Article 4:
Current Text:
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was buried.
Beginning Advent 2011:
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried…
This Article clearly demonstrates that according to the Catholic Faith, women have absolutely no importance and should not be counted anywhere near the equality of men. Right? Ok, that’s not entirely accurate…actually, it’s not at all even close to being able to be misunderstood as remotely accurate. See, when this was all written, men were still considered to be the “important” ones in society, so it was fitting that at the time it would say “men,” although it was implied that women would be counted in the purpose of Jesus’ coming down from heaven. It’s not one of those situations like in the Declaration of Independence where they said “all men are created equal,” but by “all men” they really meant “all free, white landowners.” Here “man” refers to the universal “man” as in “mankind.” So why didn’t they just say “For mankind and for our salvation”? Well, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the earliest known use of the term mankind is in the 13th Century. Before that, when someone used the term man or men in the context as it’s used here in the Creed, there was no question about what was meant by the use of the term. It’s an unnecessary change to have to make, so we keep with tradition still today.
So for all mankind and for our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven. I’ll skip over the “by the power of the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man” part for now, and include in this little segment the “For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried” part. Ever wonder why Jesus is sometimes referred to as the “Lamb of God”? Or why people say that “Jesus died for your sins”? Me too. To understand this, we need to go back to the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis, Chapter 22, we read the story of Abraham and his son Isaac. This is the one where God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac to a mountain and sacrifice him. As they were on their way, Isaac, who knows that they’re going to worship the Lord, but doesn’t realize that he’s meant to be sacrificed, asks Abraham, “where is the sheep for the holocaust?” (Genesis 22:7b) The thing to realize from this is that Isaac knew that worshipping the Lord included some sort of sacrifice. This implies that even before this event took place, the “norm” for worshipping God included sacrificing an animal. Later, in the first few verses of Chapter 1 of the Book of Leviticus, we see details spelled out by God, Himself, about how to perform sacrifices of animal offerings. Leviticus 1:10 says, “If his holocaust offering is from the flock, that is, a sheep or a goat, he must bring a male without blemish.” In Leviticus 4:35 and Leviticus 5:10, God illustrates how making such sacrifices are done to make atonement for sins. More interestingly, both verses say, “the priest shall make atonement for the sin the man committed, and it will be forgiven,” but we’ll come back to that later in the Mass.
When Jesus comes down from heaven, He ultimately is crucified, or sacrificed. This is done to mimic what was written in the Old Testament as guidance for the Jewish community to make atonement for their sins. An innocent lamb, who is without blemish (Jesus committed no sins in His life), is offered as a sacrifice in atonement for the sins of the world. Now, Jesus isn’t just a little furry, four-legged animal…He’s God. So if sacrificing a lamb can make atonement for a man’s sins, how much more perfectly can God sacrificing His son, and in essence, Himself, make atonement for the sins of the whole world, both those that had already been committed, and those that had not yet (and still have not yet) been committed? So that’s why Jesus had to be sacrificed and had to die for our sins and that’s how our salvation was made possible—a fact that we’ll touch on more in the next Article of Faith.
Now back to the “by the power of the Holy Spirit he was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man” part. We’ve touched a little on the relationship of the persons of the Holy Trinity, and we’ll get even further into it when we talk about the 8th Article of Faith, but for now, just know that the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity that is associated with most interactions between God and the world. The word incarnate is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “invested with bodily, and especially human nature and form.” Chapter 1, Verse 35 of the Gospel of Luke says, “And the angel said to her in reply, ‘The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.’” So this part of the 4th Article of Faith is STRAIGHT from the Bible, with absolutely no interpretation necessary. Mary and Joseph, the man she was engaged to at the time, had not had sexual relations prior to the angel letting Mary in on God’s plan for her (and Jesus), so for her to be pregnant, was, in fact, a literal miracle. Just one of many in the Bible.
4 down, 8 to go. Next post we’ll continue on with the 12 Articles of Faith in the Nicene Creed. Don’t forget to post any questions and/or comments in the comment section below.
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