The following text is the transcript of our Youtube video What do Catholics actually believe?.
The act of summarising the truths that one believes is called the “profession of faith” and since the earliest times of the Church, Catholics, or simply Christians as we were known in the past, have come up with formulas which describe the chief truths of the faith.
Such a formula, made up of a number of statements or articles, gradually became known as a “creed”, which comes from the Latin word “Credo” meaning “I believe”. The other name for this was “symbol” meaning “a sign” because by the recital of the Creed, one signifies to others one’s beliefs.
The most famous of Creeds is known as the Apostles’ Creed, and it goes as follows:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and of earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Although we can’t be absolutely sure that this Creed in its current form was recited at the time of the Apostles, it is nonetheless extremely ancient and dates back to at least the 2nd century in the older Roman form.
What we can be absolutely sure of, and what the Catholic Church teaches, is that all of the truths contained in the Creed are the same truths believed and taught by the Apostles themselves.
Two other well-known creeds exist - these are the Nicene Creed, formulated at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and the Athanasian Creed, which is named after St Athanasius, because it deals principally with the doctrine of the Trinity which that Saint defended against the heretic Arius.
However, what I’m more interested in right now, rather than the specific history of how each Creed came to be, is the fact that a common Creed still exists, and that this Creed signifies a deeper Faith that all true Catholics adhere to.
In previous videos I’ve talked about how Faith is a theological virtue (by which I mean that it is a divine gift from God) and how you have to believe every single one of the truths of the faith in order to be a Catholic.
But in that case, surely the Creed is insufficient, because it omits many truths that the Catholic Church obliges one to believe, such as the immaculate conception of Mary, the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, or the nature of Sanctifying Grace?
Well, this is a valid objection, but again it’s nothing new for the Church and instead of answering this myself I will quote St Augustine, who said the following in his discourse “On Faith and the Creed”:
We have, however, the Catholic Faith in the Creed, known to the faithful and committed to memory, contained in a form of expression as concise as has been rendered admissible by the circumstances of the case; the purpose of which was, that individuals who are but beginners and sucklings among those who have been born again in Christ, and who have not yet been strengthened by most diligent and spiritual handling and understanding of the divine Scriptures, should be furnished with a summary, expressed in few words, of those matters of necessary belief which were subsequently to be explained to them in many words, as they made progress and rose to [the height of] divine doctrine, on the assured and steadfast basis of humility and charity.
In essence, what St Augustine is telling us is that the purpose of the Creed is not to express every single truth of the faith, but to provide a summary of those articles which are necessary for all Christians to believe explicitly, and that these truths must still be subsequently deepened by each of us in diligent study and meditation on divine revelation.
Just as the principles of a science contain implicitly many conclusions that are later deduced, so too the articles of the Creed contain in germ many other doctrines that the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has more explicitly defined over time.
For example, the article “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary” implies the special sanctity of Our Lady, from which follows the Immaculate Conception. Likewise, “the communion of saints”, “the resurrection of the body” and “life everlasting” imply the doctrine of Sanctifying Grace, which unites the faithful to God.
However, the actual source of these doctrines is emphatically not the Creed itself, but rather divine revelation contained in Holy Scripture and Tradition. Thus in St John chapter six, we learn from Our Lord’s own mouth that he is “the living bread which came down from heaven” and that “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you”.
To summarise, the Creed is a concise and authoritative statement of the fundamental truths of the Catholic faith, but it is not an exhaustive catalogue of all that the Church teaches. The Church, guided by the Holy Ghost, has over time defined and clarified doctrines that were always implicitly present in the faith handed down by the Apostles.
Thus, when a Catholic is asked “What do you believe?”, the Creed provides a simple and reliable foundation for an answer, but ultimately one’s understanding of the doctrines of the Faith must be continually deepened through study and prayer over the course of one’s entire life - an understanding that we will only fully attain in Heaven through the Beatific Vision.
In the words of St Paul:
We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.
Let me end with the final words of St Augustine’s discourse on the Creed:
these few words are known to the faithful, to the end that in believing they may be made subject to God; that being made subject, they may rightly live; that in rightly living, they may make the heart pure; that with the heart made pure, they may understand that which they believe.
That’s all for this episode. I know it’s been a while since I last uploaded, so for all my returning viewers, thanks for sticking with me and I hope that you found this video interesting.
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