I like to follow what Pope Francis is up to for a couple reasons. He is a fascinating guy, so paying attention to what he says and does is more interesting than following other people of similar stature. And secondly, he is Pope! As Pope, he heads up a group of over a billion people and that makes him an important figure on the global scene. If I were to add even a third reason I like to follow him is because he very quotable. He has learned to speak in ways that are not obtuse and complicated.
While he was returning to Rome from a recent trip abroad, he talked with the reporters who accompany him on these kinds of trips. I have never been on one of these trips, so I don’t know the format. But it is easy to imagine the Pope being quite aware he is not only talking to the reporters on board, but also to countless people around the world. I am also confident he knows he is both addressing a Catholic audience and a much wider audience as well.
His comments are frequently wide-ranging, so there is nothing in depth. One thing which caught my attention was some comments on tradition. I am confident that this word does not hit Quaker ears the same way it does Catholic ears. I am not sure about other kinds of Protestant ears! It is not that Quakers and Catholics don’t understand English. Of course both of us grow up knowing what tradition means. Probably we begin to learn fairly early in our families what tradition means. I remember the early stories of my own family---grandfathers who were farmers, etc.
The same thing certainly is true for the schools to which we go, churches and groups to which we belong and so forth. My own Quaker tradition likes to talk about our early anti-slavery work and our peace testimony. Likely tradition starts off for each one of us as nothing more than how the old people always did it! In my case that reached back only a few generations. As we grow up and, hopefully, learn more, tradition may broader and go back further into the past.
What I learned when I became much more knowledgeable about Catholicism is the fact that tradition often was capitalized: Tradition. Tradition had a fixed sense of content to it. It included the creeds, about which I as a Quaker knew nothing about. It included stories of the saints---people like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and others about whom I knew next to nothing. Tradition became the way Catholics talked about what happened after the New Testament was finished---early to mid-second century.
Learning this led me to realize that was a big difference between Quakers and other Protestants. In the Reformation period the Protestants adhered to what was called sola scriptura---scripture alone. In effect, only scripture counted. Only the Christian Bible had authority. Only this book and these people who wrote the book could talk on behalf of God and, thereby, have the power to direct our thoughts and our lives.
It was different for Catholics. They talked about Scripture and Tradition. And amazingly to these Quakers ears, it sounded like Tradition was given equal weight to Scripture. If you have not been brought up learning this, you can’t know it the way a native knows it. Vatican II may have moderated this somewhat in certain Catholic circles, but it is still there. And if you don’t know about this, it is difficult to appreciate what the Pope is talking about on his plane ride back to Rome. Let’s listen now to the Pontiff.
I hear the Pope trying to educate Catholics to think about Tradition in fresh ways. But he does it in a non-Protestant way. The first thing the Pope says is "Tradition is the guarantee of the future and not the container of the ashes.” With these words the Pope is affirming tradition, but he is tying it to the future rather than the past. He does not want folks to use tradition only to look backwards. It is to be a source of progress, not regression.
Secondly, the Pope uses an interesting analogy. He notes, "Tradition is like roots [of a tree], which give us nutrition to grow. You will not become like the roots. You will flower, grow, give fruit. And the seeds become roots for other people." It is cool to see him point to the results of the tree rather than the foundation---flowers and fruit. So does tradition nourish un in our faith and supply the model for our lives and actions. Tradition is outcome, not potential.
Finally, the Pope redefines how some folks will understand tradition. He tells us that "The tradition of the church is always in movement. The tradition does not safeguard the ashes." Again, he talks about the ashes of the church---appropriate to Catholics and Quakers alike. The ashes---the past by itself---is not the point. The past becomes tradition when it functions like roots, not ashes. The past is tradition when it is dynamic, not static. Tradition is fresh, not a fossil.
I like this Pope. I like this guy…
While he was returning to Rome from a recent trip abroad, he talked with the reporters who accompany him on these kinds of trips. I have never been on one of these trips, so I don’t know the format. But it is easy to imagine the Pope being quite aware he is not only talking to the reporters on board, but also to countless people around the world. I am also confident he knows he is both addressing a Catholic audience and a much wider audience as well.
His comments are frequently wide-ranging, so there is nothing in depth. One thing which caught my attention was some comments on tradition. I am confident that this word does not hit Quaker ears the same way it does Catholic ears. I am not sure about other kinds of Protestant ears! It is not that Quakers and Catholics don’t understand English. Of course both of us grow up knowing what tradition means. Probably we begin to learn fairly early in our families what tradition means. I remember the early stories of my own family---grandfathers who were farmers, etc.
The same thing certainly is true for the schools to which we go, churches and groups to which we belong and so forth. My own Quaker tradition likes to talk about our early anti-slavery work and our peace testimony. Likely tradition starts off for each one of us as nothing more than how the old people always did it! In my case that reached back only a few generations. As we grow up and, hopefully, learn more, tradition may broader and go back further into the past.
What I learned when I became much more knowledgeable about Catholicism is the fact that tradition often was capitalized: Tradition. Tradition had a fixed sense of content to it. It included the creeds, about which I as a Quaker knew nothing about. It included stories of the saints---people like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and others about whom I knew next to nothing. Tradition became the way Catholics talked about what happened after the New Testament was finished---early to mid-second century.
Learning this led me to realize that was a big difference between Quakers and other Protestants. In the Reformation period the Protestants adhered to what was called sola scriptura---scripture alone. In effect, only scripture counted. Only the Christian Bible had authority. Only this book and these people who wrote the book could talk on behalf of God and, thereby, have the power to direct our thoughts and our lives.
It was different for Catholics. They talked about Scripture and Tradition. And amazingly to these Quakers ears, it sounded like Tradition was given equal weight to Scripture. If you have not been brought up learning this, you can’t know it the way a native knows it. Vatican II may have moderated this somewhat in certain Catholic circles, but it is still there. And if you don’t know about this, it is difficult to appreciate what the Pope is talking about on his plane ride back to Rome. Let’s listen now to the Pontiff.
I hear the Pope trying to educate Catholics to think about Tradition in fresh ways. But he does it in a non-Protestant way. The first thing the Pope says is "Tradition is the guarantee of the future and not the container of the ashes.” With these words the Pope is affirming tradition, but he is tying it to the future rather than the past. He does not want folks to use tradition only to look backwards. It is to be a source of progress, not regression.
Secondly, the Pope uses an interesting analogy. He notes, "Tradition is like roots [of a tree], which give us nutrition to grow. You will not become like the roots. You will flower, grow, give fruit. And the seeds become roots for other people." It is cool to see him point to the results of the tree rather than the foundation---flowers and fruit. So does tradition nourish un in our faith and supply the model for our lives and actions. Tradition is outcome, not potential.
Finally, the Pope redefines how some folks will understand tradition. He tells us that "The tradition of the church is always in movement. The tradition does not safeguard the ashes." Again, he talks about the ashes of the church---appropriate to Catholics and Quakers alike. The ashes---the past by itself---is not the point. The past becomes tradition when it functions like roots, not ashes. The past is tradition when it is dynamic, not static. Tradition is fresh, not a fossil.
I like this Pope. I like this guy…
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