The Sacraments - Fundamentals of the Faith

Insight Scoop ^ | July 23, 2009 | Peter Kreeft

[NYer]

Protestants don't see why Catholics who come to disagree with essential teachings of the Church don't just leave. The answer is symbolized by the sanctuary lamp. They do not leave the Church because they know that the sacramental fire burns there on the ecclesiastical hearth. Even if they do not see by its light, they want to be warmed by its fire. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a magnet drawing lost sheep home and keeping would-be strays from the deathly snows outside. The Church's biggest drawing card is not what she teaches, crucial as that is, but who is there. "He is here! Therefore I must be here."

Adult conversion to Catholicism involves more than adding a few new beliefs. It means a whole new world and life view. No ingredient in that new perspective was more of a shock to my old Protestant sensibilities when I became a Catholic than the idea that the God-man is really present in, and not just symbolized by, what appears to be a wafer of bread and a cup of wine. It seemed scandalous!

It has ceased to scandalize me, though it has not ceased to amaze me, that Almighty God suffers me to touch him, move him and eat him! Imagine! When I move my hand to my mouth with the Host, I move God through space. When I put him here, he is here. When I put him there, he is there. The Prime Mover lets me move him where I will. It is as amazing as the Incarnation itself, for it is the Incarnation, the continuation of the Incarnation.

I think I understand how the typical Protestant feels about sacramentalism not only because I was a Protestant but because it is a natural and universal feeling. The Catholic doctrine of the sacraments is shocking to everyone. It should be a shock to Catholics too. But familiarity breeds dullness.

To Protestants, sacraments must be one of two things: either mere symbols, reminders, like words; or else real magic. And the Catholic definition of a sacrament — a visible sign instituted by Christ to give grace, a sign that really effects what it symbolizes — sounds like magic. Catholic doctrine teaches that the sacraments work ex opere operato, i.e., objectively, though not impersonally and automatically like machines. They are gifts that come from without but must be freely received.

Protestants are usually much more comfortable with a merely symbolic view of sacraments, for their faith is primarily verbal, not sacramental. After all, it is the Bible that looms so large in the center of their horizon. They believe in creation and Incarnation and Resurrection only because they are in the Bible. The material events are surrounded by the holy words. The Catholic sensibility is the inside-out version of this: the words are surrounded by the holy facts. To the Catholic sensibility it is not primarily words but matter that is holy because God created it, incarnated himself in it, raised it from death, and took it to heaven with him in his ascension.

Orthodox Protestants believe these scriptural dogmas, of course, just as surely as Catholics do. But they do not, I think, feel the crude, even vulgar facticity of them as strongly. That's why they do not merely disagree with but are profoundly shocked by the real presence and transubstantiation. Luther, by the way, taught the real presence and something much closer to transubstantiation than most Protestants believe, namely consubstantiation, the belief that Christ's body and blood are really present in the Eucharist, but so are the bread and wine. Catholics believe the elements are changed; Lutherans believe they are added to.

Most Protestants believe the Eucharist only symbolizes Christ, though some, following Calvin, add that it is an occasion for special grace, a sign and a seal. But though I was a Calvinist for twenty one years, I do not remember any emphasis on that notion. Much more often, I heard the contrast between the Protestant " spiritual " interpretation and the Catholic "material ", "magical" one.

The basic objection Protestants have to sacramentalism is this: How can divine grace depend on matter, something passive and unfree? Isn't it unfair for God's grace to depend on anything other than his will and mine? I felt that objection strongly until I realized that the sheer fact that I have a body — this body, with this heredity, which came to me and still comes to me without my choice — is also "unfair". One gets a healthy body, another does not. As one philosopher said, "Life isn't fair."

It's the very nature of the material world we live in, the very fact of a material world at all, that is so "unfair" that it moved Ivan Karamazov to rebellion against God in that profoundest and most Christian novel, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. As he explains to his believing brother Alyosha, "It's not God that I can't accept, it's this world of his" — a world in which bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. But it might be better than fair rather than less, gift rather than payment, grace rather than justice, "fair" as "beautiful" rather than "fair" as rational " — like a sacrament.

In fact, the world is a sacrament. We receive God through every material reality (though not in the same special way as in the sacraments proper). The answer to the Protestant objection to the unfairness of the sacraments is that only a world of pure spirit would be perfectly fair. Only angels get exactly what they deserve individually.

Praise God, we get infinitely more than we deserve! The sacraments remind us that the whole world is a sacrament, a sacred thing, a gift; and the sacramental character of the world reminds us of the central sacrament, the Incarnation, continued among us in the seven sacraments of the Church, especially in the Eucharist. The sacramental view of the world and the Catholic doctrine of the sacraments illuminate each other like large and small mirrors.

Both the sacrament of the world and the sacrament of incarnation/ Eucharist also remind us that we too are sacramental, matter made holy by spirit. Our bodies are not corpses moved by ghosts, or cars steered by angels, but temples of the Holy Spirit. In our bodies, especially our faces, matter is transmuted into meaning. The eyes are the windows of the soul.

