If we ask what distinguished Catholicism from other Western Christian traditions, the best answer is probably the sacraments. The Catholic Church recognizes more sacraments than any other tradition, and has a deep sacramental theology – in other words we put a lot of emphasis on the sacraments and what they mean for us.
The Seven Sacraments:
The Eucharist – Sacrament of sharing and feeding
Baptism and Confirmation – Sacraments of Initiation
Reconciliation and Care of the Sick – Sacraments of Healing
Marriage and Holy Orders – Sacraments changing life
What are sacraments?
We already discussed how God reveals himself via His son and the scriptures. God also interacts with us through our prayer. But there is another way in which God interacts with us, not as individuals, but as a community. God acts through particular actions performed by his people when they gather and ask him to recognize their needs. Those actions we call sacraments. The key characteristic of a sacrament is that it is an action performed within the believing community, and it is understood to have a particular effect.
The traditional definition of a sacrament, which was first suggested by Saint Augustine is: a visible sign of invisible grace.
The Catholic Church recognizes seven sacraments in its liturgy. Two are drawn directly from Jesus’ actions in the Gospels: Baptism and Eucharist. Others evolved to recognize the sacred dimension of actions such as marriage. We will discuss each of these in turn.
The idea of a sacrament is wider than just these seven particular actions. If we see a sacrament as a recognition of the way God interacts with our world and ourselves, then we can see other things or actions as sacraments. The Vatican Council particularly emphasized that the Church itself is the fundamental sacrament – it expresses the relationship between God and the world. The seven sacraments are the specific actions which the Church recognizes as playing out that relationship. This approach has a lot in common with the approach of the Orthodox Church which tends to avoid the Western tendency to count and categorize everything. This focus on the mystery of the actions of the church in many situations, going beyond the “basic seven” to such things as consecrating a church or blessing a sick person, provides a fuller appreciation of the many way God in engaged with and through his people.
Perhaps more important in our understanding of sacraments than the specifics of an particular sacrament is the way we thing of sacraments in general. Here we hit the issue of how signs can relate to reality: the Catholic understanding of sacraments goes beyond these actions being “just” signs – we believe they reflect an underlying reality – so Baptism is not just pointing out that someone is saved by Christ, the acceptance of Baptism (or any of the other sacraments) brings about the relationship with God, through the action of the Church. It is both an individual action and response, and a communal action.
In saying this, there is a trap we must avoid. Despite the human fascination with magic (common to the Romans, Medievals, and Moderns – judging by the popularity of Harry Potter!) sacraments are not spells, they do not have an effect independent of the recipient. They are not dependent on the worthiness or holiness of the people administering the sacrament. God can work through even the most inadequate of intermediaries (fortunately!). But the value or effect of the grace does require that the recipient of that grace is aware of it and wants to benefit from it, however limited or unclear that understanding may be. Put another way, forcing somebody to “undergo” a sacrament, as though it were a spell or a medical operation, makes no sense. God is not in the business of forcing anything on us.
Better to think of sacraments as a special type of celebration – the easiest example is probably marriage: the celebration is communal (a marriage occurs within a community and is the recognition by the community of a relationship); the celebration recognizes the existence of the relationship and gives it a special character; the participants must want the effect i.e. to be married.
The Eucharist
The center of our Christian life. We are the Body of Christ.
Sharing in the life of Christ, as experienced ever since the Resurrection.
A community meal, sharing Bread and Wine.
The Real Presence:
The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is not a just a memorial, something that helps us remember the past. When Jesus said “this is my body and this is my blood, do this in memory of me” he meant that we share in his action, and the reality of his presence is as true now when the priest repeats those words as it was when He said them at the Last Supper.
This common understanding was lost at the Reformation. Both Protestant and Catholic Churches diverged from the early understanding of the Eucharist. In the Catholic case there came to be an exclusive focus on the presence of Christ in the bread and wine, and the understanding of the Eucharist as a shared action was diminished. In Medieval times the Eucharist was shut off behind large screens and the people engaged in their own prayer while the words of the Mass went on in parallel.
The rediscovery of a more authentic understanding of the Eucharist started in the 20th Century and was formalized by the Second Vatican Council. The Council restated that the reality of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist was fourfold:
- Christ is present in the assembly (“when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst”)
- In the priest, who repeats the sacrifice of the Last Supper
- In the Word of God declared from the Bible
- In the Eucharist elements (the bread and wine)
The Council also emphasized that the Eucharist was an action in which the whole assembly participated, not an action of the priest which the congregation observed.
The link of the Eucharist to the Last Supper is made explicit in the “act of consecration” – the central moment in the Mass when the priest repeats the words of Jesus from the Last Supper (as recorded by Saint Paul, who repeats them as having been passed to him). All the other prayers in the Mass may vary but that one is always there.
Taking communion is a normal and expected part of attending Mass. Communion is normally received “under both kinds” i.e. the bread and the wine.
Because we believe in the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine we treat those with reverence and don’t discard any leftovers. This led to “Reserving the Blessed Sacrament” and the service of Benediction. We must avoid seeing the consecrated bread as some sort of magic item – that would completely miss the point.