WHERE THE HEART IS: THE CREED

The word creed comes from two latin words: dare = to give + cor = the heart. To believe is to give over the heart, the organ where understanding and feeling reside. Saint Augustine said: "You understand so that you may believe my word; you believe so that you may understand the Word of God." The Assembly who believes in the Word of God knows that word on a level quite different from the scholar who studies the Bible, yet does not believe. The Assembly knows on a level of commitment.

After the homily the Assembly spends a moment in silence so that the Word of God may enter their hearts more deeply. Then the Assembly stands for the Creed because the action itself indicates what the Church stands for. We believe...we hand over our hearts to God in words that are accurate, accepted and approved expression of the Assembly's faith. The Creed is a kind of shorthand. Its statements are topical, i.e., they simply state what becomes our expanded understanding of the mystery of God. our understanding of Jesus Christ, and our understanding of the Holy Spirit. In addition, the ecumenical creed of Nicea-Constantinople, the one we are most familiar with, states our belief in the church, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. In short, the Creed sums up what we stand for as Church.

The early Church knew a simple creed: Jesus is Lord. The Roman ritual of Saint Justin (c. 150 C.E.) does not refer to any credal prayer. He says that, after the homily, the Assembly offers intercessory/petition prayers, the gifts are presented, and the great prayer of thanks is offered by the presider. Justin includes no creed because the Nicea-Constantinople Creed is a product of the fourth century (381 C.E.). It took that long for the Church to hammer out its belief as the Church faced various third and fourth century controversies, vocabularies, and unacceptable alternate possibilities of belief.

The Creed was initially connected with baptism and the catechumenate. As candidates were coming close to the baptismal event, the Creed was handed over to them so that they could memorize it. Memorizing causes persons to internalize the words. Then, immediately before the Easter night, candidates would have recited the Creed back to the Bishop as a sign of their readiness for regeneration in the lovely laver of baptismal bath.

Singing or speaking the Creed came into the Roman liturgy from Antioch in the 5th century. When the Assembly uses the Creed on Sundays, solemnities, and major feasts, it hymns the story of salvation. Since the reforms of 1969 the formulation of the Creed was either in longer, narrative form or in question and answer form.

Sometimes the Creed has been omitted because of length in a liturgy that is already very verbal. Othertimes it seems as if it breaks the ritual flow from the homily to the prayer of the faithful. Occasionally it is connected with some other sacramental response to the Word of God, e.g., the baptism of infants, children, or adults, or the blessing of catechumens or confirmation candidates. Adaptation is not based on whim. Three criteria are used to make prudent and responsible adaptation: what is the theology, what is the history, and what is the pastoral practice that is fitting?

Creed leads to confession. What a church believes is proclaimed in its worship and witnessed to in its public service.