This year, 2025, marks the 800th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, when the Church’s Magisterium took an important step in clarifying the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The Christian world of the fourth century was troubled by various misunderstandings about who Jesus Christ is: the greatest among the prophets, the Messiah, the Messenger of God?

True God and True Man

From the beginning of evangelization, faith in Jesus Christ as true God and true man has been lived: this is how it is celebrated in the liturgy, this is how we pray to Him, this is how baptismal catechesis is refined, and how we celebrate the sacraments as an extension of the Most Holy Humanity of Jesus Christ. This is how the faithful live in union with the successors of the apostles. This is expressed in the customary names, Jesus, the man, and Christ, the Anointed One, as Savior.

At first, some had no problem preaching Jesus Christ as an earthly presence of God, accustomed to Roman and Greek cultural myths: their gods came and went from the empyrean, such as Jupiter the superior god, Mercury the messenger, Mars the god of war, Venus the goddess of beauty, Diana the goddess of hunting and fertility, etc. In reality, they did not believe that Jesus Christ was truly man, as that would be something despicable to God.

Problems of Arianism

Shortly after, the problem arose with Bishop Arius, who tried to penetrate the mystery of Jesus Christ and thought it exaggerated to claim that he is God equal to the Father. He considered it inappropriate for God to lower himself to being truly man, and he rejected ways of praying or liturgical expressions that deified Jesus. He did consider him a perfect man, but not truly God, admitting that he was the great Savior in obedience to God, but inferior to Him, the greatest and/or best of creatures, but not truly God, one hundred percent. The ancient Jewish idea of ​​the absolutely One God still influences Arianism.

It wasn’t just a matter of preaching or theological disquisitions, because at stake was the reality of Jesus Christ in his divine Person, who assumes human nature without abandoning his divine nature or reality. It is true that the theological terms were not clearly defined, but it involved much more than words; at stake was faith in Jesus Christ, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, the unity of those two natures, and the Person of Jesus Christ himself, and nothing less than Redemption.

Nicaea yesterday and today

The Council of Nicaea corrected the errors of Arius and his many followers spread throughout Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, Gaul, and even the region of Hispania. For if Jesus Christ is not true God and man, then the real Redemption, or the rescue of all from sin, from the dominion of Satan, and from eternal death, has not taken place. The faith believed and lived until then by Christians is that the only Son of the Father became incarnate and saved all men, being true man and true God.

Even today, errors and insufficient interpretations persist, far removed from the teachings of Nicaea, Constantinople, the Creed of the People of God, Vatican II, and Christian life.

Because some continue to refine the mystery of the Incarnate Word, seeking new concepts more accessible to today’s people, less surprising to contemporary culture, delving into the psychology of Jesus, distinguishing the historical Jesus from the Jesus Christ of faith, or emphasizing the exemplary value of Jesus’ life as the Teacher of a more valid moral doctrine.

For example, some find in Jesus a lofty spirituality, consistent with Eastern religions, a master of yoga, or a unifier of religions, overcoming ancestral differences. As if Jesus Christ had lived for a time in India or received information from some yogi master. These are completely gratuitous assumptions, since there is no data to support such a claim.

The Church believes in Jesus Christ

We see the importance of listening to the Magisterium of the Church, to the teachings of the Pontiffs, to the spirit of the Church, and to the Catholic liturgy as a law of prayer and belief. For example, the Eucharist is not only the remembrance of Jesus’ Last Supper, but essentially the bloodless renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross, already anticipated in the Upper Room as a sacrificial offering under the species of bread and wine consecrated by the Lord.

Saint Irenaeus was a great Christian philosopher of the second century who knew how to apply certain categories to the mystery of the incarnate God, attentive to the Gospels and the Epistles, the teachings of Peter and the apostles, and the faith of the people of God. On the other hand, the irenicism alien to the Christian saint signifies the attempt to reconcile diverse positions in an intellectual equilibrium to achieve peace or balance, even at the cost of losing the identity of faith.

A key point is to understand God’s real intervention in human history, developed through the History of Salvation from Genesis to Revelation. It is not a supposition, nor even an explanation or an interesting doctrine, but the expression of faith in God’s action moved by his love for humanity. The supreme proof of his mercy is to enter history, to found the Church as a universal path of salvation, and to remain definitively in the Holy Eucharist. Adaptations to the culture of the moment end up erasing the truth of the Lord from history.