In the Life of the Church

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, Looking back to our immediate past, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, in the context of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, I focused on the notion of Holy Tradition in the homily. Following that homily, Presvytera Deborah reminded me of two outstanding passages on this all-important subject from Fr. John Meyendorff (+1996), both a prominent historian and theologian from the 20th c. and my professor at St. Vladimir's Seminary. The importance of these two passages is found in the fact that Fr. John both recognizes our Lord's condemnation of "human traditions" when they become an obstacle in our relationship with God; while simultaneously making it clear that there is a Holy Tradition by which the Church lives, moves and has its being. Faithful Orthodox Christians always need to keep that in mind, as small "traditions" can at times consume our attention at the expense of the  endlessly-widening expanse of Holy Tradition. These texts are equally important for our inquirers, who are coming to terms with learning about the Church's Holy Tradition from a background that either ignores or rejects the very notion of "tradition." _____ "No clear notion of the true meaning of Tradition can be reached without constantly keeping in mind the well-known condemnation of "human traditions" by the Lord Himself. The one Holy Tradition, which constitutes the self-identity of the Church throughout the ages and is the organic and visible expression of the life of the Spirit in the Church, is not to be confused with the inevitable, often creative and positive, sometimes sinful, and always relative accumulation of human traditions in the historical Church." Living Tradition, p. 21. "The very reality of Tradition, a living and organic reality manifesting the presence of the Spirit in the Church and therefore also its unity, cannot be fully understood unless it is clearly distinguished from everything which creates a normal diversity inside the one Church. To disengage Holy Tradition from the human traditions which tend to monopolize it is in fact a necessary condition of its preservation, for once it becomes petrified into the forms of a particular culture, it not only excludes the others and betrays the catholicity of the Church, but it also identifies itself with passing and relative reality and is in danger of disappearing with it." Living Tradition, 25-26.