The Creed: 20 Years Ago

At every Sunday Mass, we recite the Nicene Creed.  As part of preparing to complete my initiation into the Catholic Church, it was only fitting that I would spend time studying this statement of faith.

It was the subject of the monthly Confirmation meeting 20 years ago this evening.

There was great value in studying these words we recite as a community at Mass.  The history of it offers so much context.

Many questions arose in the early Church about Who Christ is.  The Council at Nicaea in 325 helped answer those questions definitively.  We realize that God is our Father, and Jesus Christ is the Son Who made God known to us through His actions on Earth, especially the Paschal Mystery.  The Holy Spirit continues to sustain that work in us, bringing us alive as the Church.

As I have come to understand in living as a confirmed Roman Catholic, the Creed is not merely statements on paper, but rather a reality that lives within us.  Though God is unseen, these statement are about how we recognize that He is present.  We see the amazing design of the world our God created.  We see all around us how God's work of redemption is present.  Jesus Christ continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist at Mass.  And we see how the circumstances of our lives join Christ in death and Resurrection.  So we are made new in sanctification through the Holy Spirit's continued work as He makes God present inside of us.  Indeed, our times and circumstances have a holy purpose as we live in the design God has for us.  We live in step with the Church, and at World Youth Day 2019, I got see the reality of One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church before me.  Day by day, all of us, the faithful, strive to live this reality in our lives as we put the faith, enhanced by our encounter with God at Mass, into action in the world.