I’ve always found the Holy Spirit and the Church’s Tradition to be quite mysterious and at times confusing. Just how does the Holy Spirit perpetuate and communicate the Tradition throughout history to us in the present time? Pope Benedict talked about this recently and enlightened me with some vivid metaphors:

We saw that it [Tradition] is not a collection of things or words, like a boxful of dead things. Tradition is the river of new life that flows from its source—all the way from Christ to us—and engages us in God’s history with mankind.

 
Wow, that is really cool! It calls to mind the words of Jesus to his apostles which often compared the Holy Spirit to a stream of living water—very similar-sounding to what Tradition is, so there is an intimate relationship between the two.
 
Now, we know that the Holy Spirit was sent to us to reveal all truth to the Church and to remind us of everything Christ taught us (cf. John 16:13). What does Pope Benedict say about this and Tradition?
 

[T]he second Vatican Council noted that Tradition is apostolic first and foremost in its origins: “In his gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what he had revealed for the salvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations.”

 
The Holy Spirit faithfully and fully transmits God’s revelation to the Church throughout the generations, for God wants us to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4). Sacred Tradition is an integral part of the full deposit of the faith that God gave us (along with Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium), so God would not let any of it be corrupted.
 
Pope Benedict concludes:

Thus, though in a manner different from the apostles, we, too, have an authentic and personal experience of the presence of the risen Lord. Through the apostolic ministry, Christ himself reaches those who are called to the faith. The distance of centuries has been overcome and the risen Lord offers himself to us, alive and at work for us, in the today of the Church and the world. This is our great joy. In the living river of Tradition, Christ is not separated from us by 2,000 years of distance, but is truly present in our midst and gives us the truth and gives us the light that enables us to experience and find the path to the future.

 
Rock on, Pope Benedict! Thanks for explaining these holy concepts so vividly. These excerpts are one small portion of his Wednesday audience from last week. Thanks to the National Catholic Register for translating it–they publish his audiences’ transcripts every week.