Aug 8 Tue
The Tradition. Jesus scolded the Pharisees: “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? Matthew (15:3). These were their human traditions.
Our family traditions change; they are not like heirlooms, which can be handed down in a preserved state from one generation to another. But neither are our traditions like an intergenerational game of telephone, where the transmission from one to another invariably and irretrievably degrades and jumbles the message.
What gets passed on, really, is an abiding love for the things inherited: My family, which is always growing; a forest cabin, which is always aging, and in need of some repair or another; some stories, which are always changing in both the hearing and the telling. In this sense, tradition is less about transmitting certain facts than it is about reverence and veneration of something precious – an inheritance that is precious both in itself and precious because of the one who bestowed it.
In the end, the guarantor of tradition is always love. If a tradition transmits love, then it will be received with gratitude. And as is always the case, love received with gratitude always bursts forth to share itself anew, never diminished by being shared, but growing.
There is also Tradition (big “T”), which with Sacred Scripture constitute the deposit and source of what we believe, our Faith. The Holy Spirit is the decisive agent and guarantor of this Church’s Tradition. Our grasp of that Tradition is never static or stale – it grows deeper and richer as it is shared – but it never ceases to be what it always is. Evolving, but always in itself; not in an anarchic manner but within the body of the Church and under her pastors. Its content becomes clearer and finds its application in new circumstances. Love himself guarantees the faithful transmission of that Tradition. Otherwise, it is not The Tradition of the Church, but merely “human traditions.”
And all our (small ‘t’) traditions remain the ordinary way that bonds of affection are formed and strengthened between ourselves and those from whom we have received our most precious inheritances: family, church, nation. The more widely those inheritances are shared, provided they are shared with gratitude and love, the more they approach perfection.
The best things are shared things. And for that I’m grateful.
Listen to the podcast: