As the name implies, sacraments are considered sacred traditions within the Church and an integral part of the Catholic faith. You may be familiar with some of them, such as baptism and holy matrimony. But what exactly are sacraments?
Are they merely symbolic ceremonies or something more? Welcome to Mysteries of the Church. I'm your host, Carolyn Morrison. Join me as we explore the mysteries of sacraments.
The fourth century theologian Saint Augustine of Hippo stated that sacraments are a visible sign of an invisible reality. What he meant is that although sacraments may appear to be symbolic rituals, in reality they're the active presence of God's grace. The sacraments have always been a part of the Christian experience. The definition of what a sacrament is, or which sacraments are sacraments, has taken some time in history to evolve. The sacraments in the Catholic Church really are Christ's gift to the Church, where Christ, knowing that he was going to be returning to the Father, and leaving the apostles and disciples, wanted to leave his presence.
And the sacraments really are his presence, his gifts to the Church. There always were. Certain rituals or celebrations in the life of the church that eventually we came to call sacraments, but they were there already from the beginning. St. Thomas Aquinas defined sacraments as the extension of Christ into our times. He used the analogy of a person that holds a stick and uses the stick to press a button or move an object and he said that Christ who is in his glory in heaven, who is himself the incarnate Word of God, and who in his life on earth walked among us as a real human being, uses the sacraments like a man uses a stick to touch us.
And so the idea that you would be baptized with water, that water at that moment becomes the extension of Christ's hand reaching down through time into our personal lives. And so that concept of the sacraments really brings us close to God. Contemporary theologians have used the notion Christ the sacrament of encounter with God meaning that everything Jesus did brings us closer to God.
So what I would say to a person that says I don't need the sacraments I would ask them you mean you don't need Christ because Christ is the first sacrament given to us by God Father. In the 16th century the Council of Trent affirmed the long-held belief that there are seven sacraments baptism Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. Naturally, the inspiration for these sacraments stems directly from the Gospels and the teachings of Jesus.
It was really not until Trent in the Middle Ages that we say the sacraments were more or less codified in terms of the matter and the form of the sacraments. Yes, it would be in a sense a little bit... Not as clearly defined previous to Trent as regards of the exact way the sacraments were celebrated.
It was, as I say, Trent that gave that very specific matter and form that was then necessary for the actual validity of these sacraments to be celebrated. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and the fathers of the Council of Trent had to deal with two different conflicting trends. One was... to think of God as only spiritual and to look down on anything material as contaminating, as polluting. On the other hand, there was the temptation to look at sacraments or rituals as magic.
If I do this, God will help me win the lottery. If I turn the statue upside down, automatically I'm going to get this house. And so between these two kind of opposing heresies, one that God was only spiritual and didn't love, matter and form and who we are and on the other the notion that only the material mattered and not the spiritual the church has kind of navigated between those two whirlpools those two dangers and tried to establish a clear theology and the Council of Trent adopted the Very clear notion of St. Thomas Aquinas that just like we're made up of body and soul, the sacraments are a part material and a part spiritual.
And unless you have both of them together at the right time and the right place, you don't have a sacrament. It's taught that all sacraments must have proper matter, form, and intention. An example of matter would be the holy water used during the baptismal rite, while form... Is the action and prayers needed to perform the baptism and proper intention of the heart and mind is also essential. Thomas Aquinas used this metaphor of matter and form something he borrowed from Aristotle and his idea was that when you had the material essence let's say we have holy water for baptism that water becomes transformed in its function and touches the spiritual.
When with the intention of bringing a person into the Christian Church, we say, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You have to have not just the words, you also have to have water in some way. So that is how the Church has ensured that the spiritual, which is the form, the words, the intention of the person, and the matter, that is, in this case, holy water, are combined in a special moment to give us. contact with Christ the sacrament of God. Well, we are body and soul and so we learn through our senses.
Eyes, ears, for example, that's how we learn. And physical, material realities convey spiritual realities. And that's the way it is. And so what the sacraments are is that they are Moments in which a physical or material reality is the conveyor, you might say, the instrument for a spiritual reality. But as human beings, that's the way we act.
We act through our bodies. That's the way our spirit, you might say, is built up through our senses. And that's what the sacraments do.
They convey the great realities of God's love through physical material signs. When we return, we break down each of the seven sacraments and their significance. Mysteries of the Church will be right back.
Welcome back to Mysteries of the Church. Before one becomes a member of the Church, He or she must receive the sacrament of baptism. The rite is based on the belief that in order to be saved, we must first rid ourselves of original sin, the state of sin that we are all born into as a result of the fall of man. Basically, because of the need for redemption, man needs to be redeemed from sin and saved from the power of sin in his life. And there are other sacraments that are those visible signs of the grace of God coming to us in time and place to give us what we need in our lives, the power and the strength to overcome sin and to live more in imitation of Christ himself.
