Preface V of the Sundays in Ordinary Time

For more information on the Preface in general, see The Eucharistic Prayer (2) and The Eucharistic Prayer (3)

In a world of copyrights, patents pending, designer labels, and cheap knockoffs, today’s preface reminds us that Heaven and Earth may not have any labels, but both were created by God.

Creation

There’s an important distinction between making something and creating something in the strictest sense of those two terms. Something is made from existing material; when we create something, we are shaping something that already exists. God has always existed, without beginning or end, but Heaven and Earth have not; God created them from nothing (cf. Genesis 1:1), including us. Try surviving without air to breathe, a planet under your feet, water to drink, or food to eat. It all comes from God.

“For you laid the foundations of the world and have arranged the changing of times and seasons; you formed man in your own image and set humanity over the whole world in all its wonder, to rule in your name over all you have made and for ever praise you in your mighty works, through Christ our Lord.”

God created Heaven and Earth and he created them well. Scientists have a puzzle to piece together that will fascinate them throughout history: all the laws and cycles and patterns and principles observed in nature, from the gigantic to the microscopic. It doesn’t take a degree to admire a beautiful blue sky, a sunset, or a sunrise. The Lord is the most breathtaking Artist imaginable.

For many people today the Designer, Artist, Scientist behind it all is at best Anonymous, at worst non-existent. Some scientists jump through a lot of hoops, some of them ideological, to explain how all this order and beauty and design could have spontaneously come about, but for believers it’s as simple as saying, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth,” just as we do every Sunday.

However, we’re not just cogs in one huge existential machine. From the beginning God entrusted creation to us (cf. Genesis 1:28-30) to use or abuse. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for us to abuse it, and that not only marred creation, but us, who were created in God’s image and likeness. All was not lost, because the Artist came in Person to help us begin restoring beauty to his creations.

Let’s renew our appreciation for Creation and its Creator.