THE MYSTERY OF THE VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

THE MYSTERY OF THE VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE

We believe that God and Creator of All, created the vastness of the universe out of nothing, through His Divine will and power. "The Lord by wisdom found the earth; He arranged the heavens by His understanding. By knowledge the deeps were broken up and the clouds drop down the dew." And in Psalm 104:24: "O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures."

In His Divine Wisdom our Creator, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created the universe from out of nothing. He created all out of His goodness and power.with God’s Omnipresence filling all of it. The universe in its vastness was not made from preexisting matter but was brought into being out of nothing by God’s God’s creative power and command. Its creation reveals God’s glory and His gift to His creation to share in His blessings. The vastness of the universe, including its innumerable stars and galaxies, is a testament to the immense power and wisdom of God. Therefore, the entire creation, both visible and invisible, was made for the glory of God. The universe is understood to be a single creation where God is present everywhere, filling everything and intending for it to be transformed and incorporated into His Kingdom.

We, as Orthodox Christians, believe that the created world itself is a ‘mystery’ originating in the sovereign will of God accomplished by the action (energia) of the Holy Trinity. We confess in the NiceneConstantinopolitan Creed (325/381) that the Father is the "Creator of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible," The Son "He through whom all things were made," and the Holy Spirit, the "Creator of all life" (zoopion). Thus, the Three Persons created together the world, which is the fruit of the common action of the Holy Trinity issuing out of the one essence.

The Lord God created His universe and all that is in it as an integrated whole. "Out of nothing" (ex nihilo) finds its first expression in the Holy Bible. "Beholding the heavens and the earth, and seeing all that is there, you will understand that God has CREATED IT ALL FROM NOTHING" (2 Maccabees 7:28). Thus, the creation springs into being or passes into being out of non-being. As Saint Gregory of Nyssa affirms, "It begins to be, and the very substance of the creation owes its beginning to change." This transition from non-existence is a change brought about by God’s creative Logos/Word "Who has established the world so that it shall not be moved" (Psalm 93:1).

God is the SOURCE OF BLESSEDNESS. In Him is the fullness of joy, sweetness, rejoicing for those who love Him, as it says in the Psalms: "Thou wilt fill me with gladness with Thy countenance, delights are in Thy right hand forever" (Psalm 15:11). The blessedness of God has its reflection in the unceasing praise, glorification, and thanksgiving which fill the universe, which come from the higher powers–the Cherubim and Seraphim who surround the throne of God and are flaming with fragrant love for God. These praises are offered from the whole Angelic world and from every creature of God’s world: "The sun sings Thy praises; the moon glorifies; that stars supplicate before Thee; the light obeys Thee; the deeps are afraid at Thy presence; the fountains are Thy servants" (Prayer of the Great Blessing of Water).

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Saint John Chrysostom affirms that Moses was a Prophet of things of the past: "All the other Prophets spoke either of what was to occur after a long time or of what was about to happen then; but he, the blessed [Moses], who lived many generations after the creation of the world], wa vouchsafed by the guidance of the right hand of the Most High to utter that had been done by the Lord before his own birth. It is for this reason that he begins to speak thus: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," as if calling out to us all with a loud voice: It is not by the instruction of men that I say this; He Who called them [heaven and earth] out of non-being into being–it is He Who has roused my tongue to relate of them. And therefore I entreat you, let us pay heed to these words as if we heard not Moses but the very Lord of the universe Who speaks through the tongue of Mose, and let us take leave for good of our own opinion" (Homilies on Genesis).

The first words of the book of Genesis, "In the beginning God created," tell us that God is the sole extra-temporal, eternal, self-existing Being, the Source of all beings, the Spirit above this world, since He existed also BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. HIS BEING IS OUTSIDE OF SPACE, NOT BOUND EEN TO HEAVEN, SINCE HEAVEN WAS CREATED TOGETHER WITH THE EARTH. GOD IS ONE. GOD IS PERSONAL, INTELLECTUAL ESSENCE.

After presenting in order the stages of the creation of the world, the writer of Genesis concludes his account with the words, "And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, IT WAS VERY GOOD" (Genesis 1:31). [Resources: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology]

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George