How wrong they are! The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the unbloody re-enactment of Calvary is steeped in Scripture. The Rosary is Scripture. Prayer, fasting and conversion are founded on Sacred Scripture. Isn't this the essence of what Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, has been imparting over these past two centuries? Isn't her main goal as Mother of the Church and Our Lady of the New Advent to bring her children all back to her Divine Son Jesus? Jesus is the reason for preserving Sacred Scripture.
Listen and learn that the addition of Tradition adds up to the sum of the whole. For, contrary to what Protestants have been led to believe, Christ did not intend the gospel to be proclaimed solely by the circulation of the Bible. It was mainly by preaching that He intended to convert the nations. Jesus said "Go, make disciples of all nations."
"Preach the Gospel to every creature."
He that heareth you heareth Me."
He did not say: "Go and make all nations read the Bible or the Gospel." The written Word is a tool to help. The Apostles never circulated a single volume of the Bible, but "they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them." (Mark 16:20). The New Testament was not written until Christianity was already established. It was the Catholic Church that, in the fourth century, declared which books were inspired by God and which were not. For over 1500 years the Catholic Church was the sole guardian and protector of the Bible!
Modern society renders the Bible in the form of a book the most practical means for dissemination of the Word, and our electronic technology makes it easier than ever to "Preach the Gospel to all nations.". Many feel the Protestants have mastered this art with their Billy Grahams, Jerry Falwells, Pat Robertsons, Jack Van Impes,,etc., yet for over nearly two decades Mother Angelica has steadily been that "cry in the wilderness," beaming solid Catholic teaching 24 hours a day to all who can receive her signal on EWTN and now WEWN on the internet. Before any of the above came along, there used to be a certain cleric on prime time television on a major network who reached millions every week and who imparted the true teaching of the True Faith in terms everyone could understand...someone who lived and preached the Gospel as Christ intended: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen!
Although it has been lost on the modernists and those who oppose the True Faith, Bishop Sheen, along with countless other teachers of the pre-Vatican II Magisterium, always held to what the Church taught, for it is the Church that assures us that the translation from the original languages is faithful. The Bible needs an interpreter - better still, a discerner - because it is frequently very difficult to understand. The Catholic Church alone was empowered by God to interpret the Bible. No one is allowed to interpret it contrary to the teaching of the Church. The countless Protestant denominations which favor private interpretation have divided and subdivided over the years for the same reason. No two of them interpret the Bible in the same manner. If we are really to interpret the Bible privately, we must know the original languages in which the books were written. How many have that knowledge? And how many could decipher the aged, worn, and ragged "hieroglyphic" documents?
NEXT WEEK: Man does not live by the Bible alone!