• A father gives rise to another, but he also cherishes the other to whom he gives rise. One of the most compelling and puzzling questions regarding creation is why God would create at all. God in his simplicity and unity and unconditioned perfection, is utterly good. Nothing could possibly add to his glory or his joy. So then why does he bring about finite existence?

      The classical answer is that he does not so out of need but simply out of a desire to share his goodness and glory, in accord with the ancient principle 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑚 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑢𝑚 𝑠𝑢𝑖 (the good is diffusive of itself). We recall that according to Plato, the form of the good lies beyond the realm of beings, and its basic function is to give. This is why Plato compares the form of the good to the sun, that power in whose light everything else is seen. And from this follow something of tremendous moment—namely, that God creates purely as an act of love.

      In giving rise to the world, God manifests the purest kind of love, since he cannot possibly benefit from the act. As one of the prefaces to the Eucharistic Prayer in the Roman rite has it, “𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬.” God plus the world is not more perfect than God alone. Hence the very existence of the universe is, necessarily, the consequence of an act of absolutely disinterested love.

      -Bishop Robert Barron