Sacraments are sacred components of Catholic Church. Without
Them, we cannot live as devoted Catholics. As I read Chapter 1, I was reminded
of what my Religion class talked about when we were studying Sacraments. As I
had taught and read, there are three groups of Sacraments: Initiation (Baptism,
Eucharist, Confirmation), Healing (Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick), and
Service of Communion (Matrimony, Holy Orders). Council of Florence excellently details
how these Sacraments were grouped. In Initiation Sacraments, we are reborn in
Christ, strengthened in faith and grace, and nourished by Jesus’s Body and
Blood. With Healing Sacraments, we become healthy spiritually in
Reconciliation, and healthy physically in Anointing of the Sick. In Matrimony
and Holy Orders we serve the Church by growing the Church physically or governing
the Church (Johnson 11-12). Through these Sacraments we grow closer to God, and
our Church is able to flourish and continue. In this blog I am going to focus
on the early foundations and opinions of the Sacraments, ending with Luther and
Calvin.
If the priest who is giving Sacraments is wicked – are those
Sacrament still valid for us? St. Augustine answers when discussing Baptism. He
writes that the Baptism is inherently holy despite the wickedness of the
minister or the recipient. The recipient receives “the holiness of the
mystery…(and) the remission of sins” if he is in good standing with the Church
(Johnson 3). No matter what, as long as the recipient is holy, he is still
reborn. St. Thomas Aquinas writes that if an evil minister administers the
Sacrament, it is still holy because power of the Sacrament comes from God, and
it is God who confers the Sacrament (Johnson 10). As I understand, these Sacraments come from
Jesus Christ, who acts in the person of the priest.
I know several Protestants who don’t believe in
Reconciliation because they feel that we should only need to confess our sins
to God. Therefore I found it intriguing that Martin Luther –Leader of the
Reformation and a Founder of Protestants –included Penance (Reconciliation) as
one of three Sacraments he found valid. He felt Penance valid because of the
evidence he found in the Scriptures, he did not consider the other Sacraments
true because of the lack of spiritual evidence (Johnson 14). Luther sets the
foundation for a future Reformation leader in John Calvin, who wrote that
Sacraments could only fulfill their role if Spirit was moved inside of us. If
we did not feel God’s power and love through the Sacraments, then the
Sacraments “accomplish nothing more in our eyes than the splendor of the sun
shining upon our eyes, or a voice sounding in deaf ears” (Johnson 18). In fact, in most cases, the Sacraments do little
for the believers (Johnson 19). Essentially, the Sacraments do not matter if we
do not take them seriously.
I wrote about foundation of the Sacraments because to
understand how Catholics view the Sacraments we must understand the foundation.
It was fascinating to read the beliefs of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas,
Luther, and Calvin. As I’ve taught my students, we must be aware of God’s
presence in the Sacraments. Through prayer – whether it is the Liturgy of the
Hours or Rosary – we grow in our faith. When we grow in our faith, we can fully
receive the Sacraments, thereby fully understanding God and Jesus’s role. When
we understand God’s role and His calling for us, we can be saved.
Growing up Catholic, I have looked at sacraments as important milestones or rites of passage but have not considered their historical origins. It was interesting to read the historical perspective of the sacraments from the Jewish sacraments of circumcision and Passover to the multiple Christian sacraments including those that are no longer considered as sacraments such as genuflecting, reciting the Lord’s prayer and reciting the creed. There are obvious differences in what is considered sacramental based on the times and religious sect. Most agree that Baptism and Eucharist are sacraments. So the big question is what makes a sacrament a sacrament? Augustine of Hippo said a sacrament is word joined to element, or a visible word. Hugh St. Victor’s describes sacraments as having three parts. It has to be similar to the thing itself of which it is a sacrament, it has to be recognized and ordered by an institution to signify this and it must contain and invisible and spiritual grace. I agree with Jacque’s conclusion that there is an important fourth component. Sacraments have little meaning if we do not believe them to contain grace to be used to become closer to Christ. Personally and in my respect to my interest of spiritual direction our presence to the sacraments is vital. While the sacrament can be conferred upon us, it is up to the individual to recognize the link of sacrament to Jesus through the Word and the unifying element that resides in it. As Augustine said, “so that all of this may help us, beloved, not to eat the flesh and blood of Christ merely in the sacrament, as many of the wicked do, but to eat and drink in order to participate in the Spirit.” The sacraments are a gift to us, a visible sign of God’s grace but if not believed and used to be in closer union with Christ is a wasted opportunity.
