The general audience on 12 March was divided between the Paul VI Hall and St Peter's Basilica. In the latter the Holy Father received a large group of about four thousand young people from many schools throughout Italy. The others were received in the Paul VI Hall where the Pope continued his series of catecheses on the subject of creation.

1. The truth of faith about creation from nothingness (ex nihilo), upon which we have dwelt in previous catecheses, introduces us into the depths of the mystery of God, Creator "of heaven and earth". According to the expression of the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator...", creation is attributed principally to the Father. In fact, it is the work of the three Persons of the Trinity according to the teaching already present in a certain way in the Old Testament and fully revealed in the New, particularly in the texts of Paul and John.

2. In the light of these apostolic texts we can affirm that the creation of the world finds its model in the eternal generation of the Word, of the Son, of the same substance of the Father, and its source in the Love which is the Holy Spirit. This Love-Person, consubstantial with the Father and the Son, together with the Father and the Son, is the source of the creation of the world from nothing, that is, of the gift of existence to every being. In this gratuitous gift participates the whole multiplicity of beings, "visible and invisible" so varied as to appear almost unlimited, and all that the language of cosmology indicates as the "macrocosm" and "microcosm".

3. The truth of faith about the creation of the world, leading us to penetrate the depths of the Trinitarian Mystery, reveals to us what the Bible calls the "Glory of God" (Kabod Yahweh, doxa tou Theou). The Glory of God is first of all in himself; it is the "interior" glory, which, so to speak, fills the unlimited depth and infinite perfection of the one Divinity in the Trinity of Persons. This infinite perfection, inasmuch as it is the absolute fullness of Being and Holiness, is also the fullness of Truth and of Love in the mutual contemplation and giving (and hence in the communion) of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Through the work of creation God's interior glory, which springs from the very mystery of the Divinity, is in a certain sense transferred "outside": in the creatures of the visible and invisible world, in proportion to their degree of perfection.

4. With the creation of the world (visible and invisible) there begins as it were a new dimension of God's glory, called "exterior" to distinguish it from the previous one. Sacred Scripture speaks of it in many passages and in different ways. Some examples will suffice.Psalm 18 (19) proclaims: "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork... There is no speech, nor are there words whose sound is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world" (vv. 1, 2, 4). The Book of Sirach in its turn states: "The sun looks down on everything with its light, and the work of the Lord is full of his glory" (42 :16). The Book of Baruch has a very singular and evocative expression: "The stars shone in their watches and were glad; he called them, and they said, 'Here we are!' They shone with gladness for him who made them" (3:34).

5. Elsewhere the biblical text sounds like an appeal addressed to creatures to proclaim the glory of God the Creator. Thus, for example, the Book of Daniel: "O all you works of the Lord, O bless the Lord, to him be highest glory and praise for ever" (3:57). Or Psalm 65 (66) "Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, 'How terrible are thy deeds! So great is thy power that thy enemies cringe before thee. All the earth worships thee; they sing praises to thee, sing praises to thy name'" (1-4).

Sacred Scripture is full of similar expressions: "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures" (Ps 103[104]:24). The whole created universe is a multiple, powerful and incessant appeal to proclaim the glory of the Creator: "truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord" (Num 14:21); for "both riches and honor come from thee" (I Chron 29:12).

6. This hymn of glory, inscribed in creation, awaits a being capable of giving it adequate conceptual and verbal expression, a being who will praise the holy name of God and narrate the greatness of his works (cf. Sir 17:8). This being in the visible world is man. To him is addressed the appeal which goes up from the universe; man is the spokesman of creatures and their interpreter before God.

7. Let us return again for a moment to the words in which the First Vatican Council expresses the truth about creation and about the Creator of the world. "This one true God, in his goodness and 'omnipotent power', not to increase his own happiness, nor to acquire, but to manifest his perfection through the gifts he distributes to creatures, by a supremely free decision, 'simultaneously from the beginning of time drew forth from nothingness both the one creature and the other, the spiritual and the corporeal...'" (DS 3002).

This text makes explicit with a language all its own the same truth about creation and about its finality, which we find in the biblical texts. In the work of creation the Creator does not seek any "completion" of himself. Such a way of reasoning would be a direct antithesis of what God is in himself. He is in fact the Being totally and infinitely perfect. Consequently he has no need of the world. Creatures, both visible and invisible, cannot "add" anything to the Divinity of the Triune God.

8. But, God creates! Creatures, called into existence by God by a fully free and sovereign decision, participate in a real, though limited and partial way, in the perfection of God's absolute Fullness. They differ from one another according to the degree of perfection they have received, beginning with inanimate beings, then up to animate beings and finally to man; or rather, higher still, to the creatures of a purely spiritual nature. The ensemble of creatures constitutes the universe: the visible and invisible cosmos, in the totality and parts of which there is reflected eternal Wisdom and expressed the inexhaustible Love of the Creator.

9. In the revelation of the Wisdom and Love of God there is the first and principal end of creation and in it there is realized the mystery of God's glory, according to the words of Scripture. "O all ye works of the Lord, O bless the Lord" (Dan 3:57). In the mystery of the glory all creatures acquire their transcendental meaning; "they reach out beyond" themselves to be open to him in whom they have their beginning... and their end.

Let us therefore admire with faith the work of the Creator and praise his greatness:O Lord, how manifold are thy works!In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures.May the glory of the Lord endure for ever, may the Lord rejoice in his works.I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing to my God while I have being" (Ps 103 [104]:24, 31, 33).