The next and longest section of the Creed speaks of the Son. It will take us several weeks to work through it. Because the Son is the person of the Trinity who became a human being like us, he is the most relatable and knowable person of the Trinity to us.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

For most of human history, there has been a hierarchy in society. There are the common people, the ruling class, and then an ultimate authority (a king, usually). Those who believed in many gods continued to see this hierarchy in the heavenly creatures. Allegiance is owed to the person or beings above you. While we do not use terms like “Lord” and “Lady,” especially not in the United States, but there is still an order in society. There are still those who rule over us: mayors, legislators, judges, governors, presidents, etc.

By professing our belief that there is one Lord, we are saying that there is, ultimately, one person in the heavens and on earth, one person throughout all of existence, to whom we owe our allegiance, and that is Jesus Christ. On this earth, they maybe be people to whom we must give respect or obedience, but over them all is Christ. One practical result of this belief is that no civil law can contradict what Christ has taught us. This is very important for us to remember in an era where political leaders are trying to do things like redefine what it is to be man and woman or what it is to be married or to say that there are human persons we can lawfully murder, for example, unborn children and those who are elderly or greatly infirm. We must remember that we are called to love our neighbor and to care for the persecuted. As Catholics, we must resist worldly powers when they violate the laws and teachings of Christ and instead follow our one Lord Jesus Christ.

the Only Begotten Son of God,

When we profess belief that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God, we are professing that Jesus is the only person with the relationship of “son” to the Father. The term begotten is also important: God does not beget human beings, he creates us (as we’ll discuss later). The Father did not create or make the Son, though. God begets the Son. To “beget” implies fatherhood and that the Father is in some way the principle of the Son, but it does not imply creation. Because the Son is “begotten,” we can say that the Son proceeds from the Father and that their relationship is that of Father and Son. This is a real relationship of Father and Son. If the Father had no paternity and the Son had no filiation (sonship), then there would be no difference between the Father and the Son. This idea has been condemned as the Sabellian heresy. (see Summa Theologiae I, q. 28, a. 1, sed contra; also ST I, q. 33, a. 1)

born of the Father before all ages.

We continue to emphasize in this sentence the distinct manner in which the Son came about. We say that the Son is “born of the Father.” The Father is the principle from which comes the Son. Birth does not mean that something went from not existing to existing. Even amongst human, this isn’t what birth is. A child has been alive for (usually) 9 months before being born. A human child comes from his or her father and mother, that child is born of them. The parents are the origin of the child. Similarly, the Son of God comes from the Father; he is born of the Father. The Father is the origin, the principle, of the Son. (see ST qq. 27, 28, 33) This birth of the Son was before time or any other creation existed. Another way to say this is that there was never a time when the Son wasn’t.

Since this is getting long, we’ll stop here for this week. This week we discussing how the Son of God came about. Next week, we’ll look at what we mean when we speak of the Son of God. What does it mean to be “Light from Light” or “consubstantial”?