Have you ever been interested in your family tree? It can be really fascinating to find out who came before you and why you are who you are today.If you are Catholic by name, why is that? If you are deep or shallow in your faith- who before you led the way? To think, my ancestors from way, way back were Catholic and that line has continued up until this day, now passing on to my children. WOW!
I was born into this faith passed down to me by at least my Great, Great grandparents, so, I think I should try and understand the history. Someone way back in my family decided to follow the Christian/Catholic teachings and faith. They didn't leave this Church and follow other churches that came along in the latest centuries. Who did they meet and talk to and when? Were they just born into the faith, or did they have a deep conversion? Does my Catholic family trace back to the beginning of Christianity? Well, whomever, it was, that got the ball rolling, I hope to meet you one day in heaven and thank you:) At some point the faith was passed on into my Family Tree.
This brings me today, to the next Church Father, that I discovered on my walk back deeper into my faith- Irenaeus that deposited that seed of faith, back in the 2nd century.
Irenaeus (125 AD to 203 AD) was born in Smyrna (near Ephesus) now Western Turkey. He studied under bishop Polycarp, who in turn had been a disciple of the Apostle John. All through his life, he told a friend, he could recall every detail of Polycarp's appearance, his voice, and the very words he used when telling what he had heard from John the Evangelist and others who had seen Jesus. His writings have laid the foundations of Christian theology and also refuting the errors of Gnostics. He had great knowledge of the scriptures.
Irenaeus became bishop of Lyons (now France). His treatise , in five books, sets forth fully the doctrines of the main dissident sects of the day and then contrasts them with the words of Scripture and the teachings of the Apostles, as preserved not only in sacred writings but by oral tradition in the churches which the Apostles founded. Above all, he cites the authoritative tradition of the Church of Rome, handed down from Peter and Paul through an unbroken succession of bishops. In his theological works Irenaeus especially shows the influence of St. Paul and St. John. An humble, patient man, he writes of controversial matters with a moderation and courtesy unusual in this age of per fervid conviction.
I. from the men through whom the Gospel came to us. At first they proclaimed it abroad; then later, by the will of God, they wrote it down for us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our faith....
2. But when we refute these people [the heretics] out of the Scriptures, they turn and accuse the very Scriptures, on the ground that they are mistaken or not authoritative or not consistent in their narrative, and they say that the truth cannot be learned from them by persons who do not know the tradition, and that that was not transmitted in writing but by word of mouth....
3. Now it is within the power of anyone who cares to find out the truth, to know the tradition of the Apostles, professed throughout the world in every church. We can name those too who were appointed bishops by the Apostles in the churches and their successors down to our own time.... But inasmuch as it would be very tedious in a book like this to rehearse the lines of succession in every church, we will put to confusion all those who, either from waywardness or conceit or blindness or obstinacy combine together against the truth, by pointing to the tradition, derived from the Apostles, of that great and illustrious Church founded and organized at Rome by the two glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, and to the faith declared to mankind and handed down to our own time through its bishops in their succession. For with this Church, because of its more powerful leadership, every church, that is to say, the faithful from everywhere, must needs agree, and in it the tradition that springs from the Apostles has been continuously preserved by men from everywhere....
4. Seeing, therefore, that we have such testimony, we do not need to seek elsewhere the truth which it is easy to find in the Church. For the Apostles, like a rich man at a bank, deposited lavishly with her all aspects of the truth, so that everyone, whoever will, may draw from her the water of life. For she is the door to life, and all others are thieves and robbers. For this reason we must shun them and love the things of the Church with the utmost diligence and keep hold of the tradition of the truth....
This is the course followed by the barbarian peoples[4] who believe in Christ and have salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit without paper or ink, but who guard carefully the ancient tradition. For they believe in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth and of all things therein through Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who for his surpassing love towards his creation underwent birth from a virgin, uniting man through himself to God, and who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again and was received up in splendor, and who shall come in glory, the Saviour of those who are saved and the Judge of those who are judged, to send into eternal fire those who pervert the truth and despise his Father and his coming
.http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/lives_events/full_texts/irenaeus_bk3.shtml
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