What Are You Looking For? Part 2: The Liturgy and the Sacraments

The Purpose of the Sacraments

The Purpose of the Sacraments

            In the worship of the Church, and in the lives of mankind, the sacraments serve a very real purpose.  Once we are baptized and confirmed, we are then able to fully participate in the Mass.  Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, by the ministerial priesthood, we are fed with the word of God and the grace of God, in the name of Christ.

            “The ordained ministry or ministerial priesthood is at the service of the baptismal priesthood.  The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church.  The saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they receive the Spirit of Jesus to act in his name and in his person.  The ordained minister is the sacramental bond that ties the liturgical action to what the apostles said and did and, through them, to the words and actions of Christ, the source and foundation of the sacraments.” (CCC 1120)  In other words, they don’t “do it themselves”.  Through the Holy Spirit, it is Jesus acting through them.

            Through the ministerial priesthood, the sacraments instruct us.  They help us to grow in our faith and knowledge of ourselves and God, and in our relationship with others.  They sanctify us.  As each of us grows in faith, the Body of Christ is built up.  And after God has done all of that for us, we worship him in gratitude for who he is. 

            If the sacraments are properly celebrated, and by that I mean that we are properly disposed to receive them, they “confer the grace they signify”.  Remember, in the ministerial priesthood, it is really Jesus who is acting, therefore if you have celebrated the sacrament of marriage, it was Jesus who married you.  Jesus baptized you.  Jesus confirmed you.  Jesus anointed you with oil when you were sick. “The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit.  As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.” (CCC 1127)   (In the consecration of the bread and wine, the epiclesis is the calling down of the Holy Spirit so that “they may become for us the body and blood of Christ”.)

            Because Jesus suffered, died and rose again, the sacraments “act ex opere operato (literally: by the very act of the action’s being performed)” (CCC 1128) what this means, is that if the proper form is used, they always work.  They always give the grace they signify.  It doesn’t matter if the celebrant or recipient is … rightly disposed or not, the sacrament is performed by the power of God.  However, for the fruit of the sacrament to be realized in our lives, we must be … rightly disposed to receive. 

The sacraments always confer grace.  The question is whether or not we receive it, whether or not we can receive it.  Through the sacraments, the Holy Spirit works in our lives to bring healing to body and soul.  To bring reconciliation.  To transform us into the image and likeness of Christ.  That is why the Church teaches that the sacraments are necessary for salvation.  This might be hard for some to understand, but as we go through each sacrament, it will become clearer.  For now, think of it this way.  You decide you are going to be a Christian.  You are going to live a Christian life, but you discover, in spite of your commitment to Christ, you struggle to do so.  You lack the power and the knowledge.  You lack the grace.  That is the purpose of the sacraments, to give you the strength, power and knowledge to life the Christian life.  To reconcile you back to God and the Church when you fall and to raise you back up again so you can keep walking.  As they do for us all. 

“St Thomas 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.’” (CCC 1130)