Introduction to Sacramental Theology 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
I. THE NATURE THE SACRAMENTS
I.1 Nature of the Sacraments
I.2 Types of Signs
1.2.1. Natural Signs
1.2.2. Arbitrary Sigs
1.2.3. Mixed Signs
I.3 Image and Symbol
I.4 The Nature of the Sacramental Sign
I.5 The Encounter between God and Man through the medium of Signs
I.6 Phenomenology of Rites: Sacraments and their natural Analogues

II. JESUS CHRIST AS THE PRIMORDIAL SACRAMENT

II.1 Jesus Christ as the Sacrament of God
II.2 Jesus as the embodiment of God’s love for man and man’s love for God.
II.3 The Redemptive Mystery of Christ
II.4 The Encounter with the glorified Christ
II.4.1 Our Need to Encounter the glorified Christ
II.4.2 The possibility of this Encounter from the part of Christ
II.4.3 The Necessity of the Sacraments for the mutual availability of the
glorified Lord and Man
III. THE SACRAMENTALITY OF THE CHURCH
III.1 The Church as the Fundamental Sacrament
III.1.1 The Church, the Sacrament of the glorified Lord
III.1.2 The Ecclesial Character of the Office of Hierarchy and Laity
III.1.3 A Sacrament as the Official Act of the Church
III.2 The Sacraments as the ecclesial Celebration in Mystery of the Mysteries of
Christ’s Life
III.2.1 The Mystery of Redemption as eternally actual
III.2. 2 The eternally enduring Actually of Redemption and the historical
perspective of Salvation in the sacraments
III.2. 3 The Sacraments as ecclesial worship and Salvation

III.2.4 The Infallible working of Grace in the Sacraments

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III.3. Sevenfold ecclesial Realization of the one Mystery of Redemption

