OUR BACKGROUND

The term "Church Tradition" refers to the teachings, rules, and instructions concerning the faith and duties of Christians, heard by the Apostles of Jesus Christ or preached by them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but not recorded by them. The disciples of the Apostles and the first pastors of the Church communicated them to their successors; they, those after them, etc. Subsequently, of course, all these traditions were included in the creations of the Fathers of the Church and the decrees of the Popes and the Ecumenical Councils. Thus, at present, there is not a single important Christian tradition that is not contained in the works of the Holy Fathers, the liturgical books or the canons in an open or slightly revealed form.

Scripture alone is not enough to study the truths of the faith. It alone cannot be recognized as true and divinely inspired without the tradition and definitions of the Church. And who, if not the Church, will convince us of the sanctity of the Bible, of the integrity of all its parts? Who will explain the very obscure passages of Scripture, who will reveal the true meaning of the sacred texts and agree on the apparent contradiction? Many truths of Revelation concerning faith and morals are not found in the Holy Scriptures, but have come down to us from the Apostles, according to the continuous tradition (tradition) of the Church; such is, for example, the truth that only four Gospels are accepted. And even the Holy Scripture itself convinces us that in the Church many truths of the faith have been preserved only through Tradition; this is evident, for example, from the Acts of the Apostles, where it is said that Jesus Christ appeared to the Apostles for forty days and spoke to them about the kingdom of God; Thus, Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, revealed to the Apostles many truths about the establishment of the Holy Church on earth and taught them the means to achieve the kingdom of heaven. The Apostle Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to faithfully keep the oral traditions: Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and keep the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle (II Thess. I; 15). In the first epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle writes: The rest I will arrange when I come (XI; 34); this shows that the apostle Paul, in addition to the teachings written in the epistles, gave other instructions that were preserved in the Church through oral tradition.

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Thus, the Christian Catholic is obliged to believe not only what God has revealed through the Holy Scriptures, but also what the Holy Church preserves and borrows from Tradition. Tradition is also the word of God, with the only difference that it was not originally recorded; but the word of God, whether written or not, always remains the word of God, to which all are unconditionally obliged to obey. Scripture itself has its value, not because it is written, but because it is inspired by God Himself; similarly, the church tradition, as coming from God, does not lose its authority at all, nothing that was not recorded immediately.

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In case of doubt about the authenticity or significance of the books of Scripture and oral tradition, the decision of the Church, to which Jesus Christ promises steadfastness and infallibility, must be resorted to. We must obey Her definitions as the voice of God Himself, for the Savior, sending the apostles to preach the gospel to the whole world, says: Behold, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (Matt. XXVIII; 20). The Apostle John wrote the following words of Christ: I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Comforter, so that the Spirit of Truth may abide with you forever ... He abides with you and will be in you (John XIV; 16, 17). Peter was promised that the Holy Church founded on him would not overtake the gates of hell (Matt. XVI; 18). So, if, according to the Savior's promise, the forces of hell will not defeat the Church, if Jesus Christ and His Spirit abide with it until the end of time, then the Church is infallible, at least in her universally binding definitions of doctrine, and her traditions are as holy as the Sacred. Scripture.

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candle. S. Tyszkiewicz CATHOLIC CATECHISM

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