God is the creator of the universe.  As one of the opening lines of the Creed states, God is “maker of heaven and earth.”  At this point of the Creed, we are talking about the Son.  We know that the entirety of creation is made by God as the whole of the Trinity, but how and why do we specifically describe this through the Son?

In the beginning of John’s Gospel, the evangelist states that “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).  Traditionally, Word was used by ancient philosophers as the name for that which brought order and design to the universe – the intelligence of a God whose mind sustains all that exists.  Scripturally, in the Old Testament, the Word would describe the Wisdom of God, which can also be interpreted as the source of life in the universe.  In this Gospel passage, St. John depicts the Word as the second person of the Trinity.  He even states “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).  The Word is not meant to be an abstract concept of creation, but the Word is the Son who mediates creation itself.

To go deeper in how Christ is the Word and linked to how through Him all things are made, we must go back to the passage in Genesis.  In Genesis 1, God creates the world over the course of seven days.  Each time He creates something, He utters it into existence by speaking it.  The first speaking of creation is, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).  The spoken ‘Word’ of God brings into being all things, and the Word links us to St. John and the Word that is the Son.  Here, we can point to how Christ was present at creation not just by stating He is the second person of the Trinity.  We can also state that He is the Word spoken through which all things were made.  In fact, we can say Christ is the entirety of the created Word we see in all of Scripture.

This concept of Christ being the Word is important when we read about the Word dwelling among us.  Notice in the Scriptures when Jesus tells the storm to calm, it calms.  When Jesus tells someone they are healed, they are healed.  When He forgives someone’s sins, the sins are forgiven.  The Word through whom all things are made speaks the Word to bring into being the calm, the healing, and the forgiveness.  He seeks to bring these things into existence in our lives as well, and He does this through all the sacraments.  It is why it is so important at Mass or any of the sacraments that the priest does not change any of the words – whether it be consecration, absolution at confession, or words of baptism.  They are not the priest’s words, but they are the Word uttering something into being in a new creation.  Christ’s Word makes all things new, thus we should seek that newness constantly in our lives through all the sacraments.