IV. THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS
IV.1 The Historical Development of the Concept
IV.1.1 The Scriptural Data
IV.1.2 Patristic Concept
IV.1.3 The Scholastic notion
IV.2 The Teaching of the Church
IV.2.1 The Second Council of Lyons (1274)
IV.2.2 The Council of Florence (1438-47)
IV.2.3 The Council of Trent (1545-63)
IV.3 Change in the Sacraments
IV.4 The Effects of the Sacraments
IV.4.1 The Ecclesial Effect of the Sacrament
IV.4.2 The Grace-Effect of the Sacrament
IV.5 The Role of the Minister and the Recipient in the Sacraments
IV.5.1 The Role of the Minister in the Sacraments
IV.5.2 The Role of the Recipient of a Sacrament
V. THE REVIVISCENCE OF THE SACRAMENTS
VI. SACRAMENTALS : COMPLEMENTARY SIGN OF THE SACRAMENTAL
ECONOMY
VI.1 The Nature of the Sacramentals
VI.2 The Effects and Efficacy of the Sacramentals
VI.3 The Minister of the Sacramentals
VI.4 Sacramentals and the Sacraments
VII. SACRAMENTS AND HINDU SAMSKARAS
VII.1. The meaning of word Samsakra
VII.2. The Purpose of the Samsakaras
VII.3. The Constituents of the Hindu Sacraments
VII.4. The place of Samskaras in Hinduism
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Introduction
The language of the liturgy on the whole is the language of signs. In the liturgy God
reveals himself, speaks and acts by means of signs making up the liturgy. In fact, the liturgy is
“the complex of sensible signs of sacred, spiritual and invisible things, instituted by Christ or by
the Church, each efficacious in its own way in what they signify.
The sacraments make up the bulk of the Church’s liturgy and hold the central place in it.
Therefore in order to understand the meaning and significance of the various sacraments we need
to have a fare idea of the meaning of signs and symbols.
I. THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS
I.1. Nature of the Sacramental Signs
According to St. Augustine, “the sign is a thing that, in addition to the form it impresses in
the senses, leads to the knowledge of something other than itself. Thus, when we see animal
tracks, we know that a certain animal has passed and left this trace; seeing smoke, we know there
is fire; when we hear an animal’s voice, we know its sentiments; at the sound of the trumpet, the
soldiers know that they are to advance or retreat or do something else in battle.” Therefore, the
sign is a means that, in view of the relation which it has with some other absent or hidden thing,
makes this other thing present here and now to the cognitive power of the subject, making the
object known to the subject. In this sense, it is by means of the sign and in the sign that the
signified thing is communicated. Hence the sign must be known by the subject better and before
the signified things.
Therefore, there is a gnoseological priority, in the order of knowledge, of the sign with
respect to the signified thing; but, there is an ontological priority, in the order of being, of the
signified thing with respect to every sign. This is the first essential characteristic of every sign.
The second characteristic of the sign is that the sign is, at the same time and under a different
aspect, similar and dissimilar to the signified thing. Insofar as it is similar, it reveals the signified
thing, and insofar as it is dissimilar, it conceals the signified thing. This twofold antithetical
aspect – similarity and dissimilarity, identity and difference between the sign and the signified
thing – has important consequences regarding the interpretation of liturgical and particularly
sacramental signs.
I.2. TYPES OF SIGNS
Signs in general are divided according to the relation that each of them has with the
signified thing. Therefore they can be real or of pure reason, according to whether the relation is
really of purely logical. In the sacraments we have only to do with the signs that are real! The
real signs can be divided into natural, arbitrary and mixed.
I.2.1. Natural Signs
Natural signs are those in which the relation between the signs and the signified things derive
from the nature of the things themselves, not from man’s free will. Thus smoke is the natural sign
of fire; certain cries are the natural signs of joy, while others are those of pain. The natural signs
are easily understandable to all; it suffices to know the realities that they express. These signs are
also called not free, precisely because they are based on nature itself. Smoke is naturally the real
sign of fire, insofar as smoke is the effect of fire.
I.2.2. Arbitrary Signs
In these the relation between the sign and the signified thing comes not from nature, but
from man’s free determination. Some authors also call them free signs. Thus the flag is the sign
of the nation; kneeling signifies veneration or reverence, etc. So, in order to know the free signs it
is necessary to know man’s free determination. Then it is only through the determination that
these signs contain and express a determined reality.
I.2.3. Mixed Signs
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The mixed signs are those in which the relation between the sign and the signified thing
derive from a positive determination but with this relation having a natural foundation, insofar as
the thing chosen to signify a determined reality has in itself a natural tendency to signify the
reality. E.g. water by nature has the tendency to signify a spiritual purification; but in order for it
to really signify this, a positive determination is required to found this relation without destroying
water’s significative capacity. These signs are neither purely natural nor purely arbitrary. Hence
they are called mixed.
I.3. IMAGE AND SYMBOL
The concept of image and symbol should not be confused with that of sign, even though
these are similar concepts.
For the ancient Greeks, the term image (eikon) was used to indicate everything leading to
knowledge of another thing. The difference between image and sign is clear even from common
language. No one would say, for instance, that smoke is the image of fire, as it is its sign. Instead,
all would say that a statue is the image of the person it represents. Therefore, the symbol does not
seem to be identical either to the sign in general or to the image in particular. It seems ‘instead, to
indicate, today, for us, a free signthat is either real or of pure reason, through distinction from the
natural sign.” Symbol can be said to be a recognizing sign which provides inspiration rather than
notification! Many gestures are symbolic, e.g. bowing the head.
Since symbols need not imitate what they represent and since they refer to something that
is in a higher category, they are very much suited for expressing religious truths, because those
cannot be pictured in any literal way. Some symbols have evocative quality by which the knower
is not made simply to give an intellectual assent but an affective response. Such symbols are the
liturgical and sacramental symbols. They communicate a sense of the sacred. E.g. gesture like
prostration, which immediately and directly portrays man’s essential and existential relationship
to the Creator, and it is a relation of total dependence and subordination.
Nothing equals the spontaneous power of the appropriate symbol to project the mind
towards the absolute, and not only the mind but the heart as well; for religious symbols are non-
neutral, that is, they are charged with affectivity and intelligibility. For this reason and spirituality
that tries to eliminate symbols, in its cult tends to diminish man himself, since it is an attempt to
reduce the human spirit to a mere intelligence. The Incarnation of the Son of God and the
dispensation of the sacraments as visible signs of invisible grace are but two of the divine
accommodation to the needs of man in his spatio-temporal condition.
I.4. THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTAL SIGN
Regarding the nature of the sacramental sing, it should be said, in the light of what has
been explained above, that the sign is a mixed, efficacious sign composed of things and words.
First of all, the sacramental signs are mixed sings. They are not purely natural sings, since
no natural thing can signify, by its natural virtue, invisible and spiritual realities totally
transcending the material world, which are the divine life communicated by God to man in the
sacraments. Nor can they signify the worship that the community of the faithful gives to the
Father through these signs. Still, they are not purely arbitrary or free signs, because they have a
foundation in reality. Therefore, sacramental sings are mixed.
According to St. Thomas, sensible things, in view of their own nature, have a certain
tendency to signify spiritual effects; but this tendency is determined to a particular meaning by
force of divine institution. For instance, from among the various natural elements, Christ chose
some in particular: water, oil, bread and wine. He chose these and not others. We can see two
basic reasons for this choice. First of all, these things are not of secondary importance but
creations of decisive importance. Also they have a particular tendency to signify the supernatural
contents that Christ wished for them to signify. It is precisely in view of this particular expressive
capacity has the above-mentioned things were already used by the Jews. Therefore, the choice of
Christ was not purely arbitrary and casual one. Then, no element is more suitable than water to
express the interior purification or regeneration performed in baptism; likewise, there is no
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element more suitable than the bread broken, distributed and eaten by those present to express the
communion of all believers in Christ, the koinonia of the new messianic people.
Now the choice and elevation of sensible things to express divine realities can be made
only by Christ, because only he is the Head of the Universe. Therefore, only he can make use of
things efficaciously to complete his design of salvation; only his word can confer upon these
elements a true supernatural virtue.
Secondly, the sacraments are efficacious sings. They are at the same time cause and sings
of grace. Efficacy is one of the essential elements of the Christian sacraments, so that wherever
this efficacy is lacking there also lacks the ratio of a true and proper sacrament. Precisely in this
efficacy rests the fundamental distinction between the sacraments of the New Law and those of
the Old Law. “The former, in fact, did not cause grace, but prefigured it as the effect of Christ’s
passion; our sacraments, instead, contain grace and confer it on those who receive them. When
the Council of Florence (1432) states that the sacraments contain grace, this should not be
understood in the sense that the sacraments contain grace as a type of warehouse where one can
go to get them when the need arises. It should not be forgotten that the grace given in sacramental
gestures is none other than divine life communicated to men. It is not something that can be
preserved to be distributed in case of necessity.
Thirdly, the sacraments are sings composed of things and words. Both of these, in a moral
unity of meaning, make up the external sing essential to every sacrament. They are found united
in order to serve as the vehicle of communication of divine grace to men in the sacraments. It
should be remembered that likewise the other liturgical sings, such as sacramental, ceremonies,
etc., have their efficacy. Their difference rests in the fact that the sacraments are efficacious “ex
opera operato”, as the Council of Trent expresses, while the other liturgical sings are efficacious
as “ex opera operantis ecclesiae”.
The composition of the sacramental sing in words and things, insofar as it regards some
sacraments, is clearly stated by NT writings: water and the Trinitarian invocation in baptism;
laying on of hands and prayer in formation; bread and wine and words of benediction in the
Eucharist; anointing and prayer in the unction of the infirmmity (Mt. 28, 19; Acts 8, 14-17; Mt.
26, 26-28; James 5,14; respectively).
The particular function of the word is that of determining the concrete supernatural
meaning of the things or elements used in the sacramental sign. For example the immersion in
water. The immersion could mean various things; but the words “I baptize you in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” determine and signify the interior purification of the baptized
in the death and resurrection of Christ, in the entire paschal mystery of the Saviour. Therefore in
the liturgical celebration, the word has the demining function specifying the true spiritual
meaning of the sacramental sign.
St. Thomas says, “Since Christ, the author of the sacraments, is the Word made flesh, the
sacraments have to consist in words and corporeal thing. As the flesh of Christ is sanctified and
has virtue of sanctification for the Word united to it, so likewise the sacramental elements are
sanctified and have the power to sanctify through the words pronounced with them”.
For this reason St. Augustin says, “Add the word to the element, and it becomes a
sanctified, are called forms of the sacraments, and the sanctified elements are called their matter.
The water is the matter of baptism and the oil is the matter of confirmation. Here the matter is to
be understood not only as in the sense of the material elements, but also in the sacraments in
which these elements do not exist, as in penitence and matrimony. Thus, at the beginning of the
13th century, instead of speaking of thing and word, theologians spoke rather of the matter and
form of the sacrament. The first to apply the hylomorphic categories to the sacraments seems to
have been William of Auxerre, is a French scholastic theologian and official in the Roman
Catholic Church.
I.5. THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN GOD AND MAN THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF
SINGS
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The question is that why should the encounter between God and man be through the
medium of sings? The answer could be human nature itself. Man is the substantial unity of body
and soul, of spirituality and materiality. His spiritual soul gains knowledge and thus perfects
itself, through the body and sensible things and in turn, expresses and manifests itself in the body
and in sensible things, impressing on them something of itself.
St. Thomas says, “Divine wisdom provides for everything according to the manner proper
to each one, and hence it is said that wisdom ‘disposed all things sweetly’ (Wis 8,1)… Now it is
natural for man to rise to the knowledge of the intelligible through the sensible. But a sign is the
thing by means of which one arrives at the knowledge of something else. Therefore, since the
sacred realities signified by the sacraments are the spiritual and intelligible goods by means of
which man is sanctified, it follows that the sacramental sings consist in sensible things.”
I.6. PHENOMENOLOGY OF RITES: SARAMENTS AND THEIR NATURAL
ANALOGOUS
A rite may be defined as the symbolic action which is religious by its very symbolism.
The symbolism we speak of here is a natural symbolism. It has nothing to do with a meaning
added extrinsically to an action which is in itself indifferent to it. The symbolism always exists
prior to the meaning placed upon it. The Christian sacraments are an excellent example of this.
Any expression of a reality which is conceived without this natural symbolism will be completely
artificial and becomes a mere convention. The traditional theology teaches that the words of
institution by Christ gave a new meaning to rites already charged with meaning. The new
meaning, however, was not forced upon the natural meaning but, rather amplified and enriched.
II. JESUS CHRIST AS THE PRIMORDIAL SACRAMENT
II.1. Jesus Christ as the Sacrament of God
The Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D) teaches that Christ is “one person in two natures”,
that is, one and the same person called Jesus Christ is at the same time true God and true man.
Jesus’ humanity is the fulfilment of God’s promises of salvation. It is the messianic reality. Jesus’
love is the human incarnation of the redeeming love of God: the coming of God’s love in visible
and tangible form. Precisely because of this human acts of Jesus are divine acts, personal acts of
the son of God himself, they possess the nature of divine saving power. They are salvific.
Now since this divine power to save appears to us in visible form through the acts of
Jesus, the saving activity of Jesus is sacramental. For a sacrament is a bestowal of salvation in a
visible form. (Here we have to keep in mind that every human exchange proceeds in and through
man’s bodiliness. It is in his body and through his body that man is open to the “outside” and that
he makes himself present to his fellowmen. His actions are sings of his interiority. And as signs
they reveal and at the same time veils his interiority).
So we can say that the man Jesus, as the personal visible realization of the divine grace of
redemption, is the Sacrament, the primordial Sacrament, because this man, the Son of God
himself, is intended by the Father to be in his humanity the only way to the actuality of
redemption. In the letter to Timothy we read: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator of
God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1Tim 2,5). So for those of Jesus’ contemporaries a personal
meeting with him was a personal invitation to meet God himself, because personally he was the
Son of God. Human encounter with Jesus is therefore the sacrament of encounter with God.
Jesus’ human redeeming acts are therefore a “sign and the cause of grace”. In other words the
human saving acts of Jesus cause what they signify: they are sacraments.
II.2. Jesus as the embodiment of God’s love for man and man’s love for God
The word incarnate intended to divinize man by redeeming him. Freed from the bondage
of sin man is brought into a personal communion of grace and love with God. This means first of
all that the fullness of grace which properly belongs to the man Jesus in virtue of his existence as
God was intended by God to be a source of grace for others; from him all were to receive.
Christ’s love for all men thus manifests God’s love for men by actually bestowing it.
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In Christ not only were God and his love for man revealed, but God also showed us in
him what it is for man to commit himself unconditionally to God the invisible Father. Now if we
consider that this humanity of Jesus represents us all then this upward movement of worship of
the Father from the human acts of Jesus is an upward movement of the worship of God from the
whole of mankind. In this sense Jesus is not only the visible offer of divine love for human
beings, but at the same time as the prototype. He is the supreme realization of the response of
human being to this divine offer of redemption. Therefore we can say that the man Jesus is
personally a dialogue with God the Father; the supreme realization and so the norm and source of
every encounter with God.
II.3. REDEMPTIVE MYSTERY OF CHRIST
Our redemption is the work of God. In 2Cor 5,18 we read: “All this is from God, who
through Christ reconciled us to himself….” God brought about our redemption in the human
nature of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. We can distinguish four phases in this
redemption: first of all, the initiative of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Secondly,
the human response of Christ’s life to the Father’s initiative in sending him: “becoming obedient
unto death, even to the death of the Cross” (Phil 2,8). Thirdly, the divine response to Jesus’s
obedience in the humiliation of his life – his exaltation as the Lord (Phil 2,9). Fourthly, the
sending of the Holy Spirit upon the world by the glorified Lord. Christ having reached the
consummation became the source of eternal salvation for us (Heb 5,9). The last phase of the
mystery of Christ, between the ascension and the Parousia, is therefore the mystery of the sending
of the Holy Spirit by Christ as the climax of his work of salvation.
Thus Christ is and remains the high priest forever. On our behalf he is ever praying the
Father for grace for us, and thus in actual fact giving us the grace for which he has prayed -
because even in his humanity he remains the beloved Son. Thus Christ’s earthly and heavenly
mystery of worship is the foundation of the Lord’s unfailing fight of grace.
II.4. ENCOUNTER WITH THE GLORIFIED CHRIST
II.4.1. Our Need to Encounter the Glorified Christ
After his death, resurrection and glorification Jesus Christ, the primordial Sacrament of
encounter with God has vanished from our sight. He is no more a visible sing of God’s love for
man. But we know that on the basis of God’s gift of grace or the encounter with God, remains
bound up with our personal encounter with the man Jesus who is our only way to the Father.
The glorified Jesus has to be away from us who are not yet glorified. Although he is
passed out of our sight for a while he is preparing the way for us so that one day, when we
ourselves will be glorified we will be able to see him face to face and together with him glorify
the Heavenly Father. Christ makes his presence among us actively visible and tangible too, of
course, not directly through his bodiliness, which is not possible, but by extending among us on
earth in visible and tangible from the function of his bodily reality which is in heaven. This is
precisely what the sacraments are, namely, the earthly extension of the “body of the Lord”.
Why should there be a sacramental extension? Without it one of the profoundly human
qualities of the incarnation of God would be lost to us. God deals with us as we are. He respects
our earthbound humanity. It is through our bodiliness that we live as persons and grow into
spiritual maturity. So God always offers us the kingdom of heaven in an earthly guise.
II.4.2. The Possibility of this encounter from the Part of Christ
It becomes clear that it is the resurrection which makes it possible for Christ the man
precisely as man to influence us by grace. We should not forget that the Son is mediator of grace
precisely as man. Christ is mediator in his humanity. So Christ is and remains as our mediator in
his glorified bodiliness. Thus in the risen Christ the mystery of saving worship truly remains an
active offer of grace for us. St. Thomas says “grace in us derives from Christ… only through the
personal action of Christ (ST III, q8, a,. 5, ad 1) and again “the whole of Christ’s humanity, that
is to say both body and soul, exercises an influence on men” (ST III, q 8, a. 2).
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II.4.3. The necessity of the Sacraments for the mutual availability of the Glorified Lord and
Man
Because of his glorified corporeality the Christ in heaven can reach us and influence us.
But we, earthly men as we are, cannot encounter him in the living body because his glorification
has made him invisible to us. From this it becomes obvious that if Christ did not make his
heavenly bodiliness visible in some way in our earthly sphere, his redemption would after all no
longer be for us. If Christ does not manifest himself to us in his own flesh, then he can make
himself visibly present to us earthbound men only by taking up earthly non-glorified realities into
his glorified saving activity. That is to say, this earthly element would replace for us the
invisibility of his bodily life in heaven. This is precisely what the sacraments are, namely, the
face of Redemption turned visibly towards us, so that in them we are truly able to encounter the
living Christ. So we see that since the mediation of grace by the Man Jesus is a permanent reality,
the sacraments are necessary for us.
From the moment of the “primordial sacrament” from the world, the sacramental
economy becomes operative in the world as the prolongation of the mystery of incarnation. From
the Sacred Scripture we know that the twelve Apostles who had the immediate contact with “the
primordial Sacrament” were not baptized, whereas the 13th Apostle, St. Paul, was in fact baptized
(Acts 9,18).
Thus we see also that a permanent sacramentality is an intrinsic requirement of the
Christian religion. The Church’s Sacraments are not things but encounters of men on earth with
the glorified man Jesus by means of a visible from.
III. THE SACRAMENTALITY OF THE CHRUCH
III.1. The Church as the fundamental Sacrament
The Church is the sacrament (LG 1,9)
Theologians like J. A. Mohler and I. H. Oswald emphasized the sacramentality of the
Church. According to I.H. Oswald emphasized the sacramentality of the whole Church.
According to him the Church as the universal means of sanctification, as the institution for
sanctification – that is, the Church in its visible form but based on the invisible work of the Holy
Spirit – is not so much a sacrament as, rather the Christian Sacrament. The Church itself is the
sacrament, the means of salvation in the most compressive sense of the word.1
III.1.1. The Church, sacrament of the Glorified Lord
St. Augustin says : “Christ dies that the Church might be born.” Jesus the Messiah, through his
death which the Father accepts, becomes the head of the people of God, the Church. The Church
is a visible communion in grace, this communion itself, consisting of members and a hierarchical
leadership is the earthly sign of the triumphant redeeming grace of Christ. Here it should be noted
that not only the hierarchical Church but also the community of the faithful belong to this grace-
giving sight than is the Church.
According to Schillebeeckx the essence of the Church consists in this, that the final goal
of grace achieved by Christ becomes visibly present in the whole Church as a visible society. As
the people of God socially and juridically organized, the Church, according to K. Rahner, is not a
mere welfare institute but the continuation, the perpetual presence of the task and function of
Christ in the economy of redemption, his continuous presence in history.
From this we can say that Christ is historically real and actual presence of the eschatologically
victorious mercy of God. Christ in his historical existence is both reality and sing of the
redemptive grace of God. The Church is the abiding presence of that primal sacramental word of
definitive grace, which Christ is in the world, effecting what is uttered by uttering it in sign. By
the very fact of being in that way the enduring presence of Christ in the world, the Church is truly
the fundamental Sacrament, the source of the sacraments in the strict sense.

