My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE PROSELYTE (Part IV)
The Holy Tradition of the Church
"We believe that the collective wisdom and understanding of God handed down through the generations is a vital part of our faith--and no less important than Scripture. In addition to Scripture, our faith is understood and celebrated in the Eucharist, through the teaching of the Church Fathers and the Saints, through the doctrines established at the Ecumenical Councils, and through private and communal prayer."
The Divine Revelation, God Himself came to earth incarnate in the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and spread the revelation to the whole earth through His Apostles and Disciples.
This Divine Revelation and its dissemination among people are preserved in the True, Holy Orthodox Church in two ways: by means of Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture.
The primary means of dissemination of Divine Revelation is Holy Tradition. From the beginning of the world until Moses there were no holy books. Teaching about belief in God was handed down by tradition, that is, by word of mouth and example, from one to another, from ancestor to descendant. Jesus Christ, Himself conveyed His Divine teaching and precepts to His Disciples by word of mouth, by preaching, and by the example of His life, not by books (scripture). By preaching and example, the Apostles first spread the faith and maintained the Christian Church.
Holy Tradition always precedes Holy Scripture. This is obvious because books are not useful for all people, but tradition is accessible to all without exception.
Eventually, so that God's revelation might be kept in complete faithfulness, by the inspiration of the Lord, several holy people wrote the most important aspects of tradition in books. The Holy Spirit helped them invisibly so that everything in these written books would be correct and true. All these books, written by the Spirit of God through people sanctified by God, Prophets, Apostles, and others, are called Holy Scripture, or the Bible.
The word "Bible" comes from the Greek word "Vivlos", and means "book." This name shows that the holy books, as coming from God Himself, surpass all other books.
"Hold on to the traditions which you have been taught, whether orally or through an epistle of ours." Also, Scripture says: "At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word, be established" (Deut. 19:15, cf., Matthew 18:16).
In the original precise meaning of the word, Sacred Tradition is the tradition which comes from the ancient Church of Apostolic times. In the second to the fourth centuries, this was called "The Apostolic Tradition."
One must keep in mind that the ancient Church carefully guarded the inward life of the Church from those outside of her; her Holy Mysteries (Sacraments) were profound--Baptism or the Eucharist--those outside the Church were not present; the order of the services was not written down, but was only transmitted orally; and in what was preserved in secret was contained the essential side of the faith. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century) presents this to us especially clearly. In undertaking Christians instruction for those who had not yet expressed a final decision to become Christians, the hierarchy precedes his teachings with these following words: "When the catechetical teachings with the following catechumens should ask you, 'What did the instructors say?' you are to repeat nothing to those who are without (the church). For we are giving to you the mystery and hope of the future age. Keep the Mystery of Him Who is the Giver of rewards. May no one say to you, 'What harm is it if I shall find out also?' Sick people also ask for wine, but if it is given at the wrong times it produces disorder to the mind, and there are two evil consequences; the sick one dies, and the physician is slandered" (Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures, Ch. 12).
In the following words Saint Basil the Greater gives us a clear understanding of the Sacred Apostolic Tradition: "Of the dogmas and sermons preserved in the Church, certain ones we have from written instructions, and certain ones we have received from the Apostolic Tradition, handed down in secret. Both the one and the other have one and the same authority for piety, and no one who is even the least informed in the decrees of the Church will contradict this. For if we dare to overthrow the unwritten customs as if they did not have great importance, we shall thereby imperceptively do harm to the Gospel in its most important points. And even more, we shall be left with the empty name of the Apostolic preaching without content. For example, let us especially make note of the first commonest thing: that those who hope in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ should sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross. Who taught this in Scripture? Which of the saints left us in written form the words of invocation during the transformation of the bread of the Eucharist and the Chalice of blessing? For we are not satisfied with the words which are mentioned in the Epistles or the Gospels, but both before them and after them we pronounce others also as having great authority for the Mystery, having received them from the unwritten teaching. By what Scripture, likewise, do we bless the water of Baptism and the oil of the anointing and, indeed, the one being baptized himself? Is this not the silent and secret traditions? And what more? What written word has taught us this anointing with oil itself? Where is the triple immersion and all the rest that has to do with Baptism, the renunciation of Satan and his angels to be found? What Scripture are these taken from? Is it not from this unpublished and unspoken teaching which our Fathers have preserved in a silence inaccessible to curiosity and scrutiny, because they were thoroughly instructed to preserve in silence the sanctity of the Mysteries (Sacraments)? For what propriety would there be to proclaim in writing a teaching concerning that which it is not allowed for the unbaptized even to behold?" (On the Holy Spirit, Ch. 27).
From these words of Saint Basil the Great we may conclude first, that the Sacred Tradition of the teaching of faith is that which may be traced back to the earliest period of the Church, and, second, that it was carefully preserved and unanimously acknowledged among the Fathers and teachers of the Church during the epoch of the great Fathers and the beginning of the Ecumenical Councils. (Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology)
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George