The Creed – I believe

Both of the creeds we use at Mass begin with the words ‘I believe’. There are two related meanings to the word ‘believe’. Its first meaning is the gift of faith, that is the gift of God to us which enables us to entrust ourselves to God. The second aspect of its meaning is the faith which we believe, that is the content of our faith.

These two aspects belong together. If we neglect the first aspect, our faith could become mere words and were we to neglect the second aspect, our faith would have no meaning to it. We entrust ourselves to the God who has brought about the things which we list in the course of the creed.

The creeds do not exhaust the meaning of our faith but they give expression to what it is all based on, what the rest of the faith falls back on.

You will notice with both of the creeds that they are centred upon the Trinity and upon Jesus Christ. The Nicene Creed has three clear parts to it, each one beginning – “I believe in one God…..”, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ……”, “I believe in the Holy Spirit……”. In each of these sections, there are things attributed to each of the persons of the Trinity. There is a parallel structure to the Apostles’ Creed. 

The formulation of the creeds shows the signs of the times in which they were formulated and we will discuss aspects of this as we proceed with this series of small articles. For instance, I could not count the times that people have asked me what ‘he descended into hell’ means. This and other similar points will be addressed as we proceed to look at the content of the creeds.

Fr Frank O’Loughlin

Published: 19 November 2023