1
Michael Schmaus, Dogma 5: The Church as Sacrament, A Sheed & Wrad Book, London, 1975, p. 5.
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III.1.2. The Ecclesial Character of the Office of hierarchy and laity

The Church on earth is the visible presence of the work of fulfilment in which Christ is
engaged in his glorified body and so also in his Spirit. This visible presence of Grace and
consequent bestowal of grace in the Church is achieved in a twofold manner: through the
apostolic office in virtue of the character of the priesthood, and through the faithful in virtue of
their character of baptism and confirmation.
What Christ is doing invisibly in this world through his Spirit, he is at the same time doing
visibly through the mission of his apostles and of the community of the faithful.
The grace of redemption becomes visible in the Church in a twofold manner, namely,
through office and through charism. Through office or institutionally both through the priestly
activity of the hierarchy and through the ecclesial office proper to the laity, i.e. through their
activity in virtue of the characters of baptism and confirmation. Through charism, that is, through
the activity of both hierarchy and laity, in so far as this activity is an outward manifestation of
inward communion.
III.1.3. A Sacrament as the Official Act of the Church
The each sacrament is the personal saving act of the risen Christ himself, but realized in
the visible form of an official act of the Church. It is an official ecclesial act performed in virtue
of either of the character of the priesthood or of the characters of baptism and confirmation. A
sacrament is primarily and fundamentally a personal act of Christ himself, which reaches us and
involves us in the form of an institutional act performed by a person in the Church who, in virtue
of a sacramental character is empowered to do so by Christ himself, that is to say, it is an “ex
officio” act. The reception of the sacraments of the Church in faith means an encounter with the
glorified Lord Himself.
III.2. THE SACRAMENTS AS THE ECCLESIAL CELEBRATION OF THE
MYSTERIES OF CHRIST’S LIFE
III.2.1. The Mystery of Redemption as eternally actual
The mystery of Incarnation means that the personal, historical actions of the man Jesus are
the personal actions of the eternal Son of God. There are two aspects to Jesus’ redemptive acts:
they take place in history, yet they have a perennial character. In other words, since Jesus is God-
Man, i.e. God existing in human form, his sacrifice on the cross and all the mysteries of the life of
Christ are personal acts of God and so they are eternally actual and enduring. Consequently they
can be made present anew in a sacramental way. Since these actions are possible only if they are
done by one who is God and man at the same time, so such actions will be historical as well as
perennial at the same time, and will lend themselves to be re-enacted in a sacramental way.
When these actions are re-enacted God the Son himself is present in these human acts in a
manner that transcends time. Christ’s presence in mystery” rests on the fat that the sacraments are
the personal acts of Christ, as pope Pius XII says in his encyclical “Mystici corporis”, “Christ
baptizes… absolves, offers sacrifice”. Although this presence in the mystery is at its greatest in
the Eucharist, because there Christ, personally and really present, is both priest and victim under
the sacramental forms, every sacrament is a personal presence of Christ himself, but the principle
of the presence differs. In the Eucharist Christ himself is present by the power of
transubstantiation whereas in the other sacraments Christ is present only in virtue of his
redemptive act sacramentally embodied.
III.2.2 The eternally enduring actuality of Redemption and the historical perspective of
salvation in the sacraments
The sacraments are as “mediation” between Christ and ourselves. What takes place in the
sacraments is the immediate encounter between the living Lord and ourselves. The sacraments
are this encounter. And it is this immediate encounter with Christ explains the threefold historical
orientation of the sacraments. For they are first of all, a commemoration of the past sacrifice of
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 10