Protestants sometimes object to the sacraments by asking whether a baby's eternal destiny is altered if the water of baptism does not quite reach his forehead before the church building falls on him and kills him, or whether a penitent who gets run over and killed by a truck while crossing the street on his way to a sacramental confession will suffer hell or a longer purgatory only because the truck happened to hit him before rather than after confession. The answer to such a question is: not necessarily. We do not know God's plan unless he reveals it to us, and he has revealed the sacraments. But not only the sacraments. The early Church called the death of martyrs who had no opportunity for baptism "the baptism of blood", and the intention (explicit or even implicit) to be baptized "the baptism of desire" (thus allowing good, God-seeking pagans into heaven). This Catholic doctrine of "back-door grace" seems shifty verbal trickery to many Protestants, but it is necessary to preserve two undeniable truths: first, that we are commanded to receive the sacraments and told that "unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you" and, second, that God is just and merciful and does not deny grace to any who seek it.

Perhaps we Catholics are like the laborers who worked only an hour, in our Lord's parable (Mt 20:1-16), and those without the sacraments like those who worked all day. It seems unfair that both groups got the same wages. So it seems unfair that we are given all this extra sacramental help, easier grace, so to speak. But the Lord of the vineyard replied to this objection: "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own?" This reply scandalizes our sense of political justice. But it fits the nature of the world; and it is the world of nature, God's creation, rather than politics, man's creation, that declares the glory of God. The sacraments declare the same scandalous generosity.

We don't deserve to be born or to be born again or to be baptized. We don't deserve God's sun or God's Son. We don't deserve delicious bread and wine or the Body and Blood of Christ. But we are given all this, and more. As Christopher Derrick put it, in a poem entitled "The Resurrection of the Body":

He's a terror that one:
Turns water into wine,
Wine into blood –
I wonder what He turns blood into?

Catholics often have a more-than-intellectual faith in the sacraments that Protestants do not understand. Thus they don't see why Catholics who come to disagree with essential teachings of the Church don't just leave. The answer is symbolized by the sanctuary lamp. They do not leave the Church because they know that the sacramental fire burns there on the ecclesiastical hearth. Even if they do not see by its light, they want to be warmed by its fire. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a magnet drawing lost sheep home and keeping would-be strays from the deathly snows outside. The Church's biggest drawing card is not what she teaches, crucial as that is, but who is there. "He is here! Therefore I must be here."

[NYer]

Fire

   

Leviticus 6:12-13 "And the fire on the altar shall always burn, and the priest shall feed it, putting wood on it every day in the morning, and laying on the holocaust, shall burn thereupon the fat of the peace offerings. This is the perpetual fire which shall never go out on the altar."

 
The light of fire, penetrating darkness, is a symbol for the Trinity and for the grace or Person of Christ, in particular. He is "the Light of the world," as St. John tells us, and "in Him there is no darkness." While the light of fire illumines, the heat of it warms us -- and purifies. 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 tells us that fire will reveal and try our works, burning up the traces of those that can't enter Heaven (Revelation 21:27). This fire of God's love, baptizing us, illuminating, warming, and purging us, manifested before Moses in the burning bush and at the Pentecost when tongues of flame appeared over the Apostles' heads. It is in part because of the obvious symbolism grounded in these accounts that candles and lamps have been used in Christian liturgy from the beginning. Their use, though, isn't only symbolic; it is rooted thousands of years ago in the Old Testament.
 

The Tabernacle Lamp
(or "Sanctuary Lamp" or "Altar Lamp")

In Catholic churches, at least one tabernacle lamp burns eternally outside the tabernacle where the Eucharist is kept, signifying the divine presence of God just as the ner tamid burned outside the tabernacle, signifying the presence of God in the Holy of Holies during Old Testament times:

Exodus 27:19-20
All the vessels of the tabernacle for all uses and ceremonies, and the pins both of it and of the court, thou shalt make of brass. Command the children of Israel that they bring thee the purest oil of the olives, and beaten with a pestle: that a lamp may burn always,

The tabernacle lamp is usually a light that hangs down from the ceiling, encased in a red globe. It is often called a "sanctuary lamp" because, barring extraordinary circumstances, such as in an historic cathedral with lots of tourist traffic, the tabernacle is to be kept near the Altar, in a prominent, honored, and well-decorated place, in the sanctuary.

[the invisib1e hand]

Protestants don't see why Catholics who come to disagree with essential teachings of the Church don't just leave.

It's so the leftists can say they have "the Catholic vote."

[AnAmericanMother]

Interesting portrayal of Moses with horns on his head.

You see it a lot in medieval iconography. Michaelangelo also portrayed Moses with horns.

It's because a single Hebrew word in Exodus 34 can mean either "horns" - its actual primary meaning - or "rays", as in "rays of light". Which was what was meant in context.

[trad_anglican]

for it is the Incarnation, the continuation of the Incarnation.

