Liturgien er den viktigste konkretiseringen av katolsk tradisjon

På NLM-bloggen kan vi lese et interessant innlegg om Skriften og Tradisjonen. Først refereres det til art. 9 i konsilets dokument Dei verbum, som lyder slik på norsk: «Den hellige Tradisjon og den hellige Skrift er altså nært forbundet og forenet. For begge, idet de springer frem av samme guddommelige kilde, smelter på et vis sammen og arbeider mot det samme mål. Den hellige Skrift er nemlig Guds tale, for så vidt som den er blitt skrevet ned under Den Hellige Ånds inspirasjon; og, betrodd til apostlene av Kristus og Den Hellige Ånd, fører den hellige Tradisjon Guds ord i dets helhet videre til apostlenes etterfølgere med det oppdrag at de i lyset av Sannhetens Ånd trofast skal ta vare på det i sin forkynnelse, fremlegge det og utbre det, noe som innebærer at Kirkens skjønn om det åpenbarte ikke henter sin sikkerhet fra den hellige Skrift alene. Derfor skal begge mottas og æres med like stor pietet og ærbødighet.»

Deretter fortsetter artikkelen:

When we speak of Scripture, it’s clear (or clear enough) what we are referring to: the contents of the Bible, the canon of writings established by the Church. But when we speak of Tradition, what exactly are we referring to? Where, to put it more concretely, do we meet up with or run into Tradition? When do we find ourselves in its presence? How do we know we’re dealing with “Sacred Tradition”—which the Council says is part of the very word of God!—and not with mere “traditions of men” that may or may not be from Christ the Lord?

Dom Mark Kirby, Prior of Our Lady of the Cenacle Monastery in Ireland, speaks of “the age-old law that grounds and shapes both Catholic doctrine and the Catholic moral life: Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.” …

Dom Mark comments on the first of these components: The lex orandi is the enactment of the sacred liturgy; it is composed not only of texts, but also of the whole complexus of sacred signs, gestures, and rites by which, through the mediating priesthood of Jesus Christ, men are sanctified and God is glorified. The sacred liturgy itself—being the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the other sacraments, the Divine Office, and the various rites and sacramentals found in the Church’s official liturgical books—is the Church’s theologia prima. … The Church’s primary theology is not something invented by learned men; it is found in the givenness of the liturgy, the primary organ of the Church’s authentic tradition.

This conclusion is echoed in the eloquent statement of Fr. Louis Bouyer: «It is in the celebration of the liturgy’s mysteries, and in all of the new, mystical, and communal life flowing from it, that the Church maintains in unity the perpetual and perpetually living consciousness of the immutable deposit of faith entrusted to her.»

More succinctly still, Pope Pius XI declares: “The liturgy is the principal organ of the Church’s ordinary Magisterium.” A contemporary anonymous writer draws out the implications of this special status:
The liturgy is the primary font or source of our knowledge of revelation. … [I]t is the ordinary, normal context wherein Christian worshipers encounter the divine realities in such a way as to participate in them contemplatively and prayerfully. Encyclicals and councils serve the primarily didactic purpose of informing the intellect of the individual truths of faith—a necessary thing in the Christian life. But the liturgy does this and more. The liturgy is where this formation of the intellect bears its fruit in the living out of faith. ….

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