22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, B September 1, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’ You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” I know a lot of people hear that line and think it’s a bit ironic for Catholics of all people to be proclaiming it from the pulpit. After all, aren’t we Catholics all about tradition? Rituals, memorized prayers, rote gestures… It is even part of Catholic teaching that Scripture and Tradition are together the “one sacred deposit of Word of God;” both are ways by which we encounter the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.
So, yeah, this passage might seem challenging for Catholics. And yet, here we are unashamedly reading it at Mass. Either we’re just comfortable being hypocritical or we have a good explanation. As a general rule, when you come across someone who seems to have contradictory beliefs, you should be willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to them. Especially if you know that person to be good, intelligent, or consistent in other ways. Yes, people are often self-contradictory, but reality is complicated and we don’t know everything.
Now apply that to the Catholic Church. We’ve been around 1000s of years, we’ve evangelized the whole world, and we have an absolutely massive list of incredibly good and intelligent people in our history. So, when something about the Church seems like a contradiction, we should stay open to the idea that maybe there is an explanation. If you see an apparent contradiction that bothers you, don’t just ignore it! And don’t just google it or, God forbid, go to Reddit. Look at the real sources: the Catechism, Magisterial documents, reliable teachers.
So, what’s the answer to this problem with tradition? To begin with, it helps to know the context. Context is key in most scripture, actually. Jesus isn’t really angry that Jews wash their hands. He’s angry that they use handwashing as an excuse to be arrogant jerks. The lectionary skips a few verses in this gospel. In those skipped verses, Jesus gives an example that makes his point even clearer. He gives the example of Jews using the made-up tradition of “dedicated income” to justify breaking the commandment of “honor your father and mother.”
Still, human beings need tradition. The second you get rid of all traditions, human beings immediately make more. Anyone with small children knows how important consistency is. Inconsistency in childhood increases anxiety as adults. At the same time, we human beings also tend to stagnate. If things are too consistent and too comfortable, we stop growing.
So, the lesson Jesus is giving isn’t “destroy all traditions and never do anything the same way twice!” It is very clearly “don’t get so stuck in your ways that you forget what matters most.” It’s also a lesson that just because you’ve done things a certain way for a long time, that doesn’t make it right. What makes something right is whether or not it aligns with God’s will and God’s design. By today’s standards, the Ten Commandments are super “old” and “rigid,” but it doesn’t take much to find Jesus strongly condemning anyone who breaks them.
In short, the reason Catholicism does not contradict this gospel teaching is that there are different kinds of tradition: Sacred Tradition and human tradition. Even the passage Jesus quotes from Isaiah implies this when it condemns people for “teaching as doctrines human precepts.” That means there is such a thing as “doctrine” and that “human precepts” are not always doctrines. The problem isn’t that the pharisees have a doctrine, but that they have a false doctrine. And what’s the difference between the two? Authority.
A real doctrine comes only from the legitimate authority of God. A “human precept” might be correct, but only if it aligns with divine authority. Washing your hands is good. But saying someone is going to hell because they don’t wash their hands? Yeah, not legitimate.
Yet, even Jesus follows some traditions not found in scripture. Jesus goes to the temple for the feast of the dedication even though that feast is not listed as required in the Old Testament. Jesus also clearly tells Jews to obey the authority of the Sanhedrin even though he criticizes their personal hypocrisy.
So, the traditions that the Catholic Church insists on are sacred traditions, rooted in God’s own authority. The Church can and sometimes does adjust specific words or actions in sacred tradition – like having Mass in different languages – but does not change the truth conveyed by those words and actions. What matters most is our obedience to God’s will and docility to his authority in the Church.
Then there are the many, many traditions that aren’t sacred but possible still helpful. So long as we don’t let those interfere with authentic doctrine, sacred tradition, and the law of charity towards others, they are fine. But how often do we do just that?
Please, don’t sidestep the challenge Jesus making here! Don’t take his criticism as an excuse to ignore the Church’s rules when the real problem is our own hypocrisy! Do we stubbornly refuse to accept correction because we’ve gotten used to do something wrong? Do we say our prayers perfectly but then condemn others rashly? Do we excuse our lust with saying “I’ll just go to confession tomorrow?” Do we begrudge our fellow Catholics because they’re immigrants with different customs? Do we excuse our life of luxury and withholding from the poor because that’s just how we were raised?
When it comes down to it, we human beings come up with an endless number of ways to turn our own ideas into idols for us to worship instead of God. Rather paradoxically, one of the best ways to escape the false doctrines of our own human traditions is through obedience to sacred tradition and submitting to authentic divine authority. Indeed, even your ability to hear this challenge of Christ is brought to you by the long succession of Christians before us who have handed the teachings of Christ down to us.
We can neither hide behind human tradition nor cut ourselves off from every tie to authority. Instead, be willing to lay every tradition before Christ and his Church. Then “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you,” by Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. For that is the only sure way you can come to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ who alone “is able to save your souls.”