Dear Family of God,

This weekend we will hear Jesus rebuke the Pharisees and the Scribes: “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” (Mark 7:6-8).

Is Jesus teaching us here that all human traditions should be rejected? Or was it a particular tradition that the Pharisees taught which nullify God’s Commandment?

Not all traditions, for Saint Paul said: “Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you have heard from us, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). What Jesus was against about is this one: “For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say, if a person says to father and mother, any support you might have from me is qorban (meaning dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you handed on. (Mk. 7:10-13).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 81 & 83 teach us two kinds of Traditions; one with capital T and the other with small t: “And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ and the Holy Spirit…Tradition is to be distinguished from various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s Magisterium.”

The Church Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Church that Jesus gave to the apostles and guided by the Holy Spirit. And there are two main Sources of the Church’s teaching are Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Traditions coming from the Apostles whether by word of mouth or by letter.

May we all choose to follow God’s commandments and avoid sins that truly defile us and cut our relationship with God. Let us avail as often as we need the Sacrament of Confessions that God gifted us with in the church and be at peace with God and one another.

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