the cross. Secondly, they are a visible affirmation and the bestowal of the actual gift of grace.
Thirdly, they are a pledge of eschatological salvation and a herald of the Parousia.
III.2.3. The Sacraments as ecclesial worship and Salvation
Man makes use of external symbolic actions in order to manifest his “inner worship of
God”. In this way we can say with St. Thomas that the external cult is a “confession of faith”,
made externally visible, i.e., a certain confession is made communal – that is, if it becomes,
through communal symbols, the normal expression of the faith of a confessional community, then
these ritual confessions of faith are called “sacraments” or “sacramental cult”. So considered in a
human religious context, sacraments are symbolic acts of worship arising from the faith of a
particular religious social group.
III. 2.4. The Infallible working of Grace in the Sacraments
It is the Sonship of Christ which establishes this infallible connection between the mystery
of worship and the bestowal of grace through the sending of the Holy Spirit. Traditionally this
connection is indicated by the phrase “ex opere operato”, that is, by the fact that the sacramental
rite is validly performed, grace is bestowed. Thus the Council of Trent declared (DZ 1068) the
seven sacraments work “ex opera operato”, i.e., on the basis of the given sign. This formulation,
of course, was misunderstood by some, especially the Reformer, as an indication of “magic”
(putting an obligation on God through the rite, which goes against the free mercy of God).
The sacraments are the saving mystery of the worship of Christ himself in ecclesial
visibility; the mystery of his worship, to which the infallible response is the bestowal of grace. To
say that the sacraments lay an obligation on God is to turn the whole matter upside down. Then a
sacrament is only the ecclesial visible form of God’s generous mercy towards man in Christ. By
the fact that Christ acts on man through the church by giving his grace the form of a constitutive
sign, it is he who renders his grace inwardly efficacious in man, and not his servant the minister,
nor the recipient of the sacrament. This precisely is the meaning of “ex opera operato”. Since the
sacraments are, in ecclesial visibility, the mystery of the worship of Christ to which the Father
always responds, they themselves also infallibly bestow grace, i.e. “ex opera operato”: by the
power of Christ the Lord. In other words, when the human prayers of the glorified Son of God is
sacramentally realized among us in a truly ecclesial religious act, through the sending of the Holy
Spirit by Christ, grace is really bestowed upon us in the same sacrament by the Father of mercies.
Some terms to be clarified
Opus Operantis
In theology, means that the personal piety of the person who does the act, and not the act
itself, causes it to be an instrument of grace. Thus, in the Eucharist, it is the faith of the recipient
which makes it efficient for grace.
Opus Operatum
In theology, means that the act conveys grace irrespectively of the receiver. Thus baptism
is said by many to convey regeneration to an infant in arms.
III.2.3. SEVENFODL ECCLEISAL REALIZION OF THE ONE MYSTERY OF
REDEMPTION
The number of sacraments as seven was finally settled upon in the Council of Lyons II
(1274), of Florence (1430) and finally of Trent (1547). The Council of Trent states that there are
seven sacraments of the New Law, no more and no less. The reasons for this late official
statement were mainly the gradual development of the term “sacrament” which was for centuries
applied to many things other than the seven saving rites of the New Law and the absence, until
this time of challenges of sacramentality of some of them. The course of the development of
sacramental theology it become evident that these seven rites, which had existed form the
beginning, held a unique place in the economy of salvation.
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 11

To the question, why these seven rites hold a unique place in the economy of salvation
light may be thrown by the remarks of a modern author who says that the seven sacraments do
not come from the arbitrary decisions of Christ and much less from that of the Church. According
to him, this diversity comes from the fact that the actions of Christ lay hold of or take up
fundamental organism is an adapted organism. The sacramental organism is an adapted organism.
To be born, to pass to adult life, to review one’s life with a view to a new start, to marry, to fall
ill, are so many situations taken up by the sacraments and thus shown to be and established as
divine-human situations.
It is in fact the life of God penetration to the anthropological roots of human existence.
The seven sacraments can be thought of as the great and the great axes by which the Lord Jesus
reaches into the depts. Of our human nature. Two points worth considering. The first is that by
the sacraments Christ reaches down to the deepest level of human life. The second point is that
the sacraments do not just go down to the roots of the human condition, but they transform it. It is
in the wholeness of our human personality that we need to go to God and in the sacraments Christ
takes over these human situations and makes them specifically Christian.
What is important is not the number seven, but the affirmation that there are certain ritual
actions (at present seven fixed by the Church) through which the saving presence and activity of
God as well as the sacramental nature of the Church are visibly and effectively engaged. A
sacrament is not redemption pure and simple, but rather redemption as directed to a particular
human and ecclesial need for it. The seven sacraments should not be understood as arbitrary
manifestations of the Church’s sacramentality but they correspond to the living situation of the
individual and of the Church’s community.
IV. THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS
IV.1. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT
[Link] Scriptural data
The term sacrament as we understand it today is not found in the scripture. But at the very
outset it must be borne in mind that when we investigate the biblical foundation of the theology
of the sacraments and when we study its history, it is important to make an adequate distinction
between the history of the word “sacrament” (or its explicit concept) and the thing signified
thereby. The latter has been at work in the Church from the beginning, the response of the
Church’s life to something which it receives and mediates. The word “sacramentum” was used in
the early bible translations to denote the Greek word “mysterion”. In the Old Testament this word
“mysterion” had different meanings. In the religious sphere the word refers to God’s plan of
creation and the purpose he has assigned to the history of the world in so far as God
communicates his plans to those whom he has chosen (Wis 2,22; Dan 2, 18ff).
The communication of the mystery, however, is not a piece of information from God but a
realization or actualization of it in those to whom God reveals himself. This very same word is
taken up also in the NT. It is fully developed by St. Paul. God is a mystery and it can be known
only by a divine decree (Rom 6, 25-26; 1Cor 2,6). The long-hidden but now revealed divine
mystery is Jesus Christ himself (Col 1, 26-27, 2,2; Gal 4,4). Now Christ has made this mystery
manifest in the Church (Eph 1,4-10; 3, 3-12; 1Cpr 2, 7; 3,1).
Christ is the mystery in person. This mystery is proclaimed by the apostles, and the
Church throughout the ages continues to make it constantly present again in the Church’s
worship. So we see that neither in the NT nor the early Church the term mystery is limited to
those actions which we call sacraments. But around the end of the second century the word
“mystery” and the corresponding Latin word “sacramentum” begins to be used, at first by Justin
Martyr, to describe the great rites of salvation within the total sacramentality of the Church, that
is, baptism and the Eucharist.
IV.1.2. Patristic Concept
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 12

The concept and theology of the sacraments were strongly stamped by the doctrine of
Tertullian, St. Irenaeus and St. Cyprian. The word “sacramentum” is connected with “sacrare or
consecrare”, i.e., a legally valid and permanent removal of a person or thing form the sphere of
human law to that of divine law. Thus the oath taken by a soldier in the army was known as
“sacramentum”. Tertullian used this term in a theological sense, although he did not limit its
meaning to the sacraments as we understand them today. He understood baptism, in particular, it
terms of a military oath.
With St. Augustine the concept of sacrament underwent an important development. For
him a sacrament is a sacred sign, but he made a distinction between the sign and the content (res)
of the sign. So what is important in a sign is not so much what they are by what they mean, but to
be a sign it must have some resemblance to that which it refers to. For St. Augustine the bearers
of this resemblance are the natural object used and the word which defines it. The object and the
word constitute the visible manifestation of the sacrament. He says: “Take away the word and
what is water then but water? But when the word is combined with the element, we have a
sacrament”.
The main figures who worked in Greek and contributed to the development of the concept
of sacrament were St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. John Chrysostom, who used the term myserion,
in a sense closely allied to that of sacramentum. It must be remembered that the Fathers as a
whole worked out their theology of the sacraments by depicting the realities given in the
individual sacraments.
IV.1.3. The Scholastic Notion
The patristic notion of the sacraments was transmitted to early scholasticism by St. Isidore
of Seville (636) and the Carolingian theologians. St. Isidore of Seville distinguished even more
sharply than Augustin between the sign and the reality it points to.
In Hugo of St. victor (+1141) we find a still more developed notion of sacrament. For him a
sacrament is an object present to the sense which, because of tis similarity with saving reality
established by Christ and the sanctification it has received, both represents and contains a
spiritual grace. Grace is contained in the sacrament as in a vessel.
Peter Lombard (+1160) goes beyond this when he regards the sacrament not only as the sing but
alos as the cause of grace. He speaks so generally of signs, however, that this word is applied to
actions and not the things.
Further development in the notion of sacrament we see in St. Thomas Aquinas. To explain the
sign, St. Thomas used the Aristotelian terms “matter” and “form”, regarding the word as the form
and the thing as the matter, although this brought some clarification, it had difficulties to
overcome, especially with regard to the sacraments in which no actual object or physical thing
was involved, as, for instance, in the sacrament of penance or of matrimony. But the distinction
between the “opus operantum” and the “opus operans” which was made in the 12the century mad
an important advance in the ntion of sacrament. Moreover, in the same century the word
sacrament was limited to those seven sacred rites that we call sacraments.
IV.2. THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH
IV.2.1. The Second Council of Lyons (1274)
In this council, the 14th Ecumenical Council, Gregory X (1271-1276) was concerned with
reuniting the Greek Church. In this Council mention is made of certain doctrinal points regarding
the sacraments. Here it appears as though the sevenfold number of the sacraments is taken for
granted by all. So it is in the details concerning certain sacraments that the points of difference
are touched.
Furthermore, the same holy Roman Church holds and teaches that there are seven
sacraments of the Church. One is baptism which has been treated above. Another is the sacrament
of confirmation which bishops confer by the imposition of hands, anointing those who have been
reborn. Then there is penance, the Eucharist, the sacrament of orders, matrimony, and extreme
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 13

