A purity no mind can grasp.

depositumfidei:

As Catholics, we keep getting asked questions. Many times, we don’t have the answers to these questions. Why do we pray to the saints or the Virgin Mary? Is Jesus God? Is the Holy Spirit God? What do we believe in? Well, when Catholics go to church, we all profess our faith in a statement called the Nicene Creed. This creed has been in existence since the early years of the Church, and to this day, it is still said amongst Catholics, as well as other Christian denominations, in their respective church services. Here’s how it goes.

We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation, He came down from Heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day, He rose again, in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Through the Father and Son, He is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Let’s break it down, just to clarify what it is that we, as Catholics, are about.

“We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen.”
- Catholics believe that there is only one God, one who created the universe. We believe that He is the creator of the cosmos and the stars and skies beyond our face-to-face comprehension (Heaven), as well as the materials and creatures that we can see and comprehend, such as the seas, mountains, and creatures, including humans (Earth). We believe that God is the creator of everything that we can see within our human perception (the tangible), as well as supernatural and metaphysical existences that we can only understand so much about (spirituality, afterlife, etc) in our finite lives here on Earth.

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through Him all things were made.”
- In here, we are describing the center of our faith, the person and divinity that is Jesus, the Christ (anointed one), who we believe is the medium between God and man, the connection between divinity and humanity. When we say that Jesus is the only Son of God, we describe, in the next few lines, as to what we mean by that: Jesus is the only being whose essence is exactly identical to that of the one God who created us. Jesus is not so much a new creation from God as He is an extension of God in the form of a human being. Because Jesus is God, He holds the same power and divinity as the Father that was previously mentioned.Therefore, through Him (Jesus), all things were made. 

“For us men and for our salvation, He came down from Heaven.”
- We believe that Christ saved us from the human condition, as he helped bridge the gap between God and us humans that was created from the Fall of Man, as referred to in the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis. Notice the subtle wording here: God came down from Heaven in human form not as a result of some whimsical purpose, but for the sole purpose of man’s salvation. At the very least, this implies the humility of Jesus the divine person, as well as the love of God - a love that God the Father has for His creations, in that He wants them to be united with Him up in Heaven. A love so crazy that He will send an extension of Himself and downgrade from His divinity in order to make this union with Himself and His creations possible.

“By the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”
- This part now introduces two more characters in this epic story: the Holy Spirit, and Mary. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Holy Trinity, Jesus was born through a woman named Mary. It is through the Holy Spirit that the physically impossible (a virgin birth) is made possible. This also implies something special about the woman in this story. It is impossible, like I mentioned earlier, for a virgin to give birth. But out of all virgins to choose, God chose Mary, so she must be something special, which I’ll touch upon in another blog.

“For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day, He rose again, in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.”
-  For the sake of man’s sins that have accumulated over the period of human existence, Jesus had to suffer under the hands of a Roman prefect, Pontius Pilatus. Under pressure from the Pharisees, Pontius Pilatus had Jesus tortured and eventually crucified, with much reluctance. However, after three days of Jesus’s death, Jesus Himself had risen from his grave, possibly fulfilling prophecies mentioned in Jewish Scripture that indicates that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, a descendent of the line of David who will save the people of Israel. We believe that after Jesus rose from the dead, He eventually ascended into Heaven to take His throne amongst God the Father. We believe that on the last days of the Earth, Jesus will come down to judge the living and the dead, as to whether they will be with Him in Heaven, or away from Him in Hell. We believe that God’s kingdom is eternal, meaning that we could spend the rest of our second, imperishable lives in the presence of the God who loves us.

“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Through the Father and Son, He is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.”
- We, as Catholics, worship the Holy Spirit, another personality of God, you can say, who has been in existence and has been mentioned both before and after Jesus’s story.  He is the Giver of Life because it was through the Holy Spirit that Mary gave a virgin birth to Jesus.

“We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”
- Catholics believe in this big church that is meant to be universally acceptable to all cultures and regions of the world, (which is what “catholic” means - universal), as well as apostolic, meaning that the Church we belong to is derived directly from the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, who lived, breathed, and interacted with Him. 

“We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”
- We believe that a necessity for the cleaning of the stain that original sin left, which is the first sin ever committed by Adam and Eve, we believe that a baptism is necessary in order for total unity with God in both life and death to be possible, if not easier.

“We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world, to come.”
 - As Catholics, we believe that when Jesus comes back from Heaven, Jesus will physically raise the bodies of those who have died and give them back to the souls to whom it belongs to.

“Amen.”
- This is a declaration of affirmation. After we say these things, we hold them to be utter truth. 

Check out my Catholic blog. It’s my first post on it.