The Seven Sacraments — Common Doctrine

By DON FIER

During the course of our consideration of the work of the Most Holy Trinity in the Church’s liturgy over the past four weeks, we ended by examining how the Holy Spirit recalls and manifests Christ to the assembly, makes present and active Christ’s saving work, and unites members of the liturgical assembly to Christ as their Head so they might “bear much fruit” (John 15:8, 16).
We saw that when the Holy Spirit finds in the faithful “the response of faith which He has aroused,…He brings about genuine cooperation…[and] the liturgy becomes the common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 1091).
As beautifully summarized by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, the Holy Spirit enlightens the minds of the faithful to understand the words of the liturgy and awakens in their hearts the events that the liturgy commemorates; He actualizes the mystery of Christ by making the liturgy the source of His grace; and He produces the spiritual union (the “communion of the Holy Spirit”) between Christ and His people.
In other words, as Soul of the Mystical Body, He invigorates us with supernatural life and makes us heirs of Heaven and children of God (cf. The Faith, p. 104).
At this juncture, the Catechism delves into the seven sacraments, those divinely instituted channels of grace which God provided for mankind that enable us to attain the ultimate end for which we were created: eternal heavenly beatitude.
So important are the sacraments that Fr. Kenneth Baker, SJ, unhesitatingly affirms in the first paragraph on this topic in volume three of his Fundamentals of Catholicism (FoC-3): “The whole life of the Church takes place in and through the sacraments of the New Covenant. Without the sacraments there would be no Church, no Christian community, no direct, certain contact with the healing and sanctifying power of almighty God” (p. 163).
“The whole liturgical life of the Church,” teaches the Catechism, “revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments” (CCC, n. 1113).
The Catechism divides its treatment of the sacraments into three sections: first, the doctrine that is common to all seven sacraments (CCC, nn. 1114-1134); second, the elements that are common to each in terms of their liturgical celebration (CCC, nn. 1135-1209); and third, the distinctive elements of each individual sacrament, examined in detail, in what is by far the longest section of Part Two of the Catechism (CCC, nn. 1210-1666).
Before continuing, a review of the etymology of the word “sacrament” would be helpful. [Note: This topic was covered more extensively when we considered the Church as “the universal sacrament of salvation” (see volume 147, n. 30; July 24, 2104).] The origin of “sacrament” is from the Latin sacramentum (“oath” or “solemn obligation”), which translates from the Greek mysterion (“secret” or “hidden”). Mysterium has the further meaning of a sign or symbol of some divine reality.
As noted by Fr. Baker, when St. Jerome translated the Greek New Testament to Latin (i.e., the Vulgate) in the late-fourth century, he chose the Latin word sacramentum as the proper and exact rendition of the Greek word mysterion (cf. FoC-3, p. 164).
What, then, is a sacrament and what are its essential elements? “The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions” (CCC, n. 1131).
From this definition, it can be seen that the three basic elements that constitute a sacrament in the Church are: 1) institution by Christ; 2) an outward or sensible sign; and 3) a corresponding inward or invisible grace.
The Catechism first addresses the institution of the sacraments by citing a quotation from Session VII of the Council of Trent: “If anyone shall say that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, or that there are more or less than seven, namely baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order, and matrimony, or even that anyone of these seven is not truly and strictly speaking a sacrament: let him be anathema” (Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n. 1601; as cited in CCC, n. 1114).
In other words, the Church did not invent the seven sacraments; rather, as dogmatically proclaimed at Trent, they were received from the God-man, Jesus Christ. However, as noted by Fr. Baker, “It was not until the twelfth century that the Catholic theologians succeeded in formulating the definition of a sacrament — the definition that most Catholics now living were taught from childhood or learned at their first instruction” (FoC-3, p. 165). Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it was at this providential time in history that the Church’s Magisterium was able to come to a clear notion of the nature of a sacrament.
It was only then that the Church was able to prudentially examine her history and pastoral practice over the centuries and determine that “there are only seven official acts of the Church that fulfilled that definition” (ibid.).
The Church, of course, has always administered the seven sacraments, but there was speculation on whether other “holy acts” might be construed to be sacraments. Fr. Baker mentions that one theologian listed as many as 18, including such actions as reading Sacred Scripture, taking vows, or even fasting or going on pilgrimage.
In an excellent little study guide entitled Understanding the Sacraments (UtS), Fr. Peter Stravinskas cautions against two extremes in trying to come to an intelligent and truly Catholic understanding of the sacraments as instituted by Christ:
“The first is a rather naive and biblically indefensible position that holds that our Lord during his earthly lifetime established each of the seven sacraments with their precise matter and form. The second is a rationalistic approach that proposes that the Church’s sacramental system is a mere ecclesiastical invention only remotely connected to the will of the Church’s founder” (p. 4).
Why are there seven sacraments? A certain fittingness can be seen in that the sacraments “touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, Q. 65, art. 1)” (CCC, n. 1210). In other words, there is a striking resemblance between the stages of the natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.
Just as an infant is born into the world in the natural realm, the Sacrament of Baptism is necessary (as the result of original sin) to give spiritual birth. Likewise, just as a child must grow and gain strength in order to survive and mature physically, so too must his soul receive the grace of Confirmation to grow in virtue and advance into spiritual adulthood. Similarly, just as the physical body needs food and nourishment to remain in good health, the soul needs the spiritual nourishment of the Eucharist as its food and life.
When the physical body is injured or succumbs to illness, a physician and remedies are necessary to restore a person to health. Due to our fallen nature and the many spiritual diseases to which we are subject, we also need a spiritual physician in the Sacrament of Penance to free our soul of spiritual ailments.
Ultimately, when our time on Earth approaches its final hour, our body needs special comfort and assistance. Likewise, our soul needs the special help of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to withstand the Devil as he mounts his most furious attack, and to receive the necessary strength to peacefully depart this life in resignation to the holy will of God.
Just as secular society requires people in positions of power to lead and administrate, as well others to teach and instruct, so too does the Body of Christ, the Church. The People of God need men who are dedicated to preaching the Good News and administering the sacraments. The Sacrament of Holy Orders fulfills this need and enables the perpetuation of the spiritual life from generation to generation.

Special Graces Of Matrimony

Finally, society depends upon the Sacrament of Matrimony so that husbands and wives will be afforded the special graces necessary to raise children who will continue to promote the common good and build up the Kingdom of God on Earth in future generations.
Perhaps at no time in history have the sacramental graces of Holy Matrimony — faithfully lived out — been so essential as during this time of moral decay when traditional marriage and the family are under attack on so many fronts (cf. Fr. John Laux, Mass and the Sacraments, pp. 4-5).
The sacraments are as indispensable to the spiritual life of the Christian’s soul as the air he breathes and the blood that flows through his body are to his physical life. They “are ‘powers that come forth’ from the Body of Christ (cf. Luke 5:17; 6:19; 8:46), which are ever-living and life-giving, . . . [and] are ‘the masterworks of God’ in the new and everlasting covenant” (CCC, n. 1116).

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)