My dear Parishioners,

Peace! The first article of the Apostle’s Creed is: I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth. There are forty “in brief” statements in The Catechism of the Catholic Church which treat this article of our saving faith. What follows is a reflection on article 382.

The first article of the Creed reminds us not only of the truth regarding God but also about ourselves, made in the image of God. The primary way we are made in the image of God is our soul. Each one of us has an immortal, spiritual principle of life ‘within’ us. We are composite beings: body and soul together. The Catechism here cites the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-1965) in it’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church, Gaudium et Spes, 14. This Council, however, was not the first to teach such a profound truth. The 15th Council, Vienne (1311-1312) and the 18th Council, Lateran V (1512-1517) both taught similarly. When we profess in the Creed that God has created unseen things, the rational spiritual soul of each human being is one such unseen ‘thing.’ Though there are various manifestations of the soul’s presence. The ability to know, natural knowledge, abstraction, various arts all manifest the soul’s activity. As the principle of life for human beings, like the ‘sensitive soul’ of other animals and the ‘vegetive soul’ of plants the human soul is able to ensure the assimilation of nurture as well as enable reproduction and locomotion.

Doctrine of the Faith:

When the Catechism teaches us that each human being has a ‘spiritual soul’ is not to say that each person will be seen with folded hands and bended knees (although to the extent that we spread the Faith this is a possibility…). This reminds us that we are not just our bodies, we are not materialists (not only in the consumerist sense).

To say that the human soul is ‘immortal’ is to say that it can not die. When the Lord Jesus died on the Cross on Good Friday His human soul did not die, the soul can not be killed. Mortal sin kills the relationship between us and God. The souls of our beloved dead have gone on to the judgement seat of God and are awaiting the resurrection on the last day when the body and soul will be reunited forever, for good in Heaven, for ill in Hell (cf. Matthew 25:46).

In saying that the rational, spiritual and immortal human soul is ‘created immediately’ we are conscious that our parents have provided the ‘matter’ the composite of the ova and spermatozoon, while God provides the ‘form’ which we call the soul.

This is all part of the doctrine of the faith, summarized by the Creed we profess week by week. The Creed in it’s turn is a summary of the Sacred Scriptures in which God speaks to us, not only heart to heart but rational being to rational being.

God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr