The Sacraments in General
60. Meaning of a Sacrament
1. The word sacrament, in itself, means something holy or sacred, or something which is related to what is holy or sacred. But in the sense in which we are now to use the word sacrament, it means, first of all, a sign which expresses in a sensible manner, some sacred thing which is outside the grasp and reach of the senses.
2. A sacrament is a sign of some holy thing pertaining to man; that is, it is a sign of a thing in so far as this thing makes men holy.
3. A sacrament is a sign that takes in past, present, and future in its signification, for: (a) it includes reference to man's sanctification in its cause, which is the Passion of Christ; (b) it aids man's present holiness by giving grace and promoting virtue; (c) it bears in itself the promise of eternal life to come.
4. Man acquires intellectual knowledge from sense-knowledge. Therefore, sensible signs are aptly used to signify spiritual things. A sacrament is a sign that the senses can grasp; then the mind can read the intellectual and spiritual meaning which the sign is meant to convey. A sacrament is always an outer or sensible sign.
5. The signs that are sacraments are not of man's choosing. Since sacraments are for man's sanctification, they are signs instituted and chosen by the Sanctifier of men, that is, our divine Lord.
6. A sign is not made a sacrament by any natural fitness or power of its own. It is made a sacrament by authentic words which give it spiritual meaning and power. Hence, words are necessary for constituting a sacrament.
7. Not any words that a man may choose, however apt and suitable they may be, can constitute a sign as a sacrament. As the signs themselves are divinely determined, so are the authentic words which make these signs into sacraments.
8. Any words added or omitted so as to change the essential meaning of the determinate formula of words used for a sacrament, would invalidate the sacrament itself.
61. Necessity of Sacraments
1. To save his soul, man needs sacraments, for: (a) human nature needs to be led by bodily and sensible things to what is spiritual; (b) man needs corporeal signs, for sin has subjected him to material things, and he is unable to apply his mind directly to what is spiritual; (c) man actively tends to material performance and outer expression; if this tendency be not directed aright, it ends in superstitious and even demoniacal practices. Sacraments, therefore, are means of instructing man in things spiritual, teaching and preserving him in essential truths and seemly practice. Hence, because of their essential service to man, we say that sacraments are necessary for man's salvation.
2. And sacraments are spiritual remedies for the wounds inflicted on the soul by sin. Indeed, while man was in the state of innocence, and was sinless, he did not need sacraments.
3. Sacred signs or sacraments were in use, by divine command, under the Old Law, before the coming of Christ. No man can be saved but through Christ. Therefore, before Christ came, people needed visible signs to testify their faith in his coming. Such signs were sacraments.
4. When Christ came and founded his Church, he established seven sacraments; these are the sacraments of the New Law; the establishing of these Christian sacraments abolishes the sacraments of the Old Law, which were ancient and holy signs prophetic of the coming of Christ and of the Christian sacraments.
62. Grace: Chief Effect of the Sacraments
1. The sacraments of the New Law produce grace. For the sacraments incorporate man with Christ, make man a member of Christ; and such incorporation is effected only by grace. The principal cause of grace is God; the sacraments are instituted to be instrumental causes of God's grace.
2. Grace perfects the essence of the soul; from grace, gifts and virtues flow into the soul's powers. To these normal effects of grace in the soul, and in the powers of the soul, each sacrament adds a special perfection of its own; this is the respective sacramental grace of each sacrament. Sacramental grace is a special divine aid bestowed on the soul by a sacrament, and meant to help that soul attain the precise end for which the sacrament is instituted.
3. Grace is in the sacraments of the New Law as a transient instrumental power.
4. The sacraments are instrumental causes of grace; therefore, they possess an instrumental power for bringing about the effects of grace.
5. The sacraments of the New Law derive their power especially from the Passion of Christ; the virtue of the Passion is in some manner communicated to the receiver of a sacrament.
6. The sacraments of the Old Law could not of themselves confer sanctifying grace; they could only signify the faith by which men are justified, that is, set in the state of sanctifying grace.
63. The Effects of the Sacraments
1. A character is a lasting mark, set as a seal and a distinctive sign upon a person. Now, a sacrament is capable of imprinting a character upon the Christian soul, marking it permanently as dedicated to the worship of God. In a somewhat similar way, the uniform and insignia of a soldier is an abiding mark and indication of his allegiance, his rank, and his special duty.
2. But the character imprinted or impressed by a sacrament must be a spiritual thing, for it is a mark or seal set on the soul. It must, therefore, be one of the three things which a spiritual soul can have; that is, passion, habit, or power. It is not a passion, for a passion is not lasting; it passes quickly, whereas a character has permanence. Nor is the character a habit. It is a spiritual power.
3. The sacramental character is the character or mark of Christ. It is, in some way, a participation in Christ's eternal priesthood. It comes to the soul from Christ himself.
4. A character impressed by a sacrament of the New Law marks the Christian soul as the receiver or the bestower of things belonging to the worship of God. Now, the worship of God involves actions which come from the powers of the soul. Hence, the sacramental character has as its subject (that is, its seat, location) the powers of the soul, not the essence of the soul as such.
5. Every sanctification wrought by the priesthood of Christ is perpetual. Therefore, a character impressed by a sacrament (a character which is, in some sense, a participation in Christ's priesthood), is everlasting. It cannot be obliterated from the soul. It is an indelible mark and seal.
