EXPOSITION OF THE APOSTLES' CREED by St. Francis Xavier

EXPOSITION OF THE APOSTLES' CREED by St. Francis Xavier

1. Christians, rejoice to hear and know how God in creation made everything for the use of men. First He created heaven and earth, angels, sun, moon and stars, birds and beasts that live in the land and the rivers, and the fish that live in the waters; and when all things had been created at last He created man in His likeness.

2. The first man whom God created was Adam, the first woman Eve; and after God created Adam and Eve in the terrestrial Paradise, He blessed and married them, and commanded them to have children and to people the land; and from Adam and Eve we, all the peoples of the world, come; and since God did not give Adam more than one wife, clearly it is in opposition to God that Moors and heathen and bad Christians have many wives.

3. And also it is true that fornicators live in opposition to God, since God first married Adam and Eve before He commanded them to increase and multiply having legitimate children [sons of blessing]. And thus those who adore idols as the unbelievers do, and those who believe in witchcraft, in lots and in diviners, sin greatly against God, for they adore and believe in the devil and take him for their lord, forsaking the God who created them, and gave them soul and life and body and all they have. These miserable creatures by their idolatries lose heaven, which is the place of souls, and the glory of Paradise, for which they were created.

4. But the true Christians and loyal to their God and Lord believe and adore willingly and heartily the one God and Lord, true creator of heaven and of earth. And well they show it when they go to the churches and see the images which are the reminders of the Saints who are with God in the Glory of Paradise.

5. So Christians put their knees on the ground when they are in the churches, and lift their hands to the heavens where is the Lord God, who is all their good and comfort, and confess in the words of St. Peter, “I believe in God, Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth" God created the angels in the heavens before the men in the earth. St. Michael, chief of all, and the greater part of the angels at once adored the Lord God, giving Him thanks and praises that He had created them: Lucifer, on the contrary, and many angels with him, were not willing to adore their Creator, but said with pride, Let us go up and be like God who is in the high heavens; and for the sin of pride God thrust Lucifer and the angels with him from Heaven to hell.

6. Lucifer, in envy of Adam and Eve, the first human beings who were there created in grace, tempted them with the sin of pride in the terrestrial Paradise, telling them they would be as gods if they ate of the fruit which their Creator had forbidden them. Adam and Eve, desirous of being as gods, consented to the temptation of the enemy, and conquered by the demon they forthwith ate of the forbidden fruit, and so lost the grace in which they were created, and for their sins the Lord God thrust them out of the terrestrial Paradise. Outside it they lived nine hundred years in trouble, doing penance for the sin they had committed; and so great was their sin that neither Adam nor his sons could satisfy it, nor again gain the glory of Paradise, which they had lost by their pride of wishing to be as God; so the gates of Heaven were shut upon Adam and his sons because of their sin.

7. Oh, Christians, what will become of us the wretched? If the demons for a sin of pride were thrust from the heavens to hell, and Adam and Eve for another sin of pride from the terrestrial Paradise, how shall we, miserable sinners, ascend to the heavens with such sins, and we so clearly lost?

8. The High God, sovereign and powerful, moved with pity and compassion, seeing our great misery, sent the angel St. Gabriel from the heavens to the city of Nazareth, where was the Virgin Mary, with a message which said: “God hail thee, Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with thee: blessed art thou among women: the Holy Spirit will come over thee, and the virtue of the highest God will lighten thee, and what will be born of thee will be called Jesus, Son of God." The Virgin St. Mary answered the angel St. Gabriel: “Behold the servant of the Lord; be His will done in me." In the same instant that the Virgin St. Mary obeyed the message which St. Gabriel brought her from God, the Holy Spirit formed in the womb of this Virgin a human body of her virgin blood; together He created a soul in the same body, and the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, God the Son, in that instant was incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary, thus uniting and joining that soul and the so holy body; and from the day that the Son of God was incarnate until the day of His birth nine months passed.

