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SACRAMENTS
Origin

MYSTERIUM - They refer to those rites or hidden realities found in the

ancient near east religions

In ancient Roman Times

– SACRAMENTUM à a sacred pledge of sincerity or fidelity
à publicly symbolized by:
a. Deposit of money
b. Oath of allegiance – covenant making
- a compromise with sanction

Tertullian (an apologist)

- The first known Christian to have called baptism a “sacrament” in the
early third century
- underscoring the importance of the renunciation of Satan and the
commitment to Christian discipleship

Sacraments in the Ancient Church

- Sacramentum (a generic term) could be applied to anything that signifies a

Christian mystery (prayers, rites and practices)

 St. Augustine (the bishop of Hippo in North Africa – 430 AD)

SACRAMENTS
 a sign (image, symbol, expression) of something sacred; a
visible sign of invisible grace.

 Its rite, the sacrament is made up of two essential parts:

a material component and a spoken word of consecration and conferral
dealing especially with sacraments of Baptism and Marriage

Pope Innocent I
- referred to both the Eucharistic bread and wine and consecrated oil as
sacraments.
- But still, at that time, “sacrament” could be used to designate any ecclesiastical
ritual or symbolic elements within them.

 Sacraments in the Middle Ages

- Distinction was made between the Sacraments and Sacramentals

a. Sacraments should be used for only those seven rites instituted by Christ in
which God is offering us grace and life through the rite itself.

b. Sacramentals should refer to other prayers and actions that are principally
occasions for our personal devotion and prayer.

Sacramentals (CFC 1532-34)

a. instituted by the Church

b. continue the work of the sacraments – extending or prolonging the sacraments
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c. work together with the sacraments (Sacrosanctum Consilium – Constitution
of the Sacred Liturgy, 1963, 61)
d. Most manifest in the Filipinos’ popular religiosity (blessings, actions, words,
objects, places, and liturgical seasons)

Sacraments in the Era of Reformation ( 16th century)

 Martin Luther (1546) and John Calvin (1564)

a. considered only two sacraments, Baptism and Holy Eucharist

b. for they are instituted and ordained by Christ as trustworthy signs and
means of grace.

 Council of Trent (1545-62)

a. asserted that there are in fact seven sacraments

b. reaffirmed that they are -- not simply stimulants to our weak Faith,
-- but are the means by which God confers upon the
devout recipient His gift of grace and new life.
c. strongly affirmed the importance of the sacraments against Protestant
tendency to greatly subordinate them to preached sermon.

 For Christians, the point of “sacramental encounter” (mediating

principle) with God is …

1. The HUMANITY OF CHRIST (the Primordial Sacrament)

“The humanness of Jesus is the context in which the sacraments find their
meaning.”
(Methodology and the Christian Sacraments by Kenan B. Osborne)

“That man Jesus, as the personal visible realization of the divine grace of
redemption, is the sacrament, the primordial sacrament, because this man, the
Son of God himself, is intended by the Father to be in his humanity the only way
to the actuality of redemption.”
(Christ, the Sacrament of the Encounter with God by Schillebeeckx)

2. Through the CHURCH (the Fundamental Sacrament- by which God both

reveals in sign and effects in action the unity of all mankind – the continuation of
Christ’s Incarnation)

When we ask for whom Christ is a sacrament and for whom the Church is a
sacrament, the answer would seem to be : FOR ALL MANKIND

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

Time of Reformation until Renewal

1. Concentrated too much on the causality of sacraments and too little on their
role as signs
2. They failed to grasp the meaning of words and rituals esp. that of the Holy
Eucharist.
3. The idea is that so long as the four elements are present:
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a. authorized minister
b. prescribed matter
c. prescribed form
d. properly disposed recipient

St. Thomas Aquinas

1. Stated that sacraments cause grace insofar as they signify it (efficacious

sign of grace)
2. In using the sign, we:
a. are instructed and called to mind the reality it signify
b. express our FAITH in the unseen reality hidden underneath the sign.
3. Sacraments, therefore are SIGNS which:
a. proclaim faith.
b. express worship
- through the sacraments, we participate ritually through signs in
Christ’s worship of the Father).
c. manifest the unity of the Church
- insofar as the celebrants (recipient, minister and congregation)
have a common faith in what they do and in whom they encounter
through what they do.
d. signify Christ’s presence and ultimately that of God the Father

CAUSES OF GRACE

the efficacy of the sacraments

1. are neither due to holiness of the minister( Council of Constance and

Trent)nor the faith of the recipient
2. but to the working of the Holy Spirit

Council of Trent

1. The grace of the sacrament is caused not by human forces but by God
acting in and through Christ and the Church
2. The saving grace of Christ is not merited but a pure gift of God
3. It is not the personal merit of the recipient that causes the grace
received but on the other hand, God does not force the human will.