6. Not every sacrament of the New Law imprints an indelible character on the soul. Such a character is impressed by those sacraments which are ordained for divine worship and which give a person power to receive or confer other sacraments. Baptism empowers a person to receive other sacraments. Confirmation (as we shall see later) has something of this same purpose. Holy order empowers the receiver to confer sacraments on others. Therefore, these three sacraments (baptism, confirmation, holy order), imprint, respectively, a character on the soul. A property of these sacraments is that they can be received only once by the same person. Their respective characters never fade or admit of renewal.
64. Source and Ministration of the Sacraments
1. God is the cause of the sacraments, and of their effect on the soul of the recipient. The person who administers a sacrament is God's instrument. God is the principal cause; the minister is the instrumental cause of the sacraments. Now, the interior effect of a sacrament comes from the principal cause alone.
2. God alone can cause the justification of the soul by grace. Such justification is the inward effect of the sacraments. Therefore, since only God can give to sacraments their justifying or grace-conferring power, God alone can institute a sacrament.
3. Christ, as God, as exercising his divine power, instituted the seven sacraments of the New Law. Yet Christ as man has authority over the sacraments, and is their most excellent minister.
4. Christ can impart to his priests the authority and excellence which he has in respect to the sacraments.
5. The validity of a sacrament conferred, does not depend upon the worthiness of him who administers it. The instrument cannot change the essence of what is done by the principal cause. Water is water, whether it flow through a pipe of gold or a pipe of lead. Hence, even an evil minister can validly confer a sacrament.
6. But a wicked person who administers a sacrament does wrong. He commits a sin of irreverence which, in its essential general kind or genus, is a mortal sin. It is called a sin of sacrilege.
7. The whole power of the sacraments comes from Christ's Passion which belongs to him as man, even though this power is not imparted to the sacramental signs except by Christ as God, who imparts this power in instituting the sacraments. Since Christ's suffering and death as man are the source of sacramental power, it belongs to men, rather than to angels, to administer sacraments. Yet God could give this power to angels.
8. The one who confers a sacrament must truly intend to confer it. He must employ the determinate matter or sign. He must mean the words (the form) which make the sign sacramentally significant. If the intention of the minister (that is, the person who administers the sacrament) is amiss, the sacrament is not validly conferred. {-With regard to the Holy Eucharist, it must be remembered that the minister is the consecrating priest, not the priest who distributes Holy Communion.-}
9. Even should the minister lack faith, he can validly administer a sacrament, provided he use the proper sign (matter), and employ the determinate formula of words (form), and have the intention of doing what Christ and the Church intend to have done.
10. If a qualified minister intends to confer or confect a sacrament, and does all that is required to that purpose by Christ and the Church, the sacrament is true and valid. This is so, even if, by an ulterior intention, the minister's will is evil. If, for instance, a minister were to baptize a man purely for the sake of some social or personal advantage he hopes to gain from that man, the sacrament is not invalidated by this alien and evil purpose.
65. The Number of Sacraments
1. There are seven sacraments of the New Law. Man has seven bodily requirements, and, since the bodily life has a certain conformity with the spiritual life, we discern seven spiritual needs corresponding to those of the body. The seven sacraments answer these seven requirements of the soul: (a) In the bodily order, man needs first to be born; in the spiritual order, birth is baptism. (b) In the bodily order, man needs to grow to maturity and strength; in the spiritual order, this is accomplished by confirmation. (c) In the bodily order, man has constant need of nourishment to support life and strength; in the spiritual order, the soul is nourished by Holy Eucharist. (d) In the bodily order, sickness or infirmity calls for medicine and care; the soul is restored to health by penance. (e) In the bodily order, man needs full vigor, with all traces of past wounds and illnesses removed; the soul has this boon in extreme unction. (f) In the bodily order, there must be peace and seemly rule, and some must have authority to this end; this need, in the spiritual order, is supplied by holy orders. (g) In the bodily social order, man needs to propagate; in the spiritual order, this natural need finds sanctification in matrimony.
2. The fitting order to use in naming the seven sacraments is this: baptism, confirmation, Holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy order, matrimony. For first come the sacraments which perfect the individual man: (a) directly: baptism, confirmation, Holy Eucharist; (b) indirectly: by removing what is harmful: penance, extreme unction. Next come the sacraments which perfect man in society: holy orders, matrimony.
3. Absolutely speaking, the greatest of all the sacraments is Holy Eucharist, for it is our Lord and God himself. Yet, on the score of man's necessity, baptism comes first, and penance next.
4. And the necessity of which we speak is the necessity of end. A thing is said to have the necessity of end: (a) simply or absolutely, if the end cannot be attained without it; (b) relatively or nonabsolutely, if the end can be attained without it, but not conveniently or becomingly. Thus, if a man proposes to see a certain mountain, he must, of simple necessity, go to the place where the mountain can be seen. Some conveyance is necessary for making the journey to the place from which the mountain may be viewed, yet, despite difficulty and inconvenience, the man might be able to reach the place by walking, and so could dispense with the conveyance. But it would be a hardship. Now, of all the sacraments, baptism alone is necessary for man's salvation "by the simple necessity of end." Yet, in case a man sins mortally after baptism, penance becomes necessary. And, as a requisite for the continuance of the Church, holy order is necessary.