9. At the end of this time Jesus Christ, Saviour of all the world, being God and true man, was born of the Virgin Mary, remaining virgin in the birth and after as before it: And St. Andrew confessed it, saying, “believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, our only Lord; and after him at once St. John said, “believe that Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In Bethlehem, near to Jerusalem, Christ our Redeemer was born: then the angels and the Virgin His mother, with her spouse Joseph, and the three [Kings inserted in one MS.] and many others, adored Him as Lord.

10. But Herod, who was evil, being king in Jerusalem, with the covetousness of reigning, desired to kill Him. Joseph was advised by an angel to flee from Bethlehem to Egypt, and he took Jesus Christ and the Virgin His mother, because Herod desired to kill Jesus. St. Joseph went to Egypt with Christ and His mother, where he was until Herod died of an evil death; for he was so cruel that in Bethlehem and its neighbouring villages he killed all the men children from two years downwards, thinking that he would kill Jesus Christ among them. After Herod died the Virgin and St. Joseph with the Child Jesus returned to their own country, to the city of Nazareth, by command of the angel.

11. When Christ was twelve years He went up from Nazareth to the Temple of Jerusalem, where were the doctors of the law, and He expounded to them the Scriptures of the Prophets and Patriarchs, who spoke of the coming of the Son of God, and all were astonished when they saw His wisdom. Returning to Nazareth, He was there until the age of nearly thirty years; and then He went to the river Jordan, where St. John Baptist was baptizing many people: and in this river Jordan St. John baptized Jesus Christ; and from there Christ went to the wilderness, where for forty days and forty nights He did not eat. The demon in the wilderness, without knowing that Jesus Christ was Son of God, tempted Him with three sins that is to say, gluttony, covetousness, and vainglory.

12. And in all the temptations Christ conquered the demon. And from the wilderness with victory He descended to Galilee and converted many people, and commanded the demons to come out of the bodies of the people, and the demons obeyed the command of Jesus Christ, coming out of the bodies of the men where they were; and the people who saw this were astonished and said: "Who is this, whom the demons obey?" So the fame of Jesus Christ grew greatly among the people, because they saw that the demons obeyed Him, and that He did many miracles. The men who heard the holy preaching of Jesus Christ and saw the great power which He had over the demons began to believe in Jesus Christ, and brought Him the sick: He cured all of whatsoever infirmity they had.

13. And afterwards Christ called the twelve Apostles and the seventy-two Disciples, and took them in His company around the districts where He was teaching the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Christ preached to the people, and did miracles which proved the truth of what He preached. In the presence of the Apostles and Disciples Christ gave sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, and life to the dead: He healed the lame and the maimed. The Apostles and Disciples who saw this each time believed more and more in Jesus Christ. Christ gave them such wisdom and virtue that they preached to the people, though they were fishers who had no learning except what the Son of God taught them. In the name and virtue of Jesus Christ the Apostles did miracles, healing many infirmities, casting the demons from the bodies of men in sign that what they preached of the coming of the Son of God was the truth.

14. Such was the fame of Jesus Christ and His Disciples among the people that the principal Jews agreed to kill Him, in their envy of Him and His works, for they saw that all followed and praised the teaching of Jesus.

15. When the Pharisees recognised that they were losing the honour and credit which they formerly had among the Jews before Jesus Christ was manifested to the world, moved with envy, they took Jesus Christ, insulted Him freely, carrying Him from one house to another, scorning and making a mock of Him.

16. And because of the great hate the Pharisees had of Jesus Christ they carried Him to the house of Pontius Pilate, where the Pharisees accused Him with false witnesses, and Pilate, to please the Jews, scourged Jesus Christ so cruelly that from the feet to the head all His holy body was wounded; and, thus cruelly scourged, Pilate handed Him to the Jews to crucify Him.

17. And before they crucified Him they put on the head of Jesus Christ a cruel crown of thorns, and a reed in His right hand; and the soldiers, to make a mock of Jesus Christ, placed themselves on their knees before Him, saying, “God hail You, King of the Jews," and spitting in His face and buffeting Him; and with a reed He carried they struck Him on the head, and, finally, on Mount Calvary, near Jerusalem, the Jews crucified Jesus Christ, and thus Christ died on the Cross to save sinners; so that the most holy Soul of Jesus Christ was truly separated from His most precious and most holy body when He expired on the Cross, the divinity being always united with the most holy soul of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, the same divinity remaining with the most holy and precious body of Christ on the Cross and in the sepulchre.

