I believe in One God

“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God…begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father…” We all recognize these words from the creed that we proclaim at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation. It is the fundamental profession of our faith, and it is usually called the Nicene Creed, after the Council of Nicea that approved it for the universal Church. On May 20, the Christian world will commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the opening of the Council of Nicea, which took place in modern day Turkey in the year 325. This was the first ecumenical, or general, council in history, and it produced this creed—this statement of our beliefs—that has become the distinctive expression of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ. 

Perhaps a short history lesson is in order. In the fourth century, a priest named Arius was teaching falsehoods about Jesus, namely that he was more than just a man, but not God. In other words, Arius and his supporters were denying the Church’s belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation. Their ideas became very widespread among people who did not fully understand the Scriptures and Tradition, and many were led astray from authentic Christian faith in Jesus as the Son of God. To correct these errors, the bishops from throughout the Church gathered for a council in Nicea, the first time that such a gathering had ever taken place. Through prayer, study, and vigorous debate, the bishops ultimately came up with a statement or creed (from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe”) that expresses the Church’s authentic belief in God as a Holy Trinity and in Jesus Christ as the co-eternal and consubstantial Son of God. This creed has been largely accepted and professed by Christians ever since, and continues to be a central doctrinal statement of the Catholic Church. 

Why is this important now? Why is the Church commemorating this anniversary of the Council of Nicea if everyone agrees with this creed? The simple answer is that not everyone actually does agree with the faith as it is expressed in the Nicene Creed. In our own day, we still see various versions of the teaching of Arius, and people who profess explicitly or implicitly that God is not a Trinity of divine persons, that God is not eternal and all-powerful. There are others who proclaim Jesus as something other than the eternal, consubstantial Son of God. He is reduced to being an inspiring leader, an important teacher, a revolutionary, or a social justice advocate. Each of these descriptions is partially true, but none of them adequately expresses the full truth about Jesus, that he is Son of God and Son of Man, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Incarnate Son of God who is eternally one with the Father. 

The Church has always been absolute in its belief that Jesus is divine and one with the Father. She is just as emphatic in her belief that Jesus took our full humanity to himself. We need look no further than the scriptural words of Jesus himself who said, “The Father and I are one,” and “before Abraham came to be, I AM.” If Jesus is not God, then he is either profoundly confused and delusional, or he is deceiving his followers with false claims of divinity. If Jesus is not God, then he is hardly different than any other founder of a religious movement, like Buddha or Mohammed. If Jesus is not God, then the truths of our faith become subjective, and one opinion would be as good as another. If Jesus is not the incarnate Son of God, then his death on the cross would be a heroic and noble gesture, but certainly not salvific. If Jesus is not both God and man, then the sacraments he gave us would be little more than solemn human rituals. If the Church had not held fast to the fullness of our faith and declared it so clearly, I wonder if anyone would still believe in Jesus Christ today? 

I suspect most of us can recite the Creed at Mass from memory, joined as we are by the rest of the congregation around us. But are we reflecting on the words we say, or do we go on auto-pilot and just say the words without thinking? Make no mistake, the words of the Nicene Creed are profound and radical. We are stating our absolute belief in one God who exists in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That alone sets Christians apart from the rest of the religious world. We declare our absolute belief that Jesus of Nazareth, a historical person of first century Palestine, is the divine Son of God, one with the Father and of the same substance as the Father, who became man and took our human flesh to himself. He died and then rose again, and now lives eternally with the Father. We declare our faith that he will come again as our judge, and that his kingdom will endure forever. Finally we profess our belief in the Holy Spirit, the third divine Person of the Holy Trinity, who is one with the Father and the Son, who is “the Lord and giver of life.” 

These are serious claims, and we should speak them with the attention and gravity they deserve. As the Church commemorates the Council of Nicea this month, it would be worthwhile to reflect on the words of the Creed that we profess so often. Christians like us have proclaimed this same Creed for centuries, and many have given their lives for these truths of our faith. Let us give thanks for the gift of faith and for the gift of the Creed that has been handed on to us by the great saints and teachers of the early Church.