[Explanation of the Meaning of Faith from The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent is provided below]
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
The English word creed comes from the Latin credere, “to believe,” and is typically a list of propositions to which one is assenting. This is often more than an expression of personal piety, or a mission statement: it is a common statement of unity of belief. This idea of unity of belief is an important insight into the development of the historical Christian creeds and their role in the fight against heresy and heterodoxy, as well as their role in correct Catechesis.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, “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”.
Jesus told Saint Peter when He established His Church during his brief earthly ministry that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it. Catholicism has battled numerous heresies in its 2000-year history. The Nicene Creed was written as a response to the Arian Heresy which sprung up in the 4th Century.
The Arian heresy, concerning the nature of Christ’s identity, caused a great rift in the church in the 300s. It is named after Arius, a priest from Alexandria in Egypt, who promulgated the idea that Jesus was created by God rather than being God.
As early as 320, Saint Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, convoked a council at which more than one hundred bishops from Egypt and Libya anathematized Arius, who still continued to officiate and recruit followers. He was driven out but the heresy caused quarrels and a war between Constantine and Licinius.
Having conquered, Constantine became sole emperor and respectively begged the bishops of every country to come promptly to Nicaea in order to reestablish religious peace and civil order. In 325 the 1st Council of Nicaea met while Constantine tended to the more than 250 clergy who participated.
The creed was developed out of many debates and discussions, and adhesion was general and enthusiastic with the members convinced that it contained the ancient faith of the Apostolic Church.
Creeds identify the heart of the Christian faith, expressing belief in certain teachings that were controversial or disputed at one time or another in the past. These creeds grew organically out of the life of Christ’s Church. They are teaching tools, methods of catechesis, propositions that one must give assent to in order to be baptized and join His Church.
[Exerpts of “The How and Why of the Nicene Creed” by Paul Senz of catholic.com]
Exerpts of Part I of The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent, Edited under Saint Charles of Borromeo and Published by the Decree of Pope Saint Pius V. Translated by John A McHugh, OP, and Charles J Callan, OP.
Faith
In preparing and instructing men in the teachings of Christ the Lord, the Fathers began by explaining the meaning of faith. Following their example, we have thought it well to treat first what pertains to that virtue.
Though the word faith has a variety of meanings in the Sacred Scriptures, we here speak only of that faith by which we yield our entire assent to whatever has been divinely revealed.
The Creed
Now the chief truths which Christians ought to hold are those which the holy Apostles, the leaders and teachers of the faith, inspired by the Holy Ghost’ have divided into the twelve Articles of the Creed. For having received a command from the Lord to go forth into the whole world, as His ambassadors, and preach the Gospel to every creature, they thought it advisable to draw up a formula of Christian faith, that all might think and speak the same thing, and that among those whom they should have called to the unity of the faith no schisms would exist, but that they should be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment.
This profession of Christian faith and hope, drawn up by themselves, the Apostles called a symbol; either because it was made up of various parts, each of which was contributed by an Apostle, or because by it, as by a common sign and watchword, they might easily distinguish deserters from the faith and false brethren unawares brought in, adulterating the word of God, from those who had truly bound themselves by oath to serve under the banner of Christ.
The Creed is divided into three principal parts: one describing the First Person of the Divine Nature, and the stupendous work of the creation; another, the Second Person, and the mystery of man’s redemption; a third, the Third Person, the head and source of our sanctification; the whole being expressed in various and most appropriate propositions. These propositions are called Articles, from a comparison frequently used by the Fathers; for as the members of the body are divided by joints (articuli), so in this profession of faith, whatever is to be believed distinctly and separately from anything else is rightly and suitably called an Article.
ARTICLE I : “I BELIEVE IN GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH”
Meaning Of This Article
The meaning of the above words is this: I believe with certainty, and without a shadow of doubt
profess my belief in God the Father, the First Person of the Trinity, who by His omnipotence
created from nothing and preserves and governs the heavens and the earth and all things which
they contain; and not only do I believe in Him from my heart and profess this belief with my lips,
but with the greatest ardour and piety I tend towards Him, as the supreme and most perfect good.
Let this serve as a brief summary of this first Article. But since great mysteries lie concealed
under almost every word, the pastor must now give them a more careful consideration, in order
that, as far as God has permitted, the faithful may approach, with fear and trembling, to
contemplate the glory of His majesty.
“I Believe”
The word believe does not here mean to think, to suppose, lo be of opinion; but, as the Sacred
Scriptures teach, it expresses the deepest conviction, by which the mind gives a firm and
unhesitating assent to God revealing His mysterious truths. As far, therefore, as regards use of
the word here, he who firmly and without hesitation is convinced of anything is said to believe.