18. And at the death of Jesus Christ the sun was darkened, ceasing to give its light; the whole earth trembled, and the rocks divided, striking one another; the monuments of the dead opened, and many of the holy men rose and went to the city of Jerusalem, where they appeared to many; and those who saw these signs in the death of Jesus Christ said, “Truly Jesus Christ was Son of God"; and because this is so the Apostle James said: “believe that Jesus Christ suffered under the power of Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and dead and buried." Jesus Christ was God, since He was the second person of the most Holy Trinity, and also He was true man, since Pie was son of the Virgin Mary and has a rational soul and human body; and inasmuch as He was man, truly He died on the Cross when He was crucified; for death is nothing else but a separation of the soul, leaving the body to which it gave life, and the most holy soul of Jesus Christ was separated from the body when He expired on the Cross.

19. Then, having expired, the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, being united to the divinity of God the Son, as it had always been from the instant when the Lord God created it, descended to Limbo, which is a place below the ground, where were the Holy Fathers, Prophets, and Patriarchs and many other just men, waiting for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was to withdraw them from Limbo and take them to Paradise.

20. In every time, beginning with Adam and Eve until now, were men good and bad; the good, being friends of God, reproved with words of truth the evil for their vices and sins, because they offended God, their Lord and Creator; and the bad, being slaves and captives of the demon, persecuted the good, friends of God, taking them, and exiling them, and wounding them, and killing them, and doing them many evils: so that when the good died their souls went to Limbo; and the Limbo because it is below the ground is called inferno [hell].

21. Lower than Limbo is a place called Purgatory: to this Purgatory go the souls of those who, when they die, are without mortal sin, and on account of the past sins, which they did in their life, and for which before their death they had not made complete penance, go to Purgatory, where are very great torments of fire, in order to pay the evils and sins done in their life; and when they have paid the penance of their sins, they issue from Purgatory, and go at once to Paradise.

22. The last place which is below the ground is called the infernal hell [inferno infernal], where are great torments of fire and miseries: if men would think on this for an hour daily, and if they knew the troubles of the infernal hell, they would not sin as they do: in this hell is Lucifer, and all the demons who were thrust out of heaven, and all who die in mortal sin. Those who go to this hell have no remedy of salvation [nenhum remedio de salvagao], but forever and ever and without end of ends have to be in it.

23. Oh, brothers! how is it that we have so little fear of going to hell, since every day we do the greatest sins? It is a sign that we have little faith, since we live like men who do not believe in the inferno infernal. The Church and the Saints who are with God in Heaven never pray for those in hell, for these have no remedy to go to Paradise; but the Church and the Saints pray for the dead who are in Purgatory and for the living.

24. Jesus Christ died on Friday, and the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, always united with the divinity, descended to Limbo, and drew all the souls which were then in Limbo waiting for Him. Then on the third day, which is the Lord's Day, He rose from among the dead, His most holy soul again taking the same body which it left when He died on the Cross. After that Jesus Christ rose again in a glorious body, he appeared to the Virgin Mary, His Mother, and to the Apostles and Disciples, and to His friends, who were sad for His death; and with His Glorious Resurrection He consoled the sad and disconsolate, pardoning sinners their sins; and many believed in Jesus Christ, after they saw Him rise again from among the dead, who formerly were not willing to believe that He should die and rise again. And St. Thomas affirmed that this is true when he said: “believe that Jesus Christ descended to the hells, and on the third day rose again from the dead."

25. And after Jesus Christ rose again He was forty days in this world, teaching the Disciples what they had to believe and do and teach the world in order to go to Paradise; and in this time He showed His Holy Resurrection to be true, and those who doubted in His death, that He would not rise again: and in those forty days He appeared to the Apostles and Disciples, and to many other His friends, who doubted that He would not rise again when they saw Him die on Mount Calvary on the Cross. And in these forty days those who did not believe during the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ that He was to rise again on the third day completely believed without ever doubting that He was true Son of God, Saviour of the whole world, since He rose to life from death.

