The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 11: Sources of Divine Revelation (2025)

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

Fr. Mike breaks down the Catechism’s teaching that divine revelation consists of both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and emphasizes why both sources are of equal importance in the Faith. He also clarifies the difference between Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions. Lastly, Fr. Mike encourages us to receive with docility the teachings and directives of the Magisterium of the Church, trusting in the authority of the Pope and the bishops. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 80-87. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we will read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 11.

You guys, I can begin. I wanna let you know some things. First is I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. You can follow along with that one or with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That'd be just great.

To download your own Catechism and your reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. Also, you can follow or subscribe by clicking on those words, I guess, in your podcast app for daily notifications. Okay, here's why I'm so excited. It is day 11. We're reading paragraphs 80 through 87 today.

I mentioned this yesterday on day 10. I was like, you know, it seems like we're getting, hard to get some traction here today. Well, yesterday was pretty awesome. I don't know. When we started talking about how here is the apostolic tradition that handed down orally and in writing,

we gave us divine revelation. It's just so good. Sacred scripture and sacred tradition. Today, we're gonna hear even more about the relationship between tradition, sacred tradition or holy tradition, and sacred scripture. And it's just, oh my gosh. You guys, one of the things that people will oftentimes get mistaken,

be mistaken about, be mistaken about, is we think, oh, so the Bible, that's divine revelation. And you say, yeah, yeah, it is, but it's not the only divine revelation that we have sacred scripture, definitely. We heard about that yesterday. The apostles wrote down, apostles or the people connected with the apostles wrote things down. But also divine revelation involves sacred tradition as well because there was an oral

tradition that also was a deposit of the faith, right? Because not even at the end of John's gospel it says not everything Jesus said or did was written down in this book. If it were, there would not be enough books in the world to be able to to Capture everything at Jesus had said or done and so what do we have? We have sacred tradition as well as sacred scripture In fact, the only reason we have sacred scripture is because of sacred tradition We'll get to that before the end of this episode. Hopefully but before that let's just look at that at this reality

There's one common source, the sacred tradition and sacred scripture flow from the one source who is our Lord God. Okay, and we receive that. We receive that gift of divine revelation. So it's gonna be maybe challenging to some of us today to realize that fully divine revelation is both sacred scripture and sacred tradition.

And don't forget the Magisterium of the church, the teaching office of the church. that fully divine revelation is both sacred scripture and sacred tradition and Don't forget the Magisterium of the church the teaching office of the church and more on that after we read today's Paragraphs we're reading paragraphs 80 through 87 today. It's day 11. Let's say a prayer and let's get started father in heaven We give you praise and glory. Thank you so much. Thank you for revealing yourself fully in your son Thank you for revealing yourself slowly over the course of time Through the patriarchs and through the prophets and through your kingdom the people of Israel We thank you for in the fullness of time Revealing yourself to us in your son Jesus Christ the word made flesh who dwelt among us who then sent the Holy Spirit To guide your church into all truth. We know, Lord God,

that when we hear the apostles and their successors speak, we are hearing Christ. Oh, Lord God, please help us to hear Christ today. Help us to hear the voice of the Word Himself today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said last time, Dei Verbum is pretty much the document that this article, this section of divine revelation encounters, encapsulates. So you'll hear me say quite a few times that coming from the dogmatic constitution and divine revelation, aka Dei Verbum, that's what we got today. Here we go. Let's get started. The relationship between tradition and sacred scripture. One common source.

Dei Verbum states, sacred tradition and sacred scripture then are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine wellspring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal. Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own always to the close of the age. Two distinct modes of transmission. Sacred scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of

the Holy Spirit, and Holy Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the Apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the Apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of Truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching. As a result, the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the Holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. Apostolic Tradition and Ecclesial Traditions

The tradition here in question comes from the Apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living tradition. Tradition is to be distinguished from the 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 the light of tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified, or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's magisterium.

The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith. The heritage of faith entrusted to the whole Church. The Apostles entrusted the sacred deposit of the faith, the depositum fidei, contained in sacred scripture and tradition to the whole of the Church. Dave Erbam states, By adhering to this heritage, the entire holy people united to its pastors remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers. So in maintaining, practicing, and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should

be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful. The Magisterium of the Church. Dave Ebram states, The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

Dayverbum further states, Yet this magisterium is not superior to the word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the Divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication, and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith. Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles, he who hears you hears me. The faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms."

Okay, so there we go. That was, I don't know about you, but it feels like we're cooking with gasoline right now because it is just phenomenal. So one of the things to realize, one common source, right? So paragraph 80 states very clearly sacred tradition and sacred scripture. Remember, we talked about this yesterday. That divine revelation, the fullness of revelation came to us orally, that sacred tradition and in written form, that sacred scripture.

