The Creeds and the Eucharist

Q: Why is there no mention of the Eucharist in the creeds?

A: I'm no expert in the history of the Creeds. Yet it seems to me the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was shaped and formed over many years in response to disputes over the nature of the Trinity and the relationships of the three divine persons.

Creeds expanded and new articles were added as new challenges to the faith arose. The early Councils tried to put into clear language what Christians believed about God and the theological questions of the day.

Theological disputes in the first four centuries did not center around the Eucharist. So the Fathers of the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Councils did not make credal statements concerning the Eucharist.

There is, however, some body of opinion that the Latin phrase communio sanctorum in the Apostles Creed is a reference to the Eucharist.

We are accustomed to seeing this phrase as a reference to persons, translated as "communion of saints."

There are those, however, who argue that communio sanctorum was the Latin translation of the Greek phrase kononia ton agion. This phrase or expression was imported to the Western Church from the East.

Berard Marthaler, O.F.M.Conv., in The Creed (Twenty-Third Publications), says the phrase was a reference to holy things and was a traditional term for the elements of the Eucharist.

Marthaler says if communio sanctorum translates the Greek kononia ton agion, it is a clear-cut reference to the Eucharist. Marthaler also says that medieval theologians were aware of the two views. As different as they are, they are not mutually exclusive, and St. Thomas Aquinas tried to synthesize them.

One theologian I consulted wrote, "When the Creed expresses faith in the Holy Spirit and the Church (one, holy, catholic and apostolic), the Eucharist is implied. It is the Spirit who consecrates the elements in this central act of the Church's worship."

In our own time, interestingly enough, Pope Paul VI was concerned about confusion regarding Catholic doctrine.

In 1968 he issued a profession of faith that is called the Credo of the People of God. It repeats the substance of the Nicene Creed with some developments called for by the spiritual condition of our time.

In this profession of faith, 30 paragraphs long, paragraphs 24, 25 and 26 are devoted to declaring our faith in the Eucharist.