The Sacraments
Baptism | Holy Communion
| Penance | Confirmation | Matrimony | Holy Orders | Anointing
of the Sick
God's Plan | A Means to Grace
In ancient Roman days, a "sacramentum" was a solemn oath which a man took
according to law. Literally, the word meant "a sacred act," for an oath was
considered to be a sacred thing, as the poet says, "Man's word is God in man."
The early Christians adopted this word to apply to certain sacred acts of the Christian
religion, acts which were external signs of some deep spiritual significance. The external
acts to which the word "sacrament" was applied were those which Christ Himself
had instituted for the sacred purpose of applying to men's souls the grace of His
redemption.
The sacraments are seven--Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Penance or Confession,
Matrimony, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. All of them consist of some
material fact--water, oil, bread, wine--and some external act: pouring, anointing, laying
on of hands, uttering words, and all of them by these means symbolize the application of
Christ's redemptive grace to men's souls and actually confer this grace.
Why did Christ institute sacraments? Why, indeed, did Christ redeem us by His life,
suffering, death and resurrection, when a simple act of the divine will could have
accomplished the same result? Sufficient for us to know that He did this--the fullness of
the reason for it is hidden within the divine mind.
Yet we can see, at least partially, why the redemption was effected as it was. It was
fitting that God should deal with His creature according to the manner in which He had
created him. It was fitting that He should show His love for man by sending His own Son to
become man. It was fitting that the human nature which He created and called good should
have been sanctified by the presence of the divine Christ, that the human flesh which He
assumed should have been redeemed from within, so to speak, by this presence.
And similarly, we can see why the redemption, once won through Christ's life and death
would be made available to men through the sacraments of the Church.
Such is God's way of dealing with the free human beings whom He has created. He has
permitted man to share in all His works. He does not create men individually from nothing,
but brings men into existence through the cooperation of others of their kind, through
human parents. He does not govern His universe directly, but through the agency of men. He
has not made salvation something automatic, depriving man of his freedom. He has
established a Church in which the grace of salvation will be distributed by man to man.
God's
Plan of Salvation
By this means He has renewed and blessed once more the creation
which "was made subject to vanity not by its own choice but
by the will of him who made it subject" (Rom 8:20). Through
the sin of man all creation was thrown into disorder, pitted against
itself. In the sacramental order which Christ established, even
the inanimate things of creation are "delivered from slavery
to corruption to enjoy the freedom that comes with the glory of
the children of God" (Rom 8:21). Water and wine, oil and bread,
become part of God's great plan of salvation, assisting in their
own way the glory of the children of God.
This plan of salvation follows the example set by our Lord. Christ taught by
signs--signs of fact and signs of word. His most sublime teachings were cloaked in
parables: signs in words. He worked cures by means of signs. Remember, for example, His
cure of the man blind from birth. He could have simply willed that the man see. But
instead, "he spat on the ground, and by means of the spittle made a lump of clay, and
then spread the clay over his eyes, and said to him: `Go, and wash' ... So he went, and
washed, and came back able to see" (John 9:6f.). It is not surprising that Christ
should have decided to distribute salvation to man down through the ages by means of the
signs which we call sacraments.
Each of the sacraments has some visible sign. This is what is called the
"matter"--that is, a thing, such as water in Baptism and oil in the Anointing of
the Sick; and in the "form", that is, certain words. In Baptism, as is well
known, the words are: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit."
In each case, therefore, the matter and form "signify" the spiritual good
that is being worked in the soul of the recipient--that is why they are called signs.
Water suggests washing, oil suggests healing, and the words of the minister of the
sacrament determine what kind of washing and healing is being done.
If the sacraments were merely of human origin, they could be nothing more than signs of
our hope or our prayers. We could not assure ourselves that we were really washing a soul
clean of sin in Baptism, for example, as only the divine power can do this. But because
the sacraments have been instituted by Christ for the express purpose of doing what they
symbolize, we know that they are more than mere signs. What they signify, they actually
accomplish. Baptism does cleanse a soul from sin. Confirmation does strengthen the life of
the spirit and bring it to spiritual adulthood. Communion is not merely a sign of Christ's
body and blood, it IS these things.
