Understanding the Sacraments

Christ’s paschal mystery—his suffering, death, and resurrection—brought salvation to the whole world. But for us the crucial question is this: How does the power of this saving mystery reach us, transform us into the image of Christ, and give us eternal life?

The short answer? Through the sacraments.

To understand this, we must begin with Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus’ words and actions during his earthly ministry anticipated the saving power of the paschal mystery. In these events Christ announced and prepared what he would give the church when all had been accomplished (John 19.30).

Following his resurrection and ascension, Christ is now present in and acts through the church. The church is the body of Christ, and he is its head (Ephesians 1:23).

For this reason the New Testament clearly teaches that the church “is the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:16). Furthermore, it is through the church that the manifold wisdom of God will be made known (Ephesians 3:10).

Thus the church, as the pillar and support of the truth, reflected on the saving words and deeds of Christ during his earthly ministry and identified seven as having a unique saving power:

• He himself was baptized by John in the Jordan, and he commanded his disciples to baptize new believers.
• He celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples and commanded them to celebrate it often.
• He commissioned and empowered his followers to continue his ministry. He healed the sick and forgave sinners.
• He affirmed that marriage was divinely instituted by God.
• He imparted to the Twelve a special power and authority to act in his name.

Over time the church, in her role as the pillar and support of the truth, came to recognize in these actions the seven sacraments:

• baptism
• Eucharist
• confirmation
• anointing of the sick
• reconciliation (confession)
• marriage
• and holy orders (ordination).

The first three—baptism, Eucharist, and confirmation—are called the sacraments of initiation because they introduce us into the life of God.

Reconciliation and anointing of the sick are the sacraments of healing—physical but especially spiritual. ‘

Marriage and holy orders are the sacraments of vocation.

These seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth (baptism) and increase (marriage and holy orders), healing (Eucharist, penance, and anointing of the sick), and mission (Eucharist, confirmation) to our life of faith.

The sacraments are the work of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” wrote St. Paul to the Ephesians, “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (1.3). The whole of God’s work, from the beginning until the end of time, is a blessing. His supreme blessing is the gift of his Son, through whom we share in the very life of the Trinity—“partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1.4), which is communicated to us through the sacraments.

Through the Holy Spirit the love of God is poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5), God’s first gift which contains all others.

In summary, we may say that Christ’s paschal mystery is made present in the church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the sacraments, for our sanctification, to the glory of the Father.

Every time a sacrament is celebrated according to the teaching and intention of the church, the recipient receives the very life and power of God—what the church calls grace.

Christ always acts in his sacraments to communicate the grace that is specific to each sacrament (e.g., the forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of reconciliation).

Although the sacraments are effective every time they are celebrated, their fruitfulness can vary. This is because the fruitfulness of the sacrament depends on the disposition of the one who receives it.

The sacraments bear fruit in our lives to the degree that we love God and seek to do his will, not ours. God’s grace is always communicated, but its fruitfulness in our lives depends on us.

St. Leo the Great, wrote, “What was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries [sacraments].”

Today Christ continues the same saving words and works that are so wonderfully depicted in the Gospels: granting new life, healing, forgiving, blessing, and empowering.

Through the sacraments we receive the salvation Christ accomplished for us in his paschal mystery. Through them we encounter the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, so that we might be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3.19).

Father Randy Stice
Director, Office of Worship and Liturgy