20180828
DISTINGUISHING SACRED
TRADITION FROM SACRED TRADITIONS
28 AUGUST, 2018,
Tuesday, 21st Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
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First reading
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2 Thessalonians
2:1-3,14-17 ©
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Stand firm and keep the traditions we
have taught you
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To turn, brothers, to the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and how we shall all be gathered round him: please do not get
excited too soon or alarmed by any prediction or rumour or any letter claiming
to come from us, implying that the Day of the Lord has already arrived. Never
let anyone deceive you in this way.
It
cannot happen until the Great Revolt has taken place and the Rebel, the Lost
One, has appeared. Through the Good News that we brought he called you to this
so that you should share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Stand firm, then,
brothers, and keep the traditions that we taught you, whether by word of mouth
or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who has
given us his love and, through his grace, such inexhaustible comfort and such
sure hope, comfort you and strengthen you in everything good that you do or
say.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 95(96):10-13 ©
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The Lord comes to rule
the earth.
Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’
The world he made firm in its
place;
he will judge the peoples in
fairness.
The Lord comes to rule
the earth.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad,
let the sea and all within it
thunder praise,
let the land and all it bears rejoice,
all the trees of the wood
shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
The Lord comes to rule
the earth.
With justice he will rule the world,
he will judge the peoples with
his truth.
The Lord comes to rule
the earth.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Ac16:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Heb4:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and
active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 23:23-26 ©
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Clean the inside of the cup first, so
that the outside may become clean
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Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who pay your tithe of mint and dill and cumin
and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law – justice, mercy, good
faith! These you should have practised, without neglecting the others. You
blind guides! Straining out gnats and swallowing camels!
‘Alas
for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of
cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind
Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become
clean as well.’
DISTINGUISHING SACRED TRADITION FROM
SACRED TRADITIONS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-3, 14-17; MATTHEW 23:23-26 ]
In the first reading, St Paul wrote to the
Thessalonians, “Stand firm, then, brothers, and keep the traditions that we
taught you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” On one hand, St
Paul urged the early Christians to hold on to both the oral and written
traditions that they had received from their leaders and the Christian
community so that they could remain true to their faith. It is for this
reason, that the Church has many traditions that have been passed down over the
centuries which we continue to keep them.
On the other hand, in
the gospel, Jesus seems to discard the traditions of the Jews. He criticized them for upholding
such traditions. This is a similar situation when Catholics are accused
of keeping the traditions that are not found in the scriptures. We are
often chided for keeping man-made traditions. As Jesus said in the
gospel, “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” (Mk 7:8) Is this true? Jesus
further added, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in
order to keep your tradition!” (Mk 7:9) Surely this cannot not be the
case of the Church! On the contrary, we keep the traditions so that we
can truly keep the commandment of God.
What is the crux of this
divergence? It is the failure to understand what Sacred Tradition is. The latter refers to the
transmission of the content of the gospel, that is, the salvific reality as
mediated to us in Christ Jesus. The gospel is of course neither just the
written word nor the oral testimonies and practices of Christians over the
ages, but it is the person of Jesus Christ. Transmitting the gospel is
more than just transmitting the Words of Jesus but to transmit the person of
Jesus, His words and deeds, His entire being. It is for this reason that
St John wrote at the end of the gospel, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these
are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:30f) Through oral and written
traditions, therefore, we transmit the entire person of our Lord. This is
what St Paul sought to do when he reminded the Christians to keep both the
traditions taught to them by word or by mouth.
Secondly, it is a
failure to make a distinction between Sacred Tradition and Sacred Traditions. The
first is singular and the second is plural. When we refer to the
traditions of the Church, we are not referring to the gospel, which belongs to
Sacred Tradition. Traditions are the means, whether through words,
customs or practices by which we seek to express the Gospel, that is, the
person of Jesus in our worship and our daily life. Such traditions would
include the various liturgical seasons of the Church, the numerous practices
such as making the Sign of the Cross, fasting, abstinence from meat, devotions
to the saints, pilgrimages, etc. Such traditions are not compulsory or
essential or intrinsic to the faith but are means to help Catholics to
appreciate Jesus more in their life, experience Him and to grow in union with
Him.
