To commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which formulated the 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, “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.”
Why does the Creed give us hope? Because it describes God’s relationship to his creation and because it affirms that Jesus Christ is the Son of God even as he is one with us — in all things but sin.
These two truths are fundamental to our understanding of Christian faith. We believe in the one true God, and we profess Jesus, the Son of God, as our brother. Everything else flows from this.
As Christians, we strive to follow Jesus “as our master, companion, brother and friend.”
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.”
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.
When we profess this ancient faith, we do much more than simply give lip service to the truths of our Creed. 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, as Pope Leo says, “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.”
Daniel Conway, a member of Holy Trinity Church, is a writer, consultant and stewardship educator.
