A: This most certainly is a question that has been asked throughout history, namely how our world and universe was formed. As fellow believers, you and I give credit to God as the creator; still, we recognize God did not provide us with an extremely detailed blueprint on the creation of the universe. However, we do have through his revealed word the Book of Genesis, which should be read both through the eyes of faith and the eyes of reason.
What you and I can ascertain from this inspired book is that God intended to create the universe as we know it, for it was not an accident at God’s workbench. Furthermore, he created the world in which we find ourselves in his divine love.
As remarkable as contemporary science is in understanding even the smallest of particles, its laws of physics cannot find a way in which we can create something out of nothing. In other words, we always need “the parts,” in order to create. While science cannot explain to us how something has been created out of nothing, the reality is here we are (not to state the obvious)!
Great strides have been made through human reason, especially in the area of science and we are encouraged to understand in a more sophisticated way here in 2019 the elements that make up the universe. We also recognize the fact we have a long way to go. Remember, God created us and the universe because he is God and he loves us dearly.
Q: Who made the Bible?
Maddox Painter Martins Ferry
A: The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs that God created the Bible, namely, the Holy Spirit inspired human authors to compose sacred Scripture (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 105). As we are taught, the Bible and the books contained within were prepared over time with the New Testament composed much more quickly within 100 years, which by Bible standards is almost a blink of the eye.
Furthermore, the Bible itself is a “finished book” in that no books may be added to or subtracted from the Bible. In the early centuries of the church, the bishops, the successors of the apostles, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were able to maintain the Old and New Testament books as we read them today. While I indicated the Bible is a finished book, it also is a “living book,” in which the word of God always speaks to us. Daily we delve deeper into our encounter with God thereby learning more about ourselves and the missionary discipleship in which he has entrusted us.
Did you know that the Bible contains 46 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament? I encourage you to take time with one of the books in the Bible and to see how God speaks to you, not just telling a story of centuries ago, but how the story comes alive in you.
Q: Since the Great Schism, do you think the pope and other church leaders can ever work together to help evangelize the world?
Jarod Holstein St. Clairsville A: In your question about the Great Schism, let’s take a look at the Great Schism of 1054 when the church was divided between the east and the west in which now we have the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Fortunately, the mutual excommunication was lifted in 1965. In 1965, St. Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras lifted the mutual excommunication and since we have worked together for greater unity.
Another schism occurred hundreds of years later when the Protestant churches broke off from the Catholic Church. Reunification here is much more complicated. We mutually evangelize the people of God in a number of ways through our collaboration, such as in charitable works to the poor and the marginalized. Another way in which we evangelize is when we celebrate common prayer services together with different themes, with the common thread that we all have been created in God’s image and likeness. It is our hope that we will continue to evangelize the world thereby understanding in our own selves the call to unity as one people in Jesus Christ.
Remember how the angel, Gabriel, told Mary, the mother of God, that nothing is impossible with God. Have faith.
As we continue our spiritual pilgrimage this Easter season, may you and I not just keep our eyes fixed on the risen Jesus Christ, but may you and I share him with all whom we encounter as well.