The Creed—What We Believe and Live

At Mass on Sundays, after the Homily we profess the Catholic Faith, saying the Nicene Creed. In Latin, it is known as the Credo, which literally means “I believe.” The formula we use at Mass is taken from the Professions of Faith from the great Church Councils of Nicea (A.D. 325) and Constantinople (A.D. 381). It was at these and other great Councils where the greatest minds of the saints and bishops of the early Church debated and worked together under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to put into words the great truths of the Catholic Faith.
           
Compared to other texts of the Sacred Liturgy, the Creed may be seen as a mere statement of academic expression. Nothing could be further than the truth! The Creed is the response to the attacks of heresies on the truths of the Faith and the clarifying work of the Holy Spirit inspiring souls to seek and understand God’s revelation about the Blessed Trinity; the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the Paschal Mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection; and the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
           
In the early centuries of the Church, men and women died for the Faith expressed in the Creed. They shed their blood as martyrs for their belief in and their love for Jesus Christ, His heavenly Father, and the bond of love known as the Holy Spirit. They laid down their lives in the Colosseum in Rome and in many other places in the Roman Empire out of love for the Lord Jesus and His Mystical Body the Church. We could say that there is much drama in the dogma expressed in the Creed. Much blood, tears, faith and love have been part of the formulation and profession of the Creed that we recite at Sunday Mass.
           
The next time we stand and take up the Creed again at Mass, let us remind ourselves that we do so in communion with all those holy souls of the first centuries and, in fact, every century of the Church, professing the Faith that God Himself has revealed to us and that the Church safeguards until Our Lord Jesus Christ returns at the end of time.
           
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh