September 24, 2023 - Pastor Message
04/30/2024THE YEAR OF MISSION
THE SACRAMENTS (cont.)
“Jesus said to the eleven, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and the sick will recover” (Mark 16:15-18).
The working definition of sacraments that has been the subject of the past few columns is, once again, effective signs of God’s grace, instituted by Christ, celebrated by the Church, for the salvation of souls. We will look at the final part - for the salvation of souls - today. Salvation refers to Jesus’ act of saving us, but what does he save us from and how does he do this? He saves us from the power of sin and its consequence, death. He does this by dying himself and rising to the fullness of life in glory with God. He then shares this new life with us through sin’s opposite, grace. It is the gift of this saving grace that we celebrate and receive in the sacraments.
This does not mean that Jesus and the sacraments save us from the human experience of death, the separation of the soul from the body at the end of our natural lives. Rather, Jesus transforms that experience into the means by which we obtain divine life, which we receive partially now in the form of signs, the sacraments, but which we will only receive directly in its fullness at the end of our natural, human life. The sacraments are like glass doors through which we can look in and see and even commune with God and the life he promises, but only by dying and rising with Christ will we enter into God’s house and share his life to the full.
The sacraments are doorways God has given us to salvation and, in that sense, are necessary for salvation. This means they are necessary for us, but are they necessary for God? Are they the only means God gives us for salvation? They are the only means we believe with certainty that, if properly celebrated with true faith and the necessary disposition, give us saving grace. They are God’s gift to us and the plan he has established for salvation, so we need them and are bound by faith to celebrate them and to urge others to do so too. But God is not bound by anything. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving, so in his infinite love, knowledge, and power, he is certainly free to bring about salvation in other ways that with our finite minds we do not see or know. This gives us hope for the salvation of all people, especially those who have never heard of Jesus or, through no fault of their own, have misperceptions about Jesus and the sacraments. It is our job as Christians to bring Jesus to others and to reflect his image truthfully to them in our words and actions so that they come to believe, to celebrate the sacraments, and so be saved. The grace of the sacraments isn’t just for those who receive them but is meant to transform us into living signs of God’s grace that shines brightly for others to see and so brings all people to Christ and salvation.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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