| Meditation Thirty-nine, First Week of December 2003 The Meaning of the Sacraments Begin with prayer to the Holy Spirit Readings: Baptism—Matt 28:19; Mark 16:16; John 3:5 Until a few decades ago every Catholic child knew that “a sacrament was an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.” It was a very good thing to know, although it was a bit oversimplified. The sacraments of the Anointing of the Sick and of Matrimony become more explicit in the writings of Saint James and Saint Paul than they were in the Gospels. The Church’s teaching on these two sacraments is based on Christ’s healing of the sick and His ordering the apostles to heal them by the laying on of hands (Mark 16:18), His presence at the marriage feast of Cana, and His teaching on marriage (John 2:1–11). For these reasons they have always been included in the list of liturgical sacraments. The foundations of the sacramental teaching are, first of all, Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Christ explicitly commanded the apostles to baptize and to perform the Eucharist, and He taught the necessity of both these sacraments. For example, the need for Baptism and for eating the Bread of Life are very clear in the texts cited above. Protestant churches have varying numbers of sacraments and give different meanings to them. The Orthodox, as well as the very ancient churches of the East—often referred to as apostolic or oriental churches—all celebrate the same seven sacraments so similarly that the Catholic Church recognizes the validity of their sacraments. Just as Christ was sent by the Father through the Holy Spirit to save the fallen human race, so Our Savior sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth. But as we know so well, the apostles were just poor weak mortal men capable of betraying the Lord in His hour of need. They could not save anybody. He had to be with them, as He promised He would be, even to the end of the world. The means by which Christ’s life and presence remain with His Church are called the divine mysteries by the Eastern Church Fathers and are called sacraments by the Western Church Fathers. A sacrament in this sense is a promise of grace, and Christ alone is the source of grace. The early Church was very aware that Christ is present and acting in every sacrament. This is why St. Augustine reminds us in the readings below that the worthiness of the minister does not affect the power of the sacrament, because Christ gives the sacraments. We should respond to this by receiving every one of them with the greatest reverence. Baptism and Holy Eucharist are the most obvious. If we are prayerfully attentive, we will experience His presence. In our church in the South Bronx, where there is Eucharistic adoration, the elderly African American ladies of the neighborhood come to pray. Although they belong to little storefront churches, often of denominations founded by freed slaves who in their fervent love for Christ saw Him as a fellow victim, these ladies will say, “Go into that church, and the sweet Lord Jesus is there. You can tell. You can feel Him.” How wonderful it would be if we had the same reverence. Quotation for Meditation The following quotation from St. Augustine (354–430), who was the greatest theologian in the West, is about Christ’s presence in Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. It is taken from an article by Emmanuel J. Cutrone in the encyclopedia Augustine Through the Ages, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, O.S.A. (Eerdmans, 1999). The reason these things, brothers and sisters, are called sacraments
is that in them one thing is seen, another is to be understood. What can
be seen has a bodily appearance, what is to be understood provides spiritual
fruit. . . . This power of faith has so much power in the Church of God that through the very one who believes, offers, blesses, immerses, it cleanses even the tiny infant, not yet having the capacity with its heart to believe to justice and with its mouth to make a profession of faith to salvation. All this is done through the word, of which the Lord says: “Now you are clean by reason of the word that I have spoken to you. . . . But men put on Christ, sometimes so far as to receive the sacrament, sometimes so much further as to receive holiness of life. And the first of these is common to good and bad alike; the second, peculiar to the good and pious. . . . But the baptism of Christ, consecrated by the words of the Gospel, is necessarily holy however polluted and unclean its ministers may be; because its inherent sanctity cannot be polluted, and the divine excellence abides in its sacrament, whether to the salvation of those who use it right, or to the destruction of those who use it wrong. . . . They whom a drunkard baptized, or those whom an adulterer baptized, if it were the baptism of Christ, were baptized by Christ. . . . Jesus, therefore, is still baptizing; and so long as we continue to be baptized, Jesus baptizes. Let a man come without fear to the minister below; for he has a Master above. . . . Quiet Time and Then Discussion Questions for Meditation 1. Do I realize and worship Christ’s presence in the sacraments? Prayer O Lord Jesus, You have come to be with our fallen race so that we may be saved. You have never left us. You are with us in the poor and suffering. We see Your presence as Word of God in the beauty of the sky and the earth. But most of all You are with us in the sacraments. Give us Your Holy Spirit that we may recognize and be glad in Your presence. Amen. |