Author: mschoeni

Can you list the seven sacraments? Sometimes I have to sing a little song my mom taught me to remember them all: Baptism, Reconciliation, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. These sacraments are worth more than just memorizing or recalling  the matter and form for each. The sacramental life of the Church is more than just a requirement for every Catholic; each sacrament is a living organ that sustains the Church as the glorified Mystical Body of Christ. To receive a sacrament is to receive the living Body of Christ and grow in closer union with Him. Before the specific sacrament of Penance will be examined, let us take a closer glimpse into the fullness of the Church and the sacraments. 

Entrusted to the Apostles, the Church was instituted through the suffering side of Christ while He was suspended on the Cross for the sake of humanity. The Incarnation is a miracle not only in the sense of the primordial act of salvation in Christ’s sacrifice but also in the humanity of the Church. As Christ’s whole life is an efficacious sign to the union of the two loves, human and divine, Christ is the ultimate mediator between God and man. The possibility for divinization had been lost but Christ as the ultimate Priest is willing to sacrifice Himself on behalf of humanity. Colman O’Neill puts it well in that “united to Christ by the Spirit we have access to the Father. We participate in the heavenly liturgy conducted by Christ now that he has passed wholly beyond the veil, bearing his blood” (28). Christ’s offering does not just end with His suffering and death but with the glorification of His Body with the Father and the Holy Spirit in Heaven. 

So, Christ’s glorified body is the Church? But, what does this have to do with the sacraments? Wouldn’t the idea that we are all Christ’s body lessen the need for the sacraments since we should just have grace in the faith that Christ gave Himself for us? Remember what is important is the Incarnation: Christ’s humanity allows for the contact for the Trintarian divinity. In the same way, the sacraments are essential points of contact with the Risen Lord to heal and restore our fallen nature. Christ’s ultimate sacrifice opens this up (justification), which we are called to believe, but the sacraments are the instruments throughout our lives in their materiality that gives us bodily contact with Him (sanctification). O’Neill resounds this thought: “this union in love could not remain interior, wholly spiritualized in Christ for he was truly man, come among men; and human action, human communication, must be in and through a body” (13). Each sacrament has a unique point of contact and sustenance to the life of the Christian. And being each an instrument of sanctifying grace in the mystery that the sacrament is, it is a moment where the human person is being transformed into an instrument while being moved by the Divine Mover. Let’s now examine, in a specific way, that we are united to Christ through the Sacrament of Penance.

The sheer idea of confession is often nerve-racking to any Christian – sitting in a small room with a priest that may or may not be known to you, revealing ugly, intimate secrets that you are ashamed to express out loud. But as fallen humans, even after the purifying grace of Baptism, sin continues to wound our identity as children of God and the necessity of Penance is an interior conversion back to the life of grace with the Risen Christ. But, as each sacrament is a visible and material encounter with the Risen Christ, Penance has a unique external participation in the Body of Christ. Unlike the other sacraments with clearly defined elevated symbols, the matter of Penance is a little more confusing. For the visible sacrament, “the external rite is composed of the penitent’s profession of sorrow for the sins confessed and the minister’s words of absolution” (260). These ‘words’ of the penitent are the matter because they reflect the internal reality of conversion that is occurring through the contrition of the penitent. Justification for the wound of sin is only accomplished through the saving act of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. But, through the cooperation of sanctification on the act of humanity, Penance invites the baptized person into the sorrow of Christ in His suffering for fallen humanity. It is the material saying of ‘I have sinned against You and my fellow man’ that leaves room for the sacramental grace to act. And while perfect contrition (sorrow for sin) through the pure love of God is what the penitent should strive for, only attrition (fear of Hell) is required for the sorrow of the sacrament.

