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| Saint Maria Goretti's, Arlington TX |
I used to think that tradition in a religious sense was a bad thing. The Catholic Church has opened my eyes to see that's not the case. In RCIA class this week we learned how the Church views Holy Scripture and sacred tradition as two sources of truth flowing together to teach the truths of the Christian faith. According to the document, Dei Verbum produced by the Church during the Second Vatican Council regarding Sacred Tradition;
"Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence."
So this sacred tradition is claimed by the Church to have originated with Jesus who passed on the teachings to his disciples who in turned passed it down to their disciples, all the way down to the present day. We have writings that date back 2000 years from the original apostles and their disciples. In all my time going to Christian private school and attending church I never heard about the early apostolic church fathers, who were some of the first disciples of the apostles. Some of the notable church fathers were Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Irenaeus of Lyon. When I started to read the writings of these godly men I was surprised, more like shocked, to realize that their theology was very very Catholic, much more Catholic than Southern Baptist! These men were taught by the APOSTLES OF JESUS! These men wrote on topics such as baptismal regeneration, the real presence of Christ in Lord's Supper, the sacraments, the primacy of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), and many other doctrines. Check out this timeline!
Check out some of these quotes:
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again.”—St. Ignatius of AntiochLetter to the Smyrnaeans, 7:1, AD 107
“We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration, and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.”—St. Justin MartyrFirst Apology 66, A.D. 151
“Ignatius… to the church also which holds the presidency in the place of the country of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification, and, because you hold the presidency in love, named after Christ and named after the Father.”—St. Ignatius of AntiochLetter to the Romans, 1:1, A.D. 110
“It is possible, then, for every Church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times… But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the Churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, that Church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the Apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition.”—St. IrenaeusAgainst Heresies, 3, 3, 1-2, c. AD 190
I encourage you to read the writings of the early church fathers, you can read some of their works here. The question that confronted me when I started to read the fathers is, what I'm I going to do with this information? Will I accept what the earliest disciples of the Apostles taught in regards to doctrine or will I accept my own interpretation of the scriptures? I'm on a journey pursuing the truth and truth is a person, Jesus Christ. I feel blessed that the Lord has me on this journey after Him.
God Bless,
James
