Question One: On the Notion and Signification of the Sacramental Sign

St. Thomas III, q. 60, a. 1, 2, 3.

5. Definition of sacrament. - Several definitions of sacrament are handed down,¹ which nevertheless can all be reduced to two. The first is: sacraments are ceremonial practical signs of human sanctification. In this definition there is indicated:

¹ Gregory the Great, on chapter 16 of book I of Kings: "A sacrament is that in which, under the covering of visible things, divine power more secretly works human salvation." - Hugh of St. Victor, book I On the Sacraments, part 9, c. 2: "A material element, outwardly proposed sensibly, representing from likeness, signifying from institution, and containing by sanctification invisible and spiritual grace." - The Master of the Sentences: "A sacrament is that which is so a sign and form of invisible grace, that it bears its image and exists as a cause." - Council of Trent: "A symbol of a sacred thing and a visible form of invisible grace, having the power of sanctifying," sess. 13, c. 3. - Catechism of the Council of Trent: "A sacrament is a thing subject to the senses which, from the institution of God, has power both for signifying and for effecting sanctity and justice," or according to the formula composed from Augustine: "A visible sign of invisible grace, instituted for our justification." - Theological Catechism for Ordinands: "A practical sign of a sacred thing (sanctifying)." - Scotus: "It is a sensible sign effectively signifying the grace of God, or a gratuitous effect of it, from divine institution, ordained to the salvation of man as wayfarer." - Sylvius: "A sacrament of the Old Law is a sacred sign figurative of grace to be given through the passion of Christ. A sacrament of the New Law is a visible form of invisible grace, having the power of sanctifying from the institution of God." Or: a visible sign of invisible grace divinely instituted for our sanctification, as is said in law and in St. Canisius.

A. The genus to which the sacraments belong: namely, they are signs, and indeed external signs which signify by a likeness of sensible things.

B. That which is proper to them and by which they differ from other signs, namely:

1. They are ceremonial signs,² that is, sacred signs on the part of the thing signifying, instituted permanently by law, belonging to public and ordinary worship.

² Augustine, Against Faustus, book XIX: "They are signs by which the faithful are gathered together into one name of religion" and are distinguished from others; whence they ought to be sensible.

Thus they differ a) from all signs which, although they do not pertain to worship, nevertheless represent divine things, such as martyrdom, and also all creatures;

b) from symbols which are not instituted by law, such as images of Christ, of the Cross, of the Saints;

c) from those things which are not instituted permanently and in perpetuity, such as the fiery tongue on the day of Pentecost, and the signs by which Christ remitted sins.³

³ Hence the following are not sacraments: the passage through the Red Sea, the rock pouring forth waters, the manna, the bronze serpent, the immolation of Isaac, the words of Christ constituting the apostles priests or working miracles, the baptism of John, the descent of the dove, the washing of the feet, the breathing upon the disciples, extraordinary charisms.

2. They are practical signs, that is, efficacious signs, conferring that which they signify.

Thus they are distinguished from merely speculative signs, representing divine things, for example for the instruction of the people, such as likenesses of mysteries, the image of the cross, and the accidental ceremonies of the sacraments.⁴

⁴ Likewise the words of Scripture; and those ceremonies of the Old Law which signified the sanctity of Christ by which He is holy in Himself, not that by which He sanctifies.

3. They are signs of human sanctification, and indeed of the hidden sanctification by which man is joined to God as supernatural end; whence they are sacred also on the part of the thing signified.

Thus they are distinguished both from sacramentals, such as the consecration of an altar and the sprinkling of blessed water, which signify a disposition toward sanctity;⁵ and from sacrifice, which is the sign of the interior affection by which man devotes himself to God, but not of sanctification to be conferred through it: for the direct end of sacrifice is that by its action God be honored, but the end of a sacrament is that by its reception man be sanctified.

⁵ Other examples are: tonsure, absolution from censures, religious profession, exorcism, the blessing of marriage, the consecration of a virgin, the blessing of an abbot, the washing of the feet.

Sanctification is twofold: one interior, which is effected through grace making one pleasing and through the infused virtues, by which man becomes capable of eternal life: this belongs to the New Law; the other external and legal, which consists in external consecration, purification, insertion into the people of God, deputation to sacred ministries (Heb. IX, 13), and which is at the same time figurative of the former: this is proper to the Old Testament. But the sacraments effect the sanctity proper to that economy to which they belong, whence arises the fundamental difference between the sacraments of the Old and New Law: the latter signify and effect interior sanctity in the present; the former signified and effected in the present legal sanctity, by which someone before the law is held as pure, holy, fit for the offices of religion, and by the conferral of this they were signs, figures, types, and real promises of Christ the Savior whom they proclaimed as about to come, and of future interior sanctification to be conferred through the passion of Christ and the sacraments of the New Law.⁶

⁶ Cf. I-II, q. 103, a. 2. - Hence q. 61, a. 4, ad 3: "Those things [of the Old Law] were fitting for prefiguring grace; but these things [of the New Law] are fitting for showing grace as present." And Augustine, on Psalm 73: "Those things only promised and signified; but these give salvation."