Misconception:
 So long as there is no moral obstacle (mortal sin), the
sacraments work.
 They disregarded the measure of preparation, intensity of
faith and awareness of sign’s meaning.

St. Thomas Aquinas

1. never used “not placing obstacle”

2. referred to the sign of the sacrament to dispose one perfectly for

receiving the sacramental grace.

3. spoke of right disposition à ex opere operantis (from the work of the

worker)
- There is still a need to freely give our yes or no to God.
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- Sacraments are free acts of God and free acts of ours.
- They work only to the extent that we bring faith and devotion to them.

EFFECTS OF GRACE

= The sacraments do not cause grace in the sense that the redemptive grace in
Jesus Christ is otherwise unavailable.

= The offer of grace is already present to all of us.

= What then is the use of sacraments?

Sacraments

1. shape and focus that communication of grace so that the divine presence
may be effective for an individual, a group insofar they are members of the
church and responsible for their mission.

2. signify, celebrate and effect what God is, in a sense already doing
everywhere and for all.

3. In it, there is the …

a. SIGN (sacramentum tantum) – rite/ outward sign
b. GRACE (res tantum) – immediate effect
c. LASTING EFFECT (res et sacramentum) – Hugh of St. Victor and
Peter Lombard vs. Protestants’ concept of the Holy Eucharist

INTENTION OF THE MINISTER AND OF THE RECIPIENT

Minister

1. represents the Church and the acts in her name (Council of Florence and
Trent).

2. acts in the name of Christ.

3. must carry the intention of the Church or what the Church intends before
the sacramental act takes its effect.

Recipient

1. Fruitful reception of the sacrament depends on the disposition of the

recipient (faith, conversion, devotion).

2. The sacraments (acts of the Church) are not magic.

3. If a sacrament is received with mortal sin, it is validly received but the

grace is not communicated until perfect contrition occurs.
- reorientation of one’s life to what is good and just

“a good person receives the sacrament and the reality of the sacrament, a bad
person receives the sacrament but not the reality of the sacrament.”
(St. Augustine)
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4. The very act of celebrating the sacraments must effectively disposes
the faithful to receive the grace in a fruitful manner.

Catholicism
- never hesitated to affirm the “mysterious” dimension in all reality (cosmos, nature,
history, events, persons, objects, words etc)
- closest word to sacrament in the New Testament = MYSTERION
_________‖_________
‖ ‖
Mysterium Sacramentum
- occult - visible
= to mediate the reality which is invisible,
use visible signs

Principle = “Everything is capable of embodying and communicating the Divine”

- There is no finite instrument that God cannot put to use
- But we humans have nothing else than finite instruments to express our response to
God’s communication

Catholicism
- emphasized the notion of Peoplehood and of the Church
‖
- mediating principle
‖
- God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God
is not exclusive or individual but corporate and communal

- therefore, those points of encounter between God and humankind are never simply
transactions between the Divine and this/that person
- God touches all of humankind, and humankind as well responds through sacramental
mode
- That is why, sacraments are categorized as Liturgy
‖
- public worship of the church

LITURGY
- From Greek word “ergos” and “leiton”(adj of laos)
‖ ‖
- work -people
- Hellenistic culture = public work/activity
Liturgy
- in Christian tradition, it signifies that the People of God took part in the mission or work of
God
‖
- priestly action of Jesus Christ continued in and through the church
under the impulse of the Holy Spirit

Sacramental Mode – in its widest sense ------

‖
- applies to any finite reality through which the divine
is perceived to be disclosed and communicated, and
through which our human response to the divine assumes
some measure of shape, form and structure

- in specific sense ---------

‖
- refers to those finite realities through which God is
communicated to the church, and through which the
Church responds
‖
- why the CHURCH?
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‖
- because the sacraments are directly ecclesiological
in character
- the immediate context of the sacraments is the church

Seven Sacraments = acts of God = acts of Christ

= but they are immediately acts of the church
‖
- expressions of the mission and
nature of the church
‖
- through which the church
manifest itself as a church

= therefore, the 7 are not simply actions which the

Church performs or means by which the church makes
grace available.

Sacraments = immediately relate the recipient to the church

Example: Sacrament of Reconciliation

- immediate purpose – not to reconcile with God but with the church
- the penitent – who makes an act of perfect contrition (restores
union with God) is still required to seek forgiveness in the
sacrament because his/her serious sin compromises the mission of
the church to be a holy people = he/she has to make-up with the
church
- not only God is offended = the church has also been violated

= yes, it is Christ who acts in the sacraments (or else it wont effect
grace) and that their fullest expression is in Christ = He do the
sacraments (he baptize, baptized etc.)
= but we do not encounter Christ directly but in and through the
Church
= Although Jesus Christ is present and active in every sacramental
celebration, the church makes that celebration available which
mediates our Lords presence and saving actions