first cause of everything, we are secondary causes.  It speaks to our dignity that we are allowed to share in this work of creation, through our work, prayer, and our sufferings.

If God is in control of everything, then how can we explain the existence of evil?  There are two basic reasons:

1)      God respects our freedom.   If he is free, so must we, too, be free, as his creatures.

2)      God knows how to draw good out of evil.   

Do these both not sound like the qualities of a good father?

The Catechism (#312 and #324) points us to what happened to Christ as both the perfect example of the reality of evil, and an insight into why evil is allowed:  From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded all the more", brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption.  The fact that God permits physical and even moral evil is a mystery that God  illuminates by his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose to vanquish evil. Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.  

Sometimes we see human parents allow their children to suffer in the form of a punishment as a result of a wrong the child did, as to bring a greater good out of it, such as better behavior.   Along the same lines of thought, God allows us to experience the effects of evil so as to bring a greater good out of it.  Most of the time, we will not likely fully understand the good until the next life.  (For more details on why we suffer, and our response to it, please see my recent series on the mystery of suffering.)

In all this, we can see the hand of a real loving Father at work. 

Let us go back once more to the beginning of the Nicene Creed, which this series is based on.

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

So we now have discussed God as “one”, “Father”, “almighty”, and “creator”.

The next few posts will deal with the actual creation: the heavens and the earth.  It will refer back to the Creator, but the main focus will be the actual creation itself.  In light of that, I will close this series on God the Father with this post, and will, in the next post, start a new mini-series on God’s creation. 

I thank you for joining me in this series on God the Father.  Let us come to know God as Father, a loving Divine Person who willed us into existence, knows us better than anyone, loves us better than anyone, and is interested in every single detail of our life.

The next post may not be for a little while as I will be on vacation for a handful of days starting tomorrow.  I wish you all a Happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

Joseph most prudent, pray for us.