The Nicene Creed, May, 2012

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The Nicene Creed, May, 2012

This document contains material used as background for the presenter; Inquirers do not need all the material.

Opening Prayer: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Introduction taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

185 Whoever says "I believe" says "I pledge myself to what we believe." Communion in faith needs a common language of faith, normative for all and uniting all in the same confession of faith.

186 From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formula normative for all. But already very early on, the Church also wanted to gather the essential elements of her faith into organic and articulated summaries, intended especially for candidates for Baptism:

This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches in a tiny grain, so too this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and the New Testaments.

187 Such syntheses are called "professions of faith" since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. They are called "creeds" on account of what is usually their first word in Latin: credo ("I believe"). They are also called "symbols of faith".

188 The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, for example, a seal presented as a token of recognition. The broken parts were placed together to verify the bearer's identity. The symbol of faith, then, is a sign of recognition and communion between believers. Symbolon also means a gathering, collection or summary. A symbol of faith is a summary of the principal truths of the faith and therefore serves as the first and fundamental point of reference for catechesis.

189 The first "profession of faith" is made during Baptism. The symbol of faith is first and foremost the baptismal creed. Since Baptism is given "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", the truths of faith professed during Baptism are articulated in terms of their reference to the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

190 And so the Creed is divided into three parts: "the first part speaks of the first divine Person and the wonderful work of creation; the next speaks of the second divine Person and the mystery of his redemption of men; the final part speaks of the third divine Person, the origin and source of our sanctification." These are "the three chapters of our [baptismal] seal".

191 "These three parts are distinct although connected with one another. According to a comparison often used by the Fathers, we call them articles. Indeed, just as in our bodily members there are certain articulations which distinguish and separate them, so too in this profession of faith, the name articles has justly and rightly been given to the truths we must believe particularly and distinctly." In accordance with an ancient tradition, already attested to by St. Ambrose, it is also customary to reckon the articles of the Creed as twelve, thus symbolizing the fullness of the apostolic faith by the number of the apostles.

192 Through the centuries many professions or symbols of faith have been articulated in response to the needs of the different eras: the creeds of the different apostolic and ancient Churches, e.g., the Quicumque, also called the Athanasian Creed; the professions of faith of certain Councils, such as Toledo, Lateran, Lyons, Trent; or the symbols of certain popes, e.g., the Fides Damasi or the Credo of the People of God of Paul VI.

193 None of the creeds from the different stages in the Church's life can be considered superseded or irrelevant. They help us today to attain and deepen the faith of all times by means of the different summaries made of it.

Among all the creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church's life:

194 The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome. Its great authority arises from this fact: it is "the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith".

195 The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.

196 Our presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles' Creed, which constitutes, as it were, "the oldest Roman catechism". The presentation will be completed however by constant references to the Nicene Creed, which is often more explicit and more detailed.

197 As on the day of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the "standard of teaching", let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the Credo with faith is to enter into communion with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and in whose midst we believe:

This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart's meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul.

What Do Catholics Believe?

(The Nicene Creed)

Have you ever been asked what it is that you believe as a XXXXXXXXX?

You can answerby reciting the Nicene Creed. But before examining the tenets of the Nicene Creed, let’s lookbriefly at the “other creed,” the Apostles’ Creed.

Throughout the Middle Ages, it was generally believed and accepted that theApostles’ Creed was composed jointly by the twelve Apostles in Jerusalem, with each of thetwelve contributing one clause of the Creed before embarking on their respective missions.This legend dates back to the 4th century. Today, this is a point of argument and debate,especially within the ranks of the Protestant scholars. Nevertheless, many continue tothink of this creed as apostolic in nature because its basic teachings are agreeable to thetheological formulations of the Apostolic Age. The Catholic Church does not hold a positionone way or the other on this subject; however, it does hold that all of the points of theApostles’ Creed are part of the Catholic Faith. Most of the western Christian faiths todayprofess the Apostles’ Creed as their core tenants of faith of Christianity.

