We believe in God, the undivided Unity, embracing all in oneness.
We believe in the Holy and all-glorious Trinity, Who pervades the whole universe, Who dwells also in the spirit of man.
We believe in Jesus Christ, the Lord of love and wisdom, first among his brethren, Who leads us to the glory of the Father, who is himself the way, the truth, and the life.
We believe in the law of good which rules the world and by which one day all His sons shall reach the feet of the Father, however far they stray.
We strive towards the ancient narrow path that leads to life eternal
So shall His blessing rest on us and peace forevermore. Amen.
This Creed is found in the fourth edition of the Liturgy of the Liberal Catholic Church. It is so exactly right and to the point that I feel you will benefit from a brief commentary on it.
We believe in God, the undivided Unity, embracing all in oneness.
The foundation of any meaningful spiritual teaching is the realization that all is One–very literally–and equally so: the One is all. God is absolutely undivided Unity, and those who know God are lifted into that Unity and liberated from the mirage of duality. God encompasses all modes of existence and is all modes of existence, for God is Existence Itself. “I am the birthless, the deathless, Lord of all that breathes. I seem to be born: it is only seeming, only my Maya. I am still master of my Prakriti, the power that makes me” (Bhagavad Gita 4:6). (Or, more literally: “Although I am birthless, the imperishable Self, although I am the Lord of all beings: controlling [governing] My own prakriti, I manifest through My Maya.”)
We believe in the Holy and all-glorious Trinity, Who pervades the whole universe, Who dwells also in the spirit of man.
In relation to creation–Maya or Prakriti–God has taken on a threefold mode: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Son and the Holy Spirit are only temporary manifestations of the Father, lasting only as long as creation. This Trinity pervades the whole universe as its basis or “ground of being” and does the same within every individual spirit in manifestation. In the Gospel of John, Jesus many times indicates that he only does what he first sees the Father do, or is told by the Father to do (John 3:11; 5:19, 30; 6:38; 8:28; 11:42; 12:49, 50). In these words he speaks for all conscious beings: we are image-reflections of the triune Godhead, and live and do as It lives and does. That Life is within each one of us inseparably.
We believe in Jesus Christ, the Lord of love and wisdom, first among his brethren, Who leads us to the glory of the Father, Who is himself the way, the truth, and the life.
As a perfected being, love and wisdom were the dominant powers of Jesus. With love he healed and with wisdom he enlightened. As Adam the father of humanity (see Robe of Light) he was “first among his brethren” in both time and eternity, for he was the first in that creation cycle to ascend to divine status. Then he descended to lead us to the glory of the Father. He was the Way-Shower, the perfect exemplary of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, leading all who will follow his example to the glory of the Father. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out” (Revelation 3:12). “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21).
We believe in the law of good which rules the world and by which one day all His sons shall reach the feet of the Father, however far they stray.
Since all that exists is God, only good really exists–evil being only a distortion or misperception of the good, having no real existence of its own. Consequently, no matter how awful a mess things can appear to be, there is an essential condition of good that shall inevitably be brought forth. That is why Saint Paul could write: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). And what is that purpose? That “one day all His sons shall reach the feet of the Father, however far they stray.” For the Father has an infinite number of “sons” who exist in and by Him, of whom He is the infinite Self. This is a great mystery, but all shall come to comprehend it fully, for they are eternally a part of it. No one is ever lost to God, much less “damned” by Him. All the prodigal sons eventually return to the bosom of their Father.
We strive towards the ancient narrow path that leads to life eternal.
The path of Christ is not just two thousand years old. Saint Augustine wrote in the fourth century: “The identical thing that we now call the Christian religion existed among the ancients and has not been lacking from the beginnings of the human race until the coming of Christ in the flesh, from which moment on the true religion, which already existed, began to be called ‘Christian.’” Earlier Saint Paul had written that the Christian Gospel was that which had already been taught throughout the whole world, “which was preached to every creature which is under heaven” (I Colossians 1:23). Authentic, original Christianity is not new, but eternal in essence, embracing the Ancient Wisdom that has existed from the beginning of the world. All master teachers of humanity are revivers of that Wisdom, reminders of what was at their time either lost or almost extinguished. That is why the Creed says that we seek “the ancient narrow path that leads to life eternal.”
So shall His blessing rest on us and peace forevermore. Amen.
The way of blessedness is found in seeking God, the source of everlasting peace. And even before we reach the heights of consciousness we will find peace in His blessing as He draws us upward into His perfection and freedom. For as the seers of India have declared, He is Satchidananda: Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss.
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