A Conversation About the Creed

 We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, 
of all that is visible and invisible....

Last night, during a meeting of RCIA, a class for those entering into the Catholic church, we had a video on the opening phrase of the Nicene Creed, formulated in 325 AD.  Catholics pray the Nicene Creed at Mass.  During the following discussion, one of the participants said, "We all believe the same thing; why keep shoving it down our throats again and again?"

I came home after the meeting and reflected long into the night:  is it really important to talk about the Nicene Creed, and if so, why is it important?

Immediately, two conversations came to mind.  The first was from a long-time friend, who said to me one day: "  I don't believe Jesus was divine; I think He just came from generations of a good family, and He was put to death because what He said made people mad."  This friend was raised in a Catholic family and attended Catholic grade school and high school.  So much for all of us believing the same thing!

The second conversation occurred in Jerusalem, in the Garden of Olives, looking across the valley at the Golden Gate and the Temple Mount.  The slope on that side of the valley is crowded with graves of both Jews and Christians who believe that when the Messiah comes (or returns), He will enter Jerusalem through the Golden Gate, and the dead will come out of their tombs to greet Him.  I mentioned that I would like to see the day when all those graves open and the dead arise.  The person to whom I was speaking, a lifelong Catholic, casually remarked, "Oh, I don't believe anything is going to happen to our bodies."  I was shocked into silence, as I thought of all the years this person has been attending Mass and saying the Nicene Creed at every Mass she attended:  I believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

If it is indeed true that "we all believe the same thing" (and I am no longer sure that it is), then it is true only in our Western culture.  I recently returned from a trip to Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.  In that part of the world, in every city, the main attractions are the royal palaces, the Buddhist temples, and the Hindu temples --- all of which are filled with representatives of what they call "demons" and "gods."  In Buddhism, there is no mention of God, and Buddha himself is not considered a god, but only "enlightened," having risen to an extraordinary level of purification from the pollution of the world.

The "demons" in the Royal Palace of Bangkok are "mostly good, but maybe a little bad," according to the guide with a smile.  "Sort of the like the Greek gods?" I asked.  "Yes," she said, "they are protective spirits that guard the palace, and you don't want to anger them."  In one of the Vietnamese Hindu  temples, we climbed many, many steps (getting closer to heaven) to observe first of a kind of ziggurat (to get even closer to heaven) and then multiple mini-temples, or small shrines, each of which was dedicated to and housed a different diety.  According to one of our guides, Hinduism has 333 million dieties, so only the important ones have their own shrines.  In each shrine, Buddhist or Hindu, the visitor is required to remove both hat and shoes before entering.

When visiting a Catholic church in Vietnam, we were also required to remove our shoes and hats --- and then it struck me, "O no!  This is just one shrine among many.  To them, this is another temple, and one must show respect to whichever god inhabits the temple."  I finally realized the challenge of St. Francis Xavier and the other missionaries to tried to Christianize the Far East!

And I finally understood why the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church must have a creed, beginning with "I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth....."  To say those words in the countries I have visited could be very dangerous indeed!