Day 10: The Apostolic Tradition

God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth": that is, of Christ Jesus. Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth: God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations. CCC 74

 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and revealed to us through Divine Revelation, which is mainly through the Scriptures and Tradition, which "go hand in hand" and "we need both" (Catechism Companion, p. 24). This was given to his Church and is maintained in unity through Apostolic Succession.

That basically sums up today's reading. What I liked about this was it succinctly addressed what we hear some Protestants claim, which is in essence a "just me and the Bible" approach, with the label of sola Scriptura slapped on it. I personally find that approach to be arrogant, ahistorical, and flawed. I realize that this is simplifying the sola Scriptura view of many Protestants, but a lot do hold to this. Christ established his Church and through it passed down to us Scripture and Tradition. Divorcing oneself from the Church because your own understanding is superior is unwise in my view.

At any rate, I want to keep this short given the late hour and I believe I'm slipping into an apologetics mode which I don't intend this to be about. Pax Christi.