International Catholic University
I. The Sacraments
A. Sacrament: etymology, definition, explanation
1. Etymology:
a. sacramentum in Latin translates the Greek mysterion (mystery) which we find in Eph 5:32 & many other places. Eastern Churches call them "the 7 mysteries" instead of "the 7 sacraments." In all of the 7 mysteries, the paschal mystery is made really present.
b. The Latin word sacramentum also connotes military oath of loyalty; guarantee, pledge. All the sacraments are renewals of the covenant in which God infallibly pledges and bestows his grace and we renew our promise of fidelity to him.
2. Definition Sacraments are sensible signs instituted by Christ to confer grace. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, they contain what they signify and transmit what they contain. (cf. CIC 840)
3. Explanation
a. Sensible signs . . . contain . . . transmit
(1) not wrong to say the sacraments are symbols It is wrong to says that they are "only symbols" or "symbolic reminders."
(2) Each sacrament is a "symbol of a sacred reality." EM 4
(3) "Visible form of an invisible grace." EM 4, Trent Session 13, Decree on the Euch, ch. 4 Aquinas, ST, III, q. 60 a. 1.
(4) CCC 1084, "they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify." Not empty symbolic reminders, but full signs.
(5) 1 Sam 16:13 The Spirit of the Lord rushed on David
(6) Significando causans (Aquinas): they are efficacious by means of their symbolism. We must not just believe they work, but must understand their meaning. Vatican II & postconciliar liturgical changes were aimed at making the meaning of the signs clearer, more apparent.
b. Instituted by Christ: CCC 1114
(1) Protestant objection: OK, maybe 2 or 3, but not 7! Assumes that only way a sacrament could be instituted by Christ would be if he explicitly did so in one of the canonical gospels
(2) Three ways he could have instituted a sacrament
(a) explicitly in one of the canonical gospel texts
(b) explicitly, but not recorded in one of the canonical gospels. For this, we depend on Tradition
i) Jn 21 tells us that all that Jesus said & did not able to be put in the gospel. The only sayings of Jesus mentioned by Paul in his letters are not recorded in a canonical gospel
ii) 2 Thes 2 tells us that all Paul's instruction not written.
(c) implicitly in what he did (recorded by one of the canonical gospels or not)
(3) Christ institutes them implicitly as well as explicitly.
(a) baptism & eucharist explicitly: Mat 27:19; Lk 22:19
(b) baptism & eucharist implicitly: Jn 19:34, CCC 1067 Blood & water from his side.
(c) his many healings and his command for others to do likewise implicitly institutes sacrament of the sick
(d) penance both explicitly (Jn 20:21) and implicitly in his forgiveness of many, including Peter
c. Christ & the Holy Spirit:
(1) both equally responsible. Avoid "Christomonism."
(2) St. Irenaeus: two hands, arms of the Father. Embrace
(3) Sacraments are placed in the 3rd stanza in both Nicene and Apostles Creeds-under the Holy Spirit, not Christ
B. The Body of Christ as the primordial Sacrament
1. Historical body of Christ as primary sacrament: "His humanity appeared as 'sacrament,' that is, the sign and instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he brings: what was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine sonship and redemptive mission." CCC 515.
2. Ecclesial body of Christ as primary sacrament after ascension:
a. LG 1. 1st time in official magisterial document: "the Church of Christ is in the nature of sacrament, a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men"
b. LG 9, church as seed & instrument of unity & salvation: The Church is "the visible sacrament of this saving unity."
c. through his Spirit, Christ "has established His body, the Church, as the universal sacrament of salvation." (LG 48).
C. The Seven Sacraments: "God's masterpieces" CCC 1091
1. The Sacraments are Ecclesial
a. The seven form an organic whole, a dynamic unity. CCC 1211. Not 7 different vending machines!
b. Sacraments manifest Church as the sacrament that she is. CCC 1071
c. Church makes the sacraments; sacraments make the church CCC 1118. St John Chrysostom (ca. 400AD) Catecheses 3: 13-19 Commenting on Jn 19, the blood and water flowing from Christ's pierced side: "I said water and blood symbolized baptims and the holy eucharist. Form these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam."
d. Eucharist is the "sacrament of sacraments" says Aquinas (CCC 1271) because in all the others Christ give us his grace but in the Eucharist he give us his very self. Stands at the center of the whole liturgy.
2. Sacraments as dialogue through words & actions
a. 7 privileged moments where God continues to manifest his saving love efficaciously through the action of the church
b. 7 ways of responding to God's love with worship & thanks
c. caveat: God's grace not restricted to 7 sacraments! Some other means of grace are Scripture, hearing the preached Word of God, prayer, etc. "God has bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism but is himself not bound [i.e., restricted] by his sacraments." CCC 1257
d. Some other means of grace: scripture, prayer, etc.
3. How did we arrive at the number 7?
a. Like the biblical canon, the seven were gradually discerned to be qualitatively superior to other blessings & liturgical ceremonies
b. only enumerated as such in 12th Century by Peter Lombard, The Sentences. Dogmatically taught by Council of Florence in the 15th century & reaffirmed by Trent in the 16th century
c. 7 symbolic number of fullness, created perfection
4. Every sacrament a new Pentecost: CCC 739 (p. 195).
a. At every Eucharist, "the Holy Spirit as love and gift comes down, in a certain sense, into the very heart of the sacrifice which is offered." JP II, Donum et Vivificantem 41.
b. double Epiklesis (invocation of HS) is the heart of each (not just Mass) sacramental celebration: on sacramental matter & on people. CCC 1106
c. "Like fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power." CCC 1127.
5. All 7 make present the paschal mystery & its fruit: Salvation
a. all are anamnesis or memorials, espec Eucharist. CCC 1099, 1103.
b. The problem of finding an English equivalent of anamnesis. Not a purely mental recollection of something in fact absent. Means "bringing before God something which has happened in the past in such a way that is consequences take effect in the present." G. Dix.
(1) 1 Kg 17:18 widow of Sarepta complains that Elijah has come "to call my iniquity to God's remembrance" and therefore her son has died.
(2) Heb 9 & 10 make the point that the sacrifices of the Old Dispensation were not an atonement for sin which would have removed it, but a yearly anamnesis of it , which actually "re-called" it.
c. Re-presentation not repetition: "HS recalls and makes Christ manifest to the faith of the assembly. By his transforming power, he makes the mystery of Christ present here and now." CCC 1092, 1104-7.
d. Acts of God in salvation history are acts of an eternal person. These acts therefore participate in His eternity and transcend the historical moment in which they take place.
e. Holy Spirit as the living memory of the Church. Jn 14:26, CCC 1099.
6. Grace: the terminology is rather recent
a. "Sanctifying" (Aquinas called it gratia gratum faciens, grace which makes one pleasing to God). Conveyed by all the sacraments. An increase in faith, hope, and charity.
b. "Sacramental": grace particular to each sacrament-e.g., spiritual and sometimes physical healing through the anointing of the sick.
D. Efficacy and Fruit of the Sacraments: Balance between objective & subjective
1. Ex opere operato: sacraments are primarily the action of Christ & the Holy Spirit, not the minister. "By the very act of being performed," they objectively confer sanctifying grace as long as objective conditions for validity are satisfied Depends on subjective holiness of neither minister nor recipient. CCC 1128. Cf. Is 55:10f "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
2. Validity & Liceity
a. "Validity" has to do with whether or not the sacramental celebration confers grace ex opere operato. A sacramental celebration can be valid or invalid.
b. "Liceity" has to do with whether or not a liturgical practice is in accord with liturgical law. A practice can be either licit or illicit. Making up one's own eucharistic prayer would be illicit.
c. Valid but illicit: ex: a priest making up one's own eucharistic prayer, but using the proper words of institution. Or using leavened rather than unleavened wheat bread.