Thirdly, we must never
forget that human beings cannot live without traditions. We are human beings and we express
ourselves through words, signs and practices. Culture is the expression
of the values of the community. So, our faith in God would be expressed
according to our cultural symbols of love, reverence and piety. For the
Easterners, we bow and kneel as a sign of respect whereas for the Westerners,
they stand in attention. Easterners use joss sticks whereas westerners
use incense to express our prayers rising to God. Every human institution
including the different religions and Christian communities would have their
own peculiar traditions. Doing away with traditions is to make religion
into an abstract reality. As human beings, we need to express and
experience our faith and love concretely through signs.
Fourthly, the Church
always recognizes that there is a hierarchy of truth and values. Whilst we must maintain that all
revealed truths come from God and must be believed with the same faith, yet
some doctrines are more central to the faith. The core of our faith
is faith in the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the Holy Trinity. The summary of the core beliefs of Catholic Faith is
found in the Creed. Thus, Second Vatican Council declares, “in Catholic
doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’ of truths, since they vary in
their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith” (Decree on Ecumenism,
11). This holds true as much for the dogmas of faith including her
moral teaching. What is important is to uphold those doctrines that lead
us to a true knowledge of Christ. St Paul was clear about the purpose of
His preaching. He said, “Through the Good News that we brought God called
you so that you should share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Consequently, Jesus was
not against the Jewish customs as such. Their customs were useful to help them keep the
Mosaic Covenant. They were means to help them to love God and to love
their fellowmen. Jesus made it clear that the heart of religion is “‘…
the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your
strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(Mk 12:29-31) This is what the Lord meant
when He said, “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
who pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier
matters of the Law – justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have
practised, without neglecting the others. You blind guides!
Straining out gnats and swallowing camels!” Indeed, many of us argue and
fight over the rubrics, the customs and practices that have been passed down to
us and which we observe so meticulously but neglect the weightier things of
faith which is love of God, mercy, justice and compassion for our
fellowmen. If our faith does not lead us to love God in our neighbours,
then we have missed the whole point of faith. St John wrote, “The
commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their
brothers and sisters also.” (1 Jn 4:21)
We must be careful that
we do not merely perform the rituals or observe the letter of the laws,
particularly the small traditions, the customs and practices and forget the
more essential dimensions of our faith which is to love God and neighbour. Whatever we do, we must be led to a
deeper relationship with God. Praying and reading the scriptures is to
enable us to know Jesus better and to understand Christ from the perspective of
Christians who through the ages have come to know Him. The Scriptures are
the content and summary of faith. But the scriptures are dead unless it
is interpreted by the Christian community for their times. This is true
also of customs and practices. Unfortunately, many Catholics practice
them without relating to the fundamental truth which is Jesus. When
customs and practices are detached from the ultimate goal of where we intend
the customs to lead us, then we have missed the point all together.
We end up being superstitious, ritualistic and legalistic.
This same principle
should be applied particularly in our relationships with not just other
non-Catholic Christians but also with people of other faiths and even among ourselves.
According to the level of faith we share, we must proceed from what is
essential and core to religion and then move further up to more specific
beliefs before we can even come to a common agreement of customs and practices.
With non-Christian religions and even secularists and humanists, we must begin
on the level of love, compassion, justice and charity. When we are
in agreement of these basic aspirations, then we can move on to share the basis
of what drives us to live a life of integrity, justice and compassion.
This is where the question of religious motivations and beliefs could then be
shared. To help others to understand how we believe in the Sacred, God or the
Ultimate in life, it behooves us to learn to appreciate each other’s customs
and practices which are meant to enhance our faith in God and our devotion to
Him. Indeed, at the end of the day, there is only one truth and
that truth is authentic love of God and our fellowmen.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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