Faith Excludes Doubt
The knowledge derived through faith must not be considered less certain because its objects are
not seen; for the divine light by which we know them, although it does not render them evident,
yet suffers us not to doubt them. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath himself shone in our hearts, that the gospel be not hidden to us, as to those that perish.
Faith Excludes Curiosity
From what has been said it follows that he who is gifted with this heavenly knowledge of faith is
free from an inquisitive curiosity. For when God commands us to believe He does not propose to
us to search into His divine judgments, or inquire into their reason and cause, but demands an
unchangeable faith, by which the mind rests content in the knowledge of eternal truth. And
indeed, since we have the testimony of the Apostle that God is true; and every man a liar, and
since it would argue arrogance and presumption to disbelieve the word of a grave and sensible
man affirming anything as true, and to demand that he prove his statements by arguments or
witnesses, how rash and foolish are those, who, hearing the words of God Himself, demand
reasons for His heavenly and saving doctrines? Faith, therefore, must exclude not only all doubt,
but all desire for demonstration.
Faith Requires Open Profession
The pastor should also teach that he who says, I believe, besides declaring the inward assent of
the mind, which is an internal act of faith, should also openly profess and with alacrity
acknowledge and proclaim what he inwardly and in his heart believes. For the faithful should be
animated by the same spirit that spoke by the lips of the Prophet when he said: I believe; and
therefore did I speak, and should follow the example of the Apostles who replied to the princes
of the people: We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. They should be
encouraged by these noble words of St. Paul: I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; and likewise by those other words; in which the
truth of this doctrine is expressly confirmed: With the heart we believe unto justice; but with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
“In God”
From these words we may learn how exalted are the dignity and excellence of Christian wisdom,
and what a debt of gratitude we owe to the divine goodness. For to us it is given at once to mount
as by the steps of faith to the knowledge of what is most sublime and desirable.
Knowledge Of God More Easily Obtained Through Faith Than Through Reason
There is a great difference between Christian philosophy and human wisdom. The latter, guided
solely by the light of nature, advances slowly by reasoning on sensible objects and effects, and
only after long and laborious investigation is it able at length to contemplate with difficulty the
invisible things of God, to discover and understand a First Cause and Author of all things.
Christian philosophy, on the contrary, so quickens the human mind that without difficulty it pierces the heavens, and, illumined with divine light, contemplates first, the eternal source of
light, and in its radiance all created things: so that we experience with the utmost pleasure of
mind that we have been called, as the Prince of the Apostles says, out of darkness into his
admirable light, and believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable.
Justly, therefore, do the faithful profess first to believe in God, whose majesty, with the Prophet
Jeremias, we declare incomprehensible. For, as the Apostle says, He dwells in light inaccessible,
which no man hath seen, nor can see; as God Himself, speaking to Moses, said: No man shall see
my face and live. The mind cannot rise to the contemplation of the Deity, whom nothing
approaches in sublimity, unless it be entirely disengaged from the senses, and of this in the
present life we art naturally incapable.
Knowledge Of God Obtained Through Faith Is Clearer
But while this is so, yet God, as the Apostle says, left not himself without testimony, doing good
from heaven, giving rains and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Hence it
is that the philosophers conceived no mean idea of the Divinity, ascribed to Him nothing
corporeal, gross or composite. They considered Him the perfection and fullness of all good, from
whom, as from an eternal, inexhaustible fountain of goodness and benignity, flows every perfect
gift to all creatures. They called Him the wise, the author and lover of truth, the just, the most
beneficent, and gave Him also many other appellations expressive of supreme and absolute
perfection. They recognized that His immense and infinite power fills every place and extends to
all things.
These truths the Sacred Scriptures express far better and much more clearly, as in the following
passages: God is a spirit; Be ye perfect, even as also your heavenly Father is perfect; All things
are naked and open to his eyes; O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of
God! God is true; I am the way, the truth, and the life; Thy right hand is full of justice; Thou
openest thy hand, and fillest with blessing every living creature; and finally: Whither shall go
from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I
descend into hell, thou art there. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea, etc., and Do I not fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?
Knowledge Of God Obtained Through Faith Is More Certain
These great and sublime truths regarding the nature of God, which are in full accord with
Scripture, the philosophers were able to learn from an investigation of God’s works. But even
here we see the necessity of divine revelation if we reflect that not only does faith, as we have
already observed, make known clearly and at once to the rude and unlettered, those truths which
only the learned could discover, and that by long study; but also that the knowledge obtained
through faith is much more certain and more secure against error than if it were the result of
philosophical inquiry.
