Divine Revelation: Sacred Tradition - Week 3

Basic Reading Assignment:

Relevant Paragraphs from the Catechism:

Desire for God

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator. (Gaudium et Spes 19, Vatican II)

The Knowledge of God According to the Church

36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason."11 Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God's revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created "in the image of God". (Dei Filius, 2 (First Vatican Council))

God Comes to Meet Man

50 By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation.1 Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

There will be no further Revelation

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".

The Apostolic Tradition

75 "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline." (Dei Verbum, 7)

The Apostolic Tradition (cont.)

77 "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority." Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time." (Dei Verbum, 8)

The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal." Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".

. . . two distinct modes of transmission

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."

Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions

83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium. (Dei Verbum, 9)

The Magisterium of the Church

85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith." (Dei Verbum, 10)

Relevant Scripture Passages

From St. Paul's Letter to the Romans

19: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20: Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; 21: for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. 22: Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23: and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. 24: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25: because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. (Rom 1:19-25)

From the Letter to the Hebrews

1: In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; 2: but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3: He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4: having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. 5: For to what angel did God ever say, "Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"? 6: And again, when he brings the first-born into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him." 7: Of the angels he says, "Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire." 8: But of the Son he says, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom. 9: Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy comrades." 10: And, "Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; 11: they will perish, but thou remainest; they will all grow old like a garment, 12: like a mantle thou wilt roll them up, and they will be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years will never end." (Heb 1:1-12)

From the Acts of the Apostles

27: And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28: saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us." 29: But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. 30: The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31: God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32: And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." 33: When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34: But a Pharisee in the council named Gama'li-el, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while. 35: And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. 36: For before these days Theu'das arose, giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37: After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38: So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; 39: but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!" 40: So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41: Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42: And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. (Acts 5:27-42

From the Gospel of John

24: This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. 25: But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:24-25)

Relevant Quotations from Church Fathers and Saints

St. Augustine

"Question the beauty of the earth,

the beauty of the sea,

the beauty of the wide air around you,

the beauty of the sky:

question the order of the stars,

the sun whose brightness lights the day,

the moon whose splendor softens the gloom of the night;

question the living creatures that move in the waters,

that roam upon the earth,

that fly through the air;

the spirit that lies hidden,

the matter that is manifest;

the visible things that are ruled,

the invisible that rule them;

question all these.

They will answer you:

Behold and see, we are beautiful.

Their beauty is their confession of God.

Who made these beautiful changing things,

if not the one who is Himself unchanging beauty?"

(Sermon 241, ii, 2)

St. John of the Cross

"In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word--and he has no more to say... because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty" (No. 65; Saint John of the Cross,The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22)

Advanced Reading Assignment:

Documents from Vatican I

Dogmatic Constition on the Catholic Faith, Dei Filius

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes

Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum

Disclaimer: I do not wish to present myself as an expert in either theology, history, or scriptural interpretation. I am merely someone who is attempting to answer the call of Christ. The ultimate authority and interpreter of scripture is our Holy Catholic Church. If at any point I deviate from the teachings of the Church, please correct me, alfredo@nevarez.net, as this is my shortcoming and in no way meant to be an expression of my views superceding those of the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

San Jose Bible Study
Alfredo Nevarez
512-916-4755 (Evening)
512-602-0388 (Daytime)
alfredo@nevarez.net
http://www.nevarez.net/alf/catholic/bible_study/