By praying the prayer of the Creed, during liturgical celebrations, at Mass or even at home, the Christian makes a profession of faith. This prayer, also called Creed either apostles symbolcollects the main elements of Christianity: the trinitarian godbut also notions like communion of saints, The resurrection of the flesh… These mysteries can be difficult to understand, do we really understand them when we pray this prayer? Let’s take each phrase and see the meaning of these different terms!
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Understand the prayer of the Creed
The symbol of the apostles is composed of 12 sentences.
I believe in God, the Almighty Father, creator of heaven and earth.
This first sentence reminds us that God is the creator, as we see in the Old Testament, but also the Father, as we understand its full importance with the New Testament. This echoes the prayer that Jesus taught us: the Our Father.
And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord;
We believe that Jesus (God saves) is Christ, the “Anointed One” of God, the Messiah of whom the Scriptures speak to us and we recognize him as our Lord, our God. Jesus is not simply the Son of God, that is, close to God, but he is the only son of God: “true God born of true God.”
In the symbol of Nicaea the idea of consubstantiality with “born of the Father before all centuries” is added.
who was conceived by the work and grace of the Holy Spirit,
The divine nature of Christ is affirmed. He was not “created” like men or the elements of the Earth, but “begotten” by the Father. Therefore, he is “of the same nature” as Him.
born of the Virgin Mary,
Immediately after having affirmed his divine nature, we affirm that he is also the Son of Man, that he has fully assumed our human condition. He is God made man.
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
This phrase inscribes Jesus more than ever in our humanity:
- For the mention of Pontius Pilate that allows us to date the life of Jesus and thus inscribe it in our history. It is not a legend but a fact.
- By acknowledging their sufferings; He assumed our entire human condition, including the suffering of the body and the heart to stay with us until the end.
He was crucified, dead and buried.
The mystery of his passion is an essential element of faith. It is through the cross and through his death that Jesus saves men. It is this dedication of his to the end that proves his infinite love for us.
descended into hell,
He went down to the world of the dead. He came to save men of all generations, those who preceded him and those who will follow.
On the third day he rose from the dead
This phrase echoes the sacred texts in remembering the three days and affirms the great mystery and heart of Christianity: the resurrection. Jesus conquered death and by his gift of love saves from death all who believe in him.
ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
These phrases evoke the ascension and the return of the Son to the Father, as well as the final judgment. In fact, it is to God that Jesus brings us “I’m the way, the truth and the life” (John 14; 6). He prepares the place in the Kingdom of God for those who believe in Him.
I believe in the Holy Spirit.
We affirm our belief in the third person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit who is God and his presence on earth: through the prophets (in the Nicene symbol), the saints and each Christian who receives him on the day of his baptism.
the holy catholic church,
We profess our faith in the Church, body of Christ and universal (here, meaning of the word catholic, in the protestant version of the Creed the term universal is used).
the communion of saints,
The Christian does not live his faith alone; The fullness of the relationship with God is in the relationship with the other (the Trinitarian God is a God of relationship) and in the communion between men. Furthermore, the Church of Christ is not only made up of Christians on earth, but also of all God’s people, especially those who have gone before us.
forgiveness of sins,
We believe that Jesus died for our salvation, for the forgiveness of our sins. Through Him, sign of God’s infinite mercy, we are washed from our sins.
The resurrection of the flesh
and eternal life Amen
Thanks to Jesus, we are the people of the living. Death is just a passage and we are called to eternal life in which each of us will be resurrected in his “flesh” (the word flesh did not have the same meaning at that time; it is about the very essence of each being).
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