Chapter I. The Nature of a Sacrament

MERELY external religion, without devotion of mind and heart to the service of God, is hypocrisy, but though we should serve God in spirit and in truth, external rites and ceremonies are not excluded from religion. On the contrary, they form an essential part of it. Man is composed of body and soul; both come from God, and both should share in the worship due to their Creator. Besides, internal religion will be faint and likely to evaporate altogether, unless it sometimes finds expression in outward acts. God has provided for these wants of human nature by instituting the sacred rites, which we call sacraments, as essential parts of true religion. They serve also as signs by which the faithful are known to and united among themselves and distinguished from those outside the fold. They serve, too, as an external profession of faith, and as a means of practising the very salutary virtue of humility, inasmuch as we are compelled to seek in external rites the spiritual help of which we stand in need, whereby intellectual pride is humbled.

There were sacraments under the Old Law as there are under the New, although the latter are far more efficacious than the former. As expressing what is common to the sacraments of Judaism and Christianity, a sacrament may be defined to be an outward sign of inward grace. A sacrament, then, is some outward rite or ceremony instituted by God, to show forth and make known the grace which he thereby bestows on the soul of the recipient. Thus circumcision signified separation from the idolatrous world, incorporation among the people of God, and the infusion of grace into the soul for the remission of original sin. The sacraments of the Old Law produced their effects by exciting the faith of the ministers and recipients of them and by the profession of faith in the coming Redeemer which their use contained.

The sacraments of the New Law were instituted by Christ our Lord, and they confer the grace which they signify, not on account of the meritorious dispositions with which they are ministered or received, but on account of their dignity and intrinsic excellence. They were instituted by Christ, they are administered in his name and by his authority, and thus they are in a true sense the actions of Christ our Lord executed by his ministers. Divines express this by saying that the sacraments of the Christian Church confer grace ex opere operato, while those of the Old Law produced it ex opere operantis. A sacrament, then, of the New Law may be defined to be an outward sign of invisible grace instituted by Christ to confer the grace which it signifies.

There are certain rites and ceremonies in use in the Church which are called sacramentals. Of these we may mention the consecration of abbots, the first tonsure of clerics, the sacring of kings, the blessing of chalices and bells, holy water, Agnus Dei, scapulars, and many more. They are called sacramentals because they are sacred rites which, if properly used according to the mind of the Church, confer spiritual graces on the soul of him who uses them. They do this through the approbation and blessing of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, whose prayers and desires Christ always listens to, and through the good dispositions of those who use them. They thus differ from sacraments, as also in the grace which they produce. They confer actual graces, special helps to do good and avoid evil, given by God in answer to the prayers of the Church and the pious desires of those who use them properly (Can. 1144).

The Council of Trent defined as of faith that there are seven sacraments instituted by Christ our Lord: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony; that these sacraments contain the grace which they signify, and that they always confer grace on all those who receive them and put no obstacle to their effect. The sacraments, then, require certain dispositions on the part of the recipient in order that they may produce their effect. They will be validly received if nothing that is essential be wanting to them, but in order to produce their effect when they are received the recipient must have the required dispositions. I may apply a match to a faggot of wood, but this will not take fire if it is sodden with water. Similarly, if an adult asks for Baptism and is rightly baptized the sacrament will be validly received, but if the recipient has no faith or no sorrow for his sins the Baptism will indeed imprint a character, but it will not infuse sanctifying grace in the soul. In such a case as this the sacrament is validly but not licitly received; it is said by divines to be unformed, not formed.

The Council of Trent also defined it to be of faith that the three sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders, whenever they are validly received, imprint on the soul a certain spiritual mark which is called a character. This character serves to distinguish in the eyes of God and of his saints those who have received the sacrament in question; it is indelible, and prevents the sacrament from being received a second time. It is, however, compatible with the presence of mortal sin in the soul, so that, as was said above, a valid sacrament imprints its proper character even when on account of some obstacle in the recipient it is unformed and does not convey sanctifying grace to the soul.

The question here occurs whether a valid but unformed sacrament will afterward produce grace in the soul, if and when the obstacle be removed. The common opinion of Doctors and divines is that it will do so in the case of the three sacraments which impress a character on the soul. This opinion is founded on the tradition of the Church and on what is to be expected from the goodness of God and the nature of the sacraments. A cause which is in existence, but which was hitherto prevented from producing its full effect on account of some obstacle in the way, will produce that effect when the obstacle is removed. Many divines hold the same doctrine of reviviscence concerning the sacraments of Matrimony and Extreme Unction, which may not be repeated at the will of the recipient. Whether it is also applicable to Penance is a much disputed point, while it is commonly denied that the sacrament of the holy Eucharist can afterward produce its effect if it was unformed when received.

The sacramental grace which is conferred by the sacraments is habitual or sanctifying grace as directed toward the particular end for which the sacrament from which it flows has been instituted. Together, then, with the grace which justifies the sinner, or which increases the sanctifying grace of the soul in friendship with God, a sacrament gives a title to receive from God special help or actual graces when they are required by the recipient of the sacrament. Thus, the sacrament of Penance, if worthily received, infuses sanctifying grace into the soul by which the sins confessed are blotted out, and, moreover, it gives the sinner a title to receive actual graces in time of temptation, so as to enable him not to yield. In the same way the holy Eucharist increases sanctifying grace within the soul, making it more holy and more pleasing in the sight of God, and fresh help is given to enable it to remain steadfast in the friendship of God. The sacraments of Baptism and Penance, which remit sin and give sanctifying grace to souls that were deprived of it, are called sacraments which give the first grace, or sacraments of the dead, inasmuch as they give spiritual life to those who were spiritually dead; while the sacraments which should only be received by such as are already in the state of grace are said to confer the second grace, and are called sacraments of the living. If the soul is already justified and in the state of grace, sacraments of the dead confer second grace; while Extreme Unction may, as we shall see, confer the first grace, although it is primarily a sacrament of the living; and it is a probable opinion that the other sacraments may per accidens confer the first grace when received in good faith by the sinner. Inasmuch as a sacrament confers grace in virtue of the worth and dignity of the sacred rite itself, the quantity of grace given will per se be the same for all who receive it. However, per accidens, since a cause acts with greater or less efficacy in proportion to the dispositions of the subject on which it works, so a sacrament will give more grace to such as receive it in better dispositions. It may, then, very well be that more grace will be obtained from Holy Communion received two or three times a week with better dispositions than from daily Communion made without fervour.

The Council of Trent anathematizes anyone who shall say that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation, though it also teaches that not all the sacraments are necessary for every individual. Under each sacrament it will be explained how far it is necessary and in what sense.