All Creatures Participate in the Divinity
I will imagine that all creatures, as participants in divinity, are transformed in every way possible into the divine and the holy. Moreover, I will imagine I see the living image of our Crucified Lord Jesus Christ in each creature. (OOCC, X, p. 147; STA, 207)
The world is the creation of God. Every creature in the world is his handiwork. As the handiwork of God, every creature participates in the nature and being of God. As a participant in God’s nature, all created things are transformed into his likeness. Therefore, we find in every creature a certain vestige of God. God, in creating the creatures of the world, placed in them divergent aspects of his perfection. By their very being in the world, every creature manifests the glory, greatness and divinity of God. Similarly, Christ’s redemptive act of dying on the cross has recreated and sanctified the whole of creation. To the extent every creature is sanctified by the redemptive death of Jesus on the cross, every creature reflects the Crucified Jesus in its nature. Hence, creatures in the world contain in themselves vestiges of Christ Crucified. St. Vincent Pallotti experienced in the creatures of the world both the images of the Creator and the Redeemer of the world. Therefore, for St. Vincent, the world and all its creatures manifest the glory of the Creator and the Redeemer, by their very being in the world.
Do I consider the world as the creation of God? Do I believe that every creature is the reflection of God? Do I have the faith-vision to see every creature as the manifestation of the creative love of God? Do I believe that every creature manifests the redemptive love of the Christ Crucified?
The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship. Day and night they keep telling about God. Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world. (Ps. 19: 1-4)