Knowledge Of God Obtained Through Faith Is More Ample And Exalted
But how much more exalted must not that knowledge of the Deity be considered, which cannot
be acquired in common by all from the contemplation of nature, but is peculiar to those who are
illumined by the light of faith?
This knowledge is contained in the Articles of the Creed, which disclose to us the unity of the
Divine Essence and the distinction of Three Persons, and show also that God Himself is the
ultimate end of our being, from whom we are to expect the enjoyment of the eternal happiness of
heaven, according to the words of St. Paul: God is a rewarder of them that seek Him. How great
are these rewards, and whether they are such that human knowledge could aspire to their
attainment, we learn from these words of Isaiah’s uttered long before those of the Apostle: From
the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen
besides thee, O God, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee.
The Unity Of Nature In God
From what is said it must also be confessed that there is but one God, not many gods. For we
attribute to God supreme goodness and infinite perfection, and it is impossible that what? is
supreme and most perfect could be common to many. If a being lack anything that constitutes
supreme perfection, it is therefore imperfect and cannot have the nature of God.
The unity of God is also proved from many passages of Sacred Scripture. It is written: Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; again the Lord commands: Thou shalt not have strange
gods before me; and further He often admonishes us by the Prophet: I am the first, and I am the
last, and besides me there is no God. The Apostle also openly declares: One Lord, one faith, one
baptism.
It should not, however, excite our surprise if the Sacred Scriptures sometimes give the name of
God to creatures. For when they call the Prophets and judges gods, they do not speak according
to the manner of the Gentiles, who, in their folly and impiety, formed to themselves many gods;
but express, by a manner of speaking then in use, some eminent quality or function conferred on
such persons by the gift of God.
The Trinity Of Persons In God
The Christian faith, therefore, believes and professes, as is declared in the Nicene Creed in
confirmation of this truth, that God in His Nature, Substance and Essence is one.- But soaring
still higher, it so understands Him to be one that it adores unity in trinity and trinity in unity. Of
this mystery we now proceed to speak, as it comes next in order in the Creed.
“The Father”
As God is called Father for more reasons than one, we must first determine the more appropriate
sense in which the word is used in the present instance.
God Is Called Father Because He Is Creator And Ruler
Even some on whose darkness the light of faith never shone conceived God to be an eternal
substance from whom all things have their beginning, and by whose Providence they are
governed and preserved in their order and state of existence. Since, therefore, he to whom a
family owes its origin and by whose wisdom.
Derived from human things these persons gave the name Father to God, whom they acknowledge
to be the Creator and Governor of the universe. The Sacred Scriptures also, when they wish to
show that to God must be ascribed the creation of all things, supreme power and admirable
Providence, make use of the same name. Thus we read: Is not he thy Father, that hath possessed
thee, and made thee and created thee? And: Have we not all one Father? hath not one God
created us?
God Is Called Father Because He Adopts Christians Through Grace
But God, particularly in the New Testament, is much more frequently, and in some sense
peculiarly, called the Father of Christians, who have not received the spirit of bondage again in
fear; but have received the spirit of adoption of sons (of God), whereby they cry: Abba (Father).
For the Father hath bestowed upon us that manner of charity that we should be called, and be the
sons of God, and if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, who is the
first-born amongst many brethren, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Whether, therefore, we
look to the common title of creation and Providence, or to the special one of spiritual adoption,
rightly do the faithful profess their belief that God is their Father.
The Name Father Also Discloses The Plurality Of Persons In God
But the pastor should teach that on hearing the word Father, besides the ideas already unfolded,
the mind should rise to more exalted mysteries. Under the name Father, the divine oracles begin
to unveil to us a mysterious truth which is more abstruse and more deeply hidden in that
inaccessible light in which God dwells, and which human reason and understanding could not
attain to, nor even conjecture to exist.
This name implies that in the one Essence of the Godhead is proposed to our belief, not only one
Person, but a distinction of persons; for in one Divine Nature there are Three Persons-the Father,
begotten of none; the Son, begotten of the Father before all ages; the Holy Ghost, proceeding
from the Father and the likewise, from all eternity.
The Doctrine Of The Trinity
In the one Substance of the Divinity the Father is the First Person, who with His Only-begotten
Son, and the Holy Ghost, is one God and one Lord, not in the singularity of one Person, but in
the trinity of one Substance. These Three Persons, since it would be impiety to assert that they
are unlike or unequal in anything, are understood to be distinct only in their respective
properties. For the Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost
proceeds from both. Thus we acknowledge the Essence and the Substance of the Three Persons
For God’s Glory.