Means to Grace
This does not mean, of course, that the sacraments are magical or automatic. They must
be administered by someone qualified by Christ to do so who is really intending to
administer one of Christ's sacraments. The recipient must be prepared and capable of
receiving the sacrament. If the sacrament is to him only an idle gesture, it will do him
no good. God does not require us to receive the sacraments; to each is given the free will
to choose, but in rejecting the sacraments, we reject the means to grace which God freely
offers us.
The sacraments were meant to be administered by Christians to Christians in the Church.
They are the chief title which the Church has to her claim to be "holy." The
Christian living the life of Christ in the Church has these means constantly at his
disposal to preserve, to restore, to increase the kind of life which Christ has made it
possible for him to live.
Before His ascension into heaven, our Lord gave His Apostles the great commission to
baptize. This is, in a sense, the Church's charter of sanctification. "Absolute
authority in heaven and on earth has been conferred upon me," He said. "Go,
therefore, and initiate all nations in discipleship: baptize them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the
commandments I have given you" (Matt. 28:18f.).
Absolute
Necessity of Baptism
Baptism, the sign of membership in Christ's Church, is more than a sign; it is an
absolute necessity. "Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God," were Christ's words to Nicodemus (John 3:5). The importance of
Baptism was stressed above all by our Lord's first priests and Bishops, the leaders of the
Church, the Apostles. "Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed
away," were almost the first words that Paul the Apostle was to hear in his new-
found Christian faith (Acts 22:16). And it is Paul who has best of all expressed the
traditional Christian faith in the power of this sacrament (Rom 6:3-11).
Baptism puts us in union with Christ, causes us to share His life, to the extent that
His death is our own and His resurrection ours. We are dead to sin, alive to the life of
God. We are new persons. It is no wonder that St. Peter says simply, ~Baptism ... saves
you" (1 Pet 3:21).
This does not mean, of course, that Baptism is an automatic guarantee of salvation. God
saves man without destroying man's freedom. There is no such thing as an absolute,
infallible certainty of salvation during this life, because at any time man has it in his
power to turn his back on God and reject Him.
Necessity
of Forgiveness
Christ knew that the members of His Church would sin, and thereby break the bond that
had united them to Him in Baptism. Such was the divine mercy that God would not permit
this bond to be broken forever, and to assure this, He provided another channel of grace.
When a person has committed sin, he has a sure way to return to the salvation of Christ,
through the sacrament of Penance.
The matter of this sacrament is the sorrowful confession of one's sins to Christ's
minister. The form is the words of absolution, uttered by the priest of the Church in the
name of Christ. This sacramental sign of confession and forgiveness is more than a symbol;
it is the true absolution given the sinner by Christ Himself.
Why is confession to a mere human being necessary? Why cannot the sinner simply go to
God directly and obtain forgiveness? Because God has determined that it is through
confession to His priest and absolution given by the same priest that He will forgive our
sins. We do not decide for ourselves how we shall obtain forgiveness, any more than we
decide for ourselves how we shall obtain Christ's salvation in the first place. If the
priest can act for God in the matter of Baptism, which cleanses us of sin, why should we
doubt his commission from God to transmit forgiveness of sin through the equally valid
Christ-instituted sacrament of Penance.
For God did certainly give the power to forgive sins to His Apostles. Listen to the
solemn way in which He conferred this power--again using signs in a way that was most
sacramental--when He appeared to them after His resurrection: "Then Jesus said to
them again: 'Peace be to you! As the Father has made me his ambassador, so I am making you
my ambassadors.' With this, he breathed on them and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whenever you remit anyone's sins, they are remitted; when you retain anyone's sins, they
are retained'" (John 20:21ff.).
This power, be it noted, He gave to them just as He gave the great commission of
Baptism--to be with the Church for all time. It is a power He gave them as His
ambassadors, as those who are to represent HIm among men until He returns. it is a power
given the Church in the person of His priesthood. It is the power which He had previously
given the chief of His Apostles, St. Peter, at the time He promised him headship over His
Church: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19).
The Apostles were given the power not merely to forgive sin, but also to retain it. In
other words, they were given the power to judge which sins could be forgiven and which
should not. This judgment could not be exercised unless there is confession of sin.