unction which, according to the teaching of St. James, is administered to the sick. The same
Roman Church consecrates the sacrament of the Eucharist from unleavened bread, and she holds
and teaches that in this sacrament the bread is truly transubstantiated into the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the wine into his blood. As regards matrimony, the Church holds that one man
may not have more than one wife at the same time, nor is a woman permitted to have more than
one husband. When a lawful marriage is dissolved by the death of one of the spouses, the Church
teaches that two, three, or even further marriages are successively lawful, provided that there is
no canonical impediment form aby other source. (Dz 465).
IV.2.2. The Council of Florence (1438-1442)
After the apparent success in reuniting the Greek Church an attempt was made to come to
some understanding with the American Church in the Council of Florence. On November 22,
1436 the decree “ExultateDexo” on union was published. In the decree among other things there
was an important instruction on the sacraments. It testifies to the pre-reformation doctrine on the
sacraments. Theologians, however, do not hold them as infallible definitions.
The Council holds that the first five of these are ordered to the interior spiritual perfection
of the individual; the last two are ordered to the government and to the spread of the whole
Church. For baptism we are spiritually reborn and by confirmation we grow in grace and are
strengthened in the faith; being reborn and strengthened, we are nourished with the divine food of
the Eucharist. If by sin, we become sick in soul then penance spiritually heals us; extreme unction
heals us in spirit and in body as well, insofar as it is good for the soul. By holy orders the Church
is governed and given spiritual growth; by matrimony she is given bodily growth. All these
sacraments are brought to completion by three components; by things as matter, by words as
form, and by the person of the minister effecting the sacrament with the intention of doing what
the Church does.
Among these sacraments, there are three, baptism, confirmation, and holy orders, which
print on the soul an indelible character, that is, a certain spiritual sign distinguishing the recipient
from others. Hence, these are not given more than once to one person. The other four do not
imprint this character and may be repeated (DZ 695/ Ds 1310-1313).
IV. 2.3. The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
IV. 3. CHANGE IN THE SACRAMENTS
In the teaching of the Council of Trent regarding the sacraments we find a statement that
the substance of the sacraments was determined by Christ and is therefore withdrawn from the
authority of the Church (Ds 1061, 1699, 1728f., 3857). That is to say what was instituted by
Christ, the Church cannot alter. But the historical investigations into the development of the
different sacramental rites provide us with ample evidence that there have been enormous
variations in the shape of the liturgical word and the liturgical action, that is, the matter and form
of the sacrament.
E. Schillebeeckx takes the example of confirmation in order to make this point clear. In
the case of sacrament of confirmation we do not have any evidence of Christ instituting it directly
determining its matter and form. Then what did actually take place? During his earthly life Jesus
had promised to send the |Holy Spirit to the Apostles. After Easter the Apostles, in the Cenacle,
experienced the effusion of the Holy Spirit, along with what appeared to be visible tongues of
fire. That is to say, in this event they realized the fulfilment of the promise of their Master. The
Lord sends from heaven his Holy Spirit in some visible form. And then the Apostles take up their
commission. The Church itself now begins to bestow on other men the Spirit it had directly
received from Christ. This is the sacrament of confirmation. The manner of conferring this
sacrament was not through the performance of a miracle of “fiery tongues”, but through a visible
act.
This visible act they chose from their own religious milieu – i.e., Jewish practice of laying
on of hands in order to confer blessings, which was connected with the gift of the Spirit. So the
Apostles imposed their hands upon those who had been baptized, in order to bestow on them the
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 14

outpouring of the Spirit. From all these evidences it is clear that it was not Christ himself who
instituted either explicitly or implicitly the rite of laying on of hands for administering the
sacrament of confirmation. But it seems to have been the spontaneous choice of the Apostles
themselves.
This, however, does not mean that Christ did not determine the actual shape of the
outward rite in some way for certain sacraments. In the case of baptism he said explicitly “baptize
all men”. Which means a symbolic washing. But the further destinations, fixing more precisely
the actual nature of this washing, by pouring water on the head, or by immersing the person into
the water, etc., fall within the power of the Church. So also with regard to the Eucharist. Christ
himself celebrated the Eucharist with bread and wine, which in his day played a prominent part in
the meal of the Jewish Passover. So the Church retains the use of bread and wine in her
celebration of the Eucharist.
Here one should not forget the fact that what lay within the power of the Apostolic
Church does not necessarily lie within the power of the post-apostolic Church as well, since the
Apostolic Church belonged to the constitutive phase of revelation. That means the Apostles
spontaneous selection of a particular rite in which the Christian signification is sacramentalized
can be normative for the post-apostolic Church. Thus the outward rite as determined by the
Apostles may be something which the Church receives as unalterable. This, however, does not
mean that the post-apostolic Church has no possibility whatsoever to bring about a broader
development in the ritual as a whole; then it is an historical fact that the Church has done this.
But in all these developments we see that the truly essential factor in the ritual has been retained,
although an appreciation of the actual apostolic ritual has been, at times, at a very low level.
For instance, confirmation, during the Middle Ages more importance was attached, if not
the exclusive importance, to the anointing, despite the apostolic custom of the imposition of
hands. But some theologians like St. Thomas maintained that anointing was a substitution for the
Apostolic custom of laying on of hands. The anointing in actual use was considered at the same
time a rudimentary imposition of hands.
To what the Church is absolutely bound is to preserve the “symbolic area” which is
derived from the apostolic age, and outside of which it would be impossible for a sacrament to be
effected. The concretization of the symbolic field is determined by the Church’s historical life.
The sacramental sign cannot realize its symbolic power in the same way in every culture. Then a
sign that was intelligible in one century may tend to lose its intelligibility in another owing to a
cultural change. In such asituation, the Church is free to alter the sign in order to render it more
intelligible. But care has to be taken not to abandon the not to abandon the “symbolic area” which
has its origin in the apostolic age.
IV.4. THE EFFECTS OF THE SACRAMENTS
Since every sacrament is an encounter with Christ in his Church, each has a double effect.
The one in relation to the visible Church. This can be called the ecclesial effect of a sacrament.
The other in relation to Christ and God. This is known as the religious effect or the grace-effect
of a sacrament. These two effects are related to each other in such a way that the ecclesial effect
as it is signified in the external rite, is the sacrament of the grace-effect. Hence the Scholastic
theologians called the ecclesial effect as “res et sacramentum”, meaning that it was both the
effect of the external rite and the sign of the more profound effect, namely, the grace-effect. The
grace-effect was called the “res tantum” and the outward rite, the “sacramentum tantum”, sign
alone.
The above scholastic distinction of three levels of action in each of the sacraments is
helpful to understand the whole sacramental complex. According to the scholastic theologians
first we have the outward visible sign itself, which they termed the “sacramentum tantum”. In the
sacraments through the material visibility, God is calling man directly to be with him for eternity.
The term “res et sacramentum” refers to the immediate saving effect that the outward sign
infallibly produces and regards this first, hidden effect as a sign of faith for the ultimate and
actual saving effect which they called “res tantum”, that is, the divine self-communication.
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 15

