The Sacraments and Communion with God

In previous works, we defined the sacraments as (among other things) signs that facilitate communion with the God who is One in Three Persons.  In short, according to the Apostle Peter, we become "partakers of the divine nature" as we grow in holiness.  Before we can continue this discussion, we need to ask ourselves something.  What is the point of Communion with God?

While this question might seem simple, it has sparked a lot of debate throughout Catholic circles.  If one really wants to drill down into the issue, the entire debate surrounding Christopher West's interpretation of John Paul II boils down to this very question.  It has always been this way.  Ever since the Garden of Eden, man asked himself this very question we are considering today.

There are a lot of ways to look at this.  For some, we walk around with our palms pressed together chanting softly in praise and adoration of God.  For others, communion with God is a nuptial union that surpasses any human emotion or experience.  Then there are those who view attempting to describe heavenly realities with human expressions as utterly pointless.  Whatever it is, we know it will be better than here.

All of these are true, and I suppose they come into play one time or another in heaven.  Yet as true as they all are, their answers are incomplete.  They are means, not the end.  To the fan of Christopher West, why does God wish to "marry us?"  What is the purpose of God providing peace?  As always, the answer may be found within the Scriptures, starting with God's call to Abram:

And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.  I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed:  So Abram went out as the Lord had commanded him....  Abram passed through the country into the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale: now the Chanaanite was at that time in the land.  And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.  (Genesis 12:1-7)

We would do well to remember that at this point of salvation history, there was no Christianity, there wasn't even Judaism.  Mankind had just failed in their ultimate act of rebellion in the Tower of Babel, and the result was a perpetual rending asunder of humanity.  Out of this confusion and chaos, God calls Abram.  Now the classical understanding of this passage has always been that God showed Abram the land of Israel, and promised that land towards his descendants.  To Christians (possessing the fullness of revelation), though the original meaning remains true, we discover something far deeper:

By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.  By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise.  For he looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God....  All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off, and saluting them, and confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. For they that say these things, do signify that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they had doubtless time to return. But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.(Hebrews 11:  8-10,13-16)

As with just about everything in the Old Testament, what is happening is but a sign of a greater reality that will come.  When Abraham looked at "the land" which God would give him, he was not looking at some mere human city.  Rather he was looking at heaven, that which God designed and prepared for them, and invites those who have faith to enter into.

What would we find in such a city?  We may perhaps best understand what we could have by seeing what the faithless were denied.  We can find that answer many times throughout the beautiful Psalms of David:

Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy hill?  (Psalm 14:1)

Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:  As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.  Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.

And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.  (Psalm 94:  8-11)

This last Psalm is of particular importance to us.  The writer of the Hebrews gives a rather lengthy commentary on this Psalm that needs to be quoted in full:

Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, whilst it is called today, that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.  For we are made partakers of Christ: yet so, if we hold the beginning of his substance firm unto the end.  While it is said, Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in that provocation.  For some who heard did provoke: but not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. And with whom was he offended forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses were overthrown in the desert? And to whom did he swear, that they should not enter into his rest: but to them that were incredulous?  And we see that they could not enter in, because of unbelief.   Let us fear therefore lest the promise being left of entering into his rest, any of you should be thought to be wanting. For unto us also it hath been declared, in like manner as unto them. But the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with faith of those things they heard.  For we, who have believed, shall enter into rest; as he said: As I have sworn in my wrath; If they shall enter into my rest; and this indeed when the works from the foundation of the world were finished.  For in a certain place he spoke of the seventh day thus: And God rested the seventh day from all his works.  And in this place again: If they shall enter into my rest. (Hebrews 3:12-16, 4:1-5)

While we receive countless things in the heavenly city, most importantly, we find rest.  This is something even Adam did not have, as he had to work in the garden even before the fall.  Throughout salvation history God's people have been nomads and they have been builders of empires.  They have been minorities and majorities.  They experienced ecstasies and sorrows, peace and war.  Yet all of them had the same purpose:  they had to work.  In the fullness of time, Christ came to bring us towards the home where we will have to do none of these things.  We will have rest.  We find further evidence for this in the masterful poetry of St. John of the Cross, perhaps the saint who expressed this union so perfectly:

Within my pounding heart
Which kept itself entirely for Him
He fell into His sleep
Beneath the cedars all my love I gave.

From o'er the fortress walls
The wind would brush His hair against His brow
And with its smoother hand
caressed my every sense it would allow.

I lost myself to Him
And laid my face upon my Lover's breast
And care and grief grew dim
As in the mornings mist became the light
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair

Knowing what communion with God entails, we now have another question we will ask ourselves through our study on the sacraments.  How are the sacraments a sign of rest, and how do they provide this rest?

