NOTES for Gen 1:31

The whole process of the Creation of the world described in the first chapter of Genesis is accompanied by this refrain: "Good!" And finally, at the end of the last, sixth day, the words sound: "Behold, very good." This is how God evaluates the results of His labor. Have you ever encountered the opposite evaluation of this world? Of course, one can always object that God created everything well, and then man, setting out on the path of the fall, spoiled everything. But then several more questions can arise. Can something be considered good if the seeds of the later "bad" are laid in it? Does God really give Himself the highest grade for an intermediate result? Can God really go off to rest without finishing the work? And if this work is finished, then it is imperfect, since it can be disfigured to such a degree. Yet Creation must in the end be perfect, since it is accomplished by the perfect God.

All these questions can be answered with a counter-question: "Has God really withdrawn from affairs? Does not the whole experience of God's relationship with humanity, shown to us in Holy Scripture, say that God continues to act?" So in this sense Creation is not completed; it is simply that, having appeared in the created world, man also participates in this process, more often hindering than helping God. But with the coming into the world of the perfect God-man, Christ, a turning point occurred in the opposition between creation and destruction, since in Christ man begins to cooperate with God, gradually bringing nearer that end of Creation about which everyone will be able to say in agreement: "Behold, very good!"