…The Sacraments are nothing short of “encounters” with Jesus. That is not to say that you cannot encounter Jesus yourself in everyday life. Of course, you can, and he tells us that you can. However, he also specifically tells us ways that we can experience a closeness to Him in different, deeper ways.
Jesus is present in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. These are not empty symbols of Jesus, but real encounters with him. The Sacraments are, quite literally, the most important things we can do. These are the ways that Jesus continues to be most active in our lives.
Grace obviously can be obtained outside of these Sacraments of the Catholic Church, there is no doctrine that claims exclusivity, however, Jesus Himself gave us these Sacraments to have an encounter with us. At the end of each description, we will show scripture pointing to it.
Sacraments of Christian Initiation
The first three Sacraments are called the “Sacraments of Christian Initiation”. These are to bring members into the Church, to heal them of their sins. These are encounters of gathering and healing.
Baptism
Meaning “to Plunge,” Baptism is the full immersion into the Church, and is the foundation of all other Sacraments. The prescient point here is that the Church is not some worldly affiliation that you join and unjoin. Upon Baptism, you enter “The Mystical Body of Christ.” Jesus was “incarnated” and took on human nature, then, upon the Ascension, He took upon a Mystical Body. Through Baptism, we enter into the same Mystical Body. There is no “un-Baptism”.
Christ is the head of the Mystical Body and after Baptism, we spend the rest of our lives finding our place in this Body. Think about when Paul (Saul then) encountered Christ on the road to Damascus. Jesus asked him “…why do you persecute ME?” But Paul was persecuting the followers at that time, not Jesus himself. This is a perfect indication of how Jesus enters into this Mystical Body with his followers.
We are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are “attached” to Christ, and therefore drawn into the interior life of God through Jesus.
When you enter Church, and you dip your fingers in the holy water and do the sign of the cross… this is to remind us of this… remind us specifically of our Baptism.
The baptized serve as priests through their sacrificial efforts to bring people to God. They serve as prophets through their witness to the truth in word and deed. And they serve as kings in their efforts to lead others—again through word and deed—to use their talents to advance the Kingdom of God.
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many.
If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.
1 Corinthians 12:12-18
Scripture for Baptism:
Jesus led by example when He was baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin John the Baptist. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” Matthew 3:13
As He ascended into heaven, Jesus instructed the apostles to baptize others. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19
He confirmed the importance of baptism when He said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ” John 3:5
The practice of baptizing infants began early in the church’s history, possibly during the time of the apostles, as the New Testament includes stories of whole households being baptized.
“One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshipper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized … ” Act 16:14-15
“I baptized the household of Stephanas also.” 1 Corinthians 1:16
Confirmation
“True Witnesses of Christ” is how the “Confirmed” are described by the Church. The Sacrament of Confirmation should be thought of as the middle of three encounters with Christ in the act of initiation into the Mystical Body of the Church. We are taking on those elements of priest, prophet, and king more strongly through our “confirmation” of baptized persons.
The confirmed are deemed to strengthen and defend the faith. A powerful description of those who are confirmed is that they become “soldiers of Christ.” They are meant to go on mission.
An excellent way to understand the relationship between Baptism and Confirmation is to look at the relationship between Easter and Pentecost. On Easter, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples. This is like Baptism. Now, a short time later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes very strongly and they are fortified. They become full of zeal and go on mission to spread the mission.
Scripture makes a clear distinction between the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
St. Philip, one of seven “servants” or deacons ordained in the early Church (Acts 6:3-6; see 1 Tim. 3:8-13)—and thus not St. Philip the apostle (Matt. 10:3)—baptizes various men and women in Samaria, including Simon, who previously practiced magic. However, Philip does not lay hands on the new Christians so that they can receive the Holy Spirit. Instead, he waits for the apostles, Sts. Peter and John, to confer this sacrament.
So, while Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), as Jesus directs, they receive the Holy Spirit in a different sacrament that confirms and strengthens their lives as believers.
