Tradition and Liturgy

Tradition has a divine origin. Our Liturgy is God’s gift. God is the principal transmitter [of both]. In the liturgy God turns to us, and we receive what he is pleased to give, especially the central mystery of our redemption through Jesus Christ.

Our Christian tradition arises from the action by which the Father handed over his Son for the redemption of the world. Without this initiative of the Father everything else in Christian tradition would collapse. When God acts in history, he does not act alone, but makes use of human agency, as an instrument in bringing about God’s supreme redemptive act.

Our Liturgy derives from the activity of God through Christ and the apostles. Christ goes willingly to his death, surrendering himself for our redemption. Even before his betrayer turned him over to his enemies, Jesus gave himself to his disciples with his own hands. He really hands himself over under the appearances of bread and wine, broken and poured out for our salvation. He instructs the disciples to take, eat, and drink, thus completing the ritual transaction. Having united the disciples to himself, Jesus sends them into the world to proclaim his message and carry on his ministry.

Bowing his head before he died, Jesus handed over the Spirit, and later, when the risen Jesus breathes upon the apostles, their reception of the Spirit is mentioned in Scripture (John 20:23). Thanks to the involvement of the Holy Spirit, and these texts in combination, it seems clear that the Holy Spirit is sent into the hearts of the faithful as a living actuality that prevents it from being a mere hearkening back to the past.

We may say that tradition is trinitarian. In the words of Jean Corbon, "The Father gives himself through his Son in his Holy Spirit." In a fuller explication he writes:
The passionate love of the Father for human beings (John 3:16) reaches its climax in the passion of his Son and is henceforth poured out by his Spirit in the divine compassion at the heart of the world, that is, in the Church. And the mystery of tradition is this joint mission of the Word and the Spirit throughout the economy of salvation; now, in the last times, all the torrents of love that pour from the Spirit of Jesus flow together in the great river of life that is the liturgy.

This is not a private message: it is the revelation entrusted to the apostolic body.

The apostolic tradition at its core is liturgical, as the example of the Eucharist serves to indicate. Baptism, likewise, is a prime instance of tradition. By the passing on of the creed the bishop [through the ordained priesthood] entrusts to the candidate the heritage of the Church, and by echoing the creed the candidate gives assurance that he or she possesses the faith necessary to become a bearer of the tradition.

Tradition takes place through symbolic acts and gestures as much as through words. The mystery of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is transmitted by the immersion of the candidate into the baptismal waters. The use of specially blessed water recalls Old Testament events such as the Flood, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the striking of the rock by Moses as well as Jesus’ own baptism in the Jordan.

The threefold immersion transforms the rite into a proclamation of the Triune God, according to the baptismal precept of Matthew 28:20. Having been washed in the blood of the Lamb, the neophytes don the white garments of righteousness (Revelation 7:14), thus signifying their induction into the new creation. At the Eucharist, likewise, the action proclaims the death of the Lord with a view to his glorious return (1 Corinthians 11:26). The offering of the elements, the breaking of the host, and the eating and drinking are charged with Christological meaning.

The living memory of the Paschal mystery, the acts of the divine persons are prolonged and concretized in history by the actions of the apostles and their successors, who pass on to us in the normative language of Scripture and the early creeds. Paul reports that he has received from the Lord and passed on to the Corinthians the narrative of the institution of the Eucharist. A little later in the same letter Paul uses once more the technical language of tradition as giving authority to his account of the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Worshippers participate in the Liturgy through an interior union with the mystery being celebrated, and a prayerful invocation of the Holy Spirit arouses a keen awareness of the truths of faith. Gestures such as the elevation of the host, bows, and genuflections convey the sense of the divine presence more powerfully than does any explicit statement. As we make personal acts of faith, hope, and love, the mystery of redemption is enhanced by song, gesture, and movement on the part of the congregation.

Transmitted predominantly by symbolic actions and symbolic language, tradition helps us to be transformed as believers, into new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17; cf. Galatians 6:15)-a people who think, feel, speak, and act in new ways. Tradition instills in our community an instinctive sense of the faith.

[Christ Himself, transforms us into His Body and gives us to be shared for the life of the world and the sake of His Kingdom, giving glory to the Father, in the love of the Holy Spirit.}

[Adapted excerpts taken from a talk given by Avery Dulles, S.J., First Things, “The Way We Worship”, online, www.firstthings.com,  2008]