FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
MODERNISM
(Part 75)
SCRIPTURE, TRADITION, MAGISTERIUM
May 3, 2024
Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
The basis of our Catholic faith rests on three pillars: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Church Magisterium. All three are about the proclamation of the gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus. It is, as Paul wrote, “the gospel I preached to you, …. Through it you are also being saved” (v.1a,2a).
Our faith, “which you indeed received and in which you also stand” (v.1b), is basically founded on the scriptures and on tradition. “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures” (v.3). Then the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church, validates and preserves them.
Modernists in the Church today are violating these foundations of our faith. The Scriptures are being reinterpreted according to the culture of the age; Tradition is being spurned and overturned; hierarchs have been teaching heresy.
For example, modernists say that all religions lead to the divine. But the scriptures tell us that salvation is in Jesus. He is the one and only Savior. There is no salvation in any other name. The modernist teaching is heretical and dangerous, as it would lead to the loss of souls.
Further, the gospel is preached to others. And this gospel is about the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, not about social action, political correctness, or environmental activism. It is only good news if it leads to acceptance of Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Let us heed Paul and not hierarchs that teach heresy. And so Paul tells us, “Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved” (v.1-2a).
* * *