The book of Genesis tells the story of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God and were cast out of the Garden of Eden. As a result, they and... all their descendants inherited the burden of death. Through baptism, it's believed that this original sin committed by man is cleansed away, allowing us the opportunity for an everlasting life with God. The origin of the sacrament of baptism we find in the Scriptures.
I think most clearly at the end of St. Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus, after the resurrection, tells his disciples to go and baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Those are the exact words that are used within the sacrament that makes the sacrament valid, we would say. The sacrament of baptism is so important within the Church because it really is the first sacrament.
By this sacrament, we are incorporated into the body of Christ. Our sins, the sins of original sin, are washed away, and we become a member of the body of Christ. And with this sacrament of baptism, we are able then to receive the other sacraments. A person cannot receive, for instance, Holy Communion or Confirmation.
before they received baptism because baptism is that first step of initiation. It marks our connection to Christ. It marks in many ways where we die with Christ and share in his death, his burial, and his resurrection.
Confirmation involves the anointing of the person with consecrated oil mixed with balsam, called sacred chrism. This ceremony is in the presence of a personal sponsor and is considered to be the point when a Christian is committing his or her faith in Jesus Christ. The sacrament of Confirmation finds its origin truly in the Scriptures. We see it most clearly, I think, in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter and John at one point Encounter a person who's been baptized but realize they have not received the Spirit and so they give them the sacrament of the Holy Spirit to the sacrament of confirmation. We also find aspects of the sacrament found in the Gospels and it's the connection to baptism.
We speak of confirmation as the gift of the Holy Spirit, that completion of that gift that began in baptism. When a man answers the call to serve God he may do so as a member of the clergy. Holy Orders is a sacrament that allows men to be ordained as ministers after much study and training.
The sacrament of Holy Orders has three aspects. There is the ordination of a man to the diaconate. He would be typically called a deacon. There is the ordination of a man to the presbyterate, which would be the priesthood. And finally, the episcopacy, which is commonly called a bishop.
Those are the three levels, we could say, of Holy Orders. The Church believes that the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and holy orders leaves an indelible mark on the soul called a sacramental character. This means that the recipient of these rites has gone through a permanent transformation in the eyes of God. Also referred to as Holy Communion or the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist stands out as being a most special gift. Rooted in the story of the Last Supper, It represents the sacrifice Jesus made and the promise that we may have salvation through him.
The origin of the sacrament of the Eucharist, we could say, is truly found in the Scriptures. It's the ultimate moment, we could say, of the Scriptures where Jesus, during Holy Week, as we celebrate commonly on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil, because the Eucharist is not simply Holy Thursday, where Jesus gives us the words that we are repeated at each and every Mass, but the words... anticipate and bring to fulfillment the sacrifice of the cross. The Blessed Sacrament centers on consecrated bread and wine that is believed to be the true body and blood of Jesus Christ.
This is known as the doctrine of transubstantiation. The Eucharist in many ways is important because it is the sacrament of the Church. We become what we receive. Christ speaks of the People as the body of the church, it's not simply the building we're in, but the people gathered together around the altar, around the sacrifice. And so in some sense, we're gathered together in prayer.
And as we receive Holy Communion, as we receive the Eucharist, we as individuals become what we receive. We become the body of Christ gathered around Christ, who is the head of the church. And all of the other sacraments flow from the Eucharist. There are many ways.
connected to the Eucharist and without the Eucharist there is no church. Jesus Christ taught the forgiveness of sins for the truly repentant. The sacrament of penance is an opportunity one gets to repair their relationship with God by confessing their sins to a priest.
The sacrament of reconciliation is necessary for an individual after baptism when they've committed a sin. We speak of baptism as washing away our sins. So when a person has been baptized, there are no sins in that person.
But during the course of life, a person may at times fall. We're all called to follow Christ. But there may be moments, there may be instances where we fall short, where we sin. Sometimes minor sins, sometimes major sins.
And the question is, well, what do I do? Well, we look to the Gospels and we see Jesus forgiving. And a person who is aware of a sin is called to have those sins washed away.
And so they go to the sacrament. They go to the sacrament of reconciliation. The sacrament of holy matrimony is unique in that it's the only sacrament directly administered by those who are receiving it, the bride and groom.
The minister who is facilitating the wedding ceremony is considered a witness to the vows they make with God and to each other. When we look to the sacrament of marriage, people say, well, marriage existed before Christ. And it's true.
And you can go all the way back to the book of Genesis. To the story of creation where God created Adam and Eve, and we're familiar with the two stories in Genesis, where God created, the world was good, God said it was good, and God created Eve to be that companion. So that Adam and Eve together form the human race, that completion.
And with the fall, we could say sin entered the world. But we see in the scriptures, we see Jesus time and time again addressing this. There's most famously the Gospel of St. John, which deals with Jesus at the wedding at Cana, where Jesus transforms the water into wine because the couple run short.
But more importantly, Christ is there to perform that miracle. They've invited Christ to their wedding. And at a marriage, that is what a couple does. The man and woman invite Christ into their lives, invites Christ to be part not just of that moment, but of their lives so that Christ can continue to strengthen and continue to bless them. Using holy oil, the anointing of the sick is a sacrament that is administered to someone who is seriously ill.
