Sebastian R. Fama - St. Patrick's Basilica

Tradition
It is often alleged that the Catholic Church focuses on tradition rather than
Scripture. That is simply not so. The Church focuses on Scripture and Sacred
Tradition as they both flow out of the same divine wellspring, making up a single
sacred deposit of the Word of God (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation
2:9, 10). This is verified by the teaching of Scripture. Scripture speaks of two
kinds of tradition. One is condemned, and the other requires belief. Paul tells us In
2 Thessalonians 2:15, to "Stand firm, and hold to the traditions which you were
taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." Notice how Paul ranks oral
tradition with written tradition equally. Why does he do that? He gives us the
answer in 1 Thessalonians 2:13: "And we also thank God constantly for this, that
when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not
as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God…" So the oral
traditions and the written were both the word of God. No wonder Paul was pleased
when the Corinthians accepted the traditions that he passed on to them. "I
commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the
traditions even as I delivered them to you" (1 Corinthians 11:2). It is sometimes
claimed that the oral tradition that Paul is speaking of is what he later put into
Scripture. But the Bible nowhere says this.
Bible Christians rely on Catholic Tradition. For instance, how do they know that
the 27 books of the New Testament belong in the Bible? How do they know that
Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark? His name doesn't appear in the manuscripts.
How do they know that public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle?
They know these things the same way that Catholics know them, because the
Catholic Church tells us so.
So then, what type of tradition does Jesus condemn? Mark records the following
statement made by Jesus to the Scribes and Pharisees:
"You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of
men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the
commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! For Moses
said, 'Honor your father and your mother'… but you say, 'If a man tells
his father or his mother, ‘what you would have gained from me is
corban’ (that is, given to God), then you no longer permit him to do
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