The confirmed, then, take in the Holy Spirit in a strong manner. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are, according to Catholic Tradition: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. The standard interpretation has been the one that St. Thomas Aquinas worked out in the thirteenth century in his Summa Theologiae:
- Wisdom is both the knowledge of and judgment about “divine things” and the ability to judge and direct human affairs according to divine truth.
- Understanding is penetrating insight into the very heart of things, especially those higher truths that are necessary for our eternal salvation—in effect, the ability to “see” God.
- Counsel allows a man to be directed by God in matters necessary for his salvation.
- Fortitude denotes a firmness of mind in doing good and in avoiding evil, particularly when it is difficult or dangerous to do so, and the confidence to overcome all obstacles, even deadly ones, by virtue of the assurance of everlasting life.
- Knowledge is the ability to judge correctly about matters of faith and right action, so as to never wander from the straight path of justice.
- Piety is, principally, revering God with filial affection, paying worship and duty to God, paying due duty to all men on account of their relationship to God, and honoring the saints and not contradicting Scripture. The Latin word pietas denotes the reverence that we give to our father and to our country; since God is the Father of all, the worship of God is also called piety.
- Fear of God is, in this context, “filial” or chaste fear whereby we revere God and avoid separating ourselves from him—as opposed to “servile” fear, whereby we fear punishment.
Jesus Christ alone possesses these heroic qualities in their entirety, but He freely imparts them to the members of his mystical body (i.e., his Church). Each Christian is born with these qualities as a permanent endowment, which are then cultivated by engaging in the seven virtues and sealed during the sacrament of confirmation. They are also referred to as the sanctifying gifts of the Spirit because they help people become more holy and fit for heaven by making them docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in their life.
Scripture for Confirmation:
In confirmation, a baptized Christian is anointed with sacred chrism on the forehead. After the laying on of hands, the minister says, “be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In the Scriptures, baptism and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit often are linked, and the church teaches that confirmation completes the grace of baptism. “Not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5
After Pentecost, the apostles would lay their hands on newly baptized Christians, which bestowed upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” Acts 8:14-17
Eucharist
Please see the long-form topic on the Eucharist.
Sacraments of Healing
The Sacraments of Healing- Penance and Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick follow those of Initiation. As we are gathered in by initiation, the Sacraments of Healing provide us with the healing and renewal that we need to continue on mission. We all turn away from God through sin, and these Sacraments bring us back and cleanse our souls.
Penance and Reconciliation
Sin is veering away from “right praise.” We too often worship things like wealth, power, honor, and pleasure. To “Reconcile” literally means getting back “eyelash to eyelash”… a metaphor for getting back to our focus directly on God. Penance and Reconciliation are the most intimate means, established by Jesus, to get back on track and into “right praise”.
If you consider what Jesus is all about and why He came… it was to forgive our sins.
Contrition, Confession, Satisfaction. These are the primary elements of this Sacrament. Contrition means “crushed”. A sinner, should, feel crushed by his sins. This is being in the correct frame of mind and the first step for approaching confession. Unfortunately, the world we live in is controlled by relativism and other mechanisms that are meant to tell us that nothing is really our fault.
Confession is next, and the basic idea is that we confess our mortal sins that we committed since our last confession.
Satisfaction is penance for the one confessing. Sin always involves an injured party or injustice. It is important to do your best to fix the issue. If there is a practical way to resolve the sin, it must be done. Other ways of satisfaction are the common practice of assigning prayers to say.
Catholics are obligated to go to confession at least once a year.
Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes. The Catholic Church has for one of her chief duties that of preventing people from making those old mistakes; from making them over and over again forever, as people always do if they are left to themselves… There is no other case of one continuous intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years.
