The chain of grace

Why are sacraments so important?  Hugely important in the Catholic / Orthodox Churches / other Rites  Continuum in Christianity of Sacrament / Bible  Sacramental/Liturgical end - catholic  Scripture based /Bible end - evangelical  The Reformation was largely responsible for this split

McBrien’s 3 Catholic features  Mediation  Sacramentality  Community  These distinguish Catholicism from other Christian traditions

Basic ideas  Mystery  Sacramentality  Grace  Incarnation  Human Experience  The Paschal Mystery

Mystery  God’s self-revelation, like God, is a mystery which cannot be fully understood  We can never be sure of exactly how he sacraments operate in our lives or how God’s grace actually works in our everyday existence

Sacramental Principle – Divine Perspective  Everything is, in principle, capable of embodying and communicating the divine.  God is at once everywhere and all powerful.  There is no finite instrument that God cannot put to use.

Sacramental Principle – Human Perspective  Human beings have nothing else apart from finite instruments to express our own response to God's self-communication.  The divine reaches us through the finite  We reach the divine through the finite.  This is the sacramental encounter  for Christians the ultimate sacramental encounter with God is Jesus Christ.

Relationships  Primarily God relates at a communal level not a private and individual one  Never simply transactions between the divine and this person  clearly that as well – but not primarily or exclusively  God touches all of humankind, and the human community as a whole responds to its experience of the divine through a sacramental mode.

Grace  Is the life of God made available to us as humans – the divine presence in our world  Grace is invisible but transformative  We are human –but actually graced humans  Or perhaps graced sinners  NB: an idea like grace is all too easy to contaminate with simplistic human calculations

Grace cont  Although every thing or moment can be ‘grace-filled’ our sacraments are very particular encounters with the Risen Christ which allow us to share in his life.  Groome talks about “a heightened effect within sacramentality (2002, 85)

Sacramental graces  Initiation  Empowering  Sustaining  Forgiving  Healing  Serving  Bonding

Sacramentality  Everything in principle is capable of embodying and communicating the Divine  God is at once everywhere and all powerful  There is no finite instrument that God cannot put to use  Our world is a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God  The holy is in the material – all life is holy

Sacramentality  The dimension of life in which material things express the presence of God  The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out like shook foil  The heavens declare the glory of God  St Francis of Assisi - Brother Sun and Sister Moon

 When we see changes of day and night, the sun, the moon, and the stars in the night sky, and the changing seasons upon earth, with their ripening fruits, we realise that it is the work of someone more powerful than ourselves  Chased-by-bears, Yanktonai Sioux Native American wisdom

Relationship and encounter  Primarily God relates at a communal level not a private and individual one  Never simply transactions between the divine and this person  clearly that as well – but not primarily or exclusively  God touches all of humankind, and the human community as a whole responds to its experience of the Divine through a sacramental mode. This is the sacramental encounter  for Christians the ultimate sacramental encounter with God is Jesus Christ.

Definition of sacrament  Widest Sense:  Any finite reality through which the divine is disclosed and communicated, and through which our human response to the divine assumes some measure of shape, form and structure.

Tad Guzie’s definition  A Sacrament is a festive action in which Christians assemble to celebrate their lived experience and to call to heart their common story. The action is a symbol of God’s care for us in Christ. Enacting the symbol brings us closer to one another in the Church and to the Lord who is there for us.  (Guzie: 1981, 53)

Human Experience  We can only express ourselves as persons in the reality of our body.  Our body – experience of growth and decay – of changes we can’t control – changes we can control – but finally we are at the mercy of our body which takes us inexorably to death.  Human experience is at the root of all sacraments.

Human experience in story  Guzie and Boff both underline this link.  Both go from the lived experience of human beings to stories that we tell about our lives.  Our stories become who we are – little stories, big stories.  Stories may be passed down and then become communicated through symbols.  They become the great religious narratives

Man the ‘meaning maker’  Beings whose lives are committed to the creation of meaning (Mircea Eliade)  We create meaning through the use of symbols – symbolic statements and / or symbolic actions

To establish meaning or significance  We do special things  We eat special foods  We say special words  We tell stories  We use special music  We set aside special times, special places  We dress in special clothes

Some examples  Funerals  Birthday parties  Remembrance Sunday  Saluting and other greetings  Christmas  Celebrations of various sorts

