Christopher West said this: the way an optometrist looks into a woman’s eyes is usually not the same as when her husband looks into her eyes. A biologist or physicist does not look at the world like Genesis does. From Genesis and Tradition, there are several dogmas we must accept. But in Genesis, the author is not looking at the world like a biologist. He is looking in the eyes of His Bride, the human race, created by Love and for Love, created but who turned away, but whom He wished to bring back. So then, according to several ECFs, the Creation days are not so much about God PHYSICALLY creating the world as much as a foreshadowing of how He would RE-create the world, that is, to restore man to Himself through Redemption History. Hence, at least presumably, from the Fall unto the Ultimate New Creation, inclusive, shall be eight “days”, each day symbolizing an age that begins with “evening” (a great manifestation of sin), followed by “morning” (a great Redemptive action of God). So then the first morning was the Flood, a world destroyed by water, but the water is baptizing humanity, so to speak, beginning a redemption. The final morning is the New Creation, a world destroyed by fire, because it has already experienced the total Redemption–even an imperfect “rest” on the seventh day (the Catholic Age of Peace)-- but nevertheless gone back to sin a final time.