"Confess your sins to one another," said St. James, "and pray for one
another that you may be healed" (Jas. 5:16). From time immemorial God has provided a
means of forgiveness only through confession of sins (see Lev. 5:5, etc.). Without
confession, how is the minister of Christ to judge the state of the sinner's soul, and to
determine if forgiveness is justified?
Penance is no more an automatic proposition than is Baptism. If a sinner were to ask
forgiveness without a true and sincere sorrow for his sins, and without a firm purpose of
amendment, then he could not receive forgiveness. He might be able to deceive the priest
to whom he confesses, but he would not deceive God. The priest's absolution is effective
only to the extent that the penitent places no obstacles in its way, just as the rite of
Baptism would be meaningless if there were no true intention of accepting Christ's
salvation.
But when confession is rightly made, with true sorrow and a change of heart, then the
judgment of the priest expressed in absolution has behind it the guarantee of Christ's
words: "Whenever you remit anyone's sins, they are remitted." That is a great
consolation which we have as Catholics, to know that sure and certain forgiveness is
always available. This is the guarantee of Christ. The voice of the priest in the
confessional is the voice of God, for as our Lord told His emissaries: "He who
listens to you listens to me, and he who despises you despises me; but whoever despises me
despises him whose ambassador I am" (Luke 10:16).
For reasons that should now be evident, the sacraments of Baptism and Penance are
called "sacraments of the dead." They are the sacraments to which we have
recourse in spiritual death, to free us from the death of sin and restore us to the life
of God. The other sacraments are called "sacraments of the living," that is,
sacraments whose function is to increase and strengthen the spiritual life which we share
as members of Christ's Body, the Church.
Sacraments
of the Living
First among these is Confirmation. As the name indicates, the purpose of this sacrament
is to confirm or strengthen the Christian in his Christian calling. It is therefore
sometimes called the sacrament of spiritual adulthood--though the Christian may receive
the sacrament as a small child. Maturity of soul is quite different from maturity of the
body. A little child may give an example of spiritual growth that will shame his elders,
and some people attain a venerable age without ever departing from the infancy of the
spirit. In Confirmation the Holy Spirit is given anew to the baptized person, that he may
be strengthened to carry his faith about with him in the world, that he may labor well for
his own salvation and that of others.
Just when our Lord established this sacrament--we do not know. That He did establish
it, however, and instruct His Apostles and their successors to administer it, we see from
the Apostolic practice in the New Testament.
"Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of
God, they sent Peter and John to them. On their arrival they prayed for the Samaritans,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit. As yet he had not come on any of them, because
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their
hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:14ff.; see also Acts
19:1-6).
Confirmation is still given by the laying on of hands, just as the Apostles gave it.
The Church has surrounded the rite with additional symbols. Oil is used, for just as
athletes in ancient times were thoroughly anointed before entering the contests of the
arena, the Christian is supposed by this sacrament to be prepared for the struggles of
life touching on his faith. To symbolize the same thing the Bishop who ordinarily confirms
strikes the confirmed person lightly on the cheek.
Holy
Communion
The most familiar of all the sacraments of the living is doubtless Holy Communion, and
in a certain sense it is unique important because of its continual necessity for all true
Christians.
Almost everyone is familiar with the Gospel story of the Last Supper and knows about
the institution of this sacrament (in Matt. 26:26ff., Mark 14:22ff., and Luke 22:19f.).
Besides these passages, there is an entirely independent account of the institution given
by St. Paul (1 Cor 11:23-29), which agrees with the Gospels throughout.
It is not from the account of the institution, however, that we have our best
information about what Christ intended this sacrament to be, and the importance He
attached to it. This we find in St. John's Gospel, when the evangelist relates Christ's
promise to the sacrament, given a full year before is actual institution.
"I am the bread of life," Jesus told His followers at that time. "Your
fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they died. The bread which I speak of, which
comes down from heaven, is such that no one who eats of it will ever die. I am the living
bread that has come down from heaven. If one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and
furthermore, the bread which I shall give is my flesh given for the life of the
world" (John 6:48-51).
Christ clearly told us, therefore, that what He was going to give mankind was His own
flesh and blood, His own body "given for the life of the world" and that this
gift would be an instrument of eternal life.
Now there are Christians who claim that Christ never meant His words to be taken
literally. They insist that the bread and wine of the sacrament are symbols, nothing more.
But this would mean that there would not even be a real sacrament. A sacrament is not
merely an empty sign, but a sign that symbolizes a spiritual reality. The bread and wine
symbolize Christ's body and blood, it is true, but the body and blood which they symbolize
are also actually truly present.
"Resuming, therefore, Jesus said to them: 'What I tell you is the plain truth:
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is in possession of eternal life; and I will
raise him up from the dead on the last day; for my flesh is real food, and my blood is
real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is united with me, and I am united
with him. As the living Father has appointed me his ambassador, and I live because of the
Father, so, too, he who eats me will have life because of me. This is the bread that has
come down from heaven. It is not what your fathers ate; they ate and died. He who eats
this bread will live forever'" (John 6:53-58).
In this passage our Lord has clearly told us that this gift of His body and blood is a
necessity to us, that the eating of it brings eternal life. It is, therefore, a most
important sacrament, one which should truly be the daily bread of Christians.
There are two sacraments of the living which are intended each for only a part of the
Body of Christ which is the Church. In the Church, Paul says, "There is a
distribution of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There is a distribution of
ministrations, but it is the same Lord to whom we minister. There is a distribution of
activities, but it is the same God who activates them all in everyone" (1 Cor.
12:4-6). The two fundamental divisions of the faithful for which the Holy Spirit provides
grace through the sacramental order are the clergy (Holy Orders) and the laity
(Matrimony).
Holy Orders
The clerical state began to exist when Christ selected the Apostles to be His
successors and the continuers of His work. To them He committed responsibilities and
powers which He did not give to the rest of His disciples--the power and responsibility to
continue the sacrament of the Last Supper (Luke 22:19f.), to forgive or retain sins (John
20:21ff.), and the like; in short, to administer the sacraments of His Church and to
govern it in His name.
This responsibility requires the abundant grace of God, and to provide that grace
Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Orders. It was in reference to this sacrament that
Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy whom he had set over the Church at Ephesus: "Do
not neglect the grace of office you have, which was granted to you by inspired designation
with the imposition of the presbyter's hands" (1 Tim. 4:14).
Laying on of hands was the customary way of imparting this sacrament in the Apostolic
Church, as we see in this passage from 1 Timothy, as also from Paul's further word to his
disciple, "Do not hastily impose hands on anyone" (1 Tim 5:22), "I remind
you to stir up God's grace of office which you have through the laying on of my
hands" (2 Tim 1:6), and from the Acts of the Apostles in the appointment of the seven
men who were to assist the Apostles in their functions (Acts 6:5f.).
The other large class of the members of the Church is the laity. For these there is the
sacrament of Matrimony. Not every layman receives the sacrament, it is true, yet it is the
sacrament of "office" which is most characteristic of the laity as a whole.
Not every marriage is a sacrament, but only the marriages of baptized persons. Every
marriage is a contract entered into in the presence of God and, as a contract, it is
indissoluble. As long as the parties intend to contract true marriage, they contract an
unbreakable contract.
But Christian marriage is in addition a sacrament. Baptized persons find in their
wedded state a source of grace, a grace "of office," to give them the necessary
helps in fulfilling their responsibilities. The most beautiful description given of the
significance of Christian marriage is that of Paul (Eph. 5:25- 33):
The
Christian Marriage
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church, and delivered himself
for her, that he might sanctify her by cleansing her in the bath of water with the
accompanying word, in order to present to himself the Church in all her glory, devoid of
blemish or wrinkle or anything of the kind, but that she may be holy and flawless. Even so
ought husbands to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves
himself. Now no one ever hates his own flesh; on the contrary, he nourishes and cherishes
it, as christ does the Church, because we are members of his Body. 'For this cause a man
shall leave his father and mother, and cling to his wife; and the two shall become one
flesh.' This is a great mystery--I mean in regard to Christ and the Church. Meanwhile, let
each of you love his wife just as he loves himself, and let the wife reverence her
husband."
