Thirty-Three Holy Martyrs of Militene (284-305). Our Venerable Father and Wonderworker Lazarus, Hermit of Mount Galesius (1054).
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5. Luke 13:1-9.
Read 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
In today’s reading from St. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul, with his apostolic authority, commands the Thessalonians to “stand firm and hold to the tradition which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thess. 2:15). However, even today there are some who try to teach that all traditions are bad if they have not been explicitly recorded in the scriptures. They may quote Jesus Who once answered the Pharisees: “‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.’ And he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!’” (Mk. 7:6-9).
The word “tradition” comes from the Latin word “traditio” which has the sense of “handing over.” Traditions can be man-made and cultural like eating turkey on Thanksgiving, but other traditions have come from Christ and what He taught His disciples and have been preserved in the Church. We know that not everything has been “handed over” to us in writing in the sacred scriptures; some things have come down to us orally. Not everything that Jesus did has been recorded. Even the last verse of the Gospel of John includes a disclaimer: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (Jn. 21:25).
Jesus does not condemn keeping man-made traditions; rather, He condemns abandoning and rejecting God’s commandments in order to keep them. We must always prioritize following God’s commands. For this reason, we must be especially mindful of Jesus’s Great Commission to His disciples before He ascended into heaven. He said: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt. 28:19-20). Jesus’ followers have the responsibility to spread His teachings and commandments, and no other human endeavors should stand in the way of this.