Table of Contents Table of Contents
Previous Page  51 / 665 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 51 / 665 Next Page
Page Background

Chapter 3. Proclaim the Gospel to Every Creature • 23

tinuing with Paul VI and John Paul I, up to the present Pope. (Pope

John Paul II,

On the Coming of the Third Millennium [Tertio Millennio

Adveniente

], no. 18)

TRANSMITTING GOD’S REVELATION

Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound

closely together and communicate one with the other.

For both of them, flowing out from the same divine

well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one

thing and move towards the same goal.

—CCC, no. 80, citing DV, no. 9

Blessed John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council itself illustrate how

the Church constantly draws upon Tradition and Sacred Scripture. This

chapter examines these foundations of Church teaching because it is

throughTradition and Scripture that the Church knows God’s Revelation

and transmits it from one generation to another.

SACRED TRADITION

Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God become man, is the fullness of

Revelation by his teaching, witness, death, and Resurrection. On the

road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus showed the two disciples how the teach-

ings of the prophets were fulfilled in him and proclaimed by his own

lips. Just before his Ascension, Christ commissioned the Apostles to

preach the Gospel to all whose hearts would be open to receive them.

The revealed Word of God in the Gospel would be for everyone a source

of saving truth and moral discipline.

He commanded the Apostles to proclaim and witness his Kingdom

of love, justice, mercy, and healing, foretold by the prophets and fulfilled

in his Paschal Mystery. Jesus sent them the Holy Spirit to enable them to

fulfill this great commission, to give them needed courage, and to help

them in their evangelizing work.