I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Creation Theology Resources

One thing can be a figure of two even contrary things, but in different respects. Thus the flood, insofar as Noah survived it through the ark, was for the faithful a type of baptism; but insofar as the wicked were submerged by it, it was a type of the punishment to be inflicted on the reprobate at the last judgment. So Christ is the rock and cornerstone of the Church; but for the pious he is the stone of salvation, while for unbelievers and the wicked he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal. So Christ is called a lion on account of his strength; but the devil is called a lion on account of his cruelty and rapacity. St. Augustine (Epistle 99 to Evodius) and St. Basil (on Isaiah chapter 2) hand down this canon.

Morally, St. Chrysostom, in his Homily That Man Is Set Over Every Creature, applies keen incentives to man from the day, light, and other creatures for serving God. "For you the sky is clothed in the splendor of light by day and adorned with the rays of the sun: by night the vault of heaven itself is illuminated by the most brilliant mirror of the moon and the varied brilliance of the stars. For you the seasons are changed in alternating succession, the forests grow leafy, the fields are made pleasant, the meadows turn green, living things bring forth their young, springs bubble forth, rivers flow." And: "What if all nature were to say to you constantly: 'I, by the Lord of all things, am commanded to obey: I obey, I comply, I serve, and though he changes, I do not change. I obey the rebel; I comply with the insolent; I serve the scorner.' Who are you, who persist in this contempt? You command the creature and do not serve the Creator? Fear the patient Lord, lest you feel Him as a severe judge. Even if you were to occupy the whole time of your life in thanksgiving, you could not repay what you owe. The sinner commits a twofold crime: both that he does not render to the Lord the obedience due in service, and that by sinning he strives to repay His countless benefits with insult."

Learnedly St. Augustine says in the Sentences, no. 144: "Three things especially about the condition of creation we needed to be told: who made it, through what He made it, and why He made it. 'God said: Let there be light, and light was made. And God saw the light that it was good.' No author is more excellent than God; no art more efficacious than the Word of God; no cause better than that good should be created by the Good."

Note first that this light was not properly speaking created, because God on the first day created all primary matter, and laid it as the substrate of the form of the waters of the abyss; and from it He then drew forth this light and other forms. God, therefore, properly speaking created on the first day only all things that were to be created; on the remaining five days He did not create, but formed and adorned what had been created. And so it seems that God, about to produce light, condensed from the waters of the abyss a certain spherical body like crystal, and imparted this light to it.

Have you found presistant work characteristics among and between the generations you work with?