ReplyDeleteTwo other points in Johnson stood out to me. I found the section by Immanuel Kant based on the period of the Enlightenment to be uncomfortable to read as he described the sacrament, religion and faith in general as artificial self-deceptions. I readily accept other faiths and spiritual practices as valid because I see them as spirit led. The absence of faith or rather the substitution of reason for faith is uncomfortable to me. I will have to look at this discomfort prayerfully (ironically).
The other point that I found interesting and new to me was feminist theology and especially the point made by Susan Ross, in which she said “a woman’s sense of ambiguity… and tendency to identify with the other are closer to the heart of Christian sacramentality than the strict separations that have become pervasive in much sacramental theology and practice.” (34) As I was walking down the hall at work on Friday I heard a woman proclaim, “I don’t think like that, I am gray, gray, not black and white”. I would like to read more about this.
As a Baptist, the area of sacraments is where we will have to 'agree to disagree' with our Catholic brothers and sisters! As I read through the history of sacraments in the lesson, so many memories flooded back to me. Most of my Catholic upbringing happened in the time before much of Vatican II had begun to filter down to the local churches. I remember sacraments being more like those described by Thomas Aquinas (p. 9), "...Sacraments are necessary unto man's salvation for three reasons..." I had to go to confession if I missed a Sunday Mass. It was refreshing to read Searle's contemporary sacramental theology:
ReplyDelete"What began as a recovery of the ecclesial dimension of the sacraments quickly led to further shifts: from speaking of sacraments as "means of grace" to speaking of them as encounters with Christ himself; from thinking of them primarily as acts of God to thinking of them mainly as celebrations of the faith community; from seeing sacraments as momentary incursions from another world to seeing them as manifestations of the graced character of all human life; from interpreting them as remedies for sin and weakness to seeing them as promoting growth in Christ" (p. 29).
Baptists are really double protestants - they did not believe Martin Luther went far enough when he protested the Catholic church's teachings. So, in effect, they protested the first Protestants! Included in the separation is the belief that there are no sacraments at all. We do celebrate Baptism and the Lord's Supper, however, as memorials only, not sacraments. I think Baptists could live with Searle's definition - if we could find a new word to call them! Personally, I like the early church's use of a community meal and the breaking of bread done "consciously in remembrance and acknowledgment of Jesus' companionship" and in celebrating "their fellowship with one another and with God" described in Vondey's "People of the Bread" (177). I believe all Christians, regardless of church affiliation, could use more encounters with Christ and more celebrations together!
As a cradle Catholic, the sacraments have always been something that I’ve looked forward to receiving in my life; they were part of growing up Catholic. Reared in Catholic schools, I understood the definition of sacrament to be as Augustine describes it, “the sacrament is the visible form of invisible grace” (Johnson, 7). Of course, I do not remember being baptized as an infant but when I made my first communion, I understood that when I received Jesus in the form of Eucharist at Mass I was receiving Jesus – both into my mouth (the bread) and into my heart (the grace), and saying yes to following Jesus all of my life. Some of my non-religious friends think that all of the “hoopla” leading up to receiving Jesus in Eucharist and the ceremonial “signs” the oil and invocations, the pretty white dresses on the little girls is over the top. But, I know for me, the “hoopla” as they call it was the pinnacle of years of longing to receive Jesus in a visible, sacramental way, and months of preparation and prayer leading up to the special, sacred event. My granddaughter will be making her First Communion in May and she has been anticipating it for years. She is beyond excited about finally being able to receive the “real presence,” the body of Christ. Peter Lombard speaks of the form of bread and wine as “the sign of a sacred thing, because it calls something to mind beyond the appearance which it presents to the senses” (7). When we receive Holy Communion we are uniting ourselves with the Lord’s sacrifice to the Father. Lombard asserts, “the sacrament of the Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments” (10).
ReplyDeleteAs I matured in age and in my faith walk, when I received other sacraments, (confirmation, matrimony, anointing of the sick), I felt as if I was drawn deeper into fellowship with the people of sacred scripture, with my church community (the body of believers), and the institution that is the Catholic Church, and with Jesus. With each visible sign I was offering my “yes” to union with God, with Jesus and with the church.
Jesus was a faithful Jew who followed many of the traditions and customs of his Jewish faith. My studies in the LIM program has greatly helped me to understand the roots of my own Catholic faith. Johnson does a wonderful job in chapter one of guiding us through historical documents to the roots of the development of the seven sacraments. The sacraments and the traditions of my Catholic faith enhance my relationship with God. Each time I receive the Eucharist, I am renewed in body and spirit and drawn anew into service for our Lord. Vondey describes “Jesus’ fellowship of bread” (143), which “can be called sacramental that is, it served as both sign and means of God’s grace and salvation” (143). As members of the Church we must be as “self-giving” (151) as Jesus, “followers and imitators of Christ” (151).