SACRAMENTS Course Overview for 1st Quarter

i. Salvation History -What is a Sacrament? -What does it have to do with me?

ii. Symbol and Ritual -Why Sacraments?-Practicing “Third-Eye” Seeing

iii. God’s Sacramental Actions -How does God act in and through the Sacraments?

1. Baptism -Who ever thought this up?- How Baptism wants to kill you.- How does Baptism work?

2. Confirmation - Who thought this one up?- It’s a type of Graduation, right?- How does Confirmation work?

I. The life of man - to know and love God

1 God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer

goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.

For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to

man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his

strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into

the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the

fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour.

In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy

Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

I. The life of man - to know and love God• 2 So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth

the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."4 Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it."5

• 3 Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.6

“It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom to reveal Himself and to make

known the mystery of his will... to have access to the Father, through

Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature”

CCC 51

God Wants You To Live!

Review

Super Important Termstradition (small “t”) – what is handed on or passed down from one generation to the

next.

Tradition (big “T”) – the handing on of the deposit of faith; the living transmission of the Gospel message in the Church (CCC 75 -83).

Liturgy – a “public work” or service done in the name of or on behalf of the people. Through the liturgy Christ continues the work of our redemption through the Church’s celebration of the Paschal Mystery by which he accomplished our salvation (CCC 1067 – 1069)

Pascal Mystery – Christ’s work of redemption accomplished principally by his Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. It is made present in the liturgy of the Church, and its saving effects are communicated through the sacraments. (CCC 1067; 1076)

Salvation History

Why study history?To inform our living/decisions WayTo hand on the Truth TruthTo enlighten our path LifeWe discover our identity “Who do you say that I AM?”

• Why do we love stories?

• Misconception about History:“One of the most necessary and most neglected points about the story

called history, is the fact that the story is not finished.” ~G.K. Chesterton

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always until the close of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

Etymology of “Sacrament”

• East (Greek) vs. West (Latin)– “Mysterion” – in the East (Greek)

• “mysterion” – 1. somehing hidden 2. something revealed• Old Testament use of “mystery”:

– Biblical ‘slang’ for “hidden”- Daniel 2:27-30: “There is a God in heaven who reveals

mysteries, and has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is to happen in the days to come”

But “to be understood”… Dan 2:30: “…that you may understand the thoughts in your

own mind”• Affirms our own body-mind unity as mystery.

Etymology of “Sacrament”

• Sacraments possess this “revealing” and “concealing” character

» -i.e. Our bodies, Jesus’ Body» Moses’ intimacy with God:

Exodus 33:19Moses: “Do let me see your glory!”God: “I will make all my beauty pass before you… but my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives.”

God’s “concealment” : the adaptation of His power to us. i.e. not Rambo-God, but Lamb-of-God

• New Testament: “mysterion”• St. Paul – uses “mystery/mysterion”:

– Eph 1: 3-10: plan of God revealed in Christ to all people– Col 1:24-27: hidden from previous ages; now fully revealed in

Christ; realized by those mature in the faith; yet revealed to all

• Fathers of the Church (St. Clement and Origen)In General: associated “what was revealed in Christ” to

particular “rites”, what we now know as sacraments, or sacred rites.

Etymology of “Sacraments”

• Church Father’s (cont.)– Affirm Sacrament Character: • 1. “event” character within the sacrament; something

happens» - we don’t control events: we enter into them» e.g. car accidents

• 2. “inexhaustible” character; » - words can never explain us

e.g. young love vs. old couples at Honkers

– The Fathers affirm the inexhaustible event of these sacred rites.

Etymology of “Sacrament”• West (Latin)– “SACRAMENTUM”

“oath of fidelity” 1. Roman soldiers gave a sacramentum to the Emperor.

-2. Roman Courts collected a sacramentum, or money deposit, from both sides and the winner took all.

Adoption by early Christians:Oath of fidelity of entire

person to Christ and His Church even to the point of death!

Apostles Creed:• At our initiation (Baptism) and every Sunday:

• I believe in God, the Almighty Father. Amen• And at our Confirmation and every Easter we renounce the Enemy.

• Priest: “Do you renounce Satan and all of his works?...• In Confession, we recognize our fallenness but accept God’s

strength. • “I will never quit…If knocked down, I will get back up.”

• Understanding of Early Christians – The Sacraments were likened to the Roman sacramentum: an oath fidelity, a pledge of the entire person to Christ and His Church even to the point of death!

Etymology of “Sacrament”

• West (Latin) – Tertullian 2-3 cent.

– the 1st to bring “sacramentum” to the West/ Latin speaking world.

– Referred to Baptism and Eucharist as being “sacramentum” » - those faithful who entered into such sacramentum were

taking a life-long oath staked upon death.» -many martyrs during this time in 2nd century.

Etymology of Sacrament

• St. Augustine 3-4th century- Greatly contributed to Church’s sacramental

understanding when he described sacrament as a “sign.”

- What is the nature of signs and symbols. How do they work?

- Symbol or Sign- something visible or tangible that communicates an invisible or intangible reality.

Creation as Sign or sacrament (small “s”).

Twofold way of approaching God from Creation:

1. The world: “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” CCC 32 (Rom 1:19, Acts 14:15, Wis 13:1-9)

2. The human person: His openness to truth and beauty, sense of moral goodness, freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longing for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul, which can only have its origin in God” (CCC 33).

Signs and Symbols

• Review: Symbols express invisible realities in visible ways.

Rituals are moving symbols… sacramentality (small “s”)- a thing’s

ability to reveal its dependency on God. Creation revealing its Creator.

Signs and Symbols

In what ways are symbols and rituals useful?1. they help us to keep alive the past2. they give visible expression to invisible thoughts and feelings

Signs – Two functions

1. they point beyond themselves

2. They also instruct.

Etymology of “Sacrament”

– St. Augustine 3-4 cent.– helped us gain insight and understanding of what “sacrament”

means and how it is used– “SIGN” – He introduced “sign” (signum) – Something effects what it

signifies.

– A stop sign does not have the power to effect what it is “signing”

– The Sacraments, as signum, are truly effective. Nowhere else in the universe does this

happen. They have Power!

– How can this be? Where does the Power come from?