The Gratuitous Nature of God

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:18)

Not because of any need on his part, but because of the effusive nature of perfect Charity, God created angels, human beings, and the cosmos. Notice how the idea of gift pervades the accounts of creation in Genesis:

And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed on its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. (Genesis 1:29–30)

Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. (Genesis 9:3)

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ (Genesis 12:7)

What is God’s purpose in creation?

The First Vatican Council (1870) tells us that God creates everything.

This one true God, by his goodness and almighty power, not with the intention of increasing his happiness, nor indeed of obtaining happiness, but in order to manifest his perfection by the good things which he bestows on what he creates, by an absolutely free plan, together from the beginning of time brought into being from nothing the twofold created order, that is spiritual and the bodily, the angelic and the earthly, and thereafter the human which is, in a way, common to both since it is composed of spirit and body. (First Vatican Council, Chapter 1, #3)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “For God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined and entrusted to him.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #299)

Undoubtedly, human existence is an absolute good, destining people for the delight of the beatific vision. I think the most reasonable way of thinking about this is to say that it is in God’s nature to give, even though his will to do so is entirely free and without necessity or gain. God is love, and therefore, he is the perfect giver, as lovers express their love through gifts. The greater the love, the purer the gift.

Pope Saint John Paul II emphasizes the perfection of God’s gift-giving when he writes: “The life which God offers to man is a gift by which God shares something of himself with his creature” (Evangelium Vitae no. 35). Saint Paul asks: “Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?” (Romans 9:35). Saint Thomas says that God alone is the “most perfectly liberal giver, because he does not act for his own profit, but only out of his own goodness.” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 44, 4) God wills the existence of creation explained in Genesis before the creation of man in such a way that the gift has no present recipient but only a future one, like an expectant mother who prepares the room and the clothes for the baby about to be born.

Saint John Paul II explains how “gift” is the meaning of creation, not only as a central theme but as a template for our relationship with God and others. He introduces this idea as he calls forth a “hermeneutics of the gift” when interpreting the Bible.

Now, it is opportune to turn again to those fundamental words which Christ used, that is, the word “created” and the subject “Creator.” They introduce in the considerations made so far, a new dimension, a new criterion of understanding and interpretation, which we will call “hermeneutics of the gift.” The dimension of the gift decides the essential truth and depth of meaning of the original solitude, unity and nakedness. It is also at the heart of the mystery of creation, which enables us to construct the theology of the body “from the beginning,” but demands, at the same time, that we should construct it in this way.

The Creator is he who “calls to existence from nothingness,” and who establishes the world in existence and man in the world, because he “is love” (1 Jn 4:8). . . .

It is a fundamental and “radical” giving, that is, a giving in which the gift comes into being precisely from nothingness.

The first chapters of Genesis introduce us to the mystery of creation, that is, the beginning of the world by the will of God, who is omnipotence and love. Consequently, every creature bears within it the sign of the original and fundamental gift.

At the same time, however, the concept of “giving” cannot refer to a nothingness. It indicates the one who gives and the one who receives the gift, and also the relationship that is established between them. Now, this relationship emerges in the account of creation at the moment of the creation of man. This relationship is manifested above all by the expression: “God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him” – Genesis 1:27 (John Paul II, General Audience – 2 January 1980 – Creation as a Fundamental and Original Gift)

The human person is unique in creation as the one who is created to receive it as a gift and is able to understand it as a gift.

In the narrative of the creation of the visible world, the giving has a meaning only with regard to man. In the whole work of creation, it can be said only of him that a gift was conferred on him; the visible world was created “for him.” The biblical account of creation offers us sufficient reasons to understand and interpret in this way. Creation is a gift, because man appears in it. As the “image of God,” man is capable of understanding the meaning of gift in the call from nothingness to existence. He is capable of answering the Creator with the language of this understanding. Interpreting the narrative of creation with this language, it can be deduced from it that creation constitutes the fundamental and original gift. Man appears in creation as the one who received the world as a gift, and it can also be said that the world received man as a gift. (Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 2 January 1980 – Creation as a Fundamental and Original Gift)

So, God should be known and extolled for two gifts to us: Creation itself, the universe and ourselves, and our salvation won by Jesus Christ. Our attitude should always be one of gratitude, which is owed and which communicates to God our acceptance of his gifts.

We must imitate God, the most perfect giver

It seems then that God’s goodness manifested in creation comes from his perfect charity. We understand God is not under compulsion in any way. Nothing he bestows through creation adds to his existence. In some mysterious way, God is expressing something about his nature through the bestowing of these gifts. Therefore, made in his image, the human person also loves, creates, and bestows gifts in a way that is proper to human nature that is his image.

Pope Saint John Paul II suggests giving is fundamental to the nature and meaning of our lives when he adjures us to “achieve the deepest and most authentic meaning of life: namely, that of being a gift which is fully realized in the giving of self” (John Paul II Evangelium Vitae, 49).

God creates us for happiness. Not remote from his creation, he actively pursues this end for us. Even Aristotle notes:

The question is asked, whether happiness is to be acquired by learning or by habituation or some other sort of training, or comes in virtue of some divine providence or again by chance. Now if there is any gift of the gods to men, it is reasonable that happiness should be god-given, and most surely god-given of all human things in as much as it is the best. (Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 9)

Suppose God’s intent in the creation of beings in the universe is to give them existence and delight, and the human person is made in the image and likeness of God. In that case, people must imitate this gratuitousness in their deepest selves. The human person can cooperate with his own creations and in his work so that in giving gifts to others to create delight in them, he imitates this essential characteristic of God, the Perfect Lover who gives.

Saint Peter says: “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). We want to be a gift to others. That is to say, we want to bring good things to others. We also want to help bring out the gifts of others for their benefit.