What Do We Believe When We Say "Visible and Invisible"?

“All things visible and invisible.” This is the final phrase stated in the Nicene Creed about God the Father. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that God “creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: ‘You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight.’” (para. 299) God is our ultimate Father, being our Creator but also giving us the entire material world and even the spiritual world beyond. But what does all of this contain? And in the midst of such a vast creation, to what purpose did God create so much?

First, let us quickly define what God has not created. God is goodness himself and is incapable of creating anything evil. This means that God did not create demons (God created angels, and some angels chose to separate themselves from God, becoming demons). Even suffering and sin were not made by God, but entered into this world due to man’s pride and act of rebellion against God. If we are the source of our own misery, why, then, did God create us and this world which we corrupt through our own sin? The Catechism explains: “With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world ‘in a state of journeying’ toward its ultimate perfection.” (para. 310)

Even though created in a “state of journeying”, each element of creation was proclaimed by God as “very good.” The sky, the sea, the sun, the moon, the animals, the plants - all of these (and more) received the declaration of “very good.” And yet, it is not merely us that which we can only see or hear or touch that exists to glorify God. In addition to the visible aspects of the material world, there are those elements which we cannot see. In the Creed, “the invisible” primarily refers to the spiritual realities that include grace, angels, and Heaven. One might also contemplate other elements which we cannot see that exist within our material world, such as gravity, oxygen, atoms, and so forth. Though we cannot see these realities, it is important to remember that while they may have existed before us, they did not exist before God. God created all things out of nothing, which means even the invisible have God as their Creator. Even further, Christ is still at the center of their existence: “They are his angels…They belong to him because they were created through and for him.” (para. 331) Even those created in the spiritual world are not exempt from relying on God for their existence and their purpose!

And yet, of all of that God created, man and woman are the pinnacle of this creation and even a bit of an embodiment of “all things visible and invisible.” Man and woman possess a body, which we hold in common to visible creatures such as animals. Pope St. John Paul II said in his Theology of the Body, “The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.” Though it is through the body we often see the brokenness of the world, it doesn’t lessen the value that God has placed on our bodies.

Man and woman also possess an “invisible” element - the soul. “Endowed with ‘a spiritual and immortal’ soul, the human person is ‘the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.’ From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude.” (para. 1702-1703) The soul possesses our will and our intellect, which allow us to choose good or evil, but also allows us to live a deeply spiritual life. While we also eat, physically grow, move, or rest like other creatures do, we also possess the ability to think, to imagine, and to freely choose. This makes man and woman uniquely elevated above all other created things. And yet, God chose to elevate us to an entirely new level through the Incarnation. 

Even when we rebelled against God, he continued to pursue us and redeemed us through his Son Jesus, who became man - his creature. Christ experienced all that we do as humans - physical hunger, immense love, crying real tears at the loss of his friend, exhaustion in the desert, fear at the thought of death. Furthermore, he remained human even after his death and resurrection, taking his own body into Heaven. Because of the mystery of the Incarnation, we find our purpose and our center in Christ himself - to know God, to love God, and to serve God so that we may enter fully into that promise of happiness for which he has saved us.

In conclusion, “There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory.” (para. 344) All of creation exists to give praise to the Almighty, but in pondering the “visible and invisible”, we would do well to recall our own unique dignity given to us by our Creator and give him special praise and glory for the good that he has instilled in us.