Chapter
4
God the Father
In This Chapter
How the Apostles’ Creed sums up Catholic beliefs
Believing in God as Father
Understanding the Holy Trinity
How Father, Son, and Spirit work together
This is where we finally get into the nitty-gritty of Catholic beliefs. Everything you need to know about the most basic tenets of the Catholic faith is summed up quite concisely in either of two creeds that are central to Catholicism—the Apostles’ Creed, which is recited at baptism, and the Nicene (pronounced NI-seen) Creed, which is recited at Mass.
Two Creeds, One Message
The creeds are divided first into two main parts, the first focusing on God and the second focusing on God’s works. The first part of each creed—the part about God—is then divided into three main parts, in reference to the nature and work of the three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Church Speak
A creed is a statement of a community’s belief. It comes from the Latin credo, which means “I believe.” A creed is also known as a symbol of faith.
If you break down the creeds, which are called “professions of faith,” you will find that each line contains an important belief, from the creation of the universe to the virgin birth to the resurrection of Jesus to the Church and its saints.
The Catechism breaks down the Apostles’ Creed line by line, making constant reference to the Nicene Creed along the way:
Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand
of the Father.
He will come again to judge
the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
The Nicene Creed, which probably rolls off the tongues of most practicing Catholics without hesitation, is a more detailed creed:
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in
Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
By the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right
hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge
the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from
the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic
and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
The Apostles’ Creed begins: “I believe in God …”
Pretty straightforward, isn’t it? This is the foundation. Everything else flows from this statement. The full line is actually, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
Basically, if you don’t believe in God, the rest of this creed will not make any sense.
In the Nicene Creed, the word “one” is added. “We believe in one God …” Why is “one” so important? Because in professing God’s oneness, the creed emphasizes that believing in the Trinity and in Jesus Christ as Lord does not in any way divide God. (202)
What’s in a Name?
The Catechism’s next section on the subject of God the Father is titled, “God Reveals His Name.” That’s quite a headline. But what does that mean? Well, the Catechism says that God revealed himself to the people of Israel, and in doing so made it possible for them to have a more intimate relationship with him. He was no longer “an anonymous force.” (203)
God tells Moses, “I am Who am” (Ex 3:14). How are we supposed to wrap our minds around that statement? This is how the Catechism explains it: “The divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name ….” (206)
A name revealed and the refusal of a name—that does make sense, in a weird philosophical sort of way. This is God, the Alpha and Omega, the omnipresent but invisible. I guess you could say that the creed doesn’t tell us so much about what God is but rather about how God is.
So, we have this God who is the beginning and end of everything, and with whom we have this intimate relationship. And yet, many of us view him as vengeful, or, at the very least, as a really tough taskmaster. I guess all the floods, destruction, and plagues that dot the many pages of the Old Testament didn’t help his image. But when God tells Moses his name, he also tells him that he is merciful and forgiving and steadfast in love. (211)
Catholics believe that God is love and God is truth. That God simply is. (214) The first part of the profession of faith is at once a statement of God’s greatness and a proclamation of the believer’s willingness to put God before all other things and to have faith in him alone.
Understanding the Trinity
Every Mass, every Catholic prayer for that matter, begins with the Sign of the Cross and the words: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This is the Trinity, and it is the central belief of the Christian faith.
The doctrine of the Trinity is a distinctively Christian doctrine of God, something that separates Christians from other religious traditions. The Trinity is not just one teaching among many. It is the Christian teaching of God. Everything a Christian does flows from this teaching, is centered upon this teaching, and leads back to this teaching.
Trinity is the belief in three in one. God is one God, but in his oneness, he is comprised of three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It is a mystery, and a good part of the time that is the explanation you will get if you ask someone to tell you how this can be.
True Confessions
Legend has it that back in fifth-century Ireland, St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to pagans. He would hold up a shamrock, asking if it had one leaf or three. It has both one leaf and three, he would explain, stating that so, too, the Trinity is one God in three persons.
Let’s go back over the reason for discussing the Trinity at this point. Remember, the creed is divided into three parts, and although it covers many, many aspects of Catholic faith, it is grounded in the Trinity. The first part of the creed focuses on God the Father, the second on God the Son, and the third on God the Holy Spirit.
Although it is incredibly difficult to comprehend, the Trinity is absolutely the core belief of the faith that Catholics profess. From the moment of baptism and over and over again throughout their lives, Catholics continually rededicate themselves to the Trinity. It pervades liturgies, home prayers, and even the baseball diamond whenever a player blesses himself as he steps into the batter’s box.
Father and Son
It’s not so unusual to hear a person of faith—any faith—speak of God as “Father.” We see God as creator, and so view him as the ultimate parent, protector, head of our family of faith. Despite the male moniker, however, God is neither man nor woman. He is beyond such distinctions. (239)
Although God revealed himself to us slowly over time—remember the covenants we discussed in the previous chapter—it was Jesus himself who revealed God’s true nature, saying that he should be called Father not simply because he is the creator. Jesus reveals that God the Father is “eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father,” the Catechism explains. (240)
This dovetails with the belief that Jesus is the Word, which we also covered in the previous chapter, because Jesus comes to earth as the image or “word” of an invisible God.