The direct effect of a sacrament, the “res et sacramentum”, always signifies a particular
relation to the Church. The sacraments are all the Church’s signs: they are all a self-realization, a
self-representation, of the Church. Thus, for instance, baptism imparts membership in the Church.
Through the sacrament of order one acquires a special position in the church. Through sharing in
the Eucharist one is again, in a special way, drawn into the brotherly community of the Church.
Now this ecclesiological effect is also the sign of the individual’s encounter with Christ and God,
which results in an increase of likeness to Christ, grace (res tantum).
IV.4.1. The Ecclesial effect of the Sacrament
The ecclesial effect of a sacrament was called by the Medieval theologians as Character,
Mark or Seal, in the case of baptism, confirmation and holy orders. They are called as
“adornment of the soul”. According to St. Thomas, a character is nothing else, but a kind of
sealing. By the sacraments God imprints his character on us. The faithful are marked by a certain
spiritual character in order that they might perform certain spiritual service. For St. Thomas, a
character is a spiritual power, and he distinguishes between the active power and the passive
power. Since the sacraments depute us to the worship of God, which consists in either receiving
divine gifts or bestowing them on others, the spiritual power given through the sacraments
corresponds to these two forms of worships, namely, the active power in bestowing the dine gifts
on others, and the passive power in receiving the divine gifts.
This particular sacramental reality got its name “character” or “seal” from the ancient
cultural world, in the ancient world “seal” meant a sign of recognition, or indicated the idea of
possession. Thus the soldier or the salve was branded and sealed with the initials of the Emperor
or the owner. The mark of the seal indicates a twofold obligation, namely, from the part of the
owner to take the one sealed under his protection and from the part of the one sealed to fulfil
one’s commission in virtue of his office. It was against this cultural background that theologians
gradually became aware of a special dimension in ecclesial sacramentality. This dimension,
however, was recognized in practice.
The Council of Florence and of Trent teach that three sacraments baptism, confirmation
and holy order confer a character that is indelible here on earth so that they may not be received
more than once. E. Schillebeckx speaks of character as a commission to carry out a visible
activity in the Church. A baptized member of the Church receives the commission and therefore
the competence, duty and right to take an active part in the ecclesial mystery of Easter. This
activity is primarily the sacramental activity of the Church.
In confirmation the Church’s charismatic activity in the spirit is visibly extended in the
life of the person who is now fully initiated. The character of the priestly orders initiate one into
the priesthood of the apostolic office. Christ entrusted the guidance of the priestly people to the
apostolic office, which therefore holds authority in the Church. The character of the order gives
to already initiated members of the community a commission and an ordination to act in the
person of Christ as head of the Church.
The ecclesial effect of the sacrament of penance is reconciliation with the Church, as the
sacrament of our reconciliation with God in Christ. The Eucharist brings about a deepening of the
inner belonging to the Eucharistic people of God: it is the sacrament of the unity of the Church,
the bond of which is love. In the sacrament of the anointing of the sick the gift of grace is
bestowed by making visible connections with the Church. For the Church is the earthly
representative of Christ’s redemption which, overcoming sin, overcomes death. Thus the
ecclesial effect of the anointing of the sick is a specific incorporation into the Church possessing
the eschatological power to overcome death. Finally matrimony has an ecclesial effect which is
also the sacrament of the bestowal of grace. In her visible life and activity the Church manifests
herself as the bride of Christ. Matrimony thus unites the marriage bond of man and woman with
the bridal relationship of the Church to Christ.
IV.4.2. The Grace-Effect of the Sacraments
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 16

St. Thomas says that the sacraments cause grace. Then man is incorporated with Christ
through the sacraments and a man can be made a member of Christ only through the grace. Here
God himself is the principal cause of grace. The sacramental sign has only an instrumental
causality. God alone can be the principal cause, because grace is nothing else than a likeness
whereby we share in the divine nature (1Pet 1, 3-4).
The sacramental grace is sanctifying grace itself, because sacramental life given birth to
the new life. It is the grace of life out of death, after the pattern of the sacrifice of life on the cross
brought to glory in the resurrection. This sanctifying grace comes to us visibly in the Church, in
the fullness of its power, specially aimed and ordered to the particular ecclesial needs of life and
to the particular commissions of a Christian. Finally, grace is not something static. The
sacramental encounter which establishes a mutual love relationship between God and man
remains ever active. This implies something what is known as actual grace.
IV.5. THE ROLE OF THE MINISTER AND THE RECIPENT IN THE SACRAMENT
IV.5.1. The Role of the Minister in the Sacraments
Of course our parents are the first witnesses and proclaimers of Christ to their children,
the authentic publications of the word to the people of God is the task of the bishops and of the
priests commissioned by them. This special task results from the ecclesial effect of holy order.
The bishop is the head of the local Church, i.e., the visible representative of Christ, and therefore
he is also the “head” in the Eucharistic celebration. The priests share in this function of the
bishop.
In the administration of the sacrament of baptism, in extraordinary cases, ordinary
Christians and even non-Christians can function as ministers, although the usual minister remains
the one specially commissioned. In matrimony it is the couple who celebrate the sacrament. The
administration of any sacrament necessarily demands that the minister must have the intention of
doing what the Church wants of him or her to do. Therefore the intention of the minister is
necessary for the validity of a sacrament.
It is obvious that the minister himself should participate in the “devotion of the entire
Church”. That is to say, the minister must identify himself in an apostolic spirit with the whole of
this process of sanctification and in the ritual mystery of worship express his own prayerful desire
for the sanctification of the recipient.

IV.5.2. The Role of the Recipient of a Sacrament

There is no teaching of the Church which states that the intention of the recipient is
necessary for the validity of a sacrament. It is the nature of a sacrament which demands from the
part of the individual an attitude of acceptance from the part of the one for whom the rite has
been performed. When we say that the recipient must have the minimum intention in order to
receive the sacrament fruitfully, it means that the recipient truly desires the ecclesial rite to be
performed upon him. In this case he accepts at least the direction of the rite to his own person. As
the minimum it is sufficient that he willingly has the rite performed on himself knowing, at least
vaguely, that it is an ecclesial religious rite.
In case of an adult, the sacramental rite demands a minimum of personal involvement if it
is to be truly sacrament for him. Sacraments for the infants. It is the opinion of the theologians
that an individual who is psychologically still undeveloped (e.g. an infant), does not need to form
any intention with regard to the reception of a sacrament by himself. In case of an infant,
according to St. Thomas, the intention is expressed not by the child but by those who bring the
child for baptism, e.g., parents, sponsors, relatives and friends. Just one enters a family by birth
and is really a part of that family even though for a long period of time one is incapable of giving
human love but possesses only the capacity for receiving it, so one may be brought into the
family of the Church before one is capable of understanding its significance or for expressing the
love that makes this community out as the Body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit. With
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 17

the baptism the foundation for the encounter with God is laid. In other words, sanctifying grace is
now present as the actual possibility of an encounter with God when the child’s psyche awakes,
and has an effect in this very waking, at least as far as religion is concerned.
V. THE REVIVISCENCE OF THE SACRAMENT
If the recipient is in the proper disposition the sacrament would confer the grace that is
prayed for. So if the grace is not conferred it is due to the lack of proper disposition. This means
that only the removal of this hindrance is required for the sacrament to take immediate effect. The
fact that a sacrament achieves its full effect as soon as the hindrance is removed is described in
theological circles as the “revival” or “reviviscence” of a sacrament. The Medieval theologians
spoke of a sacrament “remaining”. In scholastic terminology it is “res et sacramentum”. This
effect is always achieved if a sacrament is valid, whatever be the disposition of the one who
receives it. But the effect can never be achieved by a pure sacrament of desire (i.e. there is no
visible communion in grace).
A person bears the character really and ineradicably from the moment that the ecclesial
rite is validly performed upon him, even when the sacraments bear no fruit in grace. But the
character can be conferred only by a sacrament and not by a sacrament of desire. For K. Rahner,
to speak of the revival of a sacrament does not mean that a sacrament comes to life again, but that
a sacramental sign becomes effective. The revival of the sacraments is, according to Rahner,
simply a property that accompanies their character of being each an “opus operantum”.
Since the revival of a sacrament depends on the particular nature of each sacrament,
theologians are divided in their opinion regarding the possibility of the reviviscence of the
sacraments of Eucharist and penance. With regard to the sacrament of penance it is generally said
that if it is unfruitful it is also invalid. But some hold the opinion that a confession is valid so long
as the penitent is repentant, but that if the repentance is to minimal to constitute a worthy
reception of the sacrament it remains unfruitful and could therefore revive. But according to
Schillebeeckx the sacrament of penance is a special case, since the recipients intention to receive
the sacrament does not suffice to make it valid; a minimum of repentance, an inward metanoia
must, in its visible manifestation, be necessary to the constitutive and valid sign of repentance. So
the revival of the sacrament of confession is not agreed upon by the theologians.
With regard to the sacrament of the Eucharist there is no agreement among the
theologians. In this question it is always the reception of communion alone that is considered.
The question is whether it is possible to receive the sacrament of communion validly, or
participate in the Mass authentically, without thereby sharing in the fruits of the sacrament. The
general opinion among the theologians is that this sacrament cannot revive.
VI. SACRAMENTAL: COMPLEMENTARY SIGN OF THE SACRAMENTAL
ECONOMY
VI.1. The Nature of Sacramentals
With the refinement of the term “sacrament” by scholastic theology, the term
“sacramental” became the designation for those actions that the Church herself instituted.
According to St. Thomas, the sacramentals are rites essentially related to the sacraments. They
are all the rites, all the sacred signs which contribute to give the celebration of a sacrament. Until
the Second Vatican Council the definition of the Code of Canon Law was taken as a guide: the
old canon No 1144 and (new Canon 1166) defined the sacramentals as follows: “sacramentals are
things or actions that the Church is accustomed to use, in imitation of the sacraments, in order to
obtain through her intercession certain effects, especially spiritual ones”.
This definition has been superseded by the definition given by the Second Vatican
Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (SC 60): “ Holy Mother Church has, moreover,
instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments: they
signify effects, particularly of a spiritual kind, which are obtained through the Church's
intercession. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various
occasions in life are rendered holy.” Unlike the definition of the old canon law which speaks of
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 18