Over history, the Apostles’ Creed functioned in many ways in the life of the CatholicChurch:

• In the early Church, it was a confession of faith necessary for those to bebaptized.
• Catechetical instruction was based on the major tenets of the Creed. This wasnecessary, because many of the new Christians were not able to read andwrite; this, almost poetic, Creed was easy to memorize and make part ofeveryday life.
• In time, the Apostles’ Creed became a “rule of faith” to clearly separate thetrue faith from heretical deviations. The principle heresy that waschallenging the Church at the time the Creed was written was Gnosticism,which denied that Jesus was truly man.
• By the 6th or 7th century the Creed had come to be accepted as a part of theofficial liturgy of the Church.
• Finally, it was used, along with the Lord’s Prayer, by devout individuals as apart of their morning and evening devotions.

The Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed was originally formulated at the 1st Ecumenical Council of theCatholic Church held in Nicea in AD 325 and was later amplified, adopted and authorized asa true expression of the Faith at the 2nd Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in AD 381.

The Nicene Creed built upon the profession of faith in the Apostles’ Creed, defendingagainst many of the heresies of the time - the primary and most prominent of which wasArianism (not to be confused with modern day Aryanism which avows the superiority of the Aryan race as stated by the Nazis). Arianism was a Christian heresy of the 4th century that denied the full divinity ofJesus Christ and was named for its author, Arius, a priest in Alexandria. Debate over hisdoctrine was a pressing matter for the Church for more than half a century. Arius sought tosafeguard the absolute transcendence of God by teaching that God is unbegotten andwithout beginning. The Son, because He is begotten, cannot be God in the same sense as theFather is. Arius taught that the Son was created like all other creatures and exists by thewill of the Father. (By the way, this position is also held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, whohail Arius as a great witness to the truth.) Although Arianism was the most troublesomeheresy of the time, it was not the only one. The Nicene Creed was absolutely necessary atthe time to ensure that the lex credendi (the rule of faith - what the people believed) wouldboth reflect and reinforce the lex orandi (the rule of prayer - how the people worshiped).

One often overlooked, but nonetheless important, aspect of the Nicene Creed is thatit was formulated before the Church made a determination of which books belonged in theNew Testament. A list of the inspired books of the New Testament, as we have them in theBible today, was first put together in the 39th Pastoral Letter of Saint Athanasius, Bishop ofAlexandria, Egypt, in the year AD 367. He wanted this list of sacred books to be the “canon,”or the list of sacred books of the New Testament; he listed the 27 books of the NewTestament and declared that all are apostolic and canonical. St. Athanasius said, “In these

alone is proclaimed the Good News of the teaching of true religion.” This list was confirmedby the Councils of Hippo (AD 393) and Carthage (AD 397). In the year AD 405, PopeInnocent I, responding to a question as to what formed the canon, provided this very samelist in response. Finally, the Council of Trent, meeting in century later in AD1545-1563,again promulgated the same list. Because the Nicene Creed was formulated to express the doctrines of the Christianity and to serve as a test of orthodox teaching, the Nicene Creed was, by nature, influential in compiling the New Testament. Look at this way… God chosethe people who were bound by the Nicene Creed to select from the many writings whichwere circulating at the time to be apostolic and inspired by the Holy Spirit to be declared tobe Sacred Scripture. Therefore, one cannot disagree with the Nicene Creed withoutdenying the New Testament and Christianity as a whole!Gradually the Nicene Creed came to be recognized as the proper profession of faithfor candidates for the sacrament of Baptism. It is theprofession of the Christian Faithcommon to the Catholic Church, to all the Eastern Churches separated from Rome, and tomost of the Protestant denominations today.

The word “mystery” when applied to our religion means something that is accepted on faith, something that cannot be proved without doubt, yet something we truly believe because God gave us the gift of faith. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life.

We believe that God reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Church teaches belief in the Trinity as dogma. A dogma is a teaching that one must believe as a Catholic. The dogma of the Trinity includes three truths of faith.

