But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
In a recent post about Magisterial fundamentalism, I offered a critique of all forms of fundamentalism within Catholicism. In a brief paragraph, I mentioned how a fundamentalism with regards to tradition is also wrong. Here, I’d like to exlpore that in greater detail.
In contemporary Catholic circles, tradition is thought of as the handing on of something. Etymologically, tradition does come from the Latin tradere which means to deliver. Certainty, there is truth to this. The heart of the issue is what does in mean to deliver tradition and what exactly is being delivered?
There is an important distinction between the tradition as a whole, and certain traditions in particular. There are various traditions within tradition, but none of them, nor even the sum of all of them, constitute tradition as such. These traditions, or, monuments of tradition, are by no means unimportant. They are, however, not exhaustive. Monuments of tradition (traditions) are things such as crucifixes, holy water, the sign of the cross, liturgical vestments, and the like. They are monuments of tradition and can even remind us of the whole of tradition (think of how a sign of the cross can, in a profoundly beautiful way, remind us of the entire Christian Mystery), but they do not make up the whole of tradition. They are, in some sense, signifiers of traditon. They point us back to a reality that is, again, nor exhausted by them. This is one of the main issues that many within the radical traditionalist movement get so massively wrong. They confuse tradition with its many monuments—monuments which are great and beautiful, but not the entire picture.
Now that we have examined the nature of the monuments of tradition, we can now exlpore tradition as such. In a broad sense, tradition is simply the handing on of the entirety of the Christian Mystery. Fundamentally, tradition is the handing on of the Deposit of Faith. The same Deposit of faith is contained in the Scriptiures, but explained and made sense of in tradition. (One of the main issues with Protestantism is that it protests against traditon, without recognizing the intrinsic importance of traditon for each indivisdual sect; i.e. how is Scripture to be interpreted?) A problem arises when the Deposit of Faith is seen as the handing on of mere data. Here, tradition is seen primarily as memory. Though an important aspect of traditon, is cannot been boiled down to memory. Rather, Catholics believe in a living tradition. This is because the Deposit of Faith is not simply the delivery of data, but the handing on of a Person—the Person of Jesus Christ. This is the beauty of the tradition entrusted to the Church, it is nothing less than Her Bridegroom Himself. Is it now easy to see why tradition is living? The fullness of Revelation was given in seed form to the Apostles, but our understanding of it progresses and develops organically. This is the exact teaching of Vatican II in Dei Verbum (The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation) in paragraph 8:
This tradition which comes from the Apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her.
Our understanding of the Christian Mysteries increase, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit Who has been breathed upon the Church by Christ. How does this organic development occur? DV claims through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. How does it happen at first? Through the Magisterium? No, firstly through the contemplation of believers and from their experiences, then through the ordinary Magisterium. Doctrinal development doesn’t fall from the sky. The pope doesn’t wake up one day and randomly decide to convene a Council, or make a solemn pronouncement. These realities are reactionary—they are a response to the events happening in the Church and in the world.
This development has its origin in the reflection of believers as they earnestly wrestle with God and the mysteries given to them. We encounter our Beloved, and he more fully unveils Himself through these encounters until we one day see Him as he truly is. Like Anselm, we have faith seeking understanding—an understanding that grows until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment…
There is no more perfect model for this attitude than the Blessed Mother, who treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. That is what the Church strives to do until the end of time; to imitate the discipleship of Mary. In that imitation, her Son is constantly inviting us to seek Him, to understand Him, and to love Him. That is what a living traditon is. Not a mere remembrance, but a living faith seeking understanding. Belivers holding onto the riches bequeathed to them, while continually digging deeper. A Church led by the Spirit and constantly following wherever Her Master leads.
Let us not be like the servant given one talent and bury it in the ground, lest the Master chastise us for not allowing it to reach maturity. Instead, let us be like the servants given five and ten talents, and allow those to grow as the Master pleases. Let us imitate Mary and ponder the Mysteries taught to us—Mysteries infinite in value and infinite in beauty, knowing that the Spirit is still guiding the Church and leading her down paths of unspeakable glory where her Master is waiting.
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