(S5-12-13)

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The Creed a.k.a The Profession of Faith: I believe in God

This section used in RCIA_Stuff

Opening Prayer

Hand out Mass cards and all pray the Profession of Faith

references/resources

Content

The Creed

  • Creed from the Latin Credo meaning "I believe"
  • Two Creeds
  • Development of Creeds (Tanner, 21-25), Apostles at Jerusalem, Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople
    • Apostles Creed
      • The Apostles Creed is attributed to the teachings of the Apostles.
      • The CCC uses the twelve articles of the Apostles Creed as its paradigm for presenting the faith (Part One Section Two)
    • Nicene-Constantinople Creed
      • The Nicene Creed was produced by the Council of Nicea I (325) Which was convoked to combat the heresy of Arius, who basically denied the divinity of Christ.
      • Pronounced that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial" or "one in being" with the Father.
      • Later, at the Council of Constantinople (381), the Creed was expanded to clearly define the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The new creed was called the Nicene-Constantinople Symbol was introduced into the Mass about the year 500.
  • Four sections to the creed: Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Church

I Believe

  • We are now in the Year of Faith
  • Faith as a theological virtue
  • “Religious belief” is faith… the one believed…and the message are one and the same, Jesus Christ. (Pieper VI)
  • Both a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. It is this revelation of God which the Church proposes for our belief, and which we profess in the Creed, celebrate in the sacraments, live by right conduct that fulfills the twofold commandment of charity (as specified in the ten commandments), and respond to in our prayer of faith. Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as grace, and an obligation which flows from the first commandment of God (26, 142, 150, 1814, 2087).
  • Faith and Reason Fides et ratio John Paul II, overview article
    • “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves” (n. 1).
    • Truth is known through a combination of faith and reason. The absence of either one will diminish man’s ability to know himself, the world and God (n. 16). Human reason seeks the truth, but the ultimate truth about the meaning of life cannot be found by reason alone (n. 42).
    • Faith
      • By the revelation of Jesus Christ, God has made the truth accessible to every man and woman. Jesus Christ is not only the revelation of God to man, he is also the revelation of man to himself. In the mystery of the Incarnate Word, man can understand himself. Christ "reveals man to himself and makes clear his supreme calling, which is to share in the divine mystery of the life of the Trinity" (n. 13). Man shares in this mystery on earth through grace and in heaven by direct contemplation of God.
      • Faith is man's obedient response to God's revelation (n. 13).
    • Reason
      • Man can know that God exists by reflecting on creation.
      • Man must depend to a great extent on others as source of knowledge. He is unable to factually verify even a small part of his knowledge himself. Therefore, he must trust in the veracity of those who teach him. “This means that the human being – the one who seeks the truth – is also the one who lives by belief” (n. 31).
    • The Interaction between Faith and Reason
      • Philosophy is the study of ultimate truth under the natural light of reason.
      • Theology is the study of the Catholic faith with revelation as its first principles. The purpose of theology is to permit a greater understanding of the faith so that it can be grasped more firmly (n. 93).
      • Reason supports faith and philosophy supports theology in the following ways:
        1. Reason prepares the way to faith.
        2. Reason can show that that there is a God and can demonstrate his primary attributes such as his power and divinity. Reason lays the foundation for faith and makes revelation “credible.” Reason is thus the common ground between believers and unbelievers.
        3. Faith without reason withers into myth or superstition. Deprived of reason, faith is left with only feelings and experience. It loses its universality (n. 48).
        4. Philosophy provides a language for theology. Its concepts and patterns of thought permit theology to have a logical structure and to be a true science (n. 65). For example, while the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist is to be believed as a matter of faith, theology attempts to make it more understandable in terms of substance, accidents, transubstantiation, etc. Philosophical language permits theology to speak about God, the personal relations within the Trinity, God’s creative activity in the world, the relationship between man and God, and Christ’s identity as true God and true man, to take a few examples (n. 66).
  • Faith is manifest in "Acts of Faith"
    • Listen to Noah: Right by Bill Cosby - Talk about the belief in God and the act of faith
    • A Man for All Seasons. Bolt, R. Act II, Chapter 20 "Ending a Friendship" 1:19 “ For me it has to be for that's myself. Only God is love right through and that's myself. I would not give in because I oppose it – I – not my in my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites, but I…”
    • The "yes" of Mary

in one God

  • monotheism, pantheism, polytheism
    • We believe in one God because, according to the testimony of Sacred Scripture, there is only one God and, according to the laws of logic, there can be only one [200-202,228]. If there were two gods, then the one god would be a limit on the other; neither of the two would be infinite, neither one perfect.
  • trinity
  • Christians don not worship three different Gods, but one single Being, that is threefold and yet remains one. We know that God is triune from Jesus Christ: He, the Son, speaks about his Father in heaven (I and the Father are one, JN 10:30). He prays to him and sends the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and the Son. This is why we are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19). Source: YOUCAT

the Father

  • We revere God as Father first of all because he is the Creator and cares lovingly for his creatures. Jesus, the Son f God, has taught us, furthermore, to regard his Father as our Father and to address him as "our Father".
  • In human experience, father and mother stand for origin and authority, for what is protective and supportive. Jesus Christ shows us what God the Father is really like: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9)
  • In the parable the prodigal son, Jesus address the most profound human longings fo a merciful father.

almighty

  • For God nothing is impossible (Lk 1:37)

maker of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible

  • God created the world out of nothing.

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of is willed, each of us loved, each of us is necessary. Pope Benedict XVI, April 24, 2005

  • This theological (theos = God, logos = meaning) principal is not inconsistent with the theory of evolution (latin evolutio = unfolding, development). Viewed from a Christian perspective, evolution takes place as God's continuous creation in natural processes.
  • Good theologians don't do science and good scientists don't do theology.
  • Evolution presupposes the existence of something that can develop. The theory says nothing about where this "something" came from.
  • creationism - The creation account is not a scientific model for explaining the beginning or the world. "God created the world" is a theological statement that is concerned with the relation of the world to God. God willed the world; he sustains it and will perfect it. Being created is a lasting quality in things and the fundamental truth about them.

Closing Prayer

The Return of the Prodigal Son photo
The Return of the Prodigal Son Guided Meditation

Terms

Cultural Applications

  • Rembrandt – The Prodigal Son (see closing prayer)
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