trogiah:
The fullness of the Catholic Faith is found in following Jesus. Jesus came to preach the good news of God’s kingdom - by word and example. We achieve the fullness of our faith by following that word and example. The sacraments and tradition of the Church are part of it but the most essential part is seeking God’s kingdom in all aspects of our lives.
Jim
But how can we know what God’s kingdom is if we don’t know the Gospel that Jesus handed down?.
Jesus gave us the Gospel in order to know how to follow Him.
This Gospel that Jesus gave to His apostles and that they handed down is the Catholic faith.
Where do you think the sacraments came from? They came from Jesus, who taught them to His apostles, who handed them down to their successors, till today. They were given to us in order to give us the grace to follow Jesus and His teachings. They came from the apostles, who learned from Jesus. Thus, they are part of the Gospel the apostles taught and preached. They are part of the Gospel that Jesus preached.
Since Jesus is the fulfillment of everything, then His Gospel is the “source of all saving truth and moral discipline” as the Catechism teaches. This Gospel they taught is the entire Catholic Faith. Our Catholic faith comes to us from the apostles. The
Gospel is NOT only the words and deeds of Jesus as written in the bible.
This is the false heresy spread by Catholic theologians and scholars.
The Church teaches that Gospel is everything Jesus taught to His apostles. Through Sacred Tradition the apostles handed this everything down to their successors as the Catholic faith. The catechisms summarize the teachings of the Catholic faith, thus the teachings of the Gospel.
The ONLY way to learn the Gospel is to be taught is to teach the Catholic faith. The teachers MUST teach the faith, the Gospel, in an organized and systematic way, just as the apostles did. Thus, the Catechism is a “sure norm for teaching the faith” as Pope JP II teaches, and thus as the Church teaches.
Scripture is salvation history. The four gospels are the four narratives of the life of Jesus. As part of salvation history they contain some of parts of the teachings of Jesus, in the form of a historical context. Wheras ALL the teachings of Jesus are handed down in Tradition, only some of these teachings are contained in scripture, and they are not present in an explicit form. That is why all scripture must be interpreted according to the teachings in Sacred Tradition