Bible and Tradition

June 03, 2017 Saturday, 7th Week of Easter 1st Reading: Acts 28: 16-20, 30-31 Gospel: Jn 21:20–25

Peter looked back and saw that the disciple Jesus loved was following as well, the one who had reclined close to Jesus at the supper and had asked him, “Lord, who is to betray you?” On seeing him Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I come, does that concern you? Follow me.”  Because of this the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, “He will not die,” but “suppose I want him to remain until I come.”
It is this disciple who testifies about the things he has recorded here and we know that his testimony is true. But Jesus did many other things; if all were written down, the world itself would not hold the books recording them.

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

Our faith came down to us through the testimonies of eyewitnesses such as St. John the Evangelist. He himself admitted that only some of these testimonies were put down into writing because the world would not be enough to hold all the books if everything Jesus did were to be written down. This is not a mere figurative speech. If St. John Bosco, a mere human being, had more than twenty volumes of biographical memoirs, how many volumes would Jesus deserve?

Not everything about Jesus was put down into writing. The Bible is only part of Tradition. There are religious sects that limit their faith to what is written in the bible. But they are inconsistent because the Bible itself doesn’t say that one should not believe unless it is written on its pages! One, therefore, who espouses the principle that nothing is worth believing unless written in the Bible stands to be inconsistent because his very principle is not even found in the Bible.

There are two parts of Tradition: the unwritten and the written part. Is the unwritten part safe after being passed on from generation to generation? Yes it is if we but remain faithful to the interpretation of Peter’s Church now manned by the Pope. It was to Peter that Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom with the assurance that howsoever Peter would interpret it on earth it will be interpreted as such in heaven (see Matt. 16:16ff).  The Church is the legitimate guardian of Tradition.
The bible was written more than two thousand years ago. Meanings can change from one generation to another through time. Without proper guidance, people reading the Bible by themselves can be misled. Lest we be misled, let us seek guidance from legitimate authorities in understanding Tradition.  –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM

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