The Day of Divine Rest

The Old Testament is made clear only through the New Testament. Jesus Christ, the culmination of God’s Revelation where He revealed Himself to the world, sheds light upon the entirety of the Holy Scriptures, illumining out hearts and minds. The Gospel can be seen as an fulfillment of the original creation account of Genesis 1:1-2:3. Through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we are able to return to a state of innocence which existed before the fall and become new creations in God (Gal 6:15; 2 Cor 5:17).

Light of the World

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day (Genesis 1:1–5).

God created the heavens and the earth, all that exists was given its original form from God. Out of nothing, a void of non-existence, God fashioned the universe through his divine will. God’s power, without any limit, incomprehensible, is seen at its fullest when he creates the very world we live in. However, with such great power is the conundrum of relation: how can man relate to God, our creator, when such a gulf exists? How could the actions of mere dust have anything to do with God?

This unbridgeable gap can only be traversed by God who “marvelously lowers Himself and, through that ‘condescension,’ no less marvelously elevates man to enter into communion with Himself.”¹ This action of condescension is fully revealed by understanding the role of God the Son’s role in creation taught in the Gospel according to St. John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made (John 1:1-3).

The divine Logos, the “Word,” is the one through whom God created the world. Through the Gospel we can already see how the creation account is illuminated. Everything was made through the Word, but who is the Word? Who is this Logos, and how can we bridge the gap between God and man? John provides the answer:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father (John 1:14).

The gulf, the insurmountable gap, the unassailable divide between the infinite Creator and the finite creation, has been breached. Jesus, the preexistent eternal Word, which is identified with God, became man. Through Jesus the ultimate problem of religion, a problem relevant throughout the Old Testament, is solved, the solution revealed. When God says “Let there be light” in Genesis we now know that this is the light which comes from Christ, who is the light of the world.²

St. Paul explicates the importance of the light of Christ who, as we have seen, created the world, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Heaven and Earth

And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day (Genesis 1:6–8).

The firmament above is an image of the heavenly realm which all Christians hope to find as our new home upon our departure from the earth. In the heavens God set his covenantal sign, the rainbow, as a constant reminder of his relationship to man following the flood.³ Heavenly authority is the authority of God who created the heavens, Chrstians who belong to Christ’s Church share in this authority.

First it must be established: Christ has been given all heavenly authority: “And Jesus came and said to the disciples, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’” (Matthew 28:18-19). Jesus can be properly understood as having all authority, this authority he uses to command the disciples, which includes all followers of Christ through history, to baptize the nations.⁴

Christ’s authority over heavens and earth, which God created and envelopes the entire world, does not just stay with him. Yet again bridging the gap between God, on his thrown in heaven, and us men wallowing in the mud of the earth, Jesus offers a share of his authority to his Church. Jesus gives Peter the keys of the kingdom and, along with the apostles, the ability to bind and loose, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). Jesus therefore shares his power, the creative power which created the heavens, with the Church through whom he acts.

Power Over the Waters and Sky

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:9-10). And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day (Genesis 1:13).

God has dominion over the heavens and the earth by nature of them being his creation. By his creative power “[God] alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8). How can this be understood in relation to the Gospel? Through Jesus’ actions, demonstrating his deity, we see God fulfilling his original creative act within the life of Christ.

And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea (Mark 6:48). But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased (Mark 6:50-51).

Jesus demonstrates his ability to “trample the waves of the sea” thus demonstrating his divine power. St. Augustine in a sermon uses this event to elucidate the Christian understanding of the trinity⁵. It can be said that it was the Son, not the Father nor Holy Spirit, who walked over the sea, but, “all the same, can anyone deny that the Father and the Holy Spirit cooperated in achieving such a miracle?” Through Jesus’ membership in the trinity, as demonstrated through his divine power, we can understand the divine inter-cooperation which created the world and gives us our life.

Lights in the Firmament

And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19).

The lights which God created in the sky offer us an understanding of the diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus to the faithful. St. Athanasius of Alexandria in his second discourse against the Arians is worth quoting at length for shedding light on the lights which God made in the heavens:

Behold there are many lights, and not the sun only, nor the moon only, but each is one in essence, and yet the service of all is one and common; and what each lacks, is supplied by the other, and the office of lighting is performed by all. Thus the sun has authority to shine throughout the day and no more; and the moon through the night; and the stars together with them accomplish the seasons and years, and become for signs, each according to the need that calls for it.⁶

Just as the each light in the great firmament has a different purpose, the Christian is called to fulfill his unique purpose. St. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 12:4 that while we know that there are a variety of gifts from the Holy Spirit, there is still just the one same Spirit who is the originator of them all. Just as God created the great lights of heaven above with differing purposes he has also shown his light, the Holy Spirit, upon Christians in unique and diverse ways.

St. Athanasius notes that each light accomplishes “according to the need that calls for it” and St. Paul goes on to say “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7). Each of us, members of the Body of Christ, shares in Christ’s light, as established above, and in turn acts according to what is needed of us for the common good.

More Value Than Many Sparrows

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day (Genesis 1:20–23).

All that God made, the sea monsters, living creatures, and the birds, was found to be good. They were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, filling the lands which God had generated. Throughout history man has looked to the birds of the air with awe, they have a freedom which we do not possess. And yet, as our Lord says, “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). Jesus teaches us that man, particularly by our relationship to God, is more value, we are above, if we accept the graces of the Spirit.

God Made Man

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:26–27). And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day (Genesis 1:31).

What does it mean that God created man in his own image? How can we be in God’s image? God, immaterial, all-knowing, all-powerful, how can we be made in the image of that great reality? Here arises the issue of the insurmountable difference between man and God, and as you can expect the solution is the same as before. God made man in his image, then Jesus showed himself to be God made man.

The incarnation is where the “image of God” becomes coherent. We can be in His image because He became one of us, humbling Himself. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “[Man] is ’the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake,’ and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life” (CCC 356). Through the incarnation man is restored to life in Christ, restored to the state which was taken by sin. By being in the image of God each individual human receives personal dignity, each individual is “not just something, but someone” (CCC 357).

God being made man helps us realize how we can live up to our nature, our nature which is an image of the divine.

The Day of Divine Rest

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation (Genesis 2:1-3).

Holy Saturday is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s story of creation. Following his brutal, tortuous crucifixion Jesus Christ rests on the seventh day from his salvific sacrifice on the cross. Pope St. Leo the Great speaks about Jesus in the tomb, saying “…and so speedy was the quickening of His uncorrupted flesh that it bore a closer resemblance to slumber than to death…”⁷ It is because of this “slumber” that we can speak of Christ as fulfilling the law in which it was commanded to rest on the sabbath.

Jesus in his the sleep of death does not remain wholly idle. Rather, he also “descended into the lower parts of the earth”⁸ to free the souls from the Limbo of the Fathers and bring them to the room which he has prepared for them in heaven.⁹ Even on the Sabbath Jesus is willing to do good work, as demonstrated by his healing on the sabbath.¹⁰

What is even greater than Holy Saturday is that we know what follows: in a day after Good Friday, the day of sadness, we rest with Christ. On Easter Sunday we worship Christ who was dead but is made alive again. Through the seven days of creation God made the world and made man. Through the fulfillment in the Gospel God became man, restored the world, and then after a day of rest begins another cycle of creation. This new cycle of creation is the creation of the Church, the creation of the saints, and the creation of us: each a new creation in Christ.