The Church hands on the Apostles’ confession of faith.
YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the
Catholic Church Lesson 25
Ave Maria Series
Section Two—The Christian Profession
of Faith
25. Why does the faith require definitions and
formulas?
Faith is not about empty words but about reality. In the Church, condensed formulas of faith (such
as the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed, etc.) developed over the course of
time; with their help we can contemplate, express, learn, hand on, celebrate,
and live out this reality. [170-174]
A Philippine woman folds her hands in
prayer after receiving Communion during Mass.
CNS photo by Nancy Wiechec. ….. 25
Without fixed forms, the content of the faith would
dissipate. That is why the Church
attaches great importance to definite sentences, the precise wording of which
was usually achieved painstakingly, so as to protect the message of Christ from
misunderstandings and falsifications.
Furthermore, creeds are important when the Church’s faith has to be
translated into different cultures while being preserved in its essentials,
because a common faith is the foundation for the Church’s unity.
“The Church…guards (this preaching and faith) with care, as
dwelling in but a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one
soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches, and hands on this faith with a
unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth.” St. Irenaeus of Lyon (ca. 135-202, Father of
the Church
[170-174]
170 We do not believe in formulas, but in those
realities they express, which faith allows us to touch. "The believer's
act [of faith] does not terminate in the propositions, but in the realities
[which they express] (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, 1, 2, ad 2.)."56
All the same, we do
approach these realities with the help of formulations of the faith which
permit us to express the faith and to hand it on, to celebrate it in community,
to assimilate and live on it more and more. --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
171 The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of
the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which was once for all
delivered to the saints". She guards the memory of Christ's words; it is
she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles' confession of
faith (1 Timothy 3:15; Jude 1:3).57 As a mother who teaches her children
to speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our Mother teaches us
the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the
life of faith. --CCC
172 Through the centuries, in so many
languages, cultures, peoples and nations, the Church has constantly confessed
this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded
in the conviction that all people have only one God and Father (Compare
Ephesians 4:4-6).58 St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a witness of this
faith, declared:
173 "Indeed, the Church, though scattered
throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the
faith from the apostles and their disciples. . . guards [this
preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and
similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches,
teaches and hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only
one mouth."(St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 1,10,1-2:Patrologia
Graeca 7/1,549-552.)59 -–CCC
174 "For
though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is
one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or
Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of
the East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the center of the
world. . .
"(St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 1,10,1-2:Patrologia
Graeca 7/1,549-553.)60 The Church's message "is true and
solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole
world (St. Irenaeus of Lyons)."( St.
Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 5,20,1:Patrologia Graeca 7/2,1177.) 61 --CCC
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