the Nicene Creed it's our belief that the basis of the Christian life is to be nice wrong that's not what the Nicene Creed is let's talk about what the Nicene Creed is let's pour some coffee on that the Nicene Creed is the part of the mass where everyone stands up after the homily and pronounces and professes our faith it's also that part that if I don't have the words of it right in front of me I'm gonna get nervous and I'm gonna mess up and everyone's everything's gonna crumble down because we're used to seeing it with each other and sometimes we get tripped up because it's so long why is it so long because it's the the fundamental basis of our faith we say it every week because we need to recognize and remind ourselves of what we believe now the first distinction between the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed is that the nice increase a little longer because it was formulated a little later in history the Apostles Creed obviously connected to the original apostles in the very very early church the Nicene Creed gets its name from a town in what's modern-day Turkey it's called Nicaea and so obviously there that's why we have the Nicene Creed it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to do with being nice okay now what was happening in Nicaea in the early 300s trivia question go did you say it I don't know I can't this isn't a two-way thing obviously the Council of Nicaea 325 and the council of nicaea made famous by the apocryphal history of arias being punched in the face by Saint Nicholas Santa Claus getting so mad at arias that he strikes him they were talking about Jesus's nature so one of the major differences between the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed is the extended part of it that talks about Jesus's nature as fully God and fully man so what I figured we do is go through the Creed point out not every single line and explain it but point out certain sections that are important and why we say what we do why do we say what we believe so it starts credo in Unum Deum I believe in one god credo I believe that's that's what we're saying in Latin and there was a distinction made from years ago in 2011 when we translated the mass from an older translation we used to say we believe but we went to I believe now this is to match the Latin but I think it actually has a spiritual dimension as well that obviously we're praying as a community as a group as a church but that church is made up of individuals an individual's profession I cannot profess for another adult I cannot make a stand for them they have to make a stand for themselves an analogy of this would be in marriage I went out when a couple's making vows and marriage they don't say we do they say I do they each say I do and the answer at the same time we're doing the same in the mass when we say the Creed an entire congregation says together I believe in one God the Father Almighty and that brings us to our next section the section that's extended about Jesus this is what it says I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God born of the father before all ages God from God light from light true God from True God that always stuck out to me and you might have be like why do we have to say these three different things these three different ways of saying the same thing because there was a question about whether Jesus was God part of the Trinity and so they answered it very definitively God from God light from light think about it like this when you light a candle from another candle the flame comes from that original flame but that original flame does not lose any of its vigor in so it's an analogy in which we're just bribing how the Sun could be God and part of the Trinity while not taking anything away from the Father hey there's no distinction between the origins of the light of the flame and yet they are distinct in some way kind of like the Trinity so let's move on to a later section of the Creed we say together for us men and for our salvation he meaning Jesus came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man why did I just bow forward because we do that at the mass recognizing the Incarnation there's a prayer in the church called the Angelus it's a record it's a remembering of that moment whenever the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and that's the Incarnation that's when Jesus took on flesh he became man we genuflect during that one section and the word became flesh because in that moment that not just God came down to us that he lifted us up to himself he opened up the ability to be in communion with him in a real physical way and so we jigna flecked at Mass normally we'd just do a bow but that's why we're bowing to recognize and honor the Incarnation for our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate there's not many people mentioned in the Creed by name and Pontius Pilate is one of them and we really wouldn't want to be mentioned in the way that Pontius Pilate was he is for all eternity at every mass every time someone recites a Creed recognizing that Pontius Pilate was part of killing Jesus part of Jesus's demise part of his death what that brings up into my own heart is that what are the ways in which we have sins of omission Pontius Pilate could have made a good decision and save Jesus from those who wanted to kill him he could have stepped in the breech but he did it it was the sin of omission almost that causes him to forever be remembered as personal part of Jesus's death so we move on further he will come again in glory to judge living in the dead and this kingdom will have no end this is very clear it's called the parasya the second coming that Jesus came who was incarnate at Christmas we celebrated every year in that moment 2,000 years ago actually entered into history and Jesus will once again actually enter into history there will be a second coming that is actually a belief that we have as Catholics and that his kingdom will have no end and so that heavenly kingdom is not something that will end one day is actually outside of time it will be outside of time so you know the guy I talked to the other day I encountered him at an event and he said is it bad I don't want to go to heaven I said yeah kinda and and I said why and he goes I'm scared of eternity I'm scared of forever and he was being really honest I would actually appreciate him because he's thinking more than most people think he's scared of being bored he's scared of day after day it came down to this I said you know heavens not groundhogs day you know groundhogs day with Bill Murray where he just wakes up and it's the same day over and over and he gets bored and he keeps doing crazy stuff heaven is not Groundhog's Day Groundhog Day is an endless cycle of endless days forever eternity heaven is outside of time it's in it's an experience of the present moment forever it's an immediate experience of now with God so you don't think of it as a really long time think of it as an eternal moment I believe in the Holy Spirit the Lord the giver of life who proceeds from the father and the son this is a controversial part of the Nicene Creed it's called the Filioque and it's really the basis of a long-standing debate between Eastern Christians Eastern Church and the Western Church of the Latin Church about whether the Holy Spirit proceeded just the father or from the father and the son I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church at these principles of the church one the church ought not be divided and should not be divided jesus said in John chapter 17 I pray father that they may be one as you and I are one that if we actually are going to be a good representation a good icon of the Trinity we can't be divided the father and the son are not fighting and yet Christian division Mars it's like taking the icon of God of the Trinity and just like scratching it up and we're just even ripping it in half crack it into it's a scandal because the church is one and ought to be one the church ought to be holy again she is but individual people not being holding not holding up their vocation or fulfilling their vocation the sins of laypeople and priests and bishops throughout the years have been a stumbling block to people's faith because the church is holy the church is the Bride of Christ and when individuals sin again we Mar that image that icon catholic catholicism we've talked about this universal that means extending to all places not looking like one individual place if we think the church needs to look like me and wherever I'm at you and are you in Kansas you know the church the universal Church should not just look like Kansas this church shouldn't just look like South Louisiana the church shouldn't just look like France or England or Rome that's why I was a big deal when john paul ii was the first non italian Pope in hundreds and hundreds of years it was the church finally at that point in history expanding and making sure that the universal church is truly Catholic according to the whole extending to all people and Pope Francis again is is continuing that being from South America and dalek so extends to all nations now but it also goes back all the way to the beginning that the true teachings of the church the the very unity the the holiness the catholicity of it extends all the way back to the Apostles we get it from them I always say this my job's easy I don't make anything up if I'm preaching it is because it's been given to me it's been passed on in succession from the Apostles until now being a Catholic priest is actually not that hard because we've been given everything we've been given the truth have been given the scriptures we've been given apostolic succession we've been given the creek this is our faith we are proud to profess professor in Jesus Christ our Lord so the next time you say it the next time you pray think about what you're saying think about what you're praying [Music] you