Could you give me a measure of how to distinguish between Sacred Tradition and the traditions of men that are disputed in the bible.
Dear Richard,
Christ Himself left no written record of His gospel. The first converts were made and the first local churches formed by the preaching of the Apostles and their followers. Everything in the beginning was by oral tradition of Christ's teaching and by Old Testament scriptures.
Moved by the Holy Spirit, some Apostles (and perhaps other first-century Christian leaders) wrote gospels, letters, and treatises to already formed churches. These writings are not, either in part or as a whole, a systematic presentation of all Christian doctrine. In other words, not every doctrine was fully set down nor completely developed by the time of the death of the last Apostle.
The complete doctrine of Christ was and is entrusted to the Church, which St. Paul calls "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1st Tim 3:15). The Church recognizes written tradition (Old and New Testament scripture) and oral tradition, as Paul suggests in 2nd Thess 2:15.
Regarding oral tradition, the Second Vatican Council writes: "The sayings of the Holy Fathers are a witness to ... this Tradition ... its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer. By means of the same (oral, Church-directed) Tradition, the full canon of the sacred books is known to the Church and the holy Scriptures themselves are more thoroughly understood.... Sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other.... Both of them come together to form one thing.... Sacred Scripture is the speech of God put down in writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God entrusted to the Apostles by Christ and the Holy Spirit, that they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching.... The Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Hence both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal devotion and reverence. (Divine Revelation, chap. I, nos. 8-9.)
In Matthew 15 and Mark 7, Christ rebukes the Pharisees for placing human traditions on a level with or even above the Scriptures. Some of these pharisaic interpretations went contrary to the teaching of Scripture. St. Paul warns the Colossians (2:8) against certain teachings of pagan (probably gnostic) philosophy. Such traditions contradict the Christian doctrine and are of themselves wrong and unChristian (and even unJewish, because most Jews were not Pharisees). They must be distinguished from a) divine Tradition, of which the Council wrote, which is part of Christian revelation; and b) customs, usages, practices which form part of our ordinary exercise of our religion, such as signs of the Cross, blessings, holy water, vestments, candles, and the like, which come and go and change over the centuries and differ from one part of the Catholic world to another.
Sincerely in Christ, Father Mateo
http://www.cin.org/mateo/9109121.html
Not to change the subject, but hey, how about those Blues!
But that was only valid when those teaching were apostles that had face to face teaching from the Lord himself. All that came after that was corruptible, and unreliable unless it was in writing from those that had the face to face comunication. All else is hearsay.