Now, a genuine question resides in the possibility to achieve perfect contrition on this side of Heaven? If Christ, who is the Divine Mediator of man to God, bears true contrition through His human nature without sin, how are we, those baptized of the Church, capable of true contrition? This is where the beauty and mystery of the glorified Mystical Body of Christ merits sanctifying grace on behalf of the penitent who is open to receiving, simply having the intention of a turning back. Through the intermediate grace (res et sacramentum) of Penance, “it is God who, in His mercy, draws the sinner back to himself; but He does draw him, respecting the nature which He has given him” (260). The penitent is sorrowful for his actions, which in turn, brings man (not only the penitent) into physical contact with the merciful God. The wounds of sin can now become glorified through the unification of sorrow in Christ. The acceptance of sanctifying grace of the Giver can now be received to heal and restore relationship with the members of His Body. Through the paradoxical movement of true participation in sorrow, the penitent experiences glorified joy as an essential organ to reorder worship of the Trinity once again. The sacraments restore relationship through each material encounter, what a wondrous gift!

References from Colman E. O’Neill’s Meeting Christ in the Sacraments

What is the relationship between nature and grace? You must believe that God’s grace is real, especially if the sacraments are valid and within our earthly economy. God’s grace is also something that is a free and total gift, which the Creator gratuitously grants in abundance to His creation. But, if it is gift, there must also be a point in time where creation, that is nature, did not have grace. Maybe this was after the Paschal Mystery where the sacrifice of Christ was and still is the point of man’s salvation and restoration. If God has so graced the world in this way with the Incarnation, what is the purpose of the sacraments from the rest of creation? So, let’s delve deeper into the linkage between nature and grace, which Henri De Lubac offers excellent insights in his work, A Brief Catechesis on Nature and Grace.

Before probing the terminology and understanding of grace, De Lubac makes the distinction between the natural and the supernatural. Oftentimes, in our modern day culture, we view the supernatural as something similar to the movie Ghostbusters – a strange ghost or alien-like creature waiting to be sucked into the proton pack – or maybe an envisioning of a mysterious force or spirit that overtakes a human person. The supernatural, in this way, is depicted as something completely ‘other’.  However, De Lubac emphasizes that the supernatural is not simply just the ‘other’, but a raising of man for “it ‘dignifies’ man much more than these did; it raises him much higher still above the level of his own essence, since it is entirely out of proportion with that essence” (26). In the original state of our first parents, Adam and Eve, there was an original holiness and innocence possessed by these first humans that was inevitably lost through the Fall. Now, nature is seen as distorted, broken, lacking something that it doesn’t have since this moment in salvation history. If this is the case, then nature is living in a lack. In a particular relationship, nature is always pining for the supernatural to fill its infinite lack with the finite. So, is grace then synonymous with the supernatural?

Referring back to Henri De Lubac on the issue, he makes the specific distinction that the word ‘supernatural’ and ‘grace’ are not the same in restoring nature to fulfillment. The supernatural elevates nature to something greater than its essence but grace does something more as De Lubac notes something “much more radical” (119). With the consequences of the Fall, nature is not just simply different than before; it has been severed from its true telos in union with its Creator and with the rest of creation. Sin has now entered the scene and nature is no longer graced in sanctification as before. So, nature’s relationship with grace is one of metanoia: of total conversion to the divinity, which is violent and radical. As De Lubac expounds, “before [nature] can be ‘transfigured’, our sinful nature must first be ‘turned inside out’”, which is what sanctifying grace does (121). Living in a world that is increasingly complacent in selecting an objective truth, there has been a significant loss in the ‘wretchedness’ of the human condition. And if we recognize and remember that nature is sinful and in need of grace, the desire for a metanoia of body and soul will be inflamed. Within liturgical seasons of the Church, as the one present this spring, this flame is reignited with an understanding of our poverty and sinful nature to pine for God’s transformative, salvific love. 

