If I were to ask you what significant event took place in Christianity 1700 years ago this year, I hope you would take time to do the math and come up with the year 325. That was the year that Church leaders gathered in Nicaea (near Constantinople) to discuss a number of matters including (most importantly) a Creed that sought to define the essential common foundations on which to build local Christian communities that would recognized each other as sister churches, each respecting the diversity of the other. Disputes and disagreements had arisen in previous decades over such things as the nature of Christ in relation to the Father, the question of a single date to celebrate Easter, and opposition to theological opinions that were considered heretical, and how to re-integrate believers who had abandoned the faith during the years of persecution before the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be not only allowed but favored by the empire. During the Council, a significant number of Council Fathers argued against belief in the divinity of Christ. These came to be called Arians after its original proponent, a priest named Arius. Due to the efforts of Church Fathers such as Athanasius and Nicholas, the divinity of Christ was ultimately accepted as dogma and was a key part of the Nicean Creed. The approved text originally (and for the longest time when we recited it at Mass) was in the first person plural as it started out: "We believe.... This form emphasized the unity of belief of Christians (something that we need to pray for always especially during the annual "Week of Christian Prayer for Unity" from January 18-25). We are all aware (I hope) that the Creed is divided into three parts dedicated to the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Interestingly, the original Nicene Creed concluded with condemnations of affirmations that were considered heretical. The Creed was revised and expanded at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD at which time the condemnations were removed. So what we often profess at weekend Masses should rightly be called the Nicene-Constantinople Creed.

I would encourage you to make the time (maybe before Mass) and reflect a little at a time on what we believe about God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the rest of what is contained in this most ancient and important document of the Church. Then pray that every baptized believer takes everything in it to heart and strives to share it with others with conviction, living out the hopes that it gives to us beyond the life we live in this world!