A few weeks ago a lady stopped me after Mass to tell me of a conversation she had with a friend. The friend asked her how we know that St. Anne was the mother of the Virgin Mary. Her friend pointed out that there is nothing in Scripture that even mentions Anne or any of Mary’s family other than to say that she was from the house of David. The lady who posed the question to me admitted that she did not know how to answer. I told her I would look into it and address it in a future column.
There has always been two recognized sources for the teachings of the Church: Scripture and Tradition. We, of course, know the purpose of Scripture. However, most Catholics do not have a clear understanding of Tradition. I would like to take some time here to look at what Tradition means.
Every family has its traditions. God’s family is no different. In my family we always watch the same movie on Thanksgiving night. It is our way of kicking off the Christmas season. The Church has its own traditions, also. My purpose here is not to enumerate our traditions but rather to explain what tradition means.
The Catholic Encyclopedia states that Tradition is the process and content of the transmission of beliefs, doctrines, rituals, Scriptures and life of the Church. Notice that there are two components: 1) tradition is a process that transmits and 2) tradition is the content of what is transmitted.
The process of tradition (signified by a capital T) constitutes the teaching, life and worship of the Church through which the truth and realty communicated by Christ and the Holy Spirit to the apostles is passed on to successive generations. In other words, tradition passes on to the next generation what Jesus taught and the Holy Spirit inspired His apostles concerning the teachings, life and worship of the earliest Christian communities. The content of tradition (signified by a small t) comprises what is passed on -the whole life and activity of the Church that is the totality of Christian revelation.
There has always been debate concerning Scripture and Tradition. This debate was responsible to a large extent for the Protestant Reformation. Luther and his followers wanted to focus entirely on Scripture as the source of revelation. However, the Catholic Church has always maintained that Scripture alone cannot account for the entirety of revelation. After all, oral traditions existed for years before the first Scriptures were penned.
The Council of Trent (1543-1565) concluded that Scripture and Tradition were parallel sources of revelation. This position was held for many years until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). At that time the council fathers decided to look at the debate again. Their conclusions were captured in the Dogmatic Constitution on Devine Revelation. The council concluded that Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition form one deposit of the Word of God that is entrusted to the teaching authority of the Church for authentic interpretation. In other words, Tradition encompasses both the process and the content of what is transmitted as revelation and all that Scripture contains and the interpretation of the Sacred Books.
I was a teen-ager during the years of the Second Vatican Council. I remember the way my grandparents reacted when the order of the Mass was changed, especially when Latin gave way to English and when the altar was turned around so that the priest faced the people. They did not like these “new” changes. But in actuality, the Church was moving backwards in time so that the worship resembled more closely what happened in the first Christian communities. The people sat around the table facing the presider and they spoke in their native languages. It was only when the Church started to grow into other regions of the world that a universal language (Latin, since the Church was centered in Rome) was instituted.
Now, as for St. Anne and her husband St. Joachim: The Catholic Encyclopedia refers to them as the “legendary parents of the Virgin, Mary”. Joachim was a priest who was prohibited from offering sacrifices in the temple because he had not fathered any children. Like some of the women in the Old Testament, Anne had long been barren. She and her husband diligently prayed for a child. A second century tradition based on a book by a writer named James and later repeated in a gospel credited to followers of Matthew says that God heard their prayer. When Mary was born she lived with her parents for three years. After that she lived as a consecrated virgin in the temple until her betrothal at age twelve to Joseph. We all know the rest of the story.
If you have any questions concerning the Church or sacraments or matters of faith please send them to me. You can reach me by e-mail at deaconmikefranks@comcast.net or by leaving a note in the collection basket or at the rectory office. As always, thank you for your goodness and faithfulness to the faith and always remember that I love you all.