This sacrament is not only associated with healing, but with forgiving of sins as well. The sacrament of anointing of the sick is one of the seven sacraments which finds its origin. Once again, in the Gospels we see Jesus time and time again healing people, whether it's the blind, whether it's the lame, those who are suffering from diseases such as leprosy.
And he allows them to experience his presence. And the sacrament of anointing of the sick is meant to help, we find, particularly in the letters of St. James. that the person is anointed with holy oil, the oil of the sick which is blessed by the bishop at the chrism mass. And it's meant, the sacrament is meant to help a person who first becomes sick, a serious sickness, or someone preparing for surgery.
It's not meant for the last moment of a person's life. The church has been speaking through the ages, not just recently, but really when you go back to the early councils of the church, that in a person receives the sacrament when they first become ill or in danger of death or near death. The anointing of the sick should not be confused with the last rites.
Although the anointing of the sick is a sacrament intended for the seriously ill, last rites involves the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist and are given only to someone on the verge of death. When we return, we explain the role of sacramentals. So don't go away. Mysteries of the Church will be right back.
The administering of a sacrament always involves what is known as a sacramental. A sacramental can be a material thing, such as holy water or bread, as well as an action, such as saying a prayer or making the sign of the cross. The definition of a sacramental by the Council of Trent was that it excites good thoughts and invokes good works.
Now, there have been instances... When, for instance, people have said that they see the Blessed Virgin Mary in a windowpane and people will go over that night and consider it some sort of miracle. And what the Church basically says is, the person who saw that image was crippled and facing a very serious disease, not only from himself, but also for his family.
And so perhaps he saw the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, perhaps all he saw... was a bit of that gas that's in between the two panes of a double pane window. But whatever the reason, his faith was nurtured by that experience. And so sacramentals really can come in a very personal way, and they can communicate and bring us closer to Christ.
Now, are we going to make a shrine out of a double pane window because somebody, when the sun was shining at a specific angle, saw something blue flickering? No, but we cannot denigrate the fact that God works in ways that we just don't understand. Sacramentals can serve to build up the life of the Christian.
Take, for example, Ash Wednesday, that's a sacramental. And so it's an invitation to getting into the spirit of the Lenten season and to doing penance. So sacramentals, that's their purpose is to... build up the Christian life.
Only a priest, bishop, or deacon can bless a material thing, such as a wedding ring or a Bible, making it a sacramental. And there are strict rules on what one can do with a sacramental, which include proper disposal and restrictions of its sale. One of the great scandals when the liturgical reform came about was the issue of what to do with those old sacraments.
Today, because the church... Which is oftentimes facing a kind of financial problem. We know that stained glass windows, for instance, from churches that have been closed or had to be remodeled, those stained glass windows are then sent to another place and put into another church.
But let's say you break a statue that you have. It would not be a good idea to put it into the trash for the Monday morning pickup. Why? Because the symbol of Mary, Jesus, or the Sacred Heart, Is that a scene being discarded just as any other garbage?
Well, a statue, for example, probably the best thing is to finish the destruction process, just to break it up and to throw it out. Unless you have a garden, a big garden, you can bury it in the backyard or something like that. But there is no set procedure. It should be done reverently, but...
Obviously, some of these things do break down after a while, so it would be legitimate to just make it, in some way, make it unrecognizable and just throw it out. Every church, every Catholic Church has a sacrarium, which is a sink that instead of emptying into the sewer system, it goes into a dirt pit. So all the sacred vessels would be washed, the chalices, the ciboria. So that any particles of the host or any of the precious blood is reverently put into the ground.
The seven sacraments are so important. I think all of us can learn so much more. There's always something to learn about them, a deeper understanding why.
I think the most important aspect of the sacraments is that they're truly gifts that Christ has given to the Church and trusted the Church so that we can receive them. When we receive the sacraments, we receive God. We receive the presence of Christ. When we look at baptism, we are baptized into Christ. We're baptized in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
We're incorporated into the body of Christ the Church. The sacraments heal us, whether it's the anointing of the sick and penance. And the sacraments of the Eucharist, we receive Christ. We no longer just have to come to a church and pray before the Blessed Sacrament. We receive Christ within us, and in many ways we become a tabernacle.
Because the Blessed Sacrament is within us and we are called to be transformed. The sacraments are important for us that we allow God to strengthen us. And that's why Christ really gave the sacraments. When we look to the Gospels, Jesus knew that his time with the apostles was coming to an end.
And he gave them these gifts so that we have the opportunity to experience the presence of Christ in our lives, to be strengthened and to be nourished. It's important to remember that sacramentals are not mere objects or actions used during a symbolic ceremony. On the contrary, sacraments are a representation of something real and help us connect with God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
They are very special occasions as they allow us to experience God's grace in a wonderful way. Thank you for watching. I'm Carolyn Morrison and I hope to see you next time.
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