One has to be a little careful of not getting carried away here. The eucharist is not the Incarnation. It is true that the Incarnation can be thought of as like a "super sacrament" when one ponders the ways in which God has chosen to relate to his creatures. But the eucharist is an anamnesis - a re-presentation before God of the salvific acts of Jesus. It would perhaps be more precise to say that it is a continuation of the effects of the Incarnation in a particular place at a particular time, though it doesn't sound as poetic.

[Hackle]

Lutherans also believe in Christ’s real physical presence in the Sacrament—”in, with, and under” the visible elements of bread and wine. The Sacrament is one of the means by which the Holy Spirit delivers Christ and His forgiveness.

[Kolokotronis]

“In fact, the world is a sacrament.”

A very odd remark indeed, NYer, especially since the world/creation itself is distorted by man’s sin. But no matter, this is an excellent article and comments like this more than make up for any convert oddity

“The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a magnet drawing lost sheep home and keeping would-be strays from the deathly snows outside.”

Wonderful!

[TASMANIANRED]

Fine presentation.

[NYer]

Lutherans also believe in Christ’s real physical presence in the Sacrament ...

I came across the following, earlier today. Perhaps someone can expound on it.

Catholics believe that the body of christ is revealed to us by the method of transubstantiation. This term refers to the bread and wine changing from one substance into another- bread to body and blood to wine. Lutherans rejects such teachings while still believing that Christ's body and blood are nonetheless truly present.
Differences between Catholics and Lutherans

[NYer]

Interesting portrayal of Moses with horns on his head.

Thank you for the excellent explanation. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to see that work of Michelangelo. He is one of my most favorite artists. His David is so relistic that one expects to see blood pulsing through the veins.

[Tax-chick]

“In fact, the world is a sacrament.”

One of the meanings we give to "sacrament" is "that which makes the invisible, visible." That's a stretch on the base meaning, obviously, but in that sense we say that Christ is the "sacrament" of the invisible God, that the Church is the "sacrament" of Christ, making the invisible, visible.

So, in that sense, one might say the world is a "sacrament," in that it is a visible, though imperfect, representation of the will of God the Creator.

[Mr. Lucky]

The orthodox Lutheran belief is sometimes referred to as "consubstantiation", although that term is rejected by Lutherans.

Lutherans believe that the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ are truly present "in, with and under" the bread and wine. The basic statement of the Lutheran Confession in this regard is found at Article X of the Augsburg Confession:

"Of the Lord's Supper, they teach that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present and are distributed to those who eat the Supper of the Lord; and they reject those who teach otherwise.".

[Tax-chick]

Additionally, the concept of the Church as sacrament has the same issue as the concept of the world as sacrament: the Church, as it appears on earth, is an imperfect representation of the Lord Jesus, because I’m in it, among other stout Southern ladies with a bit of a drinking problem and a tendency to shout “Bleeping FReep!”

Well, maybe I’m the only one to use such expletive ...

[NYer]

Do you have a link to the text of the Lutheran liturgy, especially the consecration?

[Hackle]

From the Divine Service, setting three, Lutheran Service Book (Concordia Publishing House), pg. 197:

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: ‘Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”

[Salvation]

The Sacraments - Fundamentals of the Faith
Beginning Catholic: Catholic Sacraments: Vehicles of Grace [Ecumenical]

Beginning Catholic: The Sacrament of Baptism: Gateway to New Life [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: The Sacrament of Confirmation: Grace for Fullness of Faith and Life [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: The Eucharist: In the Presence of the Lord Himself [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: Receiving the Lord in Holy Communion [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: The Sacrament of Reconciliation: Rising Again to New Life [Ecumenical]

Beginning Catholic: The Anointing of the Sick: Comfort and Healing [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: The Sacrament of Holy Orders: Priests of the New Sacrifice [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: Catholic Marriage: A Union Sealed by the Sacrament of Matrimony [Ecumenical]
The Sacraments [Ecumenical]
The Sacraments

Lesson 15: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SACRAMENTS
Restored Order of the Sacraments of Initiation? Confirmation and First Eucharist together? (Vanity)
"Virtual" Sacraments Ruled Out
Are Sacraments Narrow? (Imparting Grace through the Sacraments)
Catholic Caucus: Regarding Sinful priests, and Validity of Mass/Sacraments

[Mr. Lucky]

If Pastor Henrickson is awake, he might be able to help.

[papertyger]

I do not know how meaningful the tabernacle lamp is for others, but my parish located the tabernacle in a glassed corner that can be seen from the highway that passes behind the altar.

It is my habit, when alone, to make the sign of the cross in thanks for his presence whenever I pass by on that highway.

I like to think the light of the tabernacle lamp falling on my eye is the Lord’s nod to my little expression of love, and it just makes me feel joyful.

[narses]

NYer, thank you again for your wonderful work spreading the truth about the Truth.

[kevinrbranson]

I really appreciate Peter Kreeft and his work. His observation of the upheaval that takes place in the life of the Catholic convert because of their new understanding of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is spot on. Catholic life is anchored in the Eucharist. We can pray that the sad story of 500 years of denominational schism might someday end when non-Catholics come to terms with the Scriptural and apostolic teaching and the historic Church's belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist .