Of Looking Back... and Forward

 So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

Permit me to be a bit candid and open about some of my thinking.

There have been a number of times when I have thought fondly of my time in Protestant Christianity.  I had many wonderful friends, and, of course, my dear family.  I was an ordained minister and preached the gospel regularly 3 times per week to my congregation.  “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ,” [Phil. 3:7].  I have said before that I did not need to abandon all I learned as a Protestant when I became Catholic.  My Catholic faith simply perfected what I had previously known.  Many elements emphasized among Protestants are part of Catholic Faith and Catholics would do well to take note and begin to emphasize them too; things such as genuine conversion to Christ, a love for Sacred Scripture, a reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, boldly sharing the love of Christ with others, and a heart set on the holiness of heaven.  But when I am tempted to look back and wonder if the Protestants were right and I was wrong to become Catholic I remember what is written in the passage above.

St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians about our common salvation.  He reminds them that God chose them for salvation [v. 13], and called them to attain “the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,” [v. 14].  But how do we do it?  How does such a transaction take place?  By holding to the traditions handed on by the apostles.

Before there was a written, collated, and circulated New Testament, the early Christians were taught by the tradition of the Apostles.  That tradition was taken from the teachings of our Lord Himself.  The Scripture itself asserts that not everything that Jesus did was written down [John 21:25], and we know that our Lord taught the Apostles during the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension [Acts 1:3].  What did He tell them?  We don’t know.  But we believe it is encapsulated in what we now call Apostolic Tradition, or simply, Tradition.

Contrary to popular thought, Jesus did not condemn tradition outright, nor did St. Paul.  Rather, it was the traditions of men that were condemned when they had the effect of leading people astray.  The divine tradition- passed on from Jesus to His Apostles, and from them to their successors- has always been highly exalted.  We must listen to, and obey, the Tradition that comes from the Apostles.  This is the same that is taught to this day by the Catholic Church.

Listen again to what St. Paul says: “Hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.”  That which came “by word of mouth” is what we call Tradition, and that which came by letter is what we now know of as Sacred Scripture.  Both are necessary.  Tradition keeps us in line with what our Lord and the Apostles intended by what was written in Scripture.  Otherwise, everything becomes subject to each individual’s personal interpretation… which is exactly what we see in the many different denominations of Protestantism.  In contrast, St. Peter says, “… no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,” [2 Pet. 1:20].

In fact, the Protestant doctrine that teaches that the Scripture is the sole authority is contradicted by the Scripture itself here in this passage.  Rather, the Scripture says that we must obey the traditions of the Apostles.

This, among many other things, reminds me that it was indeed the Spirit of our Lord who was leading me to abandon all I had in Protestantism to come to the fullness of Catholic faith.  Herein, I am able to draw closer to the Lord I love and know Him more intimately.  To this I invite all who read this entry.  Come, join me in this place where Christ may be most fully known and all that He taught is kept without any loss or any addition.