Tradition

(Credit: Karl Keating “Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on ‘Romanism’ by ‘Bible Christians’”)

In any discussion of Tradition, it’s important to keep in mind what the Catholic Church means by Tradition.

The term does not mean legends nor mythological accounts, nor does it mean transitory customs or practices that come and go as circumstances warrant, such as styles of priestly dress, particular forms of devotion to saints, or even liturgical rubrics.

Tradition means the teachings and teaching authority of Jesus, and, derivatively, the apostles . These have been handed down and entrusted to the Church (which mean to her official teachers, the bishops in union with the Pope).

It’s necessary that Christians believe in and follow this Tradition as well as the Bible (Lk 10:16: “ He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.")

The truth of the faith has been given primarily to the leaders of the Church (Eph 3:5: “which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.), who, with Christ, form the foundation of the Church (Eph 2:20). The Church has been guided by the Holy Spirit, who protects this teaching from corruption (Jn 14:16).

Even Paul illustrates what Tradition is: “The chief message I handed on to you, as it was handed to me, was that Christ, as the scriptures foretold, died for our sins. . . that is our preaching, mine or theirs as you will, that is the faith that has come to you” (1 Cor 15:3).

Paul also said to Timothy, who was a bishop, “Thou hast learned, from many who can witness to it, the doctrine which I hand down; give it into the keeping of men thou canst trust, men who will know how to teach it to others besides themselves (2 Tim 2:2).

In other words, Timothy, one of the successors to the apostles, was to teach what he has learned from his predecessor, Paul. St Paul praised those who followed Tradition: “I must praise you for your constant memory of me, for upholding your traditions just as I handed them on to you” (1 Cor 11:12).

The first Christians “occupied themselves continually with the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42) long before there was a Bible. In the fullness of the Christian teaching was found, right from the first, in the Church as the living embodiment of Christ, NOT IN A BOOK. The teaching Church, with its oral traditions, was authoritative.

Paul himself gives a quotation form Jesus that was handed down orally to him: It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:25). This saying is not found in the Gospels and must have been passed on to Paul.

Indeed, even the Gospels themselves are oral Tradition that has been written down (Lk 1:1-4: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught).


What’s more, Paul doesn’t quote Jesus only. He also quotes from early Christian hymns (Eph 5:14 “14for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you"). These and other things have been given to Christians “by the command of the lord Jesus” (1 Th 4:2: “For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus).

Fundamentalists have objections to all of this, of course.They say Jesus condemned Tradition. They note that Jesus said,” Why is it that you yourselves violate the commandments of God with your traditions?” (Mt 15:3). Paul warned, “Take care not to let anyone cheat you with hs philosophizings, with empty fantasies drawn form human tradition, from wordly principles: they were never Christ’s teaching (Col 2:8).

But these verses merely condemn erroneous human traditions , NOT TRUTHS HANDED DOWN ORALLY AND ENTRUSTED TO THE CHURCH. These truths are part of what is known as Tradition (upper-case “T”).

Consider Mt 15:6-9 which Fundamentalists often bring up: “So by these traditions of yours you have made God’s laws ineffectual. You hypocritres, it was a true prophecy that Isaiah made of you, when he said, ‘This people does me honor with its lips, but its heart is far from me. Their worship is in vain , for the doctrines they teach are the commandments of men.”

At first glance this seems to undercut the Catholic position, but look at the context. Jesus was not here condemning al traditions.He condemned only those which made God’s word void. In this case, it was a matter of the Pharisees making a pretended dedication of their goods to the temple so they could void using them to support their aged parents.By doing this, they dodged the commandment “Honor thy father and thy mother” (Ex 20:12).

Elsewhere, Jesus instructed his followers to abide by traditions that are not contrary to God’s commandments (Mt 23:2-3: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.)

In Mt 23:23, Jesus calls “hypocrites” Pharisees who ”give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

In other words, Jesus insisted we should follow all legitimate traditions.

The problem is, Fundamentalists, simply to trash the Church, deliberately see “tradition” in Mt 15:3 or Col 2:8 or elsewhere and rejects it. They deliberately refuse to acknowledge that the term may be used in a different sense, as in 2 Thess 2:15, for instance.