Homily of the Day: Tuesday Reading 12 THES 2:1-3A, 14-17 We ask you, brothers and sisters, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. To this end he has also called you through our Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. Homily: Good morning my brothers and sisters. Today we are going to talk a little bit about tradition and church history. To begin with I would like to begin by asking each of you a few questions. In the foundation of the Church which came first, Jesus Christ, scripture, or tradition? Of course many of us know the answer to this question is Jesus Christ. Our Lord and Savior came to earth first to live a perfect life, so that He could train his first apostles for three years prior to His death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven. What happened next? The Apostles, with the help of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to send upon them, had descended upon them at Pentecost and the Apostles through direct reliance upon Him, founded the Church. Prior to this Jesus commissioned Peter to be the rock, the first pope and the given Him the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. He said, thou art Peter (rock) and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. The other apostles were considered to be the first bishops of the Church, and they possessed the exact same authority that Peter was given. They had the ability to forgive sins in Jesus name and they had the ability to teach others about the gospel. They had the ability to baptize, to absolve, and to consecrate the Holy Eucharist. They had the ability to anoint the sick and to care for the needy. They had the authority to pass the faith along to the next generation of Christianity. Now why do I bring this up? Why do I put so much emphasis on authority and Church tradition before I talk about the quintessential element of Holy Scripture coming into play? The reason is because tradition came first. St. Paul told the Thessalonians, to stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. Now since the books of 1 and 2nd Thessalonians were some of the first few books that Scholars believe to have been written in the New Testament, there was not much scripture around. But there was certainly tradition. This was the tradition or the way in which Jesus taught them and that was pretty much it. And those traditions served as the backbone of Christianity and those traditions came almost verbatim from Jesus lips. So Jesus came first, tradition came second, the Church came third, and finally what came last? The thing that came last was Holy Scripture. Now Holy Scripture, [the New Testament] while it was written in from about 45 to 90 A.D. was not considered canonized until about 380 A.D. at the council of Carthage. What was Holy Scripture? Holy Scripture was considered the writings of the early apostles. They were written to various churches, experiencing different scenarios. Did they contain every single piece of tradition? No. The Holy Scriptures like even the most detailed autobiography could not contain everything that Jesus did, or that the Apostles did, or for that matter, anything anyone else did in the first century Christians did. They did in fact touch on the elements of salvation, but they nevertheless did not contain everything. Read the last chapter of John for example. The apostle writing the gospel of John said that, if everything that Jesus did had been recorded not all of the books of the world could contain them. In fact, the Church used the other writings of the early popes as Holy Scripture. They often referred to the very famous author of Pope Clement, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and others who wrote so much about the Church tradition, and apostolic authority that, as a matter of fact, some of these early Churches were in fact using these writings and valuing them equally with our New Testament Canon today. Why werent they incorporated into the Canon that was decided by the Council of Carthage? It was because by 380 A.D. the Church was considered universal. Its traditions were considered common knowledge by all, and because the Apostles had carried out these sacraments and other things that were approved by Apostolic Authority roughly two centuries before, which was the Authority that Christ had given to them to make decisions and to perform certain duties, then they didnt need to worry about these books because they were already following the Catholic and Apostolic faith. This was the faith that Jesus founded and had promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail against. Now these writings are still around and can still be accessed via computer or by going to the Vatican or by looking at various parts of the Catechism. But these are nevertheless ancient traditions, and are very much part of our Church which is the reason that we still uphold, defend, and cling to them. To read more information and some excerpts from these letters visit. Early Christians Believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist image Early Christians Believed in the Real Presence of Christ... The Early Christians actually took the Real Presence for granted. It doesnt even seem as if there was much debate. I could not find anyone who denied the Real Pres... View on therealpresence.org Preview by Yahoo So today let us thank God for our Catholic Faith. Let Him ask Him to breathe life again into us. Let us ask Him to understand Holy Tradition and let us venerate and uphold the beautiful works of the Apostles. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 14:44:19 +0000
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