Season 2. Ep 27. Sacraments

We believe that one of the effects of Baptism is the indwelling of the Spirit of God, and that the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ Sacramentally present yet some are baptized and they seem no different than the unbaptized and so many go to communion regularly yet do not have apparent signs of holiness. This episode digs deep into the Church’s sacramental theology and how to receive what God is offering in the Sacraments.

Video Version

Audio Version

Timestamps

3:00 - 3 Legged Stool

4:15 - What is a Sacrament?

5:00 - The Body and the Sacraments

10:00 - The Visible and Mystical Church

13:00 - The Effectiveness of the Sacraments

16:15 - Three Stage of a Sacrament

18:15 - Donatist Controversy

Notes

“A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace." - Baltimore Catechism, 304 - https://www.catholicity.com/baltimore-catechism/lesson23.html

Aquinas 101 Introduction to the Sacraments - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnuC7pGyfgw

“Through the whole Old Testament, God comes to his people in a way that they experience through their senses.  In the New Covenant [...] if God chose to not come to His people in a way that they could not experience with their senses, that would be weird, that would be different.  [in the Sacraments] ]We believe that God comes to his people in a way that was a continuation and an intensification of what he had already been doing.” (9:00)

“Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element.  For this reason, by no weak analogy, it is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word.” Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 8. - http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

The Stages of a Sacrament

Sacramentum Tantum = The Sign Alone

Res et Sacramentum = The Reality and the Sign

Res Tantum = The Reality Alone

“This is the meaning of the Church's affirmation that the sacraments act ex opere operato (literally: "by the very fact of the action's being performed"), i.e., by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God." From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1128 - https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s1c1a2.htm

Ex Opere Operato = from the work worked

Ex Opere Operantis = from the work of the worker

Go Deeper on the Sacraments

Lecture by Fr. Dominic Langavin, OP - https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/fr-dominic-langevin-op-the-sacraments-in-the-christian-life-part-1-oct-17

Lecture by Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP - https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/the-sacraments-in-general-definition-and-necessity

Old Catholic Encyclopedia on the Sacraments - https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13295a.htm#V