Nicaea and Unity 

After the homily at every Sunday Mass, the congregation rises to recite the Niceno-Contantinopolitan Creed, better known as the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed is a concise distillation of the foundational beliefs of orthodox Christianity. It has its origins in the Council of Nicaea which took place in modern day Turkey in the year 325 A.D.  Nicaea has been in the news lately because Pope Leo traveled to Turkey at the end of November to commemorate the Council’s 1700-year anniversary. He did so at the invitation of Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Back in the fourth century, at the time of the Council of Nicaea, the Church was structurally united, and the Creed was the summary of the universal faith of believers. But in 1054 A.D., after a long period of tension between the Greek-speaking Church in the East and the Latin Church in the West, the two formally split, with mutual declarations of excommunication. This became known as “The Great Schism,” and it is one of history’s greatest and most tragic scandals. Although St. Paul VI and Patriarch Athanagoras I eventually nullified the mutual excommunications in 1965, the schism has not been resolved, and the division between Catholics and Orthodox Christians remains. Yet, both continue to affirm the Nicene Creed. 

In his remarks at the ancient site of the Council, Pope Leo noted how the current state of schism contradicts the whole project of Nicaea. The Council was the Church’s response to the false (but very influential) teaching of a priest named Arius, who denied the full divinity of Jesus as God Incarnate. “By denying the divinity of Christ,” Pope Leo said, “Arius reduced Him to a mere intermediary between God and humanity, ignoring the reality of the Incarnation such that the divine and the human remained irremediably separated.” The Council condemned Arius’ teaching and affirmed for all time that Jesus, as God the Son, is consubstantial with God the Father. This means that Jesus is truly God – no less divine than the Father. The Council also affirmed the Incarnation – that God the Son became man. These are supremely important articles of faith. For if Jesus is not both truly divine and truly human, then He does not bridge the infinite gap that existed between God and His human creatures because of sin. If that’s so, then Christ’s sacrifice is insufficient to reconcile us with God. If that’s so, then God remains absolutely distant and inaccessible to us, and our faith in Christ is worthless for salvation. Only if Jesus truly unites a divine nature and a human nature in Himself is alienation from God overcome and reconciliation with God possible. 

Pope Leo thus used the anniversary of the great Council of Nicaea to express his hope that one day the existing division between East and West, the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, will be overcome. If God can overcome the infinite divide that existed between Himself and His sinful human creatures, then we must be confident that He will help Christians who long have been at odds – yet profess the same Creed – figure out a way in which true unity among His followers can be restored. 

posted 12/6/25