Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

   - Jude 3

For all we Irish, inhabitants of the world’s edge, are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and of all the disciples who wrote the sacred canon by the Holy Ghost, and we accept nothing outside the evangelical and apostolical teaching; none has been a heretic, none a Judaizer, none a schismatic; but the Catholic Faith, as it was delivered by you first, who are the successors of the holy apostles, is maintained unbroken.

   - Columbanus, Letter to Pope Boniface, Irish, 7th century

A continuous line of faithful belief and teaching stretches from the apostles through the fathers of the early Church and faithful teachers, preachers, and theologians in every era, right up to the present. This is the faith of the Church, which has been maintained unbroken in orthodox communions throughout the Body of Christ for nearly two millennia.

There is no virtue in ignoring, denying, repudiating, or otherwise cutting ourselves off from this glorious heritage. The peculiar take on truth of our postmodern generation will, indeed, require us to rethink how we communicate the Good News; but it must not cause us to compromise or accommodate the truth of God to the relativistic and individualistic temper of the times, as though the Gospel could be made agreeable to anyone and everyone on their own terms, for this is to do violence to the Gospel.

Faithful preachers, teachers, and students of the Word of God will always want to make sure their teaching is in accord with that heritage of faith, so that the line of orthodoxy will be maintained unbroken. This is why it is so important that we know our Christian past and allow ourselves to be taught by those who have gone before how we are to understand and communicate the faith of Christ in our day. For when we cut ourselves off from those who have preceded us, we risk drifting from our moorings, carried away by the subtle currents of whatever contemporary stream of thought may be wafting our way.

Are you a teacher of the Word of God? Are you certain that the line of orthodoxy is continuing unbroken through you? Without some discipline that connects us with the great teachers of the past, all we can do is hope for the best.

Today, let Columbanus’ claim begin to be your own as well.

Psalm 78.1-4 (Foundation: “How Firm a Foundation”)
Give ear, O my people, attend to my word,
Dark sayings and parables sent from the Lord,
Things we have before by our fathers been told,
Which we would not dare from our children withhold.

Lord, let me follow my course and reach the heavenly Kingdom like those who have gone before, and let me learn all I can from them as I run my race. Adapted from Oengus mac Oengobann, Feílire Oengusso

T. M. Moore, Principal
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