sacramentals as “things” or “actions” Vatican II speaks of them as “sacred signs”. This means
sacramentlas are part of the sign language of the Church’s liturgy.
“With the passage of time, however, there have crept into the rites of the sacraments and
sacramentals certain features which have rendered their nature and purpose far from clear to the
people of today; hence some changes have become necessary to adapt them to the needs of our
own times. For this reason the sacred Council decrees as follows concerning their revision.” (SC
62) “The sacramentals are to undergo a revision which takes into account the primary principle of
enabling the faithful to participate intelligently, actively, and easily; the circumstances of our own
days must also be considered. When rituals are revised, as laid down in Art. 63, new sacramentals
may also be added as the need for these becomes apparent.” (SC 79)
The discussion has been carried out mainly on two points, namely, whether the term
applies to objects blessed by the Church and whether those ceremonies that form part of the
celebration of Mass and other sacraments beyond the actions performed in the person of Christ
are to be considered as sacramentals. This has been clarified by the old canon law definition of no
1144 included “things” as well as “actions”. In its definition of sacramentals, whereas the SC 60
and the New Code of Canon Law 1166 omit any reference to blessed objects as such. So
according to J.H. Miller “sacramentals consist immediately and primarily in the Church’s prayer
of impetration, and only in second place and immediately (through this impetratory prayer) in the
sanctification of an object. In the most proper sense, a sacramental would be the immediate object
of the Church’s impetratory power, namely, the blessing or similar action actively using the
Church’s prayer; the thing blessed, because of this blessing, increases our reverence for divine
worship or helps to elevate the tenor of our daily lives. The private use of such blessed objects is
not, therefore, liturgical in the strict sense of the word, but rather brings to us and our lives the aid
of the Church’s liturgical prayer”.
VI.2. The Effects and Efficacy of the Sacramentals
The sacramentals incude a wide variety of rites. Formerly they were classified under the
six heads of praying, anointing, eating, confessing, giving and blessing. They included the sign of
the cross, the Confiteor (a form of praying confessing sins) recited at Mass and in the Divine
Office, vestments, lights, palms, ashes, the stations of the cross, litanies, the Angelus, the rosary,
the churching of women and so on. Corresponding to the variety of rites their effects are also
numerous. The chief effect, however, is of a spiritual nature. Like the sacraments they are for the
good of the whole man and through them man is sometimes aided in his temporal needs; but their
first purpose is his sanctification, or they are the signs of the paschal mystery.
The efficacy of the sacramentals is spoken of as “ex opere operantis ecclesiae”. This
means that as the spouse of Christ, using Christ’s power of priesthood, the Church offers a
uniquely holy prayer always pleasing to God. The sacramentals are valuable because they are the
signs of Church’s intercession. The sacramentals also act by their power of suggestion, promoting
faith, making man sensible to the sacraments through the creation of a sacramental environment.
VI.3. The Minister of Sacramentals
The sacramental in general like the sacraments, have their individual recognized matter,
from and minister. In anointing (in baptism) and in consecrations (of Churches, altars) oil is used
as matter; Holy water is used in blessings. The administration of sacramentals connected with the
sacraments is reserved to the person who administers the sacraments. In general, however, the
spiritual power to bless and consecrate is conferred on priests at their ordination. There are
certain sacramentals like, consecrations, dedications etc. are reserved to the Pope and bishops.
But they can be performed by the priests with due permission (by the bishops, in the case of those
reserved to the pope). In accordance with the direction of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
which says “provisions should be made for the administration of some sacramental, at least in
special circumstances and at the discretion of the ordinary by qualified lay persons” (79).
Canon 1168 says that some sacramentals according to the norm of the liturgical books and
of the judgement of the local ordinary, can be administered by the qualified lay persons. Canon
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 19

1169 speaks of deacons as ministers of sacramentals. The deacons are allowed to impart blessings
which are expressly permitted to them. Only bishops are “ex officio” ministers of consecrations.
In the past it has been the practice to limit other blessings to specially designated persons. These
have been known as “reserved blessings”, but the Second Vatican Council has ordered that their
number be reduced (SC 79). In the future such reservations will be made only in favour of
bishops or ordinaries. The power of Exorcism cannot be exercised except by special and explicit
permission of the local ordinary, except for those exorcisms that form part of the ritual of the
sacraments. Canon 1172, 2 insists that this permission be granted only to priests who are
outstanding in piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life.
As the right dispositions are essential for the effectiveness of sacraments they are certainly
required also for the effectiveness of sacramentals. But just as in the sacraments the sanctification
that is effected in the sacramentals is not the work of the participants; it is the prayer of the
Church in which the faithful join and from which they profit according to their generosity.
VI.4. Sacramentals and the Sacraments
The first of the two functions of sacrametnals specified by the Vatican II is that of
disposing men to receive the chief effect of the sacraments. Sacramentals are seen as aids to our
sharing in the paschal mystery. When we consider the intimate relation between the sacraments
and the sacramentals, it becomes clear to us that the sacramentals are instituted by the Church in
service of the sacraments, either to dispose us towards them or to remind us of them after their
actual reception.
In order to dispose one of a worthy and fruitful reception or as a reminder of baptism
already received we have several sacramentals: the blessing of baptismal water at the Easter
Vigil, the blessing of holy water, exorcisms, sign of the cross, anointing, imposition of hands, the
giving white garment and candle, religious profession, the consecration of virgins etc. The chief
sacramental connected with penance is the blessing and distribution of ashes on Ash Wednesday.
That all sacramentals, as everything else in the Church, are related to the Eucharist is emphasized
by the Vatican Second. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy insists that the sacramentals must
as far as possible manifest their connection to this sacrament.
The sacramentals connected with the sacraments of holy orders are: those orders below
diaconate, the consecration of holy oils, the blessing of abbots, and the dedication of churches.
Among the chief sacrametnals related to the sacrament of matrimony are the blessing of the
home, the various blessings of women, the nuptial blessing itself, which is now to be given even
when marriage takes place outside of Mass (SC 78). Connected with the anointing of the sick are
the sacramental of blessing for the faithful at various stages of illness, the prayers at the time of
death, the burial rites, etc. Speaking of the sacramentals the constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
says that they also sanctify the various occasions of life. The many circumstances of human
activities are specifically consecrated though prayers that the Church makes available to her
members.
VII. SACRAMENTS AND HUNDU SAMKARAS (HINDU SACRAMENTS)
VII.1. The Meaning of the Word ‘Samskara’
The word Samskara cannot be easily translated into English due to the different meanings
attributed to this word. Ceremony (caerimonia) does not give the full meaning of this word,
rather it corresponds with Sanskirt karman, that is religious act in general. Samskara has got its
own peculiar association gathered round it through its long history. It means religious
purificatory rites and ceremonies for sanctifying the body, mind and intellect of an individual, so
that man may become a full-fledged member of the community.
The Samskaras were regarded as producing a peculiar indefinable kind of merit for the man who
underwent them “a peculiar excellence due to the rites ordained (by the Sastras) which reside
either in the soul or the body.
VII.2. The Purpose of the Samsakaras
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 20

