Wednesday, October 27, 2010

All things to your remembrance

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (Jn 14:26)

A presupposition of this verse is that fallible human memory is too unreliable to be a rule of faith. Only inspired memory is sufficient to play that role.

That, of itself, cuts the ground out from under the Catholic appeal to authoritative oral tradition.

6 comments:

  1. That, of itself, cuts the ground out from under the Catholic appeal to authoritative oral tradition.

    Yeah, just another thing for them to ignore.

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  2. A five line slam dunk of a post.

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  3. This cuts painlessly, yet!

    And it didn't even hurt, at first; just like when you cut your finger with a very very sharp knife!

    You slice, you see blood, you think to yourself, hmmmmm, I didn't feel it when it cut!

    "BUT"

    Ouch, then it comes out as you yell out:

    "Where's the band aid mommy?!"

    So it is with the Word/Jesus.

    He comes as a thief in the night. You suffer loss. Yet, in the morning and maybe days later, it comes to you that something is missing!

    Hmmmmmm? Where did the desires for wickedness go? I only remember it. Now it's gone!

    Rev 16:15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!")

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  4. "That, of itself, cuts the ground out from under the Catholic appeal to authoritative oral tradition."

    "All things to your remembrance"

    Therefore, I still don't understand why the Magisterium can't produce all the authoritative oral traditions that they say they have.

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  5. TUAD,

    According to a member of the Magisterium, that would be "gratuitous" and unnecessary:

    "Every possible “definition” of a particular point of doctrine comes under the Magisterium and is referred to it. Those, therefore, who imagine that the ideal aimed at in exercising the Magisterium is to produce as many gratuitous “definitions” as possible, assigning their elaboration to the theologians, are sadly mistaken. The essential thing is not to define, but to keep the deposit faithfully and to bear witness to its totality by respecting the balance of its different parts. The extreme course of “defining”, which the Fathers unanimously consider as a hazardous undertaking…which it is hoped may be avoided, is resorted to only when necessity decrees that this is the sole way to safeguard the integrity and purity of the apostolic testimony, whose content is the truth of the bond of Covenant sealed in Jesus Christ.”

    Congar, Yves. The Meaning of Tradition. San Francisco. Ignatius Press, 2004. P. 65

    They'd rather keep the deposit without defining it.

    Just more convenient that way.

    Peace.

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  6. Congar, Yves. The Meaning of Tradition. San Francisco. Ignatius Press, 2004. P. 65

    In my fallen moments I say "Eff that."

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