Article I. On The Name Of Sacrament

2. The word sacrament is employed in many and diverse senses by writers, both secular and sacred. There is no reason for us to linger long over the meanings in which secular writers use this word. For these meanings can easily be seen in any good Latin dictionary. The principal ones are: a) a pledge deposited by litigants in a sacred place; b) an obligation to military service; c) an oath of perseverance imposed upon soldiers.¹

In Sacred Scripture and among the ancient ecclesiastical authors, the word sacrament is employed in so many diverse senses that great circumspection is not rarely needed to perceive the author's true sense.² The principal and more frequent senses seem to be the following three:

1. Sacrament signifies the same thing as the Greek word μυστήριον, that is, a sacred hidden or secret thing.

In this sense the Incarnation is called "the sacrament of the will of God,"³ and St. Ambrose entitles his treatise on the Incarnation: Book on the Sacrament of the Lord's Incarnation. Likewise, the truths of faith are called a sacrament, and therefore St. Paul says: "To me, the least of all the saints, was given this grace ... to enlighten all as to what is the dispensation of the sacrament hidden from ages in God."⁴ Christ Himself is called "the great sacrament of piety."⁵ The holy Fathers also frequently employ the word sacrament in this sense. Thus, for example, St. Cyprian calls ecclesiastical union "the sacrament of unity." Hugh of St. Victor, writing on theology, gave it the title: On the Sacraments [that is, on the mysteries] of the Christian Faith.

Sometimes, but very rarely, the name sacrament is also taken for an evil secret or mystery, for example: "And the Angel said to me: Why do you wonder? I will tell you the sacrament of the woman and of the beast that carries her."⁶

2. Sacrament signifies a sign or symbol of some hidden sacred thing.

In this sense Christian matrimony is called by St. Paul⁷ a great sacrament, because it signifies the union of Christ with the Church. Likewise, the figures of the Old Testament, for example, manna and the passage of the Jews through the Red Sea, are called sacraments by St. Ambrose.⁸

3. Sacrament signifies human sanctification,⁹ so that a sacrament is not only a holy sign, but also a sign of sanctification actually to be given.

Several such signs were already possessed in the Old Testament, and therefore St. Thomas, speaking of the sacraments of the Old Law, says: "Those things are properly called sacraments which were employed for the worshipers of God for a certain consecration, by which, namely, they were in some manner deputed to the worship of God."¹⁰ Nevertheless, the sacraments of the Old Law were unable of themselves to produce the true interior sanctification of the recipient; but the sacraments of the New Law not only signify sanctification but also produce it ex opere operato. Moreover, a fuller discussion of the efficacy of the sacraments will return below. In the following articles, the name sacrament signifies nothing other than a practical sign of our sanctification.

¹ Fahneneid, military oath. Cf. Cicero, De offic. 1, 11; Pro domo 29; Pro Milone 27.

² In St. Cyprian alone, the word sacrament can be perceived as employed in ten diverse acceptations, namely: 1. for an oath; 2. for a profession of faith; 3. for the cause of our salvation; 4. for a prophetic figure; 5. for a symbol; 6. for a commemorative sign; 7. for a prophecy; 8. for a testimony; 9. for the deposit of faith; 10. for a bond. Cf. J. B. Ponkens in Bulletin d'ancienne litt. et archéol. chrét. II, 289, and especially Ghellinck, S.J., who with several associates wrote an entire learned work: Pour l'histoire du mot Sacramentum (Louvain 1924).

³ Eph. 1:9.

⁴ Eph. 3:8ff.

⁵ 1 Tim. 3:16.

⁶ Apoc. 17:7.

⁷ Eph. 5:32. Nevertheless, from this text it can be solidly proved that matrimony is a true sacrament of the New Law. Cf. below, n. 643.

⁸ De sacr. l. 1, c. 4ff. (Migne, Patr. lat. 16, 420ff.).

⁹ This acceptation is more common after St. Augustine, to whom the definition of a sacrament was attributed: it is a visible sign of invisible grace; yet this definition is found in St. Augustine not word for word, but only as to its sense (cf. Gietl, Die Sentenzen Rolands, p. 155). Hugh of St. Victor, who assuredly is eminent among theologians treating the sacraments, has these words: "Three genera of sacraments present themselves to be distinguished in a first consideration. For there are certain sacraments in which salvation principally consists and is received: the water of baptism and the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. There are others which, although they are not necessary for salvation (because salvation can be had without them), nevertheless conduce to sanctification, because by these virtue can be exercised and more abundant grace can be acquired, such as the water of sprinkling, the reception of ashes, and similar things. Again there are other sacraments which seem to have been instituted for this alone: that through them those things which are necessary for sanctifying and instituting the other sacraments may in some manner be prepared and sanctified, whether concerning persons to be perfected in sacred orders, or in those things which pertain to the equipment of sacred orders to be initiated, and other things of this kind" (De sacr. l. 1, c. 7; Migne, Patr. lat. 176, 327).

¹⁰ S. theol. 1, 2, q. 102, a. 5.