G.K. Chesterton
Scripture for Penance and Reconciliation:
During confession, penitents repent of their sins, tell their sins to the priest and then make reparation for their sins by performing a penance. With the authority of the church, the priest forgives sins in the name of Christ. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he instructed them to ask for forgiveness from God. “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” Luke 11:4
As He called his disciples, Jesus told them to repent. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” Mark 1:15
Only God can forgive sins, but Jesus entrusted the power to absolve sins to his apostles. “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’ ” John 20:21-23
After Christ’s ascension, the disciples go out to the world and carry on His ministry of reconciliation. “And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20
Anointing of the Sick
Jesus did not ignore the state of human suffering while in this world but entered into it directly. He sought out those who suffered and offered healing and consolation. We often reach times in our lives when we are basically helpless. At these moments, when we turn to God, are the most powerful in our spiritual lives.
In other Sacraments, this helplessness can be in the form of sin. Perhaps we just can’t escape a lifestyle or behavior that keeps us from God and need help to bring us back. Think of the Anointing of the Sick as the same dynamic, but when we are overcome, not by the sickness of sin, but the sickness of body, and we need help.
Following the Gospels, where Christ never stopped healing the sick, the Acts of the Apostles continued with continuous mentions of healing by the Apostles and disciples. To this day the Catholic Church has the largest hospital network in the world, among the many ministries for healing.
This Sacrament used to be only applied to those on their imminent “death bed”, but that has been clarified and adjusted to those that are in some sort of extreme sickness, but not necessarily on the verge of death.
The modern world is obsessed with even thinking about death. The Catholic view is quite the opposite. Death is just a passing through to our greater destination. The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is meant to be a helpful bridge on the way on our journey.
Liturgy of the Anointing:
Through this holy anointing
may the Lord in his love and mercy
help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord who frees you from sin
save you and raise you up.
Amen.
From the Holy Spirit comes the grace of comfort, and peace and courage are the effects of this Sacrament. Furthermore, the Church teaches the effect of the Anointing of the Sick is the union with the passion of Christ. The clearest way to explain this is that through our suffering, as we are bound to all others in the Mystical Body we can benefit others. We are meant to accept suffering through the spirit of Christ on the Cross. When we embrace this, grace is given and expanded to others.
Scripture for Anointing of the Sick
In the anointing of the sick, a priest anoints someone facing difficulties due to grave illness or old age and prayerfully asks for the grace of the sacrament to come over them. Throughout the Gospels, Christ demonstrates that he is capable of healing people, both spiritually and physically, for the benefit of the afflicted and those around them.
“ ‘Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise, pick up your mat and walk?” But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth — He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.’ He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’ ” Mark 2:9-12
Jesus also said that his disciples would have the power to heal people. “These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name, they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:17-18
St. Paul wrote about the gift of healing. “To each individual, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same spirit; to another faith by the same spirit; to another gift of healing by the one spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-9
The church believes in healing the sick through physically caring for those who are ill, through intercessory prayer and through the anointing of the sick, a rite described by St. James. “Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.” James 5:14-15
Sacraments of Service
The final two Sacraments of Service are about going on mission, and forming the structure of society.
We were made in the likeness of God. Humans are social creatures meant to live in communities and meant to be fruitful and multiply.
We witness and hear about love being shown for the other in the life of Christ. Giving allows us to receive and develop into our finest selves.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders and the Sacrament of Marriage are at the center of the Church’s life because they both honor the importance of love offered in the service of others.
Matrimony
Marriage has been around long before the Church, but it did raise it up to something greater; the gift of self to another. The Bible, in fact, starts and ends with marriage. Jesus himself is a marriage of divinity and humanity.
Christ on the cross is the image of marriage- Christ giving all to his bride, the Church. Marriage is a natural institution, but being married in a church, through this Sacrament means that you have made a commitment, stating that God has brought you together and man should not and cannot separate once united. The couple getting married give the Sacrament to each other, and the priest and others witness this Sacrament.
The Sacrament of Marriage strengthens love. This is true Christian love which means willing the good of the other. Each person in a marriage has the single goal of making a saint of the other.
