Word and Traditions

One of my favorite memories from my childhood are the ice cream sundaes on New Year's Eve, the way my mother set the table for Thanksgiving, the smell of my parent's coffee and toast every morning. Every Sunday we would drive to the next town and visit my grandmother. My sister and I would hide under her dining room table and Grandma would slip us windmill cookies. If we sat there long enough and quiet enough, our aunts and uncles would start to share stories about their youth using some very colorful language.

These are the traditions of my family, the actions of our culture. Even if someone knows us, can name us, can pick us from a crowd, they don't fully understand our family unless they participate in our traditions. Only my family knows the memory of the phrase "Grandma in the window". Only family will picture my grandmother standing in her dining room window waving to us as we drive away.

It's the same with the Catholic Faith. Catholics cherish the traditions of Jesus' actions and words that he shared with his Apostles. The Eucharist being one of the traditions, Catholics do as he said and know that it isn't just bread and wine, but the true presence of Jesus. Is that hard to grasp? You bet! Even as he spoke those words two millenia ago, people walked out. His gift of the Eucharist was profound. Only those who truly believe that everything Jesus said is really what he said and meant can accept that gift of his flesh and blood.

No one - Catholic, Protestant, Baptist or another Christian denomination - will argue that the Bible is anything else than the inspired Word of God. It's divine text is the core to all goodness. Talk about Life's Instruction Manual! It's all there. The difference between the denominations of the Christian Faith is our familiarity with the Scriptures and the idea that the Bible is the only thing that God as given us as a means of teaching His love.

It's not.

God didn't send His Son to become man just to lengthen the Scriptures. God sent Jesus here to teach us how to live, how to trust God the Father, how to be patient in prayer, to do God's will despite the threat (or reality) of death. All these things were taught to us through Jesus' actions.

Jesus wasn't just a source of words and parables and commandments. He was God made man. He walked and talked and loved his disciples and his family. He had quirks and personality. He gave us direction in how to remember his sacrifice. "DO this in memory of me." "This IS my body and blood that will be poured out for many so sins may be forgiven." We are to act. We are to accept that every word is true. He didn't say, this bread and wine represent my body and blood. He said this IS my body and blood.

I love my Catholic faith! I also love my Protestant and Baptist and Methodist brothers and sisters! In some ways, their passion for the Lord Jesus is much more profound than my own. I love what I learn from my fellow Christian siblings. Lord God! Bless us all!