They're bound closely together and communicate one with the other. And I love this for both of them He says for both of them flowing out from the same divine wellspring come together in some fashion to form one thing And move toward the same goal and that's that's a remarkable So what we have in the church and the Catholic Church right is sacred tradition sacred scripture and the Magisterium It's like a a three-legged stool that if you take away one of the legs You're gonna fall over if you only have one leg. It's yeah try sitting on that thing But here's this recognition of all three of them work together. Why is it? How is it that they work together? Well paragraph 82

mentions this after 81 says sacred scripture is a speech of God put down in writing and holy tradition transmits in its entirety the word of God That's been entrusted to the holy apostles by Christ and the Holy Spirit who then transmitted to the apostles It says as a result in paragraph 82 as a result The church to whom the transmission and interpretation of revelation is entrusted does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from holy scriptures alone entrusted does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from Holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. So, this has been accepted from the very beginning.

How do I know this? Because, think about it, St. Paul's writings are considered the earliest New Testament documents we have. While the exact dates are disputed among scholars, it's believed that 1 and 2 Thessalonians are the earliest writings we have written around 49 AD. The entire New Testament wasn't compiled and wasn't even codified until much later. What we know by that is that's the oral tradition. We know that sacred tradition precedes sacred scripture in the New Testament.

Isn't that incredible? Have you ever thought about this? precedes sacred scripture in the New Testament, in the New Covenant. Isn't that incredible? I mean, you ever thought about this? Sacred tradition, the living teaching, oral teaching and preaching of the apostles, the deposit of faith, the fullness of divine revelation given to us through Jesus Christ, right? That is in some ways the wellspring

from which came sacred scripture. So we know that sacred tradition not only precedes sacred scripture in many ways, right? Cause what I mean by that is the church came before the Bible, that may be an easy way to say it. That the Christian church came before the Christian scriptures. That's just a chronological, historical, theological fact.

And because of that, we know that that doesn't mean that those people without New Testament without a New Testament scriptures weren't Christian or weren't members of the church It meant that they had another source of divine revelation and that source of divine revelation they had yes Sometimes were the sacred scriptures but were definitely the sacred tradition of the church And in fact, the only reason why we know the New Testament books are New Testament books is because the sacred tradition of the church. And in fact, the only reason why we know the New Testament books are New Testament books is because of sacred tradition. So it wasn't until Martin Luther in the 1500s

who said scripture alone. Remember Martin Luther had the two, faith alone and scripture alone. We look at scripture alone for just one second, we recognize that here's two of the pillars of the Protestant Reformation. And one of them being scripture alone that that all we need for faith that the sole rule of faith is scripture Now that was that that's unprecedented that never was the case

In fact, if it was such a thing as scripture alone we realize as the catechism points out in paragraph 82 It says scripture does not derive for certainty about all revealed truths from the holy scriptures alone Because why because where the scripture come from it came from tradition In fact, if someone were to and I'm not trying to bash on anybody But if someone were to try to argue for the position of scripture alone You'd say okay great. Well, where is that doctrine? Where's that dogma? Where's that claim found in scripture? If scripture is the sole rule of faith,

where in scripture does scripture teach scripture alone? It doesn't. The only place people can sometimes turn is 2 Timothy chapter three, where it says that all scripture is useful for teaching and reproof and correction, but doesn't say that scripture is the sole rule of faith. So that's very, very important.

I hope that makes sense. And again, I get excited about this, but I don't mean to bash on anybody, as I said before, if you're coming from a different faith tradition here, but it's really important for us to understand. Now, beyond this, there's two more things to highlight. One is the difference between what we call Big T tradition and Small T tradition.

So in paragraph 83 talks about the tradition, Capital T tradition, in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus as teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. Again, it highlights the fact that the first generation of Christians did not yet have written New Testament and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living tradition, okay.

But Capital T tradition in that same paragraph is to be distinguished from the various theological disciplinary liturgical or devotional traditions, lowercase T traditions. Now we might call those, again, I call them big T traditions or lowercase T traditions or little T traditions. Big T traditions will never change. They, they are established. They're part of dogma, they're unchanging. We might understand them in a deeper way as time goes on, but they don't change.

