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“In
Favor of Your Tradition” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
(Solomon) said, “Lord,
God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below; you
keep your covenant of mercy with your servants who are faithful to you with
their whole heart.”
(1 Kings 8:23)
How lovely is your dwelling
place, Lord, mighty God! (Psalm 84:2)
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order
to uphold your tradition! … You nullify the word of God in favor of your
tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.” (Mark 7:9,13)
Piety
Lord, the ritual and tradition of
this Church awe me and inspire me. I ask Your assistance in remembering that
all the awe and inspiration in the world cannot supplant what You most desire:
love of You, and of my neighbors as myself.
Study
Back in the dark ages, I took a
college course titled “Individual and the Family.” It must have been required
for one of my majors because I surely wouldn’t have taken it otherwise.
The only thing I remember from that
class is the story of the pot roast. A woman, newlywed, made a pot roast. Her
husband asked why she cut it in half and put it into pans to roast. She said
because that’s how her mother did it. They asked her mother why she made pot
roast that way; she said because her mother did it that way.
When they asked her why she
did it, she laughed and said, “Because I didn’t have any pans big enough to
cook the whole roast.”
There’s tradition, and then there’s
tradition. There’s worship, and then there’s a habit. Sitting in the same pew
every week may be an individual or family tradition. Giving the evil eye to
someone who gets there earlier than you one Sunday and sits in your “place”
surely is not something that makes the Lord happy.
Sending your children and
grandchildren to a particular high school or college may be a family tradition.
Gnashing your teeth and considering the young person a failure if he or she
doesn’t get accepted surely is not something that makes the Lord happy.
Volunteering in a particular
ministry because that’s what everyone in your neighborhood or a social circle
does may be a tradition. Helping out grudgingly at a food pantry when you’d
rather be saying a rosary in front of an abortion clinic almost certainly
grieves the Lord.
You see, when it comes to faith,
doing something just because you’ve always done it or everyone you know has
always done it sets aside the commandment of God—love Him with all your heart,
soul, and being—in favor of the false god of tradition. Tradition can be
beautiful and comfort and sustain us when we follow it for the right reasons.
When we don’t, we are as foolish and slavish to tradition as the women who cut
the pot roast in half for no reason other than tradition.
Action
Identify your pot roast.
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