Incarnation  Jesus taking flesh, born as a human being, becoming a male person  Jesus mediates God’s presence in the world  Every action of Jesus revealed the presence of God

New Testament roots  Mysterion  Sacramentum  Both are words from the secular Roman world

New Testament  New Testament does not contain the word sacrament  MYSTERION  a secret  a divine secret  a divine secret in the process of being revealed

Mysterion  a term used by many of the ancient mystery cults 7th Century BCE to 4th Century CE  MYSTERIES = cultic rites in which destinies of a god are portrayed by sacred actions before a circle of devotees in such a way as to give them part in the fate of the god.  integral to the concept of mysteries is the fact that those who wish to take part in their celebration must undergo initiation.

Mysterion  all mysteries promise their devotees salvation by the dispensing of cosmic life  in all the mysteries the distinction between the initiates and non-initiates find expression not only in the ritual of the celebrations but also in the vow of silence laid on devotees.  this is essential to all the mysteries and is a feature implicit in the etymology.

Mysterion: the Old Testament  it works its way into Hellenistic Judaism  Daniel [2:18, 27-30, etc.]  mysterion takes on for the first time a sense which is important for the further development of the word –  namely an eschatalogical mystery: a concealed intimation of divinely ordained future events whose disclosure and interpretation is reserved for God alone and for those inspired by God’s spirit [4:9]

Mysterion in the NT  in the GOSPELS  the term only occurs in obscure sayings of Jesus  about the purpose of parables which the synoptics interpose between the parable of sower and its interpretation, e.g. "To you the mystery of the reign of God has been confided. To the others outside it is all presented in parables." [Mk. 4:11; Lk. 8:1-; Mt. 13:11]

NT cont  in PAUL mysterion is firmly connected with the kerygma of Christ  Christ is the mystery of God [Col. 2:2] or the "mysterious wisdom of God"  This mystery of God in Christ is:  prepared before the world was [1 Cor. 2:7]  concealed from the aeons [1 Cor. 2:8]  hidden in God, the creator of all things [Eph. 3:9]  but a heavenly reality which breaks into the world, and human history [4:62]

Sacramentum  MYSTERION becomes TRANSLATED into the Latin word SACRAMENTUM  secular term:  originally a sum of money deposed with tresviri capitales [= police magistrates] by the parties to a civil suit as a payment or stake. The party whose claim was disproved in the hearing before the judge forfeited his deposit to the state, not his adversary. [Oxford Classical Dictionary]

Sacramentum  from here it came to be employed by the MILITARY  Roman soldiers were INITIATED into military service; when drafted, he was provided with some sort of IDENTIFICATION mark, i.e. a leaden thesauri hung about the neck; or branding or tattooing the hand or breast of the soldier.  sometimes he was also given a NEW NAME – the name was registered in the official scroll of the army - then the soldier was required to take an OATH of ALLEGIANCE to the emperor.

Sacramentum in military  THREE ACTS:  giving identification mark SACRAMENTA  registration of name MILITIAE  administration of oath

Sacramentum in military  The taking of the oath by Roman soldier was NOT only civil ceremony - it was also an act of RELIGION  To break the oath [i.e. to throw down one's arms and go over to camp of enemy] was not only an act of treason but also a sacrilege.  SACRAMENTUM thus comes to mean any SOLEMN undertaking

Use of sacramentum word  largely due to Tertullian  son of a soldier  looked upon Christian life as MILITIA SPIRITUALIS  baptism = SACRAMENTUM MILITIAE DEI VIVI

St Augustine of Hippo [ ]  Sacrament for Augustine = SACRED SIGN  term suggested NOT only a rite but also a sign which both VEILED the truth and REVEALED it.  Not unlike the original use of the word MYSTERION

Augustine – over 300+ sacraments  exorcism  contemplation  the penitential garment  bowing the head  taking off one's shoes  various rites of catechumenate  entering period of competentes  octave of Easter  penance

Sacramentals and sacraments  A wide range of material things which revealed the presence of God  Augustine talked about 300+ sacramentals  ‘Blessings, prayers or sacred objects designated as sacred in a unique way by the Church’

First Sacraments  Jesus’ baptism  The Last Supper  Baptism in the Spirit – Pentecost  All initiatory rites