This Sunday at the 09h00 Mass, the members of the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults)
program will be brought forward to receive a copy of the Nicene Creed. They will pray this with
the faith community, after which the presider will pray over them the following prayer:
Lord God, source of light, justice and truth,
Take under your tender care your servants
on whom we lay hands in prayer.
Purify them and make them holy.
Give them true knowledge, sure hope, and sound understanding,
and make them worthy to receive the sacraments of the Church,
the channels of your grace.
We ask this though Christ our Lord.
The creed which they receive, and which we pronounce with them, is the summary of 400
years of theological debate and reflection on the experience of the Church, which only
concluded with the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. The Apostles Creed only received its final
form in the seventh century. Blood has literally been spilt in the drafting of the Creed, just as
blood has been spilt by the martyrs who upheld the faith of the Church with the witness of
their lives.
We who are cradle Catholics assume so much in an instinctive and non-reflective way. While
we rattle the words off like bullets coming from a machine gun, I suspect that we seldom
reflect on the truths contained therein. One of the ways for us to address this is by taking one
of the phrases contained in the creed and studying it. Where did it come from and how did it
take that form? Was that phrase the answer to an argument that we have long forgotten?
While this may seem a strange suggestion, also take the Apostles Creed and pray it. Read
through it slowly and stop when a word, phrase, or idea catches your attention. Ask the Lord, in
the words of the prayer above, to give you and each one of us true knowledge, sure hope, and
sound understanding.
This is our faith.
This is the faith of the Church, and we are proud to profess it though Christ, our Lord.
