One day, three creeds: on the significance of the creeds on feast days
In contemporary Anglican liturges (and, indeed, in the contemporary Roman rite), this feast of the birth of St John the Baptist would pass with one Creed being said, the Nicene Creed at the Holy Communion. In the current context in the UK, with public worship not yet having resumed, if Common Worship Daily Prayer is used, or the Roman Liturgy of the Hours, no Creed will be said on this day.
The contrast with the Prayer Book provision is stark: Athanasian Creed at Mattins, Nicene Creed at Ante-Communion, Apostles' Creed at Evensong. St John Baptist's Day, in other words, is drenched in the Church's Christological confessions. The Athanasian Creed summarises the teaching of Chalcedon that the Lord is "Perfect God, and perfect Man ... not two, but one Christ"; the Nicene Creed affirms that the Son is of "one substance" with the Father; the Apostles' Creed roots Christian life in saving death and resurrection of the Son of God.
This robust provision ensures that our celebration of the witness of "thy servant John Baptist" is understood in a richly Christological context. What does it mean for the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord? To exhort us to "Behold the Lamb of God"? To confess "He must increase, but I must decrease"? It means that the One to whom the Baptist points is truly God and truly Man; eternally of one substance with the Father; that He who suffered, died, and rose for us is "our Lord".
The three Creeds professed on the feast, then, joyously echo the epistle reading from Isaiah 40 provided for this day:
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together ... Behold, your God!
This highlights the purpose of such feast days in the classical BCP: they orient us towards and draw us into the Christological centre. Even on those feasts when the Athanasian Creed is not appointed for use - or in those versions of the BCP in which it is not used liturgically - the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds ensure that the Christological centre is set before us. The Creeds embody and enact the witness of these saints, pointing us to the One who is the Church's centre.
The use of the Athanasian Creed, however, adds another layer of meaning to the liturgical celebration of key feasts, unveiling the depths of the Christological confession. In the case of today's feast, the Athanasian Creed at Mattins brings us to perceive what it meant for Saint John Baptist to encounter Jesus of Nazareth - "Perfect God, and perfect Man ... God and Man is one Christ", the One whom the Prophet Isaiah foresaw amongst "the cities of Judah".
The absence of the Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds from most contemporary versions of the daily office detracts from this character of the observance of feasts of the saints as a means of renewing the Church in the Christological confession. In many ways, this absence reflects the crisis of confidence in the Christological confession which afflicted the Church in the second half of the 20th century. The daily office without a Creed gives liturgical expression to the empty banalities of Honest to God and The Myth of God Incarnate. One result of this is to minimize and empty of depth the witness of the saints. They encountered a metaphor rather than the truth of God Incarnate. They point us to a vague idea (of the Kingdom or - heaven help us - 'kindom') rather than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who took our flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This is why the Creeds matter in the daily office during the festivals of the saints. They proclaim the fulness of grace and truth these saints encountered and to which they testify. They proclaim the God whom these saints encountered and to whom they point. Our confession of the Creeds during the daily office on these feasts draws us to the God whom they encountered, whom they confess, to whom they witness, that we, like them, may be renewed in life in and through Him.
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