Small tea traditions can change, as it says, various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions. So, okay, what's a small tea tradition that's changed? Well, how about this? For centuries, the rosary had 15 mysteries of the Rosary. So you have three sets of five, right? You have the five joyful mysteries, the five sorrowful mysteries, and the five glorious mysteries of the Rosary. So yeah, 150, which

actually corresponds to the Psalter, right? The book of the Psalms is 150 Psalms. And that's what the Rosary is based off of. In some ways, could call it the poor man's Psalter where you don't have a Psalter, you don't have all 150 Psalms. Well, pray 150 Hail Marys. And so you have this very, again, this tradition, small t tradition that goes way, way back. And then John Paul II, who loved the Rosary, who's devoted to Our Lady. In fact, his motto is totus tuus, which is totally yours, is a reference to Jesus through Mary. John Paul II, who loved the Rosary, knew the history of the Rosary, knew the small t tradition of the Rosary,

said, you know what, that is great. We have 15 mysteries of Christ's life, which are remarkable. As we pray each decade of the Rosary, we're reflecting on another portion of Christ's life. Amazing. Well, how about this? There's more to Jesus's life we can reflect on too.

So he added another set of five called the luminous mysteries or the mysteries of light. And it's remarkable. Not only because we get now five more mysteries, five more kind of aspects of Jesus's life we can reflect on, but also that's a small T tradition. 150 Hail Marys, right? You know, 15 mysteries of the rosary. aspects of Jesus's life we can reflect on but also that's a small t tradition 150 Hail Marys, right, you know 15 Mysteries of the rosary now we have 20 mysteries of the rosary and that's I think a pretty good example of a small t tradition

That those are as it says back in the catechism various theological disciplinary Liturgical or devotional traditions. That's a devotional tradition. That was a small t, and now it's been transformed and added to, right? So it's been changed, not arbitrarily, but changed because it helps the people of God. It helps us pray more deeply. So we have the big t tradition, the small t tradition, and the last thing here is this thing called the magisterium.

And paragraphs 85 through 87 talk about the Magisterium of the Church and here's what David Berbom said. It said, the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone and its authority in this matter is exercise the name of Jesus. What's that mean? That means that the teaching office of the Church, Magisterium, is entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the name of Jesus. What's that mean? That means that the teaching officer of the church, Magisterium, is entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter,

the Bishop of Rome. So it's the bishops united with the Pope. That is the Magisterium. The necessity of this is absolutely paramount. Why? Because here is sacred scripture, which is without error. We're gonna talk about that as days come on, how the Bible is without error and what we mean by that.

Sacred tradition is also without error, Big T tradition. And yet, how do you interpret this inerrant word of God? How do you interpret sacred tradition that comes to us in the deposit of faith? If we have an infallible book, right, if we have infallible scriptures, we need an infallible interpreter of the scriptures if we have infallible scriptures, we need an infallible interpreter of the scriptures or those scriptures are gonna be worthless, right?

Because why? Because you can read it one way and I can read it the opposite way and we can both make arguments. The question is, well, who's right? If God has gone to all this trouble to give us an infallible word, right, infallible revelation,

then he's also gone to a lot of trouble to give us an infallible interpreter of that revelation, and that is the bishops united with the pope. The last thing, well, second to last thing, it says in paragraph 86, it says, yet this magisterium, right, the bishops united with the pope is not superior to the word of God, but is its servant.

It teaches only what has been handed onto it, and this is so, so important, that the magisterium simply serves The the deposit of faith it serves the Word of God. It's not the master of the Word of God It's not superior to the Word of God It's its servant and goes on to say at the divine command and this God says to do this and with the help of the Holy Spirit The magisterium listens devotedly Guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully.

And then all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from the single deposit of faith. So therefore, since Jesus said, he who hears you hears me, well our job is to receive with docility the teachings and directives that the church's pastors give in different forms. That's the challenge. And that's the real challenge, isn't it? Because it's one thing, again, to say, well, the Bible says this and I can read it how I want, I can interpret how I want, but then to realize, wait, there's a living teacher. You know, magisterium comes from the Latin word magistra, magistra, however you say that, which means

teacher. And the teaching office of the church, having a living teacher with the living word of God and a living tradition means that it's never a dead letter. It's never old news. It's always new. And that means the church can continue to teach me even where I am today, and continue to teach me even where I am today, which for some of us is really exciting and really great. And for others of us at times is really intimidating, I'll say it like that, because it's hard to still be a student. It's hard to be docile.

It's hard to be taught sometimes. And yet that's where we're at. And that's one of the reasons why as we're journeying through this catechism this year, I just, I know we're gonna need a lot of help. That's why, again, this is part of a community. It's day 11, we're at. And that's one of the reasons why as we're journeying through this catechism this year, I just, I know we're gonna need a lot of help. That's why, again, this is part of a community. It's day 11. We're launching and we're getting close

to the end of week two. But just stay faithful to this because the Lord still has much, much, much to teach us. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.