Traditions & Superstitions

We are blessed, as Catholics, to have rich traditions in our Catholic culture. Things like fish fries on Fridays in Lent, devotions to this saint or that saint, statues and holy water and Rosaries and all sorts of things. We have special blessings for everything from cars to Easter food. This is a wonderful gift! Being Catholic is kind of like being at an all-you-can-eat restaurant – so many choices, so little time!

The objects and blessings that make up part of our tradition are called sacramentals. A sacramental is something like a crucifix, a holy card, a Rosary, Holy water, a blessing, or any other object that helps to remind us of Jesus. Sacramentals have no power on their own, but are meant to remind us of God and bring us closer to the Lord. They are important parts of our Catholic tradition!

But Jesus has some sharp words for people in the Gospel who focus on traditions and neglect the heart of the Law. In His day, the Pharisees were more interested in making sure their hands were washed properly than in making sure that the poor are fed. In our day, we sometimes see similar things. We sometimes see people focusing too much on the traditions, and not enough on the core of Jesus’ message.

For example, I had a woman come up to me one time in Church with a five-gallon bucket. I had never seen her before, so I asked her what she was doing with that bucket. She asked – through a translator – for some holy water. I told her I could give her a little bit, but not five gallons worth! But she insisted. So I asked what she wanted to use it for. She said she wanted to give her sons a bath in holy water to ward off evil. But when I asked her if she came to Mass weekly, she said that she didn’t. So I didn’t give the lady any holy water, but instead encouraged her to come to Confession and Mass that weekend!

We must always be careful to avoid superstition in our religion. Superstition is the enemy of true faith! Superstition basically means giving something else the power that belongs to God alone. Jesus alone saves us – not a specific prayer, not a statue, not wearing a specific medal, not a specific blessing. Only Jesus!

Again, Jesus is not condemning all traditions as evil. Jesus Himself was a good Jew, and He followed the traditions of His religion. But He also recognized that traditions can be used to draw us closer to God – or can be a distraction from what God truly wants of us.

What does God truly want from us? He wants us to love Him; to have a life of prayer, to follow the commandments, to love our neighbor, to surrender our lives over to Him. That is the core of the Gospel message – that although we are sinners, Jesus died for us so that we could be forgiven and healed, if we accept Jesus into our lives and strive to live for Him and keep His commands. That is the core of what we believe.

And sacramentals are supposed to remind us of this! When we look at a crucifix, we are reminded that Jesus loves us and He died for us. When we receive a blessing, we remember that God is the giver of all good gifts. When we pray to St. Jude, we remember that God’s grace was powerfully at work within him, and we too are called to imitate Jude’s example of holiness. When we look at a Rosary, we are invited to pray it.

Just a survey – how many of us own a Rosary? How many of us have prayed the Rosary in the past year? The past month? The past week? Having a Rosary and not praying it is like owning a car and never driving it – we need to pray the Rosary in order for it to make us saints! Sacramentals do no good unless they lead us closer to Jesus!

So, we rejoice at all of the sacramentals and rich traditions of our Faith. We cultivate devotion to saints, we hang crosses on our walls, we get blessings for our cars. Those traditions are beautiful and rich. But we do not have a superstitious reliance on these traditions. God alone saves us, and He invites us to use these traditions and sacramentals as avenues of His grace so that we can be transformed into saints!

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time/Year B, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8, James 1:17-18, 21B-22, 27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

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Originally published at The Cross Stands While the World Turns

Photo: Public Domain