The fact that Paul could compare the union of man and woman in Christian marriage with
the union of Christ and His Church shows the esteem he attached to it. Similarly, from
Apostolic times the Catholic Church has insisted that in Christian marriage there is grace
given by the Holy Spirit just as the grace of the Spirit unites the Christian to Christ.
Paul clearly distinguishes this Christian, sacramental marriage, from other marriages.
He wrote, for example, with regard to the marriage of a Christian with a non-Christian:
"If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to live with him, he
must not divorce her. And if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live
with her, she must not divorce him. Why? Because the unbelieving husband is consecrated by
the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated by the believing husband. If
it were not so, your children would be defiled, but, as it is, they are holy. But if the
unbeliever is minded to depart, let him go. A brother or sister is under no obligation in
such cases. God has called us to live in peace. As a matter of fact, how do you, the wife,
know that you will save your husband? Or how do you, the husband, know that you will save
your wife?" (1 Cor 7:12-16).
Such a marriage, Paul says, is valid and true. It cannot be broken by divorce. The
unbelieving partner should be accepted-- it is, as it were, a union in which the
unbelieving partner is made acceptable, "consecrated," because of the believing
partner. For the sake of the peace of the Christian family that results, the marriage
should be continued. The children of such unions are "holy," that is, they
pertain to the Christian community.
The sacrament of Matrimony is administered by the two partners in marriage one to the
other. That is why both parties must be baptized Christians for there to be a sacramental
marriage. If one of them is incapable of receiving a sacrament, then there can obviously
be no sacrament; for there is but the one marriage between them. When the two actually
consent to one another and exchange their vows, the sacrament is conferred. The priest who
must assist at Catholic marriages by the law of the Church is, actually, the Church's
official witness to the marriage. He does not administer the sacrament, he simply sees
that it is administered.
What of the marriage of a baptized Christian with an unbaptized person? This cannot be
a sacramental marriage, though it may be a perfectly valid and holy union for all that.
If, however, such a marriage later changes its character, that is, if the unbaptized
person is later baptized and becomes a Christian, it is a logical conclusion that the
marriage which began as non- sacramental now becomes a sacrament. It is now a marriage
between two Christians, with all the marvelous qualities which Paul attributes to such a
union.
Anointing
of the Sick
The final sacrament for consideration is that called the Anointing of the Sick. The
many cures related in the Gospels witness to Christ's special compassion for the infirm
and afflicted. His mere word or action cured the sick instantly and completely. Such
miraculous cures proved Christ's claim to be the Son of God, and made evident His divine
power to heal both the soul and the body.
The proper subject for this sacrament is any member of the Church whose condition might
be termed serious or critical. When this sacred anointing is properly received, the wounds
of sin are healed, the soul is strengthened, and any obstacles to the patient's peaceful
union with God are removed. Because this sacrament brings peace, new confidence, and hope
to the sick, who are often troubled with anxieties, it often contributes also to the
restoration of physical health.
The priest should be called when any of the faithful begin to be in danger from
sickness or old age. The benefits of this sacrament are best obtained when the person is
fully conscious and able to have the proper dispositions. This sacrament of the Anointing
of the Sick may be received often, that is, whenever a person during life might be
seriously ill.
When the sacrament was instituted by our Lord, or on what occasion, we do not know. We
do know that He sent His disciples about making use of anointing for symbolic purposes
(see Mark 6:12f.). This practice was certainly continued in the Apostolic Church. For
this, we have the testimony of St. James:
"Is anyone of you sick? He should call in the presbyters of the Church, and have
them pray over him, while they anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. that prayer,
said with faith, will save the sick person, and the Lord will restore him to health. If he
has committed sins, they will be forgiven him" (Jas. 5:14f.).
The universal tradition of the Catholic Church always has maintained the divine
institution of this sacrament. Its matter and form are the consecrated oil and the prayers
of the administering priest.
Such is the function of the Church that Christ established, the sanctifying Church
which is to continue His redemptive work through all time, to be with the members of His
Body from their first waking moments, in the sacrament of Baptism, through their lifetime
down to the anointing which prepares them for the true home of Christians for all
eternity.
Copyright © 1996 Catholic Information
Network (CIN) - August 21, 1996
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