My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 

As we conclude our reflections on the Council of Nicaea held 1,700 years ago in the year 325, the last paragraph the Nicene Creed says, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

These four characteristics — one, holy, catholic and apostolic — are inseparably linked with each other and indicate the essential features of the Church and her mission as established by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:

“The Church is one because of her source: ‘the highest exemplar and source of this mystery is the unity, in the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.’ The Church is one because of her founder: for ‘the Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross,  ….restoring the unity of all in one people and one body.’ The Church is one because of her ‘soul’: “It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church’s unity.’ Unity is of the essence of the Church” (CCC 813).

While, as St. Paul says, charity “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14), the unity of the one true Church is also assured by visible bonds of communion:

• profession of one faith received from the Apostles;
• common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;
• apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders (CCC 815).

“The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it … . This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” (CCC 816).

Unfortunately, the unity of the one and only Church of God from its very beginnings has been wounded by heresies and rifts. In subsequent centuries “much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church” (CCC 817). We must continue to pray for the grace to overcome these division and strive for the unity that Christ desires in fulfillment of his prayer that “all may be one” (John 17:21).

The Church is holy because “Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as ‘alone holy,’ loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; He joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God” (CCC 823).

The word “catholic” means “universal,” The Church is catholic in a double sense: “First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. ‘Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.’ In her subsists the fullness of Christ’s body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him ‘the fullness of the means of salvation’ which He has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession … . Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race” (CCC 83-831).

The word “apostle” is derived from classical Greek apóstolos, meaning “one who is sent.” “The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways:

• she was and remains built on ‘the foundation of the Apostles,’ the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;
• with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching … from the apostles;
• she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ’s return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, ‘assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church’s supreme pastor’” (CCC 857).

We say that we “confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins” because “Our Lord tied the forgiveness of sins to faith and Baptism: ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved.’ Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, so that ‘we too might walk in newness of life’” (CCC 857).

This leads to the final affirmation of our faith: “Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. ‘The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead’” (CCC 991). Being raised from the dead implies that there is “life of the world to come,” namely, heaven or hell, or purgatory as a temporary stage of purgation or purification on the way to heaven.

The Creed, like the last book of the Bible, ends with the Hebrew word amen. Because it comes at the end of our prayers, it sounds like a period at the end of the sentence: “Amen.” Prayer is over! No, it is much more than that! In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word “believe.” So when we say, “Amen,” we are affirming that we believe everything that we just said. Thus the Creed’s final “Amen” repeats and confirms its first words: “I believe.” 

May God give us this grace. Amen.