Next, marriages should produce children, if possible, educate them well, and bring them up in the ways of Christ. Very early on in the history of the faith, a family was called a “little church”.
The great paradox of marriage is that, as each party of the marriage grows in their relationship with Christ and focuses more on Christ, the closer they grow their relationship in their marriage.
Scripture for Matrimony
In marriage, a man and a woman freely give themselves to one another in a binding, lifelong partnership. Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman and concludes with a wedding.
“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, His bride has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7
God’s fidelity to Israel in the Old Testament mirrors a faithful marriage, though the Israelites’ treatment of God better reflects a faithless marriage. “Again the Lord said to me: Go, love a woman who is loved by her spouse but commits adultery; just as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods.” Hosea 3:1
Christ explicitly spoke about marriage as a lifelong union to His followers. “They replied, ‘Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.’ But Jesus told them, ‘Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.’ In the house, the disciples again questioned him about this. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’ ” Mark 10:4-12
Jesus performed his first miracle at the wedding feast at Cana, where He turned water into wine. “The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana,” said the catechism. “She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.”
St. Paul told the Ephesians to love their spouses with sacrificial love. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church.” Ephesians 5:25
Holy Orders
The fundamental and critical role of Holy Orders is that we have a Sacrament that allows some members of the Church to pass down and administer the other Sacraments. It is vital to the Church’s survival.
Priests are configured to Christ, and Christ is married to the Church. Therefore, Priests are considered married and are married to the Church. The Priest gives life, just like with the Sacrament of Marriage, but the way he gives life is through the Sacraments to his flock.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament by which the apostles’ mission, which was given to them by Christ, is carried out in the Church until the end of time. The Holy Orders consist of the episcopate (bishop), presbyterate (priest), and diaconate degrees (deacon).
Just as in the Sacrament of Marriage has the goal of the two to make the other a saint, with a priest, their singular mission is to make baptized people saints.
Scripture for Holy Orders
In the Old Testament, God set aside the tribe of Levi for liturgical service. The New Testament links the priestly ministry of the new covenant with the old. “Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified Himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to Him: ‘You are my son; this day I have begotten you;’ just as He says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ ” Hebrews 5:1, 4-6
Through holy orders, the mission Christ entrusted to His apostles continues and this started in the earliest days of the church. “For this reason, I left you in Crete so that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you.” Titus 1:5
Holy Orders include three degrees: episcopacy, presbyterate, and diaconate, or bishops, priests, and deacons. The sacrament is conferred by the laying on of hands followed by a solemn prayer of ordination. “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate.” 1 Timothy 4:14
“For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the Latin Church, priests remain celibate in order to consecrate themselves with an undivided heart to the Lord. “Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” Matthew 19:12
“I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 7:32
Next up… the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. It involves a serious dive into scripture and tradition.
Next Topic >> The Eucharist – The Source and Summit
Synopsis
The 7 Sacraments of the Catholic Church are derived from scripture and are the core practices of the faithful. The Sacraments bring us into encountering Christ in a special way. Of course, it is possible to encounter Christ outside of the Sacraments, and the Church makes no claim to counter that, but Christ gave us the Sacraments for a reason.
Suggested Reading
“The Sacraments We Celebrate: A Catholic Guide to the Seven Mysteries of Faith” by Peter J. Vaghi
“These Are the Sacraments” By Fulton Sheen
Top Image
Raphael’s painting The Disputation Over the Most Holy Sacrament shows a scene with witnesses on earth and in heaven. It is housed at the Vatican Museum and is 200 by 300 inches. If you don’t understand the significance of this fresco, it’s simple to overlook its beauty.
Jesus is seated on a throne with nail holes visible, and God the Father is standing behind Him. The Holy Spirit is positioned below Him. Mary, His mother, and John the Baptist, His cousin and predecessor, are seated between Jesus and Mary. Together, Mary, John, and the three members of the Holy Trinity form the shape of a cross.
Next Topic >> The Eucharist – The Source and Summit
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