The Quiet Authority of Tradition: Listening to Oral and Written Teachings
Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.” ~2 Th 2:15
Today, I’m taking a side trip into basic apologetics (defense of the faith).
For practicing Catholics, topics like this one tend to go unnoticed because it’s part of the routine. It’s so common that we often cite many practices as doctrines or dogma when they are more part of disciplines or tradition.
Some examples of this are:
- Fasting an hour or more before communion: This used to be 12 hours and was later changed to one hour before receiving communion. It’s a sensible discipline for honoring the sacrament but it isn’t an official teaching or divine revelation.
- Priestly Celibacy: In the early days of the Church, priests could marry and have children. It wasn’t until the 4th century that the Church started strongly encouraging celibacy. It’s in 1134AD that the discipline of celibacy is formally declared in The Second Lateran Council
- Abstinence from Meat during Lent: canon law requires a form of penance. Meat wasn’t a common item on the dinner table in the early church. Today, all kinds of meat substitutes are available that make the abstinence of meat, irrelevant.
I bring this up to highlight that our faith extends beyond divine revelation through the Scriptures.
This is not the case for many other Christian denominations because they are quick to say a version of “if it’s not in the Bible, then I don’t buy it.”
Yet, the same people who claim to follow the Bible alone Christianity appear to dismiss Paul’s instruction to the Thessalonians.
In his letter, Paul is warning the faithful to ignore the fear mongering of false prophets talking about the end of times and the second coming. He ends the section instructing then to stick to “…the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.”
Note that he doesn’t mention the Scriptures but focuses on oral and written communications (Epistles). The Bible didn’t exist in his time. They had the scrolls that later formed the Old Testament but no formal New testament existed.
If someone wants to question Catholicism because we follow teachings and traditions that aren’t in the Bible, they must make a strong argument for dismissing Paul’s directive in his Epistle (which is part of the Bible).
Paul isn’t declaring every statement made by a pope, bishop, priest, or deacon must be followed. What he is saying is that communications external to Scripture can have authority. My argument isn’t infallible. It’s simply a thoughtful observation recognizing that the richness of Catholicism goes beyond the Bible’s table of contents.
One of the disciplines that has enriched my spiritual journey in the last few years, is the daily Rosary. While I easily distracted while doing it and my mental prayer is poor, it continues to be a practice that resets my mind and bring peace to my day. What Catholic practices have you found most fruitful, recently?
In peace,
~Juan