This type of grace described is what is termed ‘sanctifying grace’, different than what you understand to be ‘actual grace’. The grace within creation could be viewed as ‘actual grace’ because if there is an effortful pondering of God, this grace guides us to good activity as a gift of the Holy Spirit because God makes creation good and it is still pining towards its Creator. But, living the sacramental life, God grants the human person ‘sanctifying grace’. Previously, the recognition of sin in the world distorts the reality of a truly good and graced creation. The essence of sin is that which is a lack, a deprivation of the good. De Lubac simplifies that “sin is not only a relative imperfection, but a rupture; not just a mistake, but a breaking away from God that divides man against himself” (130). And if this is true, this is the whole purpose of Christ’s Incarnation and Paschal Mystery – to save creation from the disruption from its Creator, a forgiveness enveloped in love and unity. Nature has always been predisposed to grace because of its woundedness in the severing of relationship with the Creator. Christ’s extending presence and salvific action lies within the preservation of the sacraments, which sources from Christ but are entrusted to His Bride, the Church. Each sacrament is a re-entrance into sanctifying grace, only bridged through the Divine Mediator, Christ. This is totally radical and necessary to the salvation of the human condition.

Nature, through the disruption of sin, is not simply full of grace. And, we as the Church, cannot live in a partial understanding that God is just in the world and He loves us just the way we are. That is the partial truth that diminishes and clouds our full understanding of the sacraments. We only come to know the fullness of His love and grace through the depravity of our sinfulness, which the sacraments heal. Humans cannot just live in an indifference of divinization or in a determination of self-reliance to overthrow the sinful, flawed nature of man. Man embodies a desire for liberation, “which consists in getting rid of the limitations of the human condition” but “cannot be satisfied outside of achieving the status of the divinity” (172). The simple relationship between nature and grace can be defined in St. Athanasius’ simple explanation of the Incarnation: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God”. The grace of the sacraments offer this divinization to the rest of creation, safeguarding the forgiveness and gratuity of God, who longs to be communion again with His creation.

Quotations from Henri De Lubac’s A Brief Catechesis on Nature and Grace

Congratulations on newly entering the Body of Christ this past Easter Vigil! But, you might be wondering with all this preparation and understanding of who Jesus Christ is and how His Church spreads His word and lives out His incarnation in charity, what do the sacraments I received now mean for the rest of my life? Let’s delve into the biblical meaning of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist to comprehend how these sacraments orient us to union with God in sanctifying grace.

Back in the fourth and fifth centuries of Christianity, the process of the catechumenate was significantly longer than what you all just experienced nine months before. Each person desiring to enter the Church had to embark on a three year preparation to receive the Sacraments of Initiation. Yes, this is very long but in order to receive all three of these sacraments, they needed to accept a radical change of life. As will be demonstrated through the rest of my talk, the foundation of the sacraments comes from salvation history, which allows all who receive the sacraments to partake in the all-inclusive narrative of salvation history today. So, what is the main narrative we enter into as Catholics?

The sacraments allow us to come back into a Divine Romance with God, who created all creation and humanity as His beloved. If we view the sacraments like this, the order and orientation of the Sacraments of Initiation become clear. As Jean Daniélou quotes from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “‘If your wedding day were approaching, would you not leave everything else and devote yourself entirely to preparing for the feast? You are about to consecrate your soul to her heavenly Bridegroom’” (23). You have now been immersed in a Divine Romance with God through the sacraments, so examine Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist to clarify how this unfolds. 

Since the time of the Church Fathers, the proper way to read and scrutinize Scripture was to read through typology, which follows a symbol or action in an earlier story and notice later how this symbol or action appears again and holds deeper significance pointing to, in our case, the sacraments. 

The sacrament of Baptism washes away Original Sin and brings us into spiritual adoption with the Trinity. The former points back to the Church Fathers with the image of stripping away the ‘old man’ and putting on new garments. What is the ‘old man’? It is referring to the state of Adam and Eve after the Fall, specifically in their action to cover their nakedness with leaves. This first covering of their original nakedness is the tunic that separates man from God. With the physical stripping, “this baptismal nakedness signified not only a stripping off of mortality, but also a return to primitive innocence”, a restoration to the original holiness between man and His Creator (39). And immediately following, there is a ‘new garment’ placed on the baptized – sometimes physical white garments but more deeply the anointing of the chrism oil. The tangible mark or seal, as it is sometimes called, of the chrism oil was called the sphragis in the early Church centuries. Continuing further in salvation history, the idea of Jewish circumcision, beginning in the days of Abraham, correlates with the sphragis as God’s adopted. Just as Israel is God’s chosen people with the circumcision, “Baptism is the seal of the new alliance, and of incorporation into the new Israel” (63). Then, typological references throughout the Old Testament with washing and entering into a new life through the Great Deluge with Noah, the Crossing of the Red Sea with Moses, and figures washing in the Jordan from Naaman to Christ in the New Testament. The signifying actions of Baptism are reinforced over and over in the Bible.

