Imagine you are eleven years old. Your new best friend moved into your neighborhood just a couple of months ago. Much like Forest and Jenny, you guys are like peas and carrots.
One day, while your friend is over at your house playing, you come across a scrapbook that you have not seen in a long time. This scrapbook contains many pictures and other keepsakes that chronicle your first two years of life. You overcome your early adolescent embarrassment and see this as a way to make up for lost time with your new friend by telling a bit more about your life.
You open the book and begin laughing immediately. It's not the site of your father holding you as a newborn that is so funny; it is his mustache (since shaved off) and snazzy (now out-dated) shirt that causes the laughter. The laughter only escalates as you turn the page and see your older brother and older sister wearing their "I'M THE BIG BROTHER" and "I M THE BIG SISTER" t-shirts. Your mother approaches with a smile to watch you and your friend flip through the remaining pages of the scrapbook which she had compiled several years ago when you were still in diapers.
Eventually you come to a picture of yourself on your first Christmas. You tell your friend, "that's me sitting on Santa's lap down at the mall." Your mom giggles and says, "No, that is actually you sitting on Uncle Steve's lap. One Christmas at grandma's house, he put on a Santa outfit and we took pictures of him holding all the kids."
You had seen that picture many times before but had no idea that was Uncle Steve! All of a sudden you realize that you were mistaken but now have a deeper appreciation of that picture knowing where it was taken and who was all there at that time.
Towards the end of the scrapbook you see yourself in a picture with your brother at a water park. You begin telling your friend that your family goes to that same water park every summer. At this point, your mother interjects and tells you something you had never known before. She says, "Your Dad took that picture of you guys. I had just left with your sister to go the ER. She feel down and hurt her wrist. While you guys kept playing in the water, she was getting x-rays done and ended up getting a cast put on her arm that day."
Once again, you are taken back a little. You never knew your sister even broken her wrist even though you had seen the picture several times throughout the years. Had your mom not been standing by, you would have never know who took the picture or where the rest of the family was.
Your mom put together that scrapbook. She was able to help you understand the significance of the pictures and tell you about things that are not photographed and put in the book. Your mom gave you deeper insights while clarifying the areas where you were mistaken for what you thought you had seen.
In very much the same way, our Holy Catholic Church helps us understand the Bible and offers knowledge of matters not covered explicitly between Genesis and Revelation.
Our Protestant brothers and sisters unfortunately subscribe to the teaching of "Sola Scriptura" which means "Scripture Alone." It was one of the main issues that divided Christians during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century. They will not believe in things like purgatory or Mary's Immaculate Conception based on the fact that those things are not explicitly described in the Bible.
But if we call to mind the illustration of the scrapbook, not everything that happened is documented in there and any single individual might misinterpret what they believe to be true by just looking at the scrapbook itself. Catholic teaching does not diminish the fact scripture is sacred and is indeed the word of God Almighty. "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit." (CCC81). We as Catholics simply recognize that there is sacred scripture and there is also sacred tradition. The Catechism goes on to state, "the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, 'does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence." (CCC82)
According to professor and writer Peter Kreeft, here are six reasons to reject "Sola Scriptura":
1) No Christian taught it until 16th Century
2) The first generations of Christian did not even have the New Testament
3) Without one Catholic ("Catholic" means "Universal") Church to interpret Scripture authoritatively, Protestantism has divided into over 28,000 "churches" or denominations.
4) If Scripture is infallible, as traditional Protestants believe, then the Church too must be infallible too, for a fallible cause cannot produce and infallible effect, and the Church produced the Bible. The Church (the first bishops, the Apostles wrote the New Testament, and the Church (later bishops) defined its cannon.
5) Scripture itself calls the Church "the pillar and the foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15)
6) Scripture never teaches "sola scriptura" and therefore, "sola scriptura" is self-contradictory.
If you were showing your scrapbook to your friend, you ought to be thankful towards your mother for compiling it and explaining it further. If you have ever cracked open a Bible in an attemptto grow closer to God, you ought to thank the Holy Catholic Church, another "Mother" of sorts.
from the protestant perspective we would believe that that "Helper" is known as the Holy Spirit, Who lives in us. Scripture can be difficult to understand and as we've, i'm sure, seen can be misapplied. Jesus promises that if we are seeking Him, we will find Him (matthew 7:7). for the most part i can respect the traditions of the catholic church, but that tradition is from sinful men and, therefore, is easily subject to corruption. i'm not trying to make any waves, we're on the same team and this our belief on this matter is NOT a salvation issue, but wanted to share the other (perhaps less popular here??) perspective.
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