PugetSoundSoldier:
I will conjecture here. Because redgolum understands, as G.K. Chesterton once said that “Tradition is the democracy of the dead. It refuses to submit to an arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around”. More specifically, by embracing the Creeds and early Councils of the CHurch (i.e. Nicea), redgolum implicitly recognizes that God has acted in human history, and whether or not all of you folks whose ancestry is from Northern Europe, he acted in the context of a Roman and Greek world.
As Pope Benedict put it (Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 224), as to why the sacraments are celebrated using coomon elements of Mediterranean life, which are documented in Psalm 104 [Bread, wine and oil] “Incarnation does not mean doing as we please. On the contrary, it binds us to the history of a particular time. Outwardly, that history may seem fortuitous, but is is the form of history willed by God, and for us it is the trustworthy trace he has imprinted on the earth, the guarantee that we are not thinking up things for ourselves, but are truly touched by God and come into touch with him. Precisely through what is particular adn once-for-all, the here and now, we emerge from the “ever adn never” vagueness of mythology. It is with this particular face, with this particular human form, that Christ comes to us, and precisely thus does he make us brethren beyound all boundaries. Precisely thus do we recognize him “It is the Lord: (c.f. John 21:7).”
Pope Benedict further notes that Liturgical Rites of the Church, as expressed by the Fathers and the Creeds of the Church, that developed in Rome, Antioch and Alexandria (all cited as the Primary Churches of Christendom in Canon 6 at Nicea) are not just products of culture, they are part of the history of the Christian faith, that can never be separated from soil of sacred events, from the choice made by God, who wanted to speak to us, to become man, to die and rise again, in a particular time. Thus, the Church prays in such a way that ties us to the place and time God chose. So, the Rites, ways of worship, the Creeds, the teachings of the Fathers, are forms of the Apostolic Tradition and thus are part of God’s plan.
So once on understands Incarnational theology seriously, and its implications, one is moving towards the Historic Church of the first millenium, which is Catholic in the fullest sense, both Roman and Latin West and Greek/Byzantine East.
Regards
Thanks for your detailed reply, CTrent. I can respect the benefits of tradition, and the wisdom you can gain from a few millenia of recorded exposition! However, I question if that moving from his current church family into the Catholic church would result in a closer relationship with God? If there is no spiritual gain, then what is gained?