Exploring A Creed

This is sort of an addendum to The Prodigal's Manifesto post from earlier. Bring the Fire Down mentioned the value of reconnecting with "the old faiths" in his comment to that post. Which set off another memory regarding my recent awakening. I think I will have to break up posts on this topic per his suggestion as well. These posts tend to get extremely long, because it is often difficult for me to express in mortal words the Divine experience. I tend to meander around until I'm saying what I intended to. You poor souls just have to suffer through the wanderings of my brain. :-)

So, the epiphany I had both from reading Campbell's work and going back to Mass came to a head when I really meditated on the meaning of the Nicene Creed, which we say before the preparation for Communion every Sunday. For reference, I have pasted it here:

"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,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with 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],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who 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."

I had had this sticking point for awhile about the part about believing in the catholic church. The epiphany came when the meaning of the word "catholic" sank in. I knew it from my Catholic School education, but had never truly internalized it. The definition of "catholic" is "universal".

And it truly is. I have my problems with the history of the church, and the atrocities it is guilty of. Unfortunately, that comes along with the imperfection of humanity combined with the gift of free will.

However, I can truly see the will of God coming through in the Church's development, despite the sins of it's leaders. All these traditions the Church assimilated through the conversion of the pagan peoples become part of the universal church.

Because the Church recognized the powerful symbols these traditions represent for people. All the rituals I participate in in Mass have endured because they are powerful archetypal methods of communicating with the Divine. I am choosing to avoid studying the Church's teachings about these rituals for now, because I really want that experience of finding the meaning in them myself, and exploring how my soul responds to them.

So this epiphany of this universality really helps me reconcile many of the differences I had with the Church. It's a matter of separating oneself from the politics and concentrating on the worshipful practices. I am certain those have value because of the peace they give me, and I refuse to let myself be separated from the things that give me peace by the actions of others in the religious community. It's remarkable how easy it is to let the actions of other people separate one from God. And when you look at it that way, it just seems so silly...