26. At the end of the forty days Jesus Christ went to the Mount Olivet, whence He was to ascend to the high heavens, and with Him went the Virgin Mary, His Mother, and His Apostles and Disciples, and many others; and from this Mount Olivet Jesus ascended to the high heavens in body and in soul, and carried in His company to the glory of Paradise all the souls of the Holy Fathers whom He drew from Limbo. The gates of the heavens opened when Jesus Christ ascended to the high heavens; the angels of Paradise came to accompany Jesus Christ to carry Him with great glory to God the Father, whence to save sinners He descended in the womb of the glorious Virgin Mary, taking human flesh to pay in it our debts; so that Jesus Christ, Son of God, for sins became man, was born, died, rose again, ascended to the heavens, where He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. And since this is truth, James the Less said: "I believe that Jesus Christ ascended to the heavens, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty."

27. And since this world had a beginning, it is bound to have an end, and so it will finish, and thus as Jesus ascended to the heavens so He will descend to give each one what he deserved; and so it is true that all who believe in Jesus Christ and keep His commandments will be judged that they may go to the glory of Paradise; and those who would not believe in Jesus Christ, such as the Moors, Jews, and heathen, will go to hell without any redemption. Bad Christians who would not keep the ten commandments will be judged by Jesus Christ to go to hell.

28. At the end of the world all then living will die, for every man is born with this condition that he must die: since Jesus Christ our Redeemer died and rose again for sins, we all must die and rise again. Besides this, the bodies of good men who may be alive at the end of the world will not be holy and glorious, or ready to ascend with them to heaven; therefore they must die; and in their resurrection they will take the same bodies, yet not subject to suffering as formerly. So when Jesus Christ descends from heaven on the day of judgment to judge the good and the bad, all will rise again, beginning from the first to the last who died. And as this is truth, St. Philip said: "I believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven to judge the living and the dead."

29. When we Christians bless ourselves we confess the truth as to the most Holy Trinity, that there are three persons, one God. The first is the person of God the Father, and the second person of God the Son, and the third person of God the Holy Spirit; and all three persons are one only God, threefold and one. God the Father is not made nor created nor begotten. The Son of God the Father is begotten and not made nor created. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son, not created, nor made, nor begotten. When we make the sign of the Cross we show this order of proceeding, placing the right hand on the head, saying in Name of the Father, in sign that God the Father is not made nor created nor begotten; and then placing the hand on the breast, saying and of the Son, in sign that the Son was begotten of the Father, and not made nor created; and then placing the hand on the left shoulder, saying and of the Spirit; and passing the right hand by the head to the right shoulder, saying Holy, in sign that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son and from the Father.

30. Every good Christian is obliged to believe firmly, without doubting, in the Holy Spirit and in His holy inspirations, which protect us from doing evil, and move our hearts to keep the ten commandments of God, and the commandments of the holy universal Mother Church, and to fulfil the works of mercy, corporal and spiritual. And as this is truth, the Apostle St. Bartholomew said: "I believe in the Holy Spirit."

31. All we faithful Christians are obliged to believe, without doubting, what the Apostles and Disciples and Martyrs and all the Saints of Jesus Christ believed of Jesus Christ concerning all that is necessary to believe for our salvation, as to His divinity and humanity, for Jesus Christ was God and true man. Also in general we are obliged to believe firmly, without doubting, in all that those who rule and govern the universal Church of Jesus Christ believe, for they are inspired and ruled by the Holy Spirit in what they have to do as to the government of the universal Church in the matters of our holy faith, in the which they cannot err, because they are ruled by the Holy Spirit. We must also believe Scriptures of our religion [ley], and of Jesus Christ; and further we are obliged to believe such of the holy canons and councils as are ordered by the Church, and the ordinances made by the Pope, Cardinals, Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops, and Prelates of the Church, when in all these things, without doubting, we believe all that those who rule and govern the universal Church of Jesus Christ believe. This is what the Apostle Evangelist St. Matthew charged when he said: “believe in the holy Catholic Church."

