The sacraments of faith

The Church teaches that the sacraments confer the grace that they signify, writes Cathal Barry

Christ sent his apostles so that “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations” (Lk 24:47).

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

The Church teaches that the mission to baptise, and so the sacramental mission, is implied in the mission to evangelise, because the sacrament is prepared for by the Word of God.

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, states that the purpose of the sacraments is to “sanctify men, to build up the Body of Christ and, finally, to give worship to God”. The document notes that because they are signs “they also instruct”. 

“They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called ‘sacraments of faith’,” it says.

The Church’s Faith precedes the Faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to it, according to the Catechism. 

“When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received from the apostles,” it says.

“The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living tradition.”

For this reason, according to the Church, “no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community”. 

“Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy,” the Catechism states.

The Church teaches that the sacraments, celebrated “worthily” in faith, “confer the grace that they signify”. They are efficacious, the Church teaches, because in them Christ himself is at work. 

The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. “Sacramental grace” is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit, according to the Church, heals and transforms those who receive him. 

The Church celebrates the mystery of her Lord “until he comes,” when God will be “everything to everyone” (1 Cor 11:26–15:28). 

St Thomas Aquinas sums up the various aspects of sacramental signs: “Therefore a sacrament is a sign that commemorates what precedes it – Christ’s Passion; demonstrates what is accomplished in us through Christ’s Passion – grace; and prefigures what that Passion pledges to us – future glory.”

 

In brief:

  • The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church.
  • The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. 
  • The Church celebrates the sacraments as a priestly community structured by the baptismal priesthood and the priesthood of ordained ministers.
  • The sacraments strengthen faith and express it.