I believe in Jesus Christ…

In both the creeds we use at Mass immediately after professing faith in the one God, there follows belief in Jesus Christ. In the world of the time, there were many ‘lords’, and over against all of these Jesus is spoken of as the ‘one Lord Jesus Christ’. This is expressed much more simply in the Apostles’ Creed but in the Nicene Creed, it gets a considerable expansion: “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.”

The significance of those words has its context in the 4th century which was the time when this creed was written. At that time, there was a strong movement called Arianism which denied that Christ was divine. They considered that Christ was very close to God and very like God but not himself divine. Many people found that this was easier to believe than to believe that Christ was not only human but divine. A long term controversy arose and later some among the Emperors at the time followed the Arian belief. It was at the Council of Nicaea in 325 that the traditional faith in Christ was strongly affirmed. There remained considerable disagreement after the Council which resulted in other Councils being called to deal further with the same issue. There were a number of misunderstandings in all these controversies but the central issue of Christ’s being both human and divine was really being questioned. It is also a question which is not rare today. We need to find new ways to give expression to this same crucial Mystery of our faith. Cardinal Newman thought that what really brought the Church through this controversy was the constant faith of the People of God.

It was at this time that the creed began to be said during Mass in the Eastern part of the Church to instill into the people faith in Christ as both human and divine.

In our next instalment we will look at some of the terminology in this part of the creed.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin

Published: 23 February 2024