Proclaiming the Good News: Nicene Council and Creed

By Dr Adrian Lacey, Education Officer, Religious Education, Catholic Mission and Identity, at Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS).

Our Statement of Mission (MACS 2021a) quotes Pope Benedict XVI, who stated in an address to Catholic educators that ‘... education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News’ (2008). The core of this proclamation – the kerygma – is that God’s unconditional love for all of us is embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Francis 2013, n. 164).

This year we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, at which was written the Nicene Creed. This council, and the resultant creed, were a response to issues of the day, in particular, who is this person Jesus?

‘Who do you say I am?’

At the heart of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus asked his followers, ‘“Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets”’. He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ (Mk 8: 27–29).

At first glance, we may think that Peter’s answer, ‘You are the messiah’ is a reasonable response. But then Jesus tells them that he is to be a suffering son of man who will be killed but then rise in three days. Having then rebuked Jesus; Peter is in turn rebuked. He is told that disciples must ‘take up their cross and follow me’ (Mk 8: 34).

Immediately following this, the divinity of Jesus is revealed through the Transfiguration (Mk 9: 2–8). The gospels of Matthew and Luke follow a similar pattern (cf. Mt 16: 13–25; 17: 1–13; Lk 9: 18–24, 28–36).

Questions regarding the person of Jesus continued in the early centuries of the Church. The first of these Christological controversies denied the divinity of Jesus. The Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which ‘remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day’ (CCC n. 195), sought to definitively answer this controversy.

Council of Nicaea in 325

The Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council (a meeting of the bishops of the universal Church). It was called by the Emperor Constantine I to resolve the crisis created by Arius of Alexandria who proposed erroneously that Christ was a created being and therefore not divine.

The Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed

While many professions of faith have been written across the centuries in response to the needs of the time (e.g. the Athanasian Creed or the creed of the Council of Toledo), two occupy a special place in our Church: the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.

The first draws its great authority from its being a faithful summary of the faith of the apostles and the Creed of the See of Peter in Rome. The second is authoritative as its origins are in the first two ecumenical councils (Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381; cf. CCC n. 194; 195).

In response to the heresy of Arius, the Creed developed at the Council of Nicaea clearly articulated that:

We believe in one God the Father all powerful, maker of all things both seen and unseen. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten begotten from the Father, that is from the substance (Gr. ousias, Lat. substantia) of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, CONSUBSTANTIAL (Gr. homoousion, Lat. unius substantiae) with the Father … (cited in Tanner 1990, p. 5).

Through this extraordinary event, the early Church proclaimed Christ Jesus. In our time and place, we are called to proclaim Jesus in our schools.

Proclaiming Jesus in our schools

From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment, one illumined by the light of faith, and having its own unique characteristics (CCE 1988 n. 25).

As we reflect on this statement, we are challenged to consider the many ways our staff, students and families may experience this reality, such as:

• in the way that they are welcomed and experience a strong sense of belonging to our Catholic community
• through our school’s commitment to ‘integrally educating each individual – head, heart, hands and soul’ (Francis cited in UNESCO 2021)
• in the quality of the relationships experienced, that bear witness to the love of Jesus for all
• through witnesses to our Christian faith who ‘appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet’ (Francis 2013, n. 14)
• through our explicit ‘celebration of Christian values in Word and Sacrament’ (CCE 1988, n. 26)
• through our ‘educational philosophy in which faith, culture and life are brought into harmony’ (CCE 1988, n. 34)
• in the way that ‘Christian education sees all of humanity as one large family’ (CCE 1988, n. 45), in the various ways we provide outreach to others
• in the way that we pay ‘… attention to ongoing spiritual and faith formation of staff, parents and students’ (MACS 2021b, p. 10).

During this Lenten season we are invited to repent and be faithful to the gospel (Mk 1: 15), deepening our understanding of the person of Jesus. As a pilgrim of hope this Jubilee Year, how can I accompany our school community in fostering personal relationships with Jesus Christ?

References

Benedict XVI (Pope) 2008, Meeting with Catholic Educators: Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI, The Holy See, accessed 13 March 2025 www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080417_cath-univ-washington.html.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1992, Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Holy See, accessed 13 March 2025 www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM.

Congregation for Catholic Education (CCE) 1988, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, accessed 17 February 2025 www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/
rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19880407_catholic-school_en.html.

Francis (Pope) 2013, Evangelii Gaudium (On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World), The Holy See, accessed 11 February 2025 www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html.

MACS 2021a, Statement of Mission, accessed 11 February 2025 www.macs.vic.edu.au/About-Us/Our-mission.aspx.

MACS 2021b, Working Together in Mission, accessed 18 February 2025 www.macs.vic.edu.au/MelbourneArchdioceseCatholicSchools/media/About-Us/Documentation/Working-Together-in-Mission.pdf.

Tanner, P (ed.) 1990, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, Volume One, Nicaea I to Lateran V, Sheed & Ward and Georgetown University Press, 14 February 2025 www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum01.htm.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2021, Pope Francis presents UNESCO with religious leaders’ message to the world’s teachers, UNESCO, Paris, accessed 18 February 2025 www.unesco.org/en/articles/pope-francis-presents-unesco-religious-leaders-message-worlds-teachers.

Dr Adrian Lacey can be contacted on 9267 0228 or via alacey@macs.vic.edu.au.

Image: A wall fresco depicting the Council of Nicaea from the Sistine Hall of the Vatican Library (CNS/Carol Glatz).