Tradition and the Church

Divine Tradition is altogether different from human tradition. It is the Word of God, Who is Its Source. In fact, Holy Scripture is a part of Divine Tradition as It constitutes Its written portion; that is, the part written directly by God Himself through whom He communicated His Truth. "When we speak of the unwritten Word of God," says Msgr. Agius, "we do not mean that it has never been written, but it was never written by the man to whom God revealed it. It was committed to writing afterwards by his disciples, or by others who heard it from his lips."

It is an article of Faith that public Divine Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle. Hence, the entirety of God's public Word is wholly contained in Divine Tradition. It follows that those who have a good understanding of It are less likely to be deceived by the many today (especially those wearing the clerical garb) who proclaim in a variety of clever ways that in matters of Faith or morals---the Catholic Church "must" change Her mind. Certainly, those who preach gospels different from the One which Divine Tradition has handed down to us---no matter how high up in the Church they appear to be---have been anathematized by God; for, The Holy Spirit tells us: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Gal. 1:8.) These are the ravening wolves in the clothing of sheep---the false prophets---that Our Lord warns us about in (Matt.7:15) immediately after apprising us as to the few number of souls who actually find "the way that leadeth to life" (v. 14.)

Our Lord tells us that His Church is the light of the world. And how, it may be asked, is one to recognize this visible institution? The answer is by its four outer immutable marks---One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

As regards to the latter, it may be said that The Catholic Church bears this characteristic because (1) the Apostles were divinely appointed as Her first leaders (bishops) and their successors became and continue to become Her future leaders; and, (2) Because the Church in every generation proclaims the very same Gospel that the Apostles infallibly taught to the very first Christians in Apostolic times.

But how is this done?

Divine Tradition.

The True Church of Christ is the Work of God not of man. Hence, it is The Holy Spirit working through the very weak tools of human beings, Whom ensures Our Lord's Promise that the gates of hell will never prevail against His Church. Certainly, many have tried to conquer Her with their own cunning doctrines, but they have all failed miserably---stumbling over this Divinely Instituted Sign of Contradiction. And in so doing, they have manifested their hearts to all.

Divine Tradition is but one Source of Divine Revelation.

The other two Sources are the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium (Teaching Authority) of the Catholic Church.

Paraphrasing the Modern Catholic Dictionary, it may be said that Divine Tradition means a "passing down" of God's revealed Truth from one generation of believers to the next, from the dawn of human history until the end of the Apostolic age, under the Divine Guidance, and promulgated by the One Church which Christ established.

Explaining how this occurs is the subject of Msgr. Agius' book, "Tradition in the Church."

On the back cover of TAN's 2005 edition of this book, Fr. Chad A. Ripperger writes: ``Tradition and the Church is the only book I know of that gives a profound understanding of exactly what Catholic Tradition is. It will richly reward anyone for whatever time he has spent reading it.''

It is with the hope of increasing the understanding of this Source of Divine Revelation on the part of the faithful that we make available this retypeset edition of Tradition and the Church.