Hello to you all today! Well as I am recording this We are celebrating Good Friday. I suppose that the celebration of Good Friday goes back to the year after Jesus was Crucified. It does not appear that Mary, John or any of the others there were celebrating that first Good Friday. God’s plan had almost been completed for the saving of mankind… just a couple of more days.
Suffering promotes wisdom and knowledge
Now there are some who say why celebrate Good Friday when it is Easter that is important. Well I tend to think that we have to suffer in order to gain knowledge and wisdom. Now I certainly did not create tis idea… we can go back to the ancient Greek play writes and philosophers to see writings on this Take for example the play about Agamemnon by Aeschylus or Plato’s speaking of suffering helping to complete the man.
So there is no lack of information upon this topic. And it is good that we can acknowledge this. But the suffering that Jesus underwent had very special properties and those properties and the accounts that we have of his Crucifixion came down through the ages passed along from generation to generation. We can call this hearing about our tradition as Christians.
Generation to Generation
It is important that these stories stay the same over the years. These are not the Greek mythical stories like above or fables from Aesop. These are the very words which bring our salvation and back into union with God the one with which we yearn to hear and see.
From where do we get this tradition though. We can’t say the Bible because the tradition started before even the Crucifixion. We can look back to the original stories of the people who witnessed the Death of Christ. Also the people who knew and were disciples of Christ. This is what was so important about yesterday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper. He inaugurated the priesthood with the 12. They held these truths of God and of his Son.
Preach
We can pretty much ascertain that Jesus gave the command to the 12 to preach the Gospel to all the world. This Good news, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets and spoke of Jesus’ fulfillment of those prophecies.
So the Apostles kept the command of the Lord. They spoke of this by the examples they gave, by the institutions they established and what they themselves received from Jesus. Either by the words of Christ himself by his way he lived His life and the things he did. And just as we know the prompting of the Holy Spirit so did they.
So the Apostles preached and passed along the Gospel to those they came across. There were some that just like now are called to continue that passing along of the Gospel message. Jesus established the Christian priesthood for this purpose. Both the Order of Presbyter and the order of Elder.
Pass along the Faith
Their main purpose was to pass along the faith… The Faith of the Apostolic tradition. but not just a faith but the True faith as taught and shown by Jesus himself. From the Apostles they passed along this to the Bishops who were their successors. They passed it on to their successors. All the way through the ages through today. Each of our Bishops can trace his lineage back to the very first Apostles. This lineage is called the Apostolic succession.
This is how we can be assured that the faith that we are passing on today is identical to the faith passed on 2000 years ago. We can see thisa in the letters and defenses and explanations of the faith. These come from these earliest of Bishops and Apostles to see the faith has been passed on truly. This authentic interpretation of the faith has been entrusted by God to living human beings in the Magisterium of the Church.
Servitude towards the Divine Revelation
They could not point to the Bible, It was not until 30 years after the crucifixion that the first of the letters and the Gospels were actually written… The Bible as itself was not finalized and fully agreed upon until the 4th century. But rest assured there is this constant balance as the Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God. It is actually its servant. This teaching body can only teach what it has been given to pass along.
From Luke 10:16 Jesus says’
“Whoever listens to you, listens to me Whoever rejects you rejects me”
The writers of the Letters and the Gospels that are in the Bible are first a part of the tradition. This is why the Scriptures and the Tradition of the church are bound so closely together.
God communicated these traditions and the Scripture through the Word. From the first verses of John’s Gospel we come to recognize that Jesus Christ is God’s word
We receive the Word
So what Jesus handed on to the Apostles they handed on by the preaching and writings under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up the Deposit of the faith. And thanks be to God the task of interpreting the Word of God either the scripture of the tradition has been left to the Magisterium.
In this way people are not thrown off into heresy and things not truly of God. It is important to note that this Magisterium though is to be a servant of the Word and only pass along what has come along to them as it has for 2000 years now.
We will next be looking at Sacred Scripture because it is Christ the Word who was made man and dwelt amongst us.
Be Good Play Nice Think God!
For additional information please see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 74 – 100 There are many references to Dei Verbum, Scripture Saint Augustine and earlier Church councils.