We’re still being created

WE need to be clear about this fundamental truth about

ourselves. We are still being created by God. Our creation is still

ongoing. Our creation is still in the making. This time though, our

creation involves our cooperation.

            If we review the story of the creation of the world (cfr.

Gen 1,1-2,1), we will notice that God created everything before man in

a generic way—the heaven and the earth, light, darkness, land, sea,

animals, birds, etc. But when it came to the creation of man, God

became personal and entered into relation with man by giving them

instructions.

            With man, God had to make the garden of Eden for man to

cultivate it. Since it was not good for man to be alone, God created

woman to be his helper who is equal to him. They were told that they

can eat the fruits of all the trees in the garden except the ones of

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

            This only shows that the creation of man is not yet

finished since man, being created in God’s image and likeness and

therefore has the capacity to know and to love, has to do his part of

cooperating with God’s creation of him.

            That stint in the garden of Eden was for man, i.e., Adam

and Eve, to do his part of his own creation. And we know what

happened. Our first parents failed, and so God who at first was angry

and punished them, started to undertake the re-creation through a very

complicated plan of redemption.

            That plan that involved patriarchs, prophets, a chosen

people, many holy men and women, finally had its culmination when the

very Son of God became man. The God-man, Jesus Christ, bore all our

sins and had to show us the way to redeem ourselves by following him

in his teachings and ultimately by suffering, dying and resurrecting

with him.

            Christ also founded the Church and instituted the

sacraments so that his presence and redemptive work can effectively

continue with us till the end of time, which is the end of our

creation.

            At our death and at the end of time, our creation is

supposed to be finished with each one of us receiving a new name that

only each of us would know. It’s a name that is distinctive and unique

to each one of us. This will be our definitive name for all eternity,

indicating the very personal relationship between God and us, the

Creator and the co-creator.

            This new and definitive name is referred to in the Book of

the Apocalypse where it says, “To him who conquers I will give some of

the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name

written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.”

(2,17)

            It would be good if we are keenly aware of this truth of

our faith because this will give us the proper perspective, meaning

and direction of our life here on earth. At the moment, I am afraid a

great majority of the people, even among educated Catholics, are not

quite aware of this truth and are therefore not doing what they are

supposed to do to conform to this truth. Many are actually confused

and lost.

            It would be good if a catechesis be made on this

fundamental truth about ourselves and our earthly life. We are still

being created, and our creation by God involves our cooperation, given

the way we are as designed by God. We are God’s co-creator of our own

selves.

            We need to do our part, making use of everything we have

in this life to further this lifelong process of our creation. We have

to be responsible for the practical consequences and implications

contained in this fundamental truth about ourselves.