St. Paul says: “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.” The process of receiving the faith from those who have gone before and then handing it on is known as tradition. As Tevye the milkman says in Fiddler on the Roof “Because of our traditions each of us knows who we are and what God expects us to do.” The Apostle was part of the tradition of being Church. But we know from his letters that St. Paul applied and adapted the tradition he received in new and creative ways to meet the current situation he was dealing with. That is our challenge as well — fidelity to the tradition in a way which makes sense to the next generation.
