Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
SACRED TRADITION
“Stand firm then, my brothers, to the TRADITIONS that we taught you,
whether by WORD OF MOUTH or by LETTER.” - 2 Thessalonians 2:15
“There are so many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described
individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be
written.” John 21:25
tradition = are practices of the Church which are NON-DOCTRINAL. These may
have resulted from the needs of the church which arose at a particular time in
history. Some of these traditions may have been a product of the entry of the Church
into other cultures.
=Example of tradition
1) The MANNER of celebrating the Eucharist = Before the Second Vatican
Council, the priest faced the altar and used Latin, today, the priest
faces the people and uses the vernacular
2
TRADITION: → SCRIPTURAL
→ APOSTOLIC
→ TEACHINGS OF THE MAGISTERIUM
SCRIPTURAL TRADITION
- These are traditions that take their roots in the HOLY BIBLE. These practices and
beliefs can be justified by quoting Sacred Scriptures.
Example: Baptism - “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Mt. 28:19
APOSTOLIC TRADITION
These are the teachings which the Apostles left us, not through written
scripture, but through the unbroken chain of succession of Popes,
bishops, priests and deacons. This unbroken chain is an assurance that
the teachings of the Apostles are preserved intact.
Church teachings that are based on Apostolic Traditions are contained
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
And for us Filipinos, we also have the Catechism for Filipino
Catholics.
The teachings of faith are never stagnant. As time goes by, the Church’s
understanding of her own teachings deepen, leading to the definition and
promulgation of new teachings.
These teachings are “new” not because they were just invented. On the contrary,
they have always been part of the ancient teachings of the church, only that they
were not immediately defined.
Examples:
THE MARIAN DOGMAS WERE DEFINED BY VIRTUE OF THE CHURCH’S MAGISTERIUM
- DIVINE MOTHERHOOD = Council of Ephesus, 431
- IMMACULATE CONCEPTION = Pope Pius IX. 1854
SACRED SCRIPTURES
A. ACTUAL EVENTS
⇒ Refers to the actual experience of God’s people which they
interpreted as God’s intervention in history
⇒ Life and teachings of Jesus – what Jesus really taught and did for
our eternal salvation, while he lived among us, until his ascension.
B. ORAL TRADITION
⇒ That the people may forever remember these important events,
which were deemed manifestations of God’s concern and
intervention, they were handed on to succeeding generations.
⇒ After Jesus’ ascension, the apostles handed on to their hearers
what Jesus said and done.
C. WRITTEN SCRIPTURES
⇒ The facts, stories and information were sorted, edited and
eventually put into writing to serve as norms against which, or on
the basis of which, other stories and tradition will be verified and
as well to more effectively preserve the priced Tradition.
⇒ The sacred authors, in writing the Gospels, selected certain
elements that had been handed on orally or those already in
written form, others they synthesized or explained in view of the
situation of their churches, while preserving the form of
proclamation. But always in such away that they have told us the
honest truth about Jesus.
THE BIBLE
BIBLE : collection of sacred writings which the church solemnly recognized as:
“Word of God, written by men, through the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit”
Word of God
The Divinely revealed realities which are contained and
presented in the text of the Sacred Scriptures have been
written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, God is the author of the Sacred Scripture
because He inspired its human authors, acting in and by
means of them, He thus gives an assurance that their
writings teach without error His saving truth.
Dei Verbum 11
To compose the Sacred Books, God chose certain men, whom
He employed in this task, made full use of their own faculties and
powers, so that, though He acted in them and by them, it was as true as
authors that they consigned to writing whatever He wanted to be written,
and nothing more.
INSPIRATION
From Latin verb – “inspirare” – to breath into
Inspiration is not:
1. Dictation
God did not dictate the words to the
human authors, because the human authors had to go through all the
processes involved in coming up with a written work.
2. Possession
Human authors were neither coerced by
God to write nor do they lost their freewill when they put God’s Word into
writing, rather: they cooperate with inspiration
The Bible contains Errors, but teaches no error because the errors
do not in anyway affect the essential message of the Scriptures
NEW TESTAMENT
A. Apostolic Origin
either the books were written by the Apostles
(or their immediate disciples) themselves or they were used as sources
B. Coherence with the Essential Gospel
the content must be consistent with the
message of Christ
C. Constantly used in the liturgy
they were used by the early Christian
communities in their celebration of the “breaking of the bread” and in
other liturgical functions.
APOCRYPHAL
when a book fails to meet the standards, it is labeled as such: i.e., of
doubtful authority.
CANON OF SCRIPTURES
when a book has passed the standards, it
becomes part of this
refers to the official list of inspired books.
PROTESTANT BIBLE
66 BOOKS
39 Books in the Old Testament
27 Books in the New Testament
During the Council of Trent, before the Catholic Church finally closed the
CANON (which means: from then on, no other books will be added to the Bible), the
Church declared as canonical some Old Testament books which were recognized
ever since as inspired, but were not formally declared as part of the canon of
scriptures.
Unfortunately, the Protestants have already deviated from the ways of the
Catholic Church when this happened, so they do not have the Deuterocanonicals in
their Bible. If ever they include it, they simply label the books Apocryphals. One
thing is for sure, the Protestant Canon was still a product of the prudent judgment of
the Catholic Church before the split took place.