The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicit states: “Man is the summit of the Creator’s work, as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures.” As the summit of God’s creation, man reflects God in a most excellent way, and as the image of God, human beings have the capacity for reason, which enables us to know God, the world, and ourselves. Nevertheless, it is God’s creation of mankind that completes the created order in such a way that he pronounces it to be “very good” (Gen. All of them, sheep and cattle, yes, even the savage beasts– birds of the air, and fish that make their way through the waters” (Ps. The Psalmist eloquently describes a profound experience of God’s creative power and a sense of the awesome responsibility of the human creature thus: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, with glory and honor you crowned him, gave him power over the works of your hand, put all things under his feet. It also reveals to us that not only is everything God created good, but also that creation itself reflects the magnificence of God. The creation story shows that the Creator looked upon his creation and “saw that it was good” (Gen. Hence, in the use of the resources of nature, human dependence on God and the fact that the entire creation is a gift from God must be appreciated. This is why dominion implies a vocation which consists in stewardship. Thus, dominion empowers human beings to acknowledge the truth about creation and to give thanks for the gift (cf. For John Paul II, this fundamental truth requires that natural resources be considered as gifts that have potentials to enrich human life and should be developed, not manipulated.
The understanding of creation as gift implies the exercise of dominion of love in stewardship as against irresponsible use of nature. The earth was given to human beings by God the Creator to inhabit with creativity and responsibility and, in this regard, in the words of Benedict XVI, it is essential to “sense” that the earth is “our common home” which requires our stewardship and service to all. Care for the Earth: A Call to Responsible StewardshipĪt the foundation of the discussion on ecological issues is the fact that creation is a gift from God to humanity, to till and subdue (cf.
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