My Life on the Rock: A Rebel Returns to the Catholic Faith by Jeff Cavins

Author:Jeff Cavins [Cavins, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw, mobi
Publisher: Ascension Press
Published: 2012-04-11T06:00:00+00:00

Many people, of course, will say at this point, “But the Jews were just wrong to think this way. After all, Jesus condemned all tradition when he rebuked the Pharisees: ‘You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men’ (Mark 7:8).” But this is to misread Jesus. For Jesus did not condemn all tradition; he condemned confusing the traditions of men with the Tradition of God. How do we know? Because Jesus himself teaches from both the written Torah and the unwritten Torah, like all good rabbis. That is why Jesus can refer to the teaching office in Israel as “Moses’ seat” even though this title exists nowhere in the Old Testament and is found only in Jewish tradition. It is also why Jesus makes free use of preexisting stories and parables in Jewish tradition and adapts them to his own purposes (such as the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, which is adapted from a rabbinic tale later preserved in the Tosefta [Yom HaKipurim 1:12]). In short, Jesus honors the concept of the unwritten Torah. He distinguishes, not between Tradition and Scripture, but between human tradition and that Tradition handed down to us from God. Jesus’ criticism of the scribes and Pharisees that they have “invalidated the word of God by [their] tradition” (see Mark 7:13) is not a blanket condemnation of all tradition; it is a correction regarding a particular tradition of man that had choked the power of the word of God. According to this tradition, a son could take money that should have gone for the care of his parents and consider it as corban, a gift devoted to God. Once money was declared corban, a son did not necessarily have to give the money to the Temple and could use the money for himself. By doing this, he could legally exclude his parents from receiving the gift and thus shirk his responsibility to care for them as the commandment to honor one’s father and mother requires of him. Wouldn’t you condemn a tradition like that? Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger points out that the “traditions were criticized in order that genuine tradition might be revealed.”6 This view is consistent in apostolic teaching as well. That is why St. Paul tells the Thessalonians, “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). The traditions to which St. Paul refers are known as apostolic Tradition. There is a distinction between the traditions of the Church (sometimes referred to as small “t” traditions) and the apostolic Tradition (referred to as big “T” Tradition). When the Church speaks of apostolic Tradition, it is not speaking of the disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions developed in the local churches over the years. These traditions can be modified or entirely dropped under the guidance of the Magisterium. Apostolic Tradition, however, comes to us from the apostles as they received it from Jesus. They

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