We can divide the purpose of Samskaras into two

1. Popular and superstitious – motivated by unquestioned faith and naïve simplicity of the
ordinary people
2. Priestly and cultural – priests, being above ordinary men, introduced considerable refinement
and culture into social customs and rites in a variety of ways.
1. Popular purpose: The ancient believe that they were surrounded by superhuman influences
which were potent enough for good or evil consequences. They thought that these influences
could interfere in every important occasion in human life. Therefore they tried to remove hostile
influences and attract beneficial ones. The removal of hostile influences was achieved through
Samskaras. First of them was Propitiation – offering praise, oblations and food, so that the evil
spirits may return satisfied with these, without causing injury to the individual, e.g. during the
pregnancy of woman, at the birth of the child, during the childhood, etc. The second one was that
of deception, e.g. at the approach of death the image of the man was burnt before his death to
deceive it. The motive was that death while haunting the proper body of its victim would mistake
him for an already dead person. When the above two methods failed a third was applied, namely
by plainly asking the mischievous spirits to go away, threatened and directly attacked. Other
devices were used in Samskaras like water which is used for the physical impurities and warded
off demons. Noise was made at the time of burial to scare away lurking spirits. The student was
given a staff as a means of self-protection. When this was thrown away at the end of the
studentship, he was provided with a stronger bamboo-staff at the time of Samavartana, that is the
end of studentship. Shaking was also a means to remove evil influences.
2. The cultural purpose: “By performing the Samskaras, conception, birth-rites, tonsure, and
Upanayana (initiation) seminal and uterine impurities are washed away (M. S ii 27). Some kind
of impurity was attached to the physical side of procreation and lying in the womb. Therefore it
was thought necessary to remove that impurity from the body by performing various samskaras.
There existed also the theory that every man is born sudra, who requires refinement and polish
before he becomes a full-fledged Aryan. This can be done by the performance of the Upabayana
(initiation).
2.1. Social privileges and rights were also connected with the Samskaras. Upanayana was a
passport for admission into the Aryan community and its sacred literature. At the end of
education and for entering the married life one had to perform the Samavartana samskara
(Samavartana or Snana, is the ceremony associated with the end of formal education and
the Brahmacharya  asrama of life. The Upanayana and the Vivaha Samskaras with Vedic hymns
entitled a person to perform all kinds of sacrifices befitting an Aryan and increasing his status in
the society. Another purpose of the Samsakaras was the attainment of heaven and even Moksa or
liberation.
2.2. Moral Purpose: In course of time a moralizing feature emerged from the material body of the
Samskaras. There are eight good qualities of the soul explained by Gauthama Budha. They are
mercy, forbearance, freedom from envy, purity, calmness, right behaviour and freedom from
greed and covetousness. He says that “He that has performed forty sacraments but has not with
good qualities enters not into union with Brahman. But he that has performed only a part of the
forty Samskaras and has eight good qualities enters into union with Brhaman and into the heaven
of Brhamana.
2.4. Spiritual Significance: To a Hindu the Samskaras are outward visible signs of an inward
spiritual grace. He looked beyond the ceremonial performance and felt something invisible which
sanctified his whole personality.
VII.3. The Constituents of the Hindu Sacraments
1. Agni or Fire: it is the first and most permanent constituents of the Samskaras which was
always kindled in the beginning of every Samskara. It is held as the “Houselord” which means
the chief domestic deity, a constant source of help. The fire that was kept burning in every house
becomes a perpetual sign for all. It influences the relationship among the family members.
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 21

2. Prayers, appeals and blessings: Gods were prayed to for the accomplishment of desires of
men. The Samskaras being domestic rites, during their performance prayers were offered for
personal or family interests. Eg. Protection from evil, prosperity for children, cattle etc.
3. Sacrifice: Man believes that gods, like men, are propitiated by praise and prayer. Like men
they too are happy to receive presents and gifts. Samskaras, with the exception of funeral rites,
were performed at the festive occasions in the life of a man. Therefore, the recipient of the
Samskaras offered presents paid homage to the beneficent gods in token of gratitude.
4. Lustration: it consisted of bath, sipping of water and lustration or baptismal sprinkling of water
over persons and things. Water for the ancient man seemed to be living because of its motion,
sound and power. Many springs, lakes, wells and rivers had miraculous healing property, so it
was thought that some divinity lived in each of them.
5. Orientation: It was based on the symbolism of the path of the sun and myths according to
which different directions were ruled by different deities. Eastern direction was associated with
light and warmth, life, happiness and glory; the west with darkness, death and decay. South is the
abode of Yama, the god of death. These beliefs gave rise to various practices concerning the
position of man in the Samskaras. East always for the light and life.
6. Symbolism: It is a material object to convey mental and spiritual significance. E.g. stone is a
symbol of fixity and one who mounted it was supposed to be invested with firmness in character.
Eating together is the symbol of union. Rice is the symbol of fertility. Grasping the hand is the
symbol of taking the responsibility, etc.
7. Taboos: It is a Polynesian word said to mean “what is prohibited”. Numerous taboos were
observed at various points of Samskaras. Taboos connected with lucky and unlucky days, months
and years.
8. Magic: The method of magic is based on sequence of incidents and on imitation of nature and
man. There are number of magical formulas were used in Samskaras. What we are speaking is
about the magic which is beneficent and it differs from the black-magic. In Hindu Samskaras
religion is more important than magic. On the whole in the beginning there was hardly any
difference between a priest and a magician. But later on, as a consequence of progress and
refinement in religion, conflict arose between the two. Ultimately, though not completely, the
priest succeeded in ousting the magician, who was in league with uncanny world. The Buddhist
and Jain monks were forbidden to devote themselves to the exorcism of the magic. The
Brahmanical law books declared sorcery as a sin; the magicians were classed with rogues and
scoundrels and the king was asked to punish them.
9. Divination: Divination is the science that seeks to discover the will of supernatural powers.
Men desired to learn the causes of the present and the past misfortunes and the story of the future
that they may know at any moment what is the best course to pursue. Of all the divinatory
methods astrology played the greatest role in the history of the Samskaras. It derived its
prominence from the belief that all heavenly bodies were divine or controlled by divine beings or
abode of the dead. So it was natural that the astral movements should be looked on as giving
signs of the will of gods.
10. Cultural Elements: Samskaras contained social customs and usages and rules about eugenics,
etc, hygiene medicines, etc. the social status of a man played an important role throughout the
Samskaras. The right of performance and the procedure of ceremonies were often determined by
castes.
VII.4. The place of Samskaras in Hinduism
1. Samskaras took life as a whole: In the beginning of civilization life was much simpler than it is
at present and it was not divided into compartments. Social institutions, beliefs, sentiments, arts,
sciences, etc, were all closely interwoven. The Samskaras covered all these fields of life. The aim
of the Samskaras was to create conditions for the development of an integrated personality of an
 Introduction to Sacramental Theology 22

individual, who can adjust himself with the world around him, believed to be full of human and
superhuman forces.
2. Samskaras and the three paths of life: The Hundus recognized three definite paths of life:
firstly, Karma-marga (the path of action). Secondly, Upasana-marga (the path of meditation and
worhip) and thirdly, Jnana-marga (the path of knowledge). The first path of life was a
preparatory step to the second and the third one for the purification of mind (Chitta-suddhi).
Therefore, though the Samksaras were not of the highest importance in life, they were of the
primary importance and thus essential for every individual. As a matter of fact they provide a
necessary training for a higher type of culture.
3. Samskaras and Philosophy: Indian philosophical attitude towards life centered round the idea
that temporal life, in its last analysis, is futile and that a permanent state of consciousness
transcending the earthly existence is to be reached. The Samskaras which blessed the mundane
affairs of life were looked down upon by some. The Charvakas (materialist), the Buddhists and
the Jains attacked rituals and dogmas in vain. The Charvakss, having no rituals to rest upon, died
out. The Buddhists and the Jains developed their own rituals, leaving their laity to follow the
popular rituals current in the society.
4. Samskaras and puranic Hinduism: The development of puranic Hinduism synchronised with
the decline of the Vedic religion and the gravity of religious life shifted from home, the venue of
the Samskaras, to the place of pilgrimage and the temples. The emphasis was laid on ideal
worship. But though the big sacrifices fell into disuse, the Samskaras survived with the changes.
5. Achievements of the Samskaaras: The Samskaras helped in the refinement and purification of
human life, facilitated the development of personality, imparted sanctity and importance to
human body, blessed all material and spiritual aspirations of man and ultimately prepared him for
an easy and happy exit from this world of complexities and problems. They also helped in the
solution of either problems in social life, e.g. the pre-natal. Samskaras were concerned with sex,
hygiene and eugenics. In the case of education, the Samskaras played a greater role. Because in
early societies there was no secular agency to enforce compulsory education upon the masses.
The Samskaras, being compulsory, served this purpose. According to this every child was to
undergo a compulsory course of education involving learning and strict discipline. This
maintained the intellectual and cultural level of the ancient Hindus. The Vivaha Samskara
regulated a number of sexual and social problems by laying down definite rules on the types and
forms of marriage, the limitations of marriage, the selection of parties and the nuptials.
6. The decline of Samskaras: As time went on the Samskaras declined due to their internal
weakness and external circumstance, which developed in the history of the Hindus. The time and
ideology under which they evolved were left far behind and new social and religious forces were
operating in the society, which did not fully conform to old social and religious institutions. In
this practice Jainism and Buddhism had also their influence. They were not much of ritualistic.
The linguistic difficulty was also responsible for the decline of the Samskaras. The Mantras
recited in the Samskaras were from the Vedas and the procedure of the Samksaras was couched
in archaic Samskrit and the both have continued to be still today. The Samskrit language has
become the language of a few. The priests have never cared to change the language of the
Samskaras, as they are anxious to preserve the mystic and obscure nature of the religious
ceremonies. The far reaching cause of the decline of the Samskaras is, of course, the changes that
have come about in the society.