“The Father and I are one,” Jesus says, which almost gets him stoned by an angry crowd that sees him as a blasphemer. (John 10:30) Trinity has never been an easy belief.
Everlasting Spirit
So where does the Holy Spirit fit in? Well, in the Gospel of John, at the Last Supper, Jesus comforted his apostles by telling them that he would not leave them “orphans.” A careful reading of the Spirit texts in chapters 14 and 16 of the Gospel of John indicate that sometimes Jesus is sending the Holy Spirit, and other times the Father is sending the Spirit in Jesus’ name.
“He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you,” Jesus tells his disciples (John 14:26). Jesus personalizes the Spirit, reminding his followers that the Spirit is not just a power or presence but a person, too.
Church Speak
Filioque is a term that means “and from the Son” in reference to the Holy Spirit. In the Nicene Creed, Catholics profess that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and Son,” meaning that the Spirit comes not only from the Father but from the Son as well.
The Holy Spirit, then, is personal, not just “the force.” He does for us now what Jesus had done for his disciples while he was living among them.
Later on, we will discuss in further detail the specifics of the Holy Spirit. For now we’ll just focus on the Holy Spirit’s role in the Trinity, keeping in mind that the Spirit did not just come into being at the Last Supper or with Jesus’ birth. The Holy Spirit, as one person in the Trinity, has existed since before time began, as have the Son and the Father.
Spirit of Controversy
The Holy Spirit is “one and equal” with the Father and the Son despite the fact that he “proceeds” from them. This is a doctrine that is not without controversy. Between the eighth and ninth centuries, the dogma that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son” was added to the Latin version of the Nicene Creed. The Eastern Orthodox Church objected to this, saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, which goes to show that when it comes to theology, one little word can make a big difference. (245)
I know, it can make your head hurt after a while. Let’s sum it up as easily as we can possibly sum up a mystery beyond human comprehension:
The Roman Catholic Church says—and the Catechism quotes the Second Council of Lyons from the year 1274 to explain—that although the Father is the first origin of the Spirit, his communion with the Son makes them a “single principle” from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. (248)
The Trio of One
In order to be sufficiently grounded in our understanding of the Trinity, we need to go over a few more ground rules about what is sometimes referred to as the “triune Godhead.”
The dogma of the Trinity was present, although not fully developed, from the very beginning of Christianity. St. Paul, for example, concludes his Second Letter to the Corinthians with this blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Cor 13:13). That same word-for-word line is one of the introductory rites that is sometimes used at Catholic Mass. In fact, any practicing Catholic who just read that line probably silently responded, “And also with you,” out of force of habit.
That’s not to say that trinitarian belief wasn’t debated at length during the first centuries of Christianity. In those earlier years, the Church had to articulate the teachings on the Trinity that came from Jesus’ own words and the apostles early preaching.
Church Speak
Consubstantial means that the Father, the Son, and Spirit are of one and the same substance or being—no divisions of divinity.
“The Trinity is one.” That is how the Catechism states it (253), and that sounds simple enough on the surface but it’s pretty deep. It means that although there are three persons in the Trinity, there are not three separate Gods but one God in three persons. They do not share divinity between them, but are each fully divine and distinct from one another but related to one another.
So, according to Catholic teaching, the Father is wholly present in the Son and Spirit, as are the Son and Spirit wholly present in the Father and in one another. (255)
Teachable Moment
Sometimes you will hear the term divine economy used in reference to the Trinity. This has nothing to do with heavenly finances, and has everything to do with what is considered the “common work” of the three persons of the Trinity. Also known as the economy of salvation, these terms mean, in effect, that the three persons of the Trinity work together to help humankind achieve eternal salvation.
Although they are all for one and one for all, so to speak, the three persons of the Trinity also have individual jobs they perform to further the common work of the economy of salvation. They do this in accordance with their “unique personal property,” as the Catechism explains. According to the Council of Constantinople II, which was held in 553, and based on the New Testament, this means that there is “one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are.” (258)
And even though it may seem like a lofty proposition, all Christians are called to be a dwelling place for the Trinity, entering into a kind of participation in the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit. (260) The Catechism quotes from John 14:23: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”
The Least You Need to Know
The two creeds crucial to Catholicism are the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed. Each is divided into two basic parts, first about God and second about God’s works. The first part of each creed is then divided into three parts in reference to the Holy Trinity.
Catholics believe that God is love and truth in all things, and that God revealed himself to Moses by telling him, “I am Who am.”
The Holy Trinity, the core Christian belief about God, is the belief that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three persons in one God.
Trinitarian belief can be found in Scripture, in the words of Jesus and the apostles, although it was further articulated by the Church fathers in the early centuries of Christianity.