For the sacrament of Confirmation, which in our Western world is little known about, it strengthens the soul from becoming the ‘new man’ in Baptism to maturing and receiving the Holy Spirit to become the ‘perfect man’ for the eternal Bridegroom. Looking back at the chrism oil of Baptism, the oil of Confirmation was called the muron. Within Confirmation, there is a laying on of hands, an anointing of the candidate. Where else is anointing seen in Scripture? Moses, by his brother Aaron, receives a laying on of hands after crossing the Red Sea and Peter, as the first Pope, receives and gives a laying on of hands as the visible head of the universal Church (117). Just with these two examples, these men received the muron as a strengthening of the grace needed to carry on their mission, which were pivotal roles in salvation history. Therefore, confirmation is not simply a congratulation for receiving Baptism and now you are old enough to graduate. But, “in Confirmation there takes place a new outpouring of the Spirit having for its object to bring to perfection the spiritual energies called forth in the soul by Baptism” (119). Inching closer to the Bridegroom, confirmation opens the heart to pursue the Lord fully in the Christian life.

As the source and summit of the Christian faith, the sacrament of the Eucharist gives us daily the sanctifying grace to be in union with God as the Eternal Bridegroom. The nourishment of bread is scattering in typology through the Old Testament with examples of the high priest Melchseidech offering bread to God and the sustenance of the Israelites with the manna in the desert. Bread as a type of sustenance for the people of God was known but how does this transition to the importance of the Eucharist for entering into intimacy with God as the Bridegroom? 

With the Paschal Mystery that we just celebrated and are still rejoicing in the Easter season, Christ offers Himself as the Paschal Lamb. Following this theme of a seal or physical anointing, Christ as the Passover Lamb grants “the blood as a sign is the mystery (mysterion) in blood of the seal (sphragis)” (164). This sacrificial offering is offered in the present moment with the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is now a joining of types in the reception of bread and wine as sustenance from before but now elevates in a meaning of receiving Christ’s Body and Blood. And if Baptism was the marking of the seal (sphragis) as adopted and Confirmation is the strengthening of the Holy Spirit with the anointing (muron) as the perfected man, the blood of the New Covenant is now the seal of intimacy with God. 

The partaking of the Eucharist is an entering into communion with God as the closest union within humanity; this understanding of bride and Bridegroom. God the Lover has placed a seal on your heart since Baptism. Jean Daniélou says it well: “the Eucharistic communion in which the Body of Christ is placed on the lips of the baptized who has been purified from his sins, is truly the kiss given by Christ to the soul, the expression of the union of love which He has contracted with her” (205). The Bridegroom imagery is so integral to how we should view the Sacraments of Initiation. You have embarked on a lifelong relationship with God, who now after receiving the Eucharist, you have entered into a Divine Romance with.

The Sacraments of Initiation have given you the grace to enter back into right relationship with God. They are more than just rites of passage. Jean Daniélou explains that “the true meaning of the sacramental mystery appears, beyond the veil of the rites. It is the mystery of the love of God for the soul, arousing the love of the soul for God. Through these symbols, which seem to take us further away from the literal meaning of the sacraments, their deepest truth is unveiled to our eyes” (201). Throughout the rest of your life now as a child of God, you have the grace to delve deeper into the beauty of the mystery of God as a Lover.

Quotations from Jean Daniélou’s The Bible and the Liturgy