Signs and the Sacraments

When we talk about the sacraments, we return to the old cliche of what a sacrament is.  We understand the sacraments as a "visible sign of an invisible reality."  While this is true, it really doesn't tell us much about the sacraments.  A visible sign of what?  What is the reality?  As with so many aspects of contemporary Catholicism, we have the right answers, but ask the wrong questions.

To help us better ask these questions (and hopefully come to a better understanding) we should return to the sources of truth for Catholics.  In this case, we should return to the Sacred Scriptures.  When outlining what the Passover entails, the Book of the Exodus describes the point of the Passover:

And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.

From a purely natural standpoint, a Biblical sign is meant to recall a past action.  In the case of the Passover, the paschal memorial was meant to call to mind God's deliverance of the Israelites from the cruel Egyptians.  We do this sort of thing all the time.  For sports athletes, trophies serve not only as a recognition of our triumphs, but they serve to recall those great moments where we excelled seemingly beyond ourselves to achieve that triumph.  When a spouse looks at their wedding band, it is supposed to call to mind the commitment they made to their spouse that day at the altar.  So far, so good.  Modern Catholics accept and understand this aspect of the biblical sign.

Yet there is far more to the proper understanding of a sign and what we "remember."  When the Prophet Elijah visits the widow of Zarephath, the widow believes his visit is an omen of ill news, stating:

What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? (1 Kings 17:18)

 In the Bible, the act of remembrance also causes an action.  In this case, the remembrance of the widows sins by Elijah's presence caused the death of her son.  The Prophet Ezekiel states that when the sins of Israel came to remembrance, they were taken into captivity.  (Ezekial 21:24)  So for the Bible, signs convey a far deeper meaning than a mere remembrance of past events.   The remembrance of past events causes a present reality.

Now what does this insight do for us in understanding the sacraments?  I would actually argue that it provides quite a bit.  Remembering our previous post on the sacraments, the Sacraments were defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as follows:

They [the sacraments] are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the Church," since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is love, One in three persons. (Paragraph 1118)

With this in mind, we can come to a certain understanding.  When we say a sacrament is a visible sign, we state that a sacrament is a visible sign of communion with God.  Since a sign is meant to recall something, I would submit that the sacrament recalls our original purpose in relation to God:  that we were created for union with God.  Every sacrament, in one way or another, points to this purpose.  Like the "signs" of the Old Testament, the remebrance of this sign enhances that reality.

So why was there a need for Christ to institute seven new sacraments?  Many times we point to the fact that the sacraments of the new covenant confer grace, whereas the sacraments of the old covenant were "merely" signs.  While grace is of supreme importance, there's more to the story here.  The sacraments of the New Covenant not only call to our original purpose, they manifest a new reality.  While we were created for union with God, what happens when we achieve such a union with God?  The grace the sacraments contain transform us to a new reality.  We are no longer living a life of anticipation of union with God.  The Sacraments don't just transform our lives making that union a reality, they conform us to the state of life that is our destination:  eternity in heaven. 

To better understand this point, we will need to do a few things.  We will need to take a trip through salvation history, and then through each of the Sacraments of the New Covenant and how they fit within the framework I have outlined.  This will be the subject of future installments in this series.

Theology of the Wounded

In the Church today, it is conventional wisdom that the sacraments are not appreciated enough.  What are we to do about it?  I am of the opinion that we cannot develop a proper evangelization and theology centered around the sacraments because of the way we currently practice our faith.  Any proper evangelization begins at home, and we need to take a better look at some realities of our faith.  I believe these realities will challenge us in a new way.

It is a common cliche in evangelization that we must reach out to "the wounded", those outside the Church, those affected by sin in traumatic ways, etc.  While we should do this, I think we would do well to remember one important fact:  we, each and every one of us, belong to "the wounded."  To understand this, we must understand the reality of a little used word today in the Church:  concupiscence.  The Catholic Church defines concupiscence in the following manner:

Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.  (Paragraph 405)

As a result of the sin of Adam, human nature changed.  Sin is something that comes pretty easy to us.  While the explanations for this are varied, the reality is undeniable: this inclination leaves a wound that remains with us.  However, this is not the end of the story.

As the Catechism reminds us, there are things which turn us toward God.  While the sacrament of baptism is the primary means of doing this, one can see God's call in many things of creation.  John Paul II made a couple year's worth of general audiences out of the fact that we can see God's call towards Him stamped within the very reality of the human body.  This calling inevitably conflicts with the reality of concupiscence.  At this point the struggle for holiness begins.

