Sacred Tradition

CHURCH OF ST. JOHN NEUMANN
A ROMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY CENTERED IN PRAYER AND EUCHARIST

16271 Pearl Road Strongsville, OH 44136
(440) 238-1770
Fax: (440) 238-2030

Question: What is Sacred Tradition?

Answer: Sacred Tradition is the common teaching, common life, common worship and of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Like all tradition, it is a thing "handed down" from one generation to the next. The difference is that Sacred Tradition is handed down from the apostles to whom Christ said, "He who listens to you listens to me, and he who listens to me listens to him who sent me" (Luke 10:16). That is why Sacred Tradition is not the same thing as the "human tradition" which Christ elsewhere warned his disciples against treating as the word of God (Mark 7:8). For it is not human in origin, but comes from God Incarnate. This is why St. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 that we must "stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" [i.e., whether in the form of written Scripture or via unwritten means]. The early Church functioned in just the way St. Paul describes. In Acts 2:42, Luke tells us the early converts to the apostolic preaching "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching [i.e, the common apostolic teaching whether written and unwritten] and fellowship [i.e., the common life of the apostolic church], to the breaking of bread and the prayers" [i.e., the common liturgical and eucharistic worship]. Scripture therefore is the written aspect of the Sacred Tradition which comes down to us from the apostles, but not the whole of the Tradition. As just one example, Scripture does not itself tell us what books are to be included in the Bible. The only way we know this information is because the Sacred Tradition of the Church tells us.