God's great creation, Part Three: Man

Today, we conclude our short series on God’s great creation by focusing on the pinnacle of God’s creation, the greatest thing he ever created, man.

The Catechism in #355 lists four ways that man is unique among all of God’s creation:

1)      Man is made in the image of God.

2)      In his own nature, man unites the material and spiritual worlds.

3)      Man is created male and female.

4)      God establishes man in his friendship.

Man is made in the image of God.   Only man can know and love God.  He is the only one created for his own sake, not for the sake of something else.   He alone is called, by knowledge and love, to share in God’s life.  This is why he was created.   Only he is capable of self-knowledge and has the freedom to enter in communion with another.  He can respond with faith and love to God in a way no other creature can.  God created everything for man, and man was created, in turn, to love God back and offer creation back to him.   Because of his common origin in God, the human race forms a unity, and is called to solidarity and charity.

In his own nature, man unites the material and spiritual worlds.   Man, body and soul, is willed by God.  Man was formed from the earth, but only became alive when life was breathed into him.   The soul is the spiritual principle in man.  One cannot be a human person without a soul.  Because it animates the body, the body shares in the dignity of the aforementioned “image of God”.    The soul is created by God, and since, as we said, one cannot be a human person without a soul, we can say it is God who creates human persons.    The body and the soul are so united that we can say the person is truly one, even as he is both body and soul.

Man is created male and female.   God created men and women equal in dignity, but different in such that they become complimentary to each other.   He willed them to be together, and each for the other.  They are not incomplete and only, therefore, complete with the other.   No, they are complete as individuals, but together, they form a communion of persons, and transmit life.  In both of these, they reflect God, who is a communion of persons, and who transmits life.   They reflect him as Trinity and as Creator.   They are called to “subdue the Earth” as stewards of God, who share his providence for his creatures.

God establishes man in his friendship.   Man was created in friendship, and in harmony with creation.  (This state is only surpassed by being made new creatures in Christ where we become divinized and live in God as adopted children, not just friends with him.)   In his original state, man was in harmony and at peace with himself and all creation.  He would not have to suffer or die.   He would master himself, and master creation.  All this will be lost, however, by original sin, which we spoke in the series we did on suffering, most specifically in this post:

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-mystery-of-suffering-part-two.html

What dignity man has.    It is imperative that society get back to a more highly exalted view of man.  All the components that we discussed here must be emphasized; that we are made in the image of God, that we are body and soul, that we are male and female and therefore, meant for each other, and that we are called to be friends with God, participants in, and stewards of, all creation.   If we get back to honoring man as he should be, then our respect for all of God’s great creation will be all it can be, and the world will be a better place.

Let us close this post and this series with the beautiful words of Psalm 8, which speak glowingly of man, and indeed, of all God’s great creation.

O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
²     Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
    to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortals that you care for them?

⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under their feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Saint Joseph, model of artisans, pray for us.