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I would like some one to explain to me what the phrase light from light means in the Nicene Creed we pray at Mass every Sunday?
I understand the symbolism of Christ being the light of the world, but I would like to know specifically what the phrase light from light means.
Thanks and God Bless,
Brian
{
On Sundays when we recite the Nicene Creed, what exactly do the words "Light from Light" mean? }
Mike replied:
Hi, Brian —
Thanks for the question.
For the rest of our readers let me put the phrase you referred to in context.
I've highlighted the portion you want explained.
The Nicene Creed we say each Sunday:
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.
Through Him all things were made.
For us men and our salvation
He came down from heaven:
(We should bow here out of respect and awe for God becoming one of us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our missalettes in the pew also direct us to do this.)
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
(we should return to the standing position.)
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day He rose again
in fulfillment of the scriptures:
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son, He is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
It's prophetic that I'm answering this question on Trinity Sunday. This is where the answer to your question lies.
The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity. (CCC 232)
I found three short paragraphs from the Catechism that set the foundation for answering your question. CCC 240 to 242 state:
The Father revealed by the Son
.
.
240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Matthew 11:27)
241 For this reason the Apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; as the image of the invisible God; as the radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature. (John 1:1; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3)
242 Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, that is, one only God with Him. (The English phrases of one being and one in being translate the Greek word homoousios, which was rendered in Latin by consubstantialis) The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed:
"the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father".
(Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; cf. DS 150)
God the Father is the Light that always was. He has no beginning and He has no end. His Son, Jesus, is eternally begotten of the Father and consubstantial, or (of one substance) with His Father, the difference being:
His relationship with the Father, Sonship, and
that He was eternally begotten of the Father for our salvation; and became Man.
So He was Light (God the Son, Jesus) from Light (God, the Father), begotten not made.
Eternally begotten means He was incarnated 100% True God and 100% True Man; a Man like us in all things but sin.
If a man and woman beget a child, the resulting child is not some other kind of animal, rather, that child is a human.
The same is true with Jesus.
Because He was eternally begotten of the God the Father, He is a Divine person.
It is a Christian error to say He is a human person.
Jesus is the Light that is eternally begotten from the Father and born incarnated in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He is 100% man while also being 100% God.
Light from Light does not imply, in any way, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was the Mother of God, the Father. A human mother cannot give birth to a nature; only a human person, or in this case,
the Divine Person, Jesus.
The only person Mary gave birth to was the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus, Our True God and True Man.
Mary is the daughter of God the Father.
Mary is the mother of God, the Son, and
Mary is the spouse of God, the Holy Spirit.
If that any a family person, I don't know what is!!
Hope this helps,
Mike
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