This is where the importance of the sacraments come in.  As anyone who took Catholicism 101 can tell you, sacraments impart what is called sanctifying grace to the Christian.  The Catechism defines sanctifying grace as a "habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love."  (Paragraph 2000)

The only way we can be enabled to live with God is if that inclination to sin is dealt with.  That is the purpose of the sacraments.  Sometimes this is explicitly mentioned, such as when the sacrament of Holy Matrimony is called a "remedy of concupiscence."  Yet all the sacraments, to one degree or another, accomplish this.

Now when this reality is considered, one question naturally arises.  If the sacraments are how concupiscence is healed, why is it that we still are inclined to sin even after receiving the sacraments?  The Catechism again provides us an insightful answer in paragraph 2002.  They state that God's free initiative demands man's free response.  One iota of grace from the sacraments, in theory, would be enough to completely cure man from all concupiscence.  Yet this is not the case in reality. While grace indeed is a powerful gift, we must use that gift properly.

Yet human experience teaches us that we seldom, if ever do something "perfectly."  This is why frequenting the sacraments must be habitual.  Every time we receive one of the sacraments, concupiscence is weakened and we become less and less attached to sin.  Provided we use our gifts properly, we can even replace that attachment to sin with a greater and greater attachment to God.  That makes the sacraments even more efficacious, and the cycle repeats itself with every reception.

This can be a challenging message for today's Catholics, even those who are perfectly orthodox.  It isn't easy to recognize how disposed to sin we are, and it certainly isn't sexy to describe advancing in holiness in such incremental and small terms.  Some popular Catholic evangelists even describe such an approach as the antithesis of the meaning of life.  Yet I would counter that it is a far humbler and more realistic assessment of our condition.  Holiness is a difficult thing, and a lifelong process.  The sacraments make this a goal we can achieve, and we should spend as much of our time as possible encouraging this mindset.

Beyond Booster Shots: A Different Approach to the Sacraments

During a recent debate caused by an article in Catholics News Agency, this humble journalist decided to take a different approach from the standard discussion, and planted our flag around a defense of the sacraments.  While it might have been a curious defense, I hope to explain at least my reasons for doing so.  Going forward, I think it is a powerful tool for the evangelization not just of those outside the Church, but of Catholics as well.

As Catholics, we should have a special love and affection for the sacraments.  While God provides grace through thousands of everyday situations, it is through the sacraments that he provides grace in a very special manner.  He provides sanctifying grace that makes us holy and allows us to live a Christian life to the fullest.  On this, anyone worthy of the name Catholic would agree.

Yet I think we Catholics approach the sacraments from a flawed analysis.  We view them as mere "booster shots" for the already holy.  So long as we are without mortal sin, we go to the sacraments, get our booster shot of infused grace, and we become holier.  While there is certainly this aspect to the sacraments, there needs to be a lot more to the sacraments if we are taking the Biblical, historical, and magisterial evidence seriously.

Now if we all remember our catechism classes, we remember hearing that a sacrament is a visible sign conferring an invisible reality.  This is certainly true, but not what I want to focus on. Now me, I slept through my Catechism class as a child, so thankfully I found the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which provides an explanation that, while not contradictory to the above definition, it goes in a different direction, one far more fascinating I would argue.

They [the sacraments] are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the Church," since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is love, One in three persons. (Paragraph 1118)

Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. the seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian's life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.  (Paragraph 1210)

From these paragraphs, I think we can come to a far deeper understanding of the sacraments, moving beyond the dogmatic textbook definitions to how those definitions matter in our everyday lives.  From this, we can see that the sacraments, far from being just a booster shot, are the essential activities of the Christian life.  On the natural level, they serve as a remembrance (in the truest sense) of the communion we were originally called to have with God that was damaged by sin, and the way to which that communion is restored.

Yet the sacraments of the New Covenant go beyond this powerful means of salvation to provide something even greater.  They not only call us back to the original calling Adam had, but they provide us something even greater than Adam ever possessed.  This is what makes the sacraments so important to the Christian, yet it is the aspect I believe is least covered in catechesis and evangelization.   I think this is a central problem facing Catholics today.  If we examine our lives closely, we are not treating the sacraments the way the Catechism describes them.  If we are lucky, we go to confession only if we screw up majorly, and then only to avoid hell.  We go to communion to be fed by Christ, but we don't do much to ponder the purpose of the sacrament.   This needs to change.  Hopefully in the future I can outline ways I think it needs to change, but most importantly I want individuals to talk amongst themselves (or even to themselves) about how we approach the sacraments, and where we can change and improve our approach.