Are You A Traditional Catholic?

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

In vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

Not everything that the Church believes can be found written in the Bible.  There, I've  said it!  The fundamentalists are right, the Catholic Church is not based wholly on the Bible. I can almost hear the, "I told you so's" being shouted from the pulpits of thumpers all over the nation.  Actually, the Catholic Church is based on Christ and not on the Bible.  You can spend the rest of your life trying to make a case for Sola Scriptura but it falls apart because the concept is not mentioned in the Bible at all.  Everything we need for salvation can be found in the Bible but it is not our only source nor was it ever intended to be. 

For sola scriptura to be true, it would have to have been the practice of the earliest Christians.  It was not and could not have been the practice simply because for at least the first three centuries there was no coda of scripture.  But even more basic than that, there were no printed copies of the New Testament available for the earliest Christians.  So, how did they learn about their faith?  They were taught by word of mouth, taught at their weekly breaking of the bread.  This oral teaching was based on what the apostles said and their various letters as well as what the magisterium of the Church taught.  This oral teaching of things not found in the Bible is called Sacred Tradition and is the passing on of how to be a Christian from one generation to the next.  It includes the passing down of Sacred Scripture, the teachings of the church fathers, the popes, and saints, in short, it is how the Church survives from one generation to the next.  

So, Sacred Tradition is not evil and it is not what Jesus is speaking about in our reading today.  Sacred Tradition is and will continue to be the means by which the Truth of the Gospel makes it through to each generation.  It has worked now for at least two thousand years, it will work for another ten thousand. 

Memo to self:  Remember to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory today.