When God created the universe, he revealed the fullness of his greatness. Out of nothing he brought forth the universe from what did not exist. He created the world with perfect order and saw that it was good.
Yet God, the source and center of all creation, desired to do something even more extraordinary. In a singular moment, he not only created man but formed him in his own image and likeness. He took the dust of the Earth, shaped man with his own hands, breathed his spirit into him, and gave him life. How awesome!
Finally, God entrusted him with the care of all creation and appointed him its steward. On the seventh day, God rested and saw that everything he had made was good.
Creation reveals the greatness of its creator, and man is the highest expression of his love. We exist because of love, to love, and to honor the work of God. What a profound mystery!
God has entrusted the world to us so that we may develop the gifts he has given us and discover the vocation for which he created us. Here on Earth, he provides everything we need to live. Through the ordinary circumstances of daily life, he invites us to discover and cultivate our talents, to discern our vocation and to live it faithfully. God has a unique plan for every one of us. It is not our plan but his plan — and it is always good and perfect.
Each one of us is indispensable to God's plan. As stewards of creation, we are called not only to protect the world but also to help it flourish. We are not the owners of creation. God has entrusted it to us, and therefore we are responsible for its care.
Why did God entrust us with the care and stewardship of the world?
Because when he formed us from the dust of the Earth and breathed his spirit into us, he made us sharers in his own divine life. By allowing us to share in who he is, God calls us to love what he loves and to cherish what he has created.
The universe — the whole world — is God's gift for the good of humanity. As Pope Francis reminded us, it is our common home. Our task is to discover and live in that love — a love that is always new and always demanding. If we love as God loves us, then his love becomes the measure by which we care for everything he has entrusted to us.
When we forget God, when we push him aside in our lives, we also forget our responsibility as stewards of his creation. When we forget God, we forget our own dignity. When we reject God, we reject love itself. And without love, nothing can truly endure, for both humanity and all creation are the fruit of God's love.
The absence of God is emptiness, and we cannot live on emptiness. To set God aside is to open the door to a culture of waste and exclusion. Without love, without God, we cannot fix our eyes on heaven, because the darkness of emptiness buries our hearts.
Where God is absent, there is no love — only emptiness. And emptiness creates nothing. It leads instead to the abyss of meaninglessness, loneliness and despair.
Today, however, we are taught to live in order to have, while forgetting that we were created to be. We have forgotten the seventh day. We no longer pause to rest and ponder what God has done.
Love protects; rejection destroys.
Love values. Love respects. Love cares.
When God is cast aside, the human person loses both direction and dignity. What God created out of love — what he formed with his own hands and enlivened with his spirit — can flourish only when we recognize that, as children of God, we are called to live according to the creator's plan.
One can discover God's plan only in him — not in the cloud, not in wealth and not in fame. God's plan is lived out in service to others.
We cannot abuse or disrespect what God created out of love. We cannot use, manipulate or discard those whom he formed in his own image and likeness, for to do so is to act against God himself, who is life and who is love.
Only when we return to God do we truly discover who we are. Then we come to see that every human person is an expression of the love of the one who is love itself. Then we are able to recognize the face of Christ in our neighbor. Only then can we truly care for our common home, live out our vocation and help the world God has entrusted to us flourish.