The first truth of faith: the Trinity is one God in three persons. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and the same God. Each of the Persons is fully God. When referring to the Trinity, person does not have the same sense as it does when used to say that we are persons. There are not three separate consciousnesses in God. There is only one simple being. There are not three separate intelligences or wills in the one God. When one person acts, the other two persons also act. They are a unity of Persons in one divine nature. We do not speak of three gods who share one divinity, but of one God.

The second truth of faith: the Divine Persons are distinct from each other. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three appearances or modes of God, but three identifiable persons, each fully God in a way distinct from the others. [Whereas water, steam and ice are all water (one thing) in three different states, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons. Dcn Greg Hall]

The third truth of faith: The Divine Persons are in relation to each other apart from the actions they have performed in the world. The distinction of each is understood only in reference to the others. The Father cannot be the Father without the Son, nor can the Son be the Son without the Father. The Holy Spirit is related to the Father and Son who both send him forth. The purpose of the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit is to bring us to share in the life, light, and love of the Trinity.

Traditional Catholic teaching explains the relationships among the three persons of the Trinity in this way:

The Father. The First Person of the Trinity is absolutely without origin. From all eternity he “begets” the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. The Son proceeds from the Father. There never was a time when the Son did not proceed from the Father.

The Son. The Father’s begetting the Son is described as God knowing himself perfectly. (The Son was not made.) The Father expresses himself perfectly to himself, and this is the Son, the Word of God. (One possible metaphor seen in terms of the WORD image: If Jesus is the WORD of the Father, the WORD was always part of the Father. God spoke the Word and a part of Godself came forth from his very being.) Thus the Son is the Father’s perfect divine expression of himself. They are one, yet distinct. (It is not Sonship as we understand it in human terms.)

The Holy Spirit. The relationship of the Father and Son is a perfect relationship. The Father and Son love each other with an eternal, perfect, divine love. The loveproceeds from the Father and the Son and is called the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son as the perfect expression of their divine love for each other. Thus the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son; the Spirit binds them in a community of unity. (The Holy Spirit is God communicating with us. The Holy Spirit is given in love and with that love comes reconciling and renewing power.)

Let’s now examine the elements of the Nicene Creed.

the Creed is divided into three parts called “articles”:

• The first article is about God the Father and the wonderful work of creation.
• The next article is about God the Son and the mystery of his redemption of men.
• The final article is about God the Holy Spirit, the origin and source of all sanctification.

I believe in one God.

In the earliest creeds, the phrase “one God” served two functions. It was a protest against pagan polytheism and a response to the Jews who accused Christians of abandoning service to the one true God because Christians recognized God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we confess that “We believe in one God,” we are professing that we believe in the God who began to reveal himself to the chosen people through Abraham, Moses, and the prophets.

• What does it mean to believe in God? There are many levels of belief:Belief that makes no difference.An example would be: “I believe that there is a New York City.” Even though youmay have never actually been to New York City, it is simply a fact that must beaccepted or rejected by the intellect.
• Belief that makes some difference.A statement such as “I believe that exercise will make me feel better” fits. Forthe fact to have effect, it must be put into action, and only then does it have someimpact upon one’s health and well-being.
• Belief that demands a response.“I believe that with God, all things are possible.” If I truly believe, it will changemy entire outlook on life. This is the level of belief that is used in the opening ofthe Nicene Creed.

Does Satan believe God exists? Of course, he does. Satan, however, does not have the beliefthat demands the right response. He believes that there is a God, but he does not BELIEVE“IN” GOD. He trusts more in his own will, and distrusts God’s plan to eternal happiness.

The word “one” was an addition to the Apostles’ Creed. In the midst of a culture thatworshiped many gods (water, love, war, etc.), Yahweh revealed Himself to Abraham andMoses as the one, true God. The Shema is the daily prayer of the Hebrew. It starts with “Hear O Israel, there is one God“