79.
In this universe, shaped by open and intercommunicating systems, we can discern countless
forms of relationship and participation. This leads us to think of the whole as open to God’s
transcendence, within which it develops. Faith allows us to interpret the meaning and the mysterious
beauty ofwhat is unfolding. We are free to apply our intelligence towards things evolving positively,
or towards adding new ills, new causes of suffering and real setbacks. This is what makes for the
excitement and drama of human history, inwhich freedom, growth, salvation and love can blossom, or
lead towards decadence and mutual destruction. The work of the Church seeks not only to remind
everyone of the duty to care for nature, but at the same time “shemust above all protect mankind from
self-destruction”.
47
80.
Yet God, who wishes toworkwith us andwho counts on our cooperation, can also bring good
out of the evil we have done. “The Holy Spirit can be said to possess an infinite creativity, proper to
the divine mind, which knows how to loosen the knots of human affairs, including the most complex
and inscrutable”.
48
Creating aworld in need of development, God in someway sought to limit himself
in such away that manyof the thingswe thinkof as evils, dangers or sources of suffering, are in reality
part of the pains of childbirth which he uses to draw us into the act of cooperation with the Creator.
49
God is intimately present to each being, without impinging on the autonomy of his creature, and this
gives rise to the rightful autonomy of earthly affairs.
50
His divine presence, which ensures the
subsistence and growth of each being, “continues the work of creation”.
51
The Spirit ofGod has filled
the universe with possibilities and therefore, from the very heart of things, something new can always
emerge: “Nature is nothing other than a certain kind of art, namelyGod’s art, impressed upon things,
whereby those things aremoved to adeterminate end. It is as if a shipbuilderwere able to give timbers
thewherewithal tomove themselves to take the formof a ship”.
52
81.
Human beings, even if we postulate a process of evolution, also possess a uniqueness which
cannot be fully explained by the evolution of other open systems. Each of us has his or her own
47
ID., Encyclical Letter
Caritas inVeritate
(29 June2009), 51:AAS 101 (2009), 687.
48
JOHNPAUL II,
Catechesis
(24April 1991), 6:
Insegnamenti
14 (1991), 856.
49
TheCatechism explains that Godwished to create aworldwhich is “journeying towards its ultimate perfection”, and that
this implies the presence of imperfection andphysical evil; cf.
Catechism of theCatholicChurch
, 310.
50
Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
Gaudium et Spes
, 36.
51
THOMASAQUINAS,
SummaTheologiae
, I, q. 104, art. 1 ad4.
52
ID.,
In octo librosPhysicorumAristotelis expositio
, Lib. II, lectio14.
