Father Randy Koenigsknecht
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Reflecting on the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Father Randy invites us to rediscover the power of the Creed—especially the personal declaration, “I believe.” Faith becomes alive when we truly know God as Father. This Advent and Christmas, we are invited to pray: “Jesus, show me the Father.”
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Father Randy:
This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Council, the Council of Nicaea, from which our creed is derived. This is something that generations of Christians have professed—the very same creed that we say at Mass. Throughout the ages, countless numbers of our brothers and sisters have given their lives for these very words, and many more still continue to do so today.
And so these first words of the creed are very important. They’re meant to shake us out of that kind of automatic mindset. When I was young, the first words in the translation were, we believe, and now they are, I believe. The I is not just a better reflection of the original language—though it is—but it also communicates something very important to us: that no one else can believe in our place. Our faith is not meant to be kept at arm’s length. It can’t be. Each one of us must decide for ourselves: Do I actually believe this?
The cornerstone of our faith is that God is always reaching out to us and He wants us to know Him—to have a relationship with Him. And so if our faith is personal, if it’s about relationship, centered on knowing and being with Someone—but the lived reality is lacking—the words fall flat. What changes everything is the lived reality of the fact that God is my Father, that I have experienced His love. I know the way He looks at me, the delight He takes in me even when I wander far from Him. But if we don’t actually know the Father, if we don’t have that personal lived experience of God as my Father, those words remain largely devoid of life.
They often fail to produce the real joy and assurance that comes from belonging to God’s family—having the all-powerful God, the One who has made everything possible—as my Father. The Word of God is power. When we engage with it, when we meditate on it, it changes us. These first lines of the creed—they’re no longer just memorized words we recite every Sunday with everyone else. They can become a powerful declaration and a reminder of who God is, of who I am to Him—that I truly am His son, that you truly are His daughter. He is not just the all-powerful God; He is my Father.
I think the best gift we could give the Lord this Christmas as we prepare is to ask Him that simple question—to make that request:
“Jesus, show me the Father whom You have come to reveal.”