The sacraments of human sanctification in the Old Law are enumerated: circumcision, the initiation of priests, the eating of the paschal lamb and of the loaves of proposition, several expiations and purifications. But the following are not sacraments: the consecration of the tabernacle or of vessels, sacrifices, expiations of houses.

6. Another definition of St. Thomas. - The definition given above indicates that by which sacraments are distinguished from other signs, namely, that they are practical signs; but it is not altogether complete, because several things are signified by the sacraments which are not produced by them. Hence St. Thomas hands down another definition: A sign of a sacred thing, insofar as it is sanctifying men (a. 2); in which these last words, "insofar as it is sanctifying men," are referred not to the sign but to the sacred thing; whence the sense is: a sign of a sacred thing according as this is the cause of our interior sanctification.

For a sacrament is properly said to be that which is ordained to signify our sanctification. But in it "three things can be considered: namely, the very cause of our sanctification, which is the passion of Christ; and the form of our sanctification, which consists in grace and the virtues; and the ultimate end of our sanctification, which is eternal life. Therefore all these things are signified by the sacraments"; for they signify a sacred thing insofar as it sanctifies, that is, the cause of sanctification insofar as it produces its effects. But this is the essential difference between a sacrament of the Old and of the New Law, that the former signified Christ as about to come and future sanctity; but the latter represents redemption already accomplished and present sanctity, whence it is "both a commemorative sign of that which preceded, namely, the passion of Christ, and a demonstrative sign of that which is effected in us through the passion of Christ, namely, grace, and a prognostic, that is, a prenunciative sign of future glory" (a. 3). But the sacraments of the Old Law prenunciated all these things.

Thus in Baptism are signified at once grace, which is the seed of glory, and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, according to Rom. VI, 3-6; in Confirmation is signified the mystery of Christ crucified, which to the Jews is a scandal and to the Gentiles foolishness (I Cor. I, 23); in Matrimony is signified the union of Christ and the Church, and Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself for her, that He might sanctify her (Eph. V, 25-32); the Eucharist is "the sacred banquet, in which the memory of the passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us" (cf. I Cor. XI, 24-25; John VI, 50-59).

Similarly in the Old Law, circumcision (Gen. XVII, 10; Rom. IV, 11) signified the cause of sanctification, the advent of Christ in the flesh from the seed of Abraham; the form of sanctification, the grace of Christ binding concupiscence; and since it was done on the eighth day, which is the day of Christ's resurrection, it also represented the end of sanctification, future resurrection and glory. Likewise the paschal Lamb signified Christ to be immolated, the refreshing grace of the Eucharist, and salvation to be obtained by the blood of Christ.

7. Corollaries. - From the aforesaid it is easily understood:

1. Why St. Thomas places the sacraments in the genus of sign, but not in the genus of cause: a) because the sacraments do not cause except insofar as they signify; b) because the sacraments also signify sacred things which they do not cause.

2. It is also understood that the word sacrament is not an univocal term but an analogous one, which is said perfectly and simply of the sacraments of the New Law, imperfectly and in a certain respect of the sacraments of the Old Law.⁷ For they differ either a) in the very signification of sanctity, which they signify practically and simply, or only speculatively and in a certain respect; or b) in the very sanctification which they effect, which is either true and perfect sanctity, or only an imperfect shadow of it.

⁷ "Sacrament is not divided through the sacraments of the Old and New Law as a genus through species, but as an analogous term into its parts, as healthy into having health and signifying it: but a sacrament simply is that which causes sanctity; that which is only a sign is not a sacrament except in a certain respect, and therefore to be a cause can be placed in the definition of sacrament, just as having health is placed in the definition of healthy," St. Thomas, on IV Sentences, d. 1, q. 1, a. 1, qc. 3, ad 5. And in the Summa, III, q. 62, a. 1, ad 1: "The sacraments of the New Law are at once causes and signs; and hence it is that, as is commonly said, they effect what they figure. From this it is clear that they have the ratio of sacrament perfectly insofar as they are ordained to something sacred, not only by way of sign but also by way of cause."

3. Sacraments a) in order to Christ, are certain remains of the divine Incarnation, by which Christ left us a memorial of Himself and applies to us His merit and the fruits of His passion. Whence they are said to have flowed from His side and to have streamed forth from His most Sacred Heart, together with the Church (Augustine, on John, tr. 120, n. 2);

b) in order to the Church, they are tokens by which the faithful are distinguished from infidels; bonds by which the members of the Church are gathered into one visible body; instruments of divine life and sanctity; and therefore they belong to the essential constitutive elements of the Church;

c) as to men, they are fountains of salvation, medicines which heal wounds, instructions and teachings by which man is led by sensible things to spiritual things;

d) as to God, they are marvelous inventions of divine Wisdom by which God remedies us, and signal effects of Omnipotence, which conferred on weak elements the power of sanctifying.

8. Observation. - That the sacraments, as they have been described, in fact exist is the conclusion of the whole of sacramental theology.