The works through which God has revealed Himself to us are creation, redemption and sanctification.  Creation is a vast book which speaks to us unceasingly of God, and it is intelligible to all.  If we contemplate the magnificence of the starlit sky we must exclaim with David:  “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands” (Ps. xvlii).  Yet not only the heavens, but also the earth shows us, at every step, the omnipotence of God, His wisdom and love.  Mountain and valley, forest and field, river and ocean, they all remind us of God, their creator.  Every flower of field and meadow is a great masterpiece, which no mortal man could create.

The animal world presents still greater marvels for our consideration.  The waters teeming with millions of animals of all kinds, from the smallest jellyfish to the ship-destroying monsters, the beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, they all are called into existence by God, and God has not merely called all these creatures into existence, but His providence preserves them, and not even a sparrow falls from the roof without His knowledge.

But we have not yet considered the masterpiece of creation:  man, the creature with an immortal soul, created according to God’s own image and likeness.  In man body and soul are joined together in a wonderful unity, so that man presents in himself a combination of the spiritual and material.

Man is the masterpiece of creation, and all creation is for his service.  “Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; thou hast set him over the work of thy hands” (Ps. viii, 6).

In very truth we may say, therefore, the universe speaks to our mind and heart in powerful and impressive language.  This language is its beauty, its appropriateness, its greatness.

But yet more plainly than creation does the redemption proclaim the glory of God.  It is “not the immensity of the heavenly bodies,” says St. Gregory, “not the brilliancy of the stars, not the adornment of the universe, not the preservation of the world, that point so much to the glory of the divine power and omnipotence, as does that divine condescension to the feebleness of nature.”

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descended from heaven and brought into the world a truer and fuller knowledge of God.  The ancient people knew there was a God, but they knew Him not.  The knowledge of the true God was drowned in paganism.  Even among the Jews small had become the number of those who still possessed an undefiled knowledge of God.  In the Old Testament there was only an intimation of the blessed Trinity, not a clear knowledge.  Then Jesus Christ brought to us the knowledge of the Triune God.  In Him the divine attributes of love, sanctity, justice, wisdom, omnipotence and mercy were presented to our minds so that we can comprehend them.  He made known to us the merciful decrees which God had ordained for our temporal and eternal welfare.  Through His bitter passion and death He reconciled us to the Father, and acquired for us the heirship of heaven.  He founded the Church, the kingdom of God upon earth, and He rules it through the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from Him and the Father.