Part V: Commentary on various phrases in the new Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
I hope you all had a great Christmas with your families. Happy New Year, and more importantly, Happy Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Mother of God! Today, we will continue to look at the new translation of the Nicene Creed. Again, all of this comes directly from the Magnificat Roman Missal Companion, edited by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., with the commentary written by Professor Anthony Esolen, 2011. (You may order this companion or subscribe to Magnificat, which is a great Catholic publication that contains the daily readings from Mass for each day along with meditations from Saints and Catholic writers visit: http://www.magnificat.com/romanmissal/roman_missal_companion.asp )
“…of all things visible and invisible: The words “visible and invisible” replace “seen and unseen.” The point is not that God makes things we happen to see and things we happen not to see, but things that can be seen, like all the beauties of earth and the spangled stars in the sky, and things that by their very nature cannot be seen. Those include the spiritual beings we call angels, the messengers of God whom we can see only if they manifest themselves to us, and such non-material things as the moral law. So when we utter these words, we proclaim the truth that what can be seen by man is but a portion, indeed quite a small portion, of all that is. The words echo those of an ancient hymn to Christ, preserved for us by Saint Paul: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him” (Col 1: 15-16). Thus too the verse, accurately rendered, helps to join our praise of the Father with our praise of the Son which follows, “through him all things were made.””
“…the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages: Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, and here the idea is given a precise and yet poetic form: before all ages. We may think of the birth of Jesus in the fullness of time, as a man to dwell among us. But before that time, even before there was such a thing as time at all, Christ is begotten and born of the Father. That is not something that happened, in the way that an event happens on earth. There was never the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit. All things and all times, from the beginning to the end of the world, are the creation of the Blessed Trinity. “He is before all things,” says Saint Paul (Col 1: 17). “I am the first and the last,” says Christ in the Book of Revelation, “the one who lives” (Rv 1: 17-18).”
“…consubstantial with the Father: Christ is not simply one with the Father, as two separate beings joined together in love. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit share the same substance or essence. The word “substance” here is used with its ancient philosophical meaning: it does not signify the matter that composes a thing (for God is not a lowly mass of created matter, like the earth), but rather the essence that makes a thing the sort of thing it is. Since God is One, if Christ is consubstantial with the Father, then he too is God, and not a different God, but the same. That explains Jesus’ response to the Apostle Philip, who asked him to show them the Father. “Have I been with you for so long a time,” says Jesus, “and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (Jn 14: 9-10). So also the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit are not one in or by means of being, but One Being, three Persons in one Being. Again we are invited to dwell more fully upon the highest mystery of love, which is that communion of Persons in the Holy Trinity.”
I hope this new year will be a grace-filled one for you and a year in which Our Lord Jesus draws you to Himself in a special way through His Mother, Mary the Holy Mother of God. God bless!
In Christ through Mary,
Fr. Eric Fedewa
