It is NOT the Bible or Tradition it is BOTH.

Hello friends!

It's been a busy several weeks but I've missed writing and sharing.
Yesterday was the first saturday of a saturday morning bible study at my house. It's an varied group of some catholics, some protestants, some non-church attenders. Some are mothers of children, others are mothers for 4 legged fur babies. Some are married, some are single. All are beautiful women who God loves.

Why? Because ladies need to get together and talk and pray and share our joy and burdens with one another. We need community and we need the word of God.

Too often I meet people who tell me "I used to be catholic but then I went to/met/talked with ___________ and I started reading the bible and left the church." It amazes me because the very thing that led them away from the church, led me to the Church.  Similarly I meet protestants who say "I don't want to be catholic it's all about the bible not about man made tradition." The bible is a tradition and the tradition of the church is not made by man but by God it is just carried on by men.

My catholic brothers and sisters: PLEASE love the word of God. Please read your bible. After all, that book is a book that your church put together. Thank you for your love of the tradition of the church but please know the bible is part of that tradition.

My protestant brothers and sisters: thank you for your love of the bible, but my dear friends please do not reject the beauty of tradition.


Friends: it is not the bible or tradition: It's Both.

Origen, third century teacher of Alexandria proclaimed "You who are accustomed to attending the divine mysteries know who, when you receive the body of the Lord, you guard it with all care and reverence lest any small part should fall from it, lest any piece of the consecrated gift be lost. For you believe yourself guilty, and rightly so, if anything falls from there through your negligence. But if you are so careful to preserve his body, and rightly so, why do you think that there is any less guilt to have neglected God's word than to have neglected his body?" 

Friends Origen helps us to see that the word of God and communion with God are both Holy. In the bread and in the word there is a real presence of our Lord.

Friends we can not deliver the Gospel, the Good News, if we do not first possess it.

Why is tradition important?
Before the fourth century there is no recorded canon of scripture exactly with the same list of books found in Christian bibles today. Before then there were letters that circulated from the apostles and by and large they agreed on the four gospels, some of Paul's letters but things written by Peter, James, John the letter of Hebrews, Revelation, all of these were debated. Moreover, first century letters from Barnabas and Clement were considered inspired by some churches and not others. For these early christians they had to rely on tradition. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 "Therefore brothers stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours." 

When the final canon or list of books was agreed upon, there was no printing press and thus scribes had to spend hours copying pages. Just one copy of the bible took months and was quite costly. Literacy levels were low. These letters belong to the Catholic Church and were shared during mass. When the printing press was finally available it was so expensive to print that the average family couldn't afford the bible but they could read it at the local church (if they could read). Our world today of the bible being everywhere makes this hard to think of but if you were a christian before the bible all you had was tradition. Remember no where in the bible does it say 100% of what you believe must come from the bible. All we believe as Christians must align with the bible and not be contradicted by the bible but there is so much to know. The bible is part of the tradition of the Catholic Church.

Why is the Bible Important?

It is the inspired word of God that tells one continuous story over 1500 years, over 40 generations with over 40 different human authors with a variety of backgrounds (kings, poets, scholars, peasants, prophets, and prisoners) and from many different places (wilderness, prison, hillside, traveling), covering multiple continents and in 3 different languages (hebrew, aramaic and greek). God's word is living and active and it's also a beautiful snapshot of history.

The liturgy of the Eucharist is understood through the study of scripture and the mass is made up of the reading of scripture. When we hear the priest say "Behold the Lamb of God, Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb" we hear a fulfillment of the old covenant and the promise of the new. It is through the study of scripture we learn about these covenants, about the savior of the world, about the call to be a disciple, to study, and an apostle, to be sent. It's only through both tradition and scripture that we can understand more about our loving God who gave us so much rich beauty.

In the Catholic Church we read almost the whole bible every 3 years during mass. A new testament, Old Testament, Psalm and Gospel reading is part of our literature and our sermons (homilies) are much shorter. We stand with the reading of the gospel as we are being commissioned to go out and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. We stand ready as a reminder of this. Every catholic church is reading the same scriptures each day as the rest of the world. For instance the scriptures I heard in mass today are the same that will be read all over today. This is helpful if you are on vacation or visiting a church you aren't missing what your church is doing as we are all one church. The homily will be different in each mass but it's aim is to remind you of how to apply the scriptures that are read.

In the Protestant churches, most use scripture as a part of each sermon/message given. Churches vary on how they do this and what's said in one church is not what is talked about in the next. Many times it is up to the Pastor, speaker or Elder what is spoken on.

No matter where you go to church they want you to have a personal relationship with Christ. (note: I did not say private, we are all the body of Christ and to be in community).  Many will say that they don't like religion and they believe only in a relationship but that's an oxymoron. Religion come from "religare" the latin word which means relationship (to tie or bind together). We all believe that a relationship is key, and that to blindly go through the motions is not what it is about. Let's stop fighting against each other and start understanding that we are after the same thing: to worship God and to know Him.  We can grow in our relationship both through scripture and tradition. They are our guideposts.

Friends I did not forsake my love of God's word for the my love of tradition when I became Catholic. I took my love of Gods word with me and it grew with the addition of tradition and history.

 It is NOT the bible OR tradition it is BOTH.