To commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which began the formulation of the Nicene Creed that we recite during Mass on Sundays, Pope Leo XIV has written an apostolic letter “In Unitate Fidei” (“On the Unity of Faith”).

In this letter, the Holy Father writes: “For centuries, this enduring confession of faith has been the common heritage of Christians, and it deserves to be professed and understood in ever new and relevant ways” (#1).

To “profess our faith” means much more than simply to express it, to explain it, or even to attempt to persuade others about it. To profess it means to live it—to make it an integral part of who we are as women and men united in our faith in Jesus Christ.

Pope Leo invites us “to profess our faith” and to “understand it in ever new and relevant ways.” He challenges us to give profound personal witness in our daily lives to the truths that we profess whenever we recite the Nicene Creed. These truths are essential to our understanding of who God is, and of who we are as faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

According to Pope Leo, “the heart of the Christian faith” is the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Everything else either flows from this core belief or it further explains the implications of this profound statement of faith. The Holy Father insists that the ancient faith that we profess is not something outmoded or irrelevant.

“In these difficult times we are living, amid so many concerns and fears, threats of war and violence, natural disasters, grave injustices and imbalances, and the hunger and misery suffered by millions of our brothers and sisters,” Pope Leo writes, “this Creed gives us hope” (#2).

Why does the Creed give us hope? Because it describes God’s relationship to his creation (“the maker of all things visible and invisible”) and because it affirms that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (“begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father”) even as he is one with us—in all things but sin.

These two truths are fundamental to our understanding of Christian faith. As Pope Leo says:

“The Fathers of Nicaea were firm in their resolution to remain faithful to biblical monotheism and the authenticity of the Incarnation. They wanted to reaffirm that the one true God is not inaccessibly distant from us, but on the contrary has drawn near and has come to encounter us in Jesus Christ” (#5).

We believe in the one true God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and we profess Jesus, the Son of God, as our brother. Everything else flows from this. For an elaboration of these truths, we need only consult the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which builds on the Creed and provides us with an abundance of detailed information about its meaning.

As Christians, we strive to follow Jesus “as our master, companion, brother and friend” (#11). But as Pope Leo writes, “the Nicene Creed asks for more: it reminds us not to forget that Jesus Christ is the Lord [Kyrios], the Son of the living God who ‘for our salvation came down from heaven’ and died ‘for our sake’ on the cross, opening the way to new life for us through his resurrection and ascension” (#11).

Following the Lord necessarily entails embracing the way of the cross which, “through repentance, leads us to sanctification and divinization”—the fullness of human life in Christ (#11).

When we profess this ancient faith, we do much more than simply give lip service to the truths of our Creed. As the Holy Father teaches us:

“If God loves us with all his being, then we too must love one another. We cannot love God whom we do not see without loving our brother and sister whom we do see [cf. 1 Jn 4:20]. Love for God without love for neighbor is hypocrisy; radical love for our neighbor, especially love for our enemies, without love for God, requires a ‘heroism’ that would overwhelm and oppress us” (#11).

Next time we recite the Creed at Mass, let’s remember that as a profession of faith it commits us to live what we believe and, therefore, “in the face of disasters, wars and misery, [to] bear witness to God’s mercy to those who doubt him” so that they can “experience his mercy through us” (#11).
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †