To rediscover the content of the faith, that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed, and to reflect on the act of faith is a task that every believer must make his own. - Pope Benedict XVI -
One of the things I look forward to each Easter is not just the return of the alleluia, but getting to renew our baptismal promises through the Nicene Creed posed as questions to all present, instead of the usual communal recitation. As one baptized as an infant I appreciate being able to now answer affirmatively on my own. Additionally, having more years of reflecting on what is contained in the Creed, I also answer with a better understanding and firmer belief in what is being asked.
Our Christian life begins at Baptism and is grounded in confessing our faith in the saving Word of God. “One of the most astonishing elements of the Gospels is Jesus’ repeated demand to make an act of faith in the person of Jesus himself,” states Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J. Others such as Buddha, Mohammed, and even Moses, did not focus on themselves, but on the message they brought. But before we can make an act of faith we need to know what we believe in. The Creed, from the Latin credo, “I believe,” is a compact summary of who Jesus is and what he, in his great love, did for us.
Through the centuries many professions of faith have come about in response to the needs of their time. From the creed of St. Justin Martyr, around 150 a.d., to Blessed Paul VI’s Credo of the People in 1968, these creeds took shape in response to heresies, or other problems, of their time. Church leaders gathered in various Councils over the centuries to discuss the truths of our faith, and these were articulated into formulas that corrected the errors and could also be communicated to the faithful.
“While we do not believe in formulas, but in those realities they express, which faith allows us to touch...we do approach these realities with the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith, to hand it on...and to live it more and more,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (170).
When we recite the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed, the two creeds people are most familiar with, whether at Mass or when praying the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet, we are saying “Yes” to the whole mystery of faith. Through a common language, we are pledging ourselves to what we, as a united community, believe (cf CCC 185). So it’s not surprising that “Christians in the early centuries were required to learn the creed from memory. It served them as a daily prayer not to forget the commitment they had undertaken at baptism,” Pope Benedict wrote in Porta Fidei.
We, too, do not want to forget the commitment we have made at baptism. During this Easter season it seemed a good time to send you off on a little walk through the Creed, to reflect a little deeper on what we have so recently reaffirmed on Easter Sunday. The link below will take you to the Credo of the People. I chose this because it basically walks you through the Nicene Creed accompanied with commentary for each article of faith. This, I hope, will help with better understanding this important part of our Christian faith. I’ve also included a link to Bishop Barron’s homily on the Sh’ma. Our faith in Jesus finds its roots in this beautifully rich, compact statement of the Jewish people’s faith, hope and love in the one true God. Having a better understanding of this will enrich our faith in the words we profess each Sunday.
True, “faith is not science.” But faith is a form of knowledge, as are judgment, wisdom, insight, intuition, and personal experience. - The Faith for Beginners: Understanding the Creeds -
I’ve often imagined gazes/surviving the act of seeing/as if they were poles/measured distances, lances/in battle./Then I think of a room/ just abandoned/ where similar traces remain/ for a time, suspended and intersecting/ in the balance of their design/ intact and overlapping, like/ pick-up-sticks. - Valerio Magrelli -
Ho spesso immaginata che gli sguardi/ sopravvivano all’atto del vedere/ come fossero aste,/ tragitti misurati, lance/ in una battaglia./ Allora penso che dentro una stanza/ appena abbandonata/ simili tratti debbano restare/qualche tempo sospesi ed incrociati/ nell’equilibrio del loro desgno/ intatti e sovrapposti come I legni/ dello shangai.
http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/homily/hear-o-israel/982/