Tom McMahon has been challenging us for a long time now in his series questioning the meaning of Sacraments in our present age. There can be little doubt, given the declining use of the Sacraments, that people do not attach the same importance, or meaning to Sacraments that they once did. In today's commentary Dr Andrew Kania looks at the meaning of Sacrament from a more orthodox or traditonal perspective. What do we need to rescue from these perspectives if Sacrament is to again have significant meaning in the lives of the broad masses? At its heart, Andrew suggests Sacrament is "The Outward Sign of Inward Grace".

Have you found the Lord yet?

The scene is the Wild West of Kansas of the 19th Century. A travelling preacher stands in a creek, red-faced, issuing forth invective fire and brimstone sermons, calling for listeners to be baptised and saved.

Already having 'redeemed' a few dozen people, the preacher's message has now drawn the attention and the ridicule of a drunken spectator who sits by the river's edge, whiskey-flask in hand, hurling jibes at the increasingly frustrated evangelist. Not to be outdone, nor wishing to miss the opportunity of 'saving a hard-core sinner', the preacher springs out of the creek, grabs the miscreant by the shoulders and drags the smirking man into the creek with him.

The audience falls silent.

The preacher takes the drunken man by the scruff of the neck and calls out: "You Sir, shall see the Lord and be saved!" He then forces the man's head under the brown water.

Lifting the alcoholic's head out, he asks the question: "Have you found the Lord?"

The man replies with a smile and an equally loud, "No, not yet!"

Once more the preacher forces the man's head under, and once again the Preacher asks: "Have you found the Lord?"

Again the answer from the drunk is in the negative.

The exercise is repeated a third, fourth and fifth time. The preacher by now has become aware that his audience is losing faith in his ability to save the wretch. The Preacher holds the man down one more time, this time for an even longer duration. Pulling the man out from under the water, the preacher stares him right in the eyes, with a fierce, penetrative look that could redeem the most damned of angels, he asks again: "Have you found the Lord yet?"

The drunk man by now fully aware that he has the audience's attention screams back for all to hear: "No! Not yet! Are you sure preacher that this is the river that the Lord fell in?"

An exploration of the meaning of Baptism…

From the times of the early Catholic Church, Baptism was seen as the means by which a person was born again to God. Hermas, the brother of Pope St Pius I (regn. 140-155) wrote in his famous work The Shepherd [Par. 9, 16, 2]:

"'They had need," [the shepherd] said, "to come up through the water, so that they might be made alive; for they could not otherwise enter into the kingdom of God, except by putting away the mortality of their former life … For, he said, "before a man bears the name of the Son of God, he is dead. But when he receives the seal, he puts mortality aside and again receives life. The seal, therefore, is the water. They go down into the water dead, and come out of it alive'".

It is clear that the early Church also understood that the gift of Baptism although offered freely by God through the Church, requires that the individual develop within their own Spirit a desire to 'grow with the gift'. Whereas any person can receive Baptism, the extent by which one develops this Spiritual gift is in direct proportion to the individual desiring to reap a richer harvest. For this reason another Church Father, St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386) in his Catechetical Lectures (350 AD) [1, 5], made note of the fact that even though one may receive the highest quality seed, the soil must be prepared for the grain to grow in abundance:

"Cleanse your vessel that you may receive grace more abundantly; for although the remission of sins is given to all equally, the communion of the Holy Spirit is bestowed in proportion to the faith of each. If you have labored little, you will receive little; but if your labour has been great, great will be your reward. You are running for yourself, see to your own interests".

Baptism: an outward sign of inward grace!

The Catholic Church has always stated clearly that Baptism is a means by which inward grace is provided by God through the use of an outward sign (The Council of Trent, 1545-1563). Baptism seeks primarily to address the spiritual corruption of sin, by the endownment of a Divine power, which although physically unseen in the water is manifested in a life of goodness and Truth. A child who is born of parents of flesh and blood is thus born through their Baptism into the Church and thus is reconciled into the Mystical Body of Christ. On this point, St. Theophilus of Antioch (d. 191), writes in his address to Autolycus (181 AD) [2, 16], "all who proceed to the truth and are born again … receive a blessing from God".

That the Church defines Baptism as a Sacrament, is because the very term 'sacrament' derives from the Greek word for 'mystery'. We are in essence partaking in something which is for our benefit, albeit beyond our intellectual comprehension to fathom, as it is Divine.

God, who is unseen, uses material accidents to establish living guides for our salvation; the Sacraments are thus the Spiritual communication and presence of God, created by means of the corporeal and tangible. As St Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans: "ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting power have been clearly seen by the mind's understanding of created things". (Romans 1: 20, The New Jerusalem Bible)

Baptism, Confirmation (Chrismation), Holy Communion, Reconciliation, Holy Orders, Marriage (Crowning), and Extreme Unction, all involve the use of 'created things' as a medium by which the invisible existence of God is made manifest to humanity.

Catholics are a Sacramental people not only because they have a codified set of Sacraments passed down to them through the Ages from the Apostles, but because they understand that Christ has not left them orphans. In every facet of their lives, Christ wants to remain with them, sanctifying their very birth, their maturation, their love, their service, their procreation; even their illness and their error are addressed — all with the hope of re-creation and salvation.

The Eastern Catholic perspective…

The Sacraments, according to the Fathers of the Catholic East, assist the individual in the process of 'theosis', the striving to let the human condition radiate with Divinity. The Sacraments call on the human person not to be fearful of God, but to understand that God reaches down through the Sacraments in order to raise them up. The challenge is for each Catholic to make manifest to the world that the outward sign points to a reality of an inward Grace, and not merely to some distant and long forgotten event in their lives. For as John Henry Cardinal Newman reminded his parish audience: "We dwell in the light of the Gospel, and the full grace of the Sacraments. We ought to have the holiness of the Apostles. There is no reason except our own wilful corruption, that we are not by this time walking in the steps of St. Paul or St. John, and following them as they followed Christ". (Ker, 1988, p. 93)

Image Credits:
The headline image has been sourced from www.bayareacommunity.org. Clicking on the other image will take you to the original source.

©2009 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

[Index of Commentaries by Dr Andrew Kania]