August 27, 2023 - Pastor Message
04/30/2024THE YEAR OF MISSION
THE SACRAMENTS
“Christ Jesus, bless us as you blessed our patron, St. Boniface, so that, by carrying out the mission entrusted to us, our parish will yield a bountiful harvest of passionate disciples, united to you by the sacraments and sent by you to further your mission” (our parish’s Vision Statement).
Our parish’s Year of Mission coincides with the national Eucharistic Revival. Sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Eucharistic Revival is a three-year effort by the bishops to renew our understanding of the Eucharist here in the United States. To do that, however, we need to renew our understanding of the sacraments, or our sacramental theology. This fits perfectly with our parish’s mission since our vision is to unite people to Christ by the sacraments.
The sacraments are among the most distinctly Catholic elements of our faith. Other Christian traditions also have a sacramental theology, especially regarding baptism, but, for most traditions, it tends to be far less emphasized or developed than it is in the Catholic faith. We Catholics have always been an earthy people. We are bodily people, and we want to experience God, not just as an idea in our minds or hearts, but as a tangible reality through our senses. That desire, and the belief that our incarnate God continues to “take flesh” and come to us in that way, is at the heart of our sacramental theology.
With that in mind, we can propose a working definition: a sacrament is an effective sign of God’s grace, instituted by Christ, celebrated by the Church, for the salvation of souls. Each part of that definition is crucial, so let’s consider each in turn. First, sacraments are effective signs. Signs are sensible things that represent something else. We can see them, touch them, hear them, and so forth, but, when we do, we know they mean something else. The water we pour over someone in baptism isn’t just water but a source of both life and death, for example. To say that these are effective signs means they don’t just represent something else but they cause what they represent to happen. Like a kiss shared between spouses doesn’t just represent their love for each other but makes it tangible and present. When we pour water over someone in baptism, it doesn’t just represent dying and rising; in a real, spiritual way, they die and rise to new life.
And what do these effective signs we call sacraments not only represent but make happen? God’s grace, which we will define in next week’s column.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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