Commentary on Catechism of the Catholic Church The Apostolic Tradition
When we say that God desires the salvation of all, we never really mean that He possess some feeling of desire that can be failed or violated or anything, thus causing some genuine suffering in God, these interpretations are heretical and logically absurd. What we mean instead is that God gives all people grace sufficient for their salvation. However, God elects only some people to salvation and He passes over the rest to damnation. So in one sense it is true that God wills all men to be saved, while in another sense He does not will all men to be saved, rather He wills some to be saved and others to be damned. Had the will of God been absolutely universal, then hell shall never be preached.
The absolute union
with God consists in the immediate and direct knowledge of God. Yet Christ is
God, so really the knowledge is the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord, God,
and Savior. For the purpose of salvation, and as the instrumental means of that
salvation, Christ must be proclaimed to all peoples and nations. Then, this
revelation of Christ for the effect of salvation must be preserved in its
entirety. This preservation happens through the Apostolic preaching of the
Gospel. Christ ordained His apostles to preach the Gospel to communicate the
gifts of God to all men. This Gospel is the source of all salvific truth and
moral discipline for the sake of salvation.
There are 2 ways the
Gospel is preached, by oral tradition and by written scripture. The oral
tradition is handed on by the spoken word, by their example, by their
institutions, whatever the apostles received from Christ either orally, in
works, or perhaps something revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. The written
scripture is written down by those apostles and other men associated with them
who inspired by that Holy Spirit, wrote down the Gospel. The Gospel is to be
preserved throughout all time by a line of succession from the apostles to the
bishops, who attained the apostles’ own teaching authority. As such, there is a
handing down of authority from Christ to the bishops of today.
The living transmission
in the Holy Spirit from one person to the next person, one generation to the
next generation, is called Tradition which is distinct yet closely related to
Sacred Scripture. The words of the Church Fathers testify to this Tradition and
how its riches are poured out into the practice and life of the Church, her
faith and her prayers. The Revelation of the Triune God remains active to this
day, where the Holy Spirit leads believers through the Church to the fullness
of the truth and leads to the Word of God dwell in the believers in all of His
richness.
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