3. Conditions for Validity: (determined by Holy See)
a. Valid minister: varies depending on sacraments
b. Valid recipient: "eligible receiver." E.g., human being, one baptized for all other sacraments, a male for priestly ordination
c. Intention "to do what the Church does" (not in jest, not mindless, superstitious incantation of magic formulas), e.g., kids in pool, forced ordinations of KGB agents
d. Valid matter: proper sacramental sign, e.g., water for baptism. (Does not fit matrimony & penance perfectly). Remember, significando causans.
e. Valid form: proper words ("this is my body" for Eucharist)
4. Yet finality of sacraments is to bear personal & ecclesial fruit CCC 1072.
a. This fruit can be summed up as the Glory of God expressed in praise and in holiness of life.
b. Fruit as new life in the Spirit, involvement in mission, Church unity
c. "Through the liturgy the inner man is rooted & grounded in the great love with which [the Father] loved us." CCC 1073
5. All 7 are "sacraments of faith" CCC 1123
a. Presuppose faith
b. Strengthen faith
c. CIC 836: "Since Christian worship . . . is a work which proceeds from faith and is based on it, sacred ministers are to strive diligently to arouse and enlighten that faith, especially through the ministry of the word by which faith is born and nourished."
6. Subjective fruit they bear does depend on recipient:
a. "These dispositions [faith, conversion, loyalty to the Father's will] are the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward." CCC 1098. Cf. CCC 1128, 1131. Examples of water running off hardpan soil.
b. 1 Cor 11:28-32. Bad dispositions can incur God's judgment.
c. e.g., Lk 8:43ff the woman with the flow of blood; Jesus inability to work miracles in Nazareth because of lack of faith (Mat 13:58)
7. Important implications:
a. No one can totally stop you from encountering the Lord! Determine to dispose yourself as best as you can.
b. We can help or hinder others in disposing themselves. Good liturgy builds faith, bad liturgy weakens & destroys faith. Pastoral priorities.
II. The Sacramentals (SC 60-61; CCC 1667-1673, Shorter Book of Blessings)
A. Sacramentals: (definition) official liturgical ceremonies of the Catholic Church other than the Liturgy of the Hours and the Sacraments.
B. Sacramentals and Blessings
1. Sacramentals are mostly liturgical blessings of persons and objects (solemn benediction would be a sacramental)
2. some sacramentals in the Roman Rite that are not exactly blessings would be the veneration of the cross on Good Friday and the lighting and presentation of the baptismal candle to the godparents/parents of the newly baptized.
3. All Liturgy is essentially reciprocal Blessing CCC 1077-1083
a. recall & receive blessings from God
b. respond by blessing God in the sense of praise & worship, adoration & surrender in thanksgiving; also petition for further blessing
C. Aren't Sacramentals Blessed objects?
1. In a popular but outdated usage (E.g., the Baltimore Catechism and the 1917 Code of Canon Law).
2. In current magisterial documents such as the Handbook of Indulgences and SC these are called "objects of devotion."
D. Name, nature, Purpose
1. Called "sacramentals" because many bear very close resemblance to the sacraments. E.g., house blessing with holy water flows from baptism, baptismal anointing with chrism in Roman rite of infant baptism resembles and foreshadows confirmation. See CCC 1668
2. Through the word of God and prayer, all creation becomes means by which God can work to confer, increase grace. "There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot thus be directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God." SC 61.
3. Sacramentals help sanctify almost every aspect of life (like Jewish law).
E. Sacramental blessings have two parts
1. a reading from the WOG geared to the particular blessing sought
2. Thanks to God and prayer for his help & protection
a. Petitions in the form of the prayer of the faithful
b. a sign such as the laying on of hands, outstretched hands, sign of the cross, sprinkling of holy water, incensation, etc.
c. Prayer for the specific blessing
F. Every baptized Christian is called to be a blessing and to bless.
1. Since Vat II, lay persons may preside at many blessings!
2. the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more its administration is reserved to clergy. CCC 1669. Nu 6:22-27 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, "say this to Aaron and his sons: 'This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.' This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them." (Jerusalem Bible)
3. Form of blessing differs depending on whether minister is ordained
G. Efficacy & Power of Sacramentals: why not just informal prayer?
1. Signify effects obtained through the Church's intercession. CCC 1668
2. Engage, concentrate, focus the intercessory authority and power of the whole Church. Make the whole Church present, in a way.
3. Do not efficaciously confer grace like sacraments but dispose us to receive and co-operate with grace. Convey grace ex opere operantis; faith on the part of the recipient & especially the minister is crucial
4. This, however, does not mean that we can't pray spontaneously & informally!