Most every Christian denomination in the world today accepts the Nicene Creed. It is one of the great, abiding bonds of unity between Catholic and Protestant, and between the Orthodox East and the Western Christians. And here we are at the 1700th anniversary. What a grace! What a gift! What a sign of life in the Mystical Body of Christ!
By Chris Sparks
In one of the greatest Dad jokes of his early pontificate, the first American pope is going to Turkey today, Thanksgiving Day.
It's the Holy Father's first apostolic journey outside of Italy. He will be in Turkey until the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30 (also the First Sunday of Advent), and then fly to Lebanon. Among the highlights there: visits to the tomb of St. Charbel Maklūf at the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya, and the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa. He returns to Italy on Dec. 2.
Two important documents
Ahead of the trip, the Holy Father released an apostolic letter, In Unitate Fidei (On the 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea), recalling the history of the doctrinal controversy that prompted that ancient, foundational ecumenical council.
Indeed, it was the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea that had made the late Pope Francis schedule a papal trip to Turkey in the first place.
In seemingly unrelated news, this week the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released a document on monogamy, targeted at addressing concerns of the African cardinals as they seek to bring a transition from polygamy to monogamy in certain of the societies on that continent, and also aimed at the rise of polyamorous relationships in the West.
For Christ and His Church
Seemingly unrelated, I said. And yet when you realize that St. Paul treated the relationships of husband and wife in light of Christ’s relationship to the Church, well, you see that these documents are inseparable.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
"For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.”
This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband (Eph 5:25-33).
The Church, you see, is meant to be visibly, clearly, solidly one. One Bride for one Bridegroom. That was Christ’s original intent. Rather as God’s original intent for marriage was modeled in Adam and Eve before the fall — one man for one woman. But sadly, we fell, and so God’s mercy saw the giving of laws to accommodate our fallen state, at least for a time (see Mt 19:8).
Sadly, the Church has suffered schism and rupture across 2,000 years, and so there exist bishops and branches of the Church that are not in full, unimpaired communion with the Holy Father.
Bonds of unity
For a time, God has accommodated an apparent disunity. The Church remains one, metaphysically and spiritually, but many of those bonds of unity are operating in spite of apparent disunity:
This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Savior, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as "the pillar and mainstay of the truth". This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity (Lumen Gentium, 8).
We pray that all may someday be visibly one again. And a crucial contributor to finding that sort of visible unity again will be keeping the first things first.
One, holy, Catholic, and apostolic
We often forget that the most important parts of our Christianity are in the Nicene creed, not in a politician’s platform. We often overlook that what makes us Christian is our faith in Jesus Christ, and therefore in His Church, not our attachment to party or partisan spirit. The Holy Spirit brings sinners to life, makes brothers out of enemies, and brings the Church to integral life.
Because of the Holy Spirit as its life, the Church is indefectible; the Magisterium is the privileged interpreter of Scripture and Tradition. That means we Catholics have obligations of obedience, of religious submission of mind and will, that many of us may find uncomfortable.
Right and wrong
And yet, “The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age,” said G.K. Chesterton in The Catholic Church and Conversion. Elsewhere in the same work, he wisely acknowledged, “We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.”
The Church redirects our attention from what seems important to us as wounded human beings living in a fallen, yet still beautiful and good, world — power, money, sex, and so forth. The Church guides us again and again to keep our gaze fixed on Christ, and Him crucified (see 1 Cor 2:2). The Church holds together around her creeds, even when other bonds have broken.
Most every Christian denomination in the world today accepts the Nicene Creed. It is one of the great, abiding bonds of unity between Catholic and Protestant, and between the Orthodox East and the Western Christians. And here we are at the 1700th anniversary. What a grace! What a gift! What a sign of life in the Mystical Body of Christ! What a sign of the strength of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Gospel to transform lives and societies, and a promise of the power of our proclamation of the Gospel today!
The pilgrim road ahead
The way forward is together with Peter, with the Holy Father and the other successors to the Apostles, all in communion. The way forward is the same as it was at Nicaea, with our gaze fixed on Christ Jesus, with the determination to persist in faith, hope, and love, in prayer, Word, and Sacrament, in Works of Mercy done as part of our worship of God. Love God, and you will learn to love all that He loves — neighbors, enemies, friends, family, separated brethren, all.
Pray for the Holy Father, for our Eastern Orthodox brethren, and our separated brethren of all denominations or groups. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the whole Body of Christ to be visibly, obviously “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic” in the world today.
With prayer, all things are possible!
Illustration: Shutterstock.com.
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