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March 2, 2008

God acts through the sacraments and changes us By participating in these celebrations, we experience the Lord's saving, redeeming presence

By Todd Williamson

CONTRIBUTOR

Editor’s note: With this first installment of “Finding Grace: A Journey Through the Sacraments” the Catholic New World begins a monthly review of the seven sacraments of our church.

The sacraments are the center of our church life and yet we often don’t understand them. While we don’t have enough space to fully examine each sacrament, we hope our brief review will lead you to a better understanding and we encourage you to continue to explore on your own with reading, attending lectures or retreats and through other means.

I teach a class in the sacraments for the archdiocesan deacon and lay ecclesial minister formation programs. Each year, in the first class, I ask for a definition of the word sacrament. Without hesitation more than a few people respond, out loud, in unison: “an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.” This is, as many will recognize, the answer to question number 574 in the Baltimore Catechism (“What is a sacrament?”)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines a sacrament using the same formula, expanding it slightly: “The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church, by which divine life is dispensed to us” (No. 1131).

We believe that in the celebration of the sacraments, something happens. The sacraments are not simply ceremonies. Certainly they are liturgical celebrations, and we hope that they are celebrated as beautifully as they possibly can be.

But to simply understand the sacraments as ceremony is to miss a most important point: In the celebration of the sacraments, God acts, through Christ, and does something to us.

So what?

We say that the sacraments are signs. Well, what are they signs of? What do they signify? Very simply — yet profoundly — the sacraments signify God’s presence and action, here, now, in the midst of the celebration. And through these liturgical celebrations God’s presence and action does something — the rite is efficacious, it has an effect on us.

In the sacraments God, through Christ, is present and active forgiving us (reconciliation), or comforting us and strengthening us in the face of illness and physical suffering (anointing of the sick) or working to unite two separate individuals and to make of them one flesh (marriage).

As an “efficacious sign” each sacrament has two parts to it. One part is what is called the sacramental matter — that is, a physical sign, ritual action or object — for example, bread and wine or the pouring of water over a person.

The other part is what is called the sacramental form — that is, the words said by the priest, deacon or bishop as the physical, ritual action is being done — for example, saying the words, “John, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” while pouring water over the head of a person.

We believe that through these efficacious signs God is present and acts, through Christ, to claim a person for himself in baptism, or to pour out upon a person the fullness of the Holy Spirit in confirmation or to forgive a person his or her sins in reconciliation. In all of the sacraments, Christ acts to do something to us to conform us more to his image; to deepen our relationship with him; to immerse us more and more into the mystery of his life-giving death and resurrection.

Entrusted to church

Throughout the history of the world, where was the invisible God made most visible? Throughout the history of time, where was the presence and action of God made most manifest? The answer: In Christ. It was in Christ that God was most revealed; it was in Christ that God was made manifest (“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9)).

This is still the case. In Christ we still see the Father revealed; through Christ, the Son of God, we still experience the Father’s action, working to save us, to redeem us.

Christ desires to be with us and to remain with us, as he said, even “until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). The way that Christ has remained with us, and always will remain with us, is through his Body — the church. If one were to ask, “Where can we ‘see’ Christ in this day and age?” We answer that it is in the church that Christ is most visible; it is in the church that Christ continues to act and be present, continuing the mission that he began in his earthly ministry.

So it is in the church that Christ continues to feed us and sustain us; it is in the church that Christ continues to forgive us; it is in the church that Christ acts to touch us with his healing presence. These are the sacraments.

We can say that every sacrament is an action of Christ, because every sacrament is an action of the church — the Body of Christ, called together with Christ himself as the head (represented and made visible in the person of the ordained minister).

So at every celebration of baptism we can truly say that it is Christ who baptizes. At every celebration of anointing of the sick we can truly say that it is Christ who anoints and strengthens. At every celebration of the Eucharist we can truly say that it is Christ who gives us his very Body and Blood. All for our salvation. All for our continued redemption.

Divine life dispensed

This continued saving presence and action of God, through Christ, which we encounter in each and every sacrament, is what we call “grace.” Grace is what we receive in every sacramental celebration because in every sacrament we encounter the divine life of God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Moreover, through each sacrament — if we are prepared and open to it (i.e., if we are disposed to it) — we enter into an intimate encounter with the Holy Trinity. These intimate encounters deepen our relationship with the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

This grace, this divine life which we encounter, is God’s gracious gift to us through the sacraments. It is always God’s initiative; it is always God’s merciful love, given to us for our salvation.

This is how we can say that the sacraments are necessary for our salvation. For through these sacramental celebrations, this is how we encounter and experience the saving, redeeming presence and action of God in our lives – saving us, redeeming us, forming us more and more into the image of his Son.

Williamson is director of the archdiocese’s Office for Divine Worship.

Suggested reading

Countless books have been written over the ages reflecting on the meaning of the sacraments. Here are just a few that can offer deeper understanding:

  • “Catechism of the Catholic Church”
  • “U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults”
  • “Sacraments in Scripture,” by Tim Gray and Scott Hahn
  • “Transformed by Grace: Scripture, sacraments and the Sonship of Christ,” by Dom Wulstan Mork, O.S.B.
  • “The Essential Catholic Handbook of the Sacraments,” by Thomas Santa