32. And so we true Christians believe that the good works and merits of Jesus Christ are communicated to and profit all other Christians who are in a state of grace: and as in the natural body the works of one member profit all the body, so it is in the spiritual body (which is the Church).

33. And as chiefly from the head there descends to the members and is communicated to them their sustentation, so from Christ our Lord, only begotten Son of God, who is Head of all the true faithful, there is communicated spiritual sustentation by means of the seven sacraments of the Church that is to say, by baptism, by confirmation (which we call chrism) by the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar, by the sacrament of penance, by the extreme unction, by the sacrament of the orders, by matrimony. For whoever takes duly any one of these sacraments is granted grace by which his soul lives spiritual life, which Christ our Lord, only begotten Son of God, merited by the most holy works He did in this world, labouring and suffering injuries and the death of the Cross to free sinners from the captivity of the demon, and to turn them to the true knowledge of their God, communicating to them His own merits. And not only are the merits of the Son of God communicated, as from the head to the other members, but further those of the other saints are communicated to all the faithful, who are in grace, as the goods of one member of the body are communicated to the other members of the same body.

34. Christians further confess and believe: that God our Lord has power to pardon the sins by which the sinners separate themselves from Him, and lose the grace which He had before communicated to them: and that this power He gives and communicates to the priests of the Catholic Church, by which communication they now have power to absolve from sins those whom they find worthy to be absolved before God.

35. And accordingly men must so prepare to do what they are obliged for the safety of their soul, so that the priests may judge them (in conformity to what God commands) as worthy to be absolved; and having done this and having confessed at the obligatory times, and being absolved by the priest, they again gain the grace of God, and are pardoned their sins. And this is what St. Mathias said: “believe the communion of Saints and the remission of sins."

36. And because it is a just thing to believe in the goodness of our Lord and His infinite mercy which will not leave without reward those who serve Him in this life, nor without chastisement those who offend and break His precepts: we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, which is to say, that we all have to rise again in the body, the very same as we are now, after we have passed temporal death, and that it is certain that our Lord, according to His justice, will then give for ever the reward to the bodies which in this world for His love suffered troubles and persecutions, and were afflicted for not consenting in sins; and since their souls shared in trouble, they also may enjoy glory and rest.

37. And on the contrary (we believe) that the bodies of the bad, who in this life cared to do their own will and fulfil their appetites rather than keep the law of God our Lord, should be eternally chastised in the hells, since they offended the eternal Lord God, their resurrection will be made in the day of final judgment, when all born in this life must rise in body and soul: the bad to be cast into hell for their sins, and the good to enter the glory of Paradise with God our Lord. And this is what St. Thaddeus said: “believe the resurrection of the flesh."

38. And as our soul is like God almighty and eternal in so far as it is spiritual, and in the powers which God Himself gave it that is to say, will, understanding and memory and the desire of men is to last for ever, it is meet that a creature, so excellent as is man, should fulfil this longing, and so all we Christians believe that it will be fulfilled; and therefore we believe in the life eternal, which we confess will never have end; rather after the resurrection of the flesh, wherein the soul, which never dies, has again to take its body, will live together with it, as they are now united, and by a much better mode, eternally with God, and will enjoy in the heavens, together with the angels, the Presence of their Creator and Lord, and of all the celestial benefits, the which are so great that, however much one may in this life think of them and imagine them, it is not possible to reach or understand their grandeur.

39. There the Saints rest, without any opposition; there nothing is lacking of all they can desire; there no evil is found, nor can it be found nor exist, nor is there lacking, nor will ever be lacking, all good, which the blessed will enjoy eternally. And this is what St. Matthias said: "I believe in the life eternal."

Many copies were made of this composition, and it soon
became well known throughout the Maluccas. After Xavier's
death it used to be read aloud on feast days in places where
there were no priests, and those who understood it explained
it to the others, while the boys and girls learned it by heart.
It was printed in Goa in 1556.

From: http://www.archive.org/stream/MN5145ucmf_0/MN5145ucmf_0_djvu.txt