What does the Creed contribute to our interior richness?

In the early Church, Jews and Gentiles who wished to join the Church were required to attend a course of study designed to prepare them for baptism. These courses were not purely about imparting information; they delved into the meaning of faith, the Lord’s Prayer, walking in Christ Jesus, etc., to bring them to appreciate the richness they would enjoy through baptism and communion with the Holy Trinity.

All the people of the household would be baptized together, as in the case of the jail guard of Philippi (Acts 16:31–34). Why was it that the whole household was baptized together with the one who first believed? As guardian of his children, it is the believer’s role to lead them, as a father, to the richness they received through baptism as children. His main task is to explain practically the words of the Lord Christ to His disciples: “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Sadly, some believers focus on raising their children by judging their wrong actions, rather than revealing the love of the Holy Trinity to them and His work within them.

I recall during my service in Los Angeles, a lady who was in financial difficulty visited me early one morning and she was exceedingly joyful. When I inquired about the reason for her joy, her reply was that her young son had come to her earlier that morning, woke her, and said to her, “I am the richest person in the world.” She was very surprised and thought that he must have had a dream in which he became very rich. She asked him, “Why do you say that?” He answered, “I am the richest person because you are my mother!” She could hardly believe it. She rejoiced and came to share her son’s words with me.

I felt that what this child said ought to be the feeling of every believer; to feel like the richest person on the face of the earth, because he became the child of God, and His holy temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in him (1 Cor. 3:16). I do not mean, here, that we should not counsel our children about their errors, but that we should begin to deal with our children from their infancy by training their eyes to see the richness they have in their inner depths.

I consider it fitting that our study of the Creed should focus on the richness that we enjoy deep within ourselves, through the work of the Holy Trinity. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “For all things are yours … And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor. 3:21, 23). So, we here on earth delight in the earnest of our eternal inheritance. It is the secret of our richness and happiness.

St. Cyril the Great says, “Those who out of ignorance have belittled possession of the true faith, and then exalt their way of life with virtuousness, somehow are like to men who have goodly features of face but the glance of their eyes is irregular and distorted. Proper to them is the saying of God through the voice of Jeremiah to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, ‘Behold, your eyes are not true and your heart is not fair’ (Jer. 22:17). Accordingly it is necessary that, before other things, you have a sound mind within yourselves and that you be mindful of Holy Scripture addressing you and saying, ‘Let your eyes look straight

ahead’ (Prov. 4:25 LXX) … for to slip away from the rightness of holy doctrines would be nothing else except to sleep in death.”²⁸⁴

284 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Letter 55.3 (FOTC 77:16).