Understanding the Eucharist

The Mass Series:

PART 6 – LITURGY OF THE WORD – CREED

Once the people of God have heard the Word of God, in the biblical readings, we stand up and we recite the Creed together.

And this is our way of saying “Yes, we believe the Word that we have heard. We put our trust in the God who has spoken to us.”

Now there are two Creeds that we use: one is the Creed of the Council of Nicea, which happened in 325AD so they’re very old words, the other one is the Apostles’ Creed we call it but it’s the baptismal creed used in the Church of Rome in the early centuries. They’re both similar in the sense that they say, we believe in God Father, Son and Spirit.

So we’re saying yes again to the Trinity. To the Communion of God here and now. The God who has called us into His own life. Who speaks to our heart. That we say yes to that God, in words that are very old but which are always new.

Some of the words are strange. We say, for instance, in the Council of Nicea’s creed that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. Very strange word. It just means that He is united perfectly to the Father. And to say something so unusual, we need an unusual word.

In the Apostles’ Creed we say something strange too, where we say that Jesus descended into the realm of the dead, we say descended into hell. Which sounds strange to our ears but what it means is, He goes into the dark world of the dead and floods that world with the light of Easter.

So some of the language is strange but at its heart the creed, whatever its form, is the same in every age and every place.

It’s God’s people saying yes to the God who speaks and yes to the word that we’ve heard here and now.

https://brisbanecatholic.org.au/beliefs-and-works/mass/