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Inner Life of a Catholic

The Profession of Faith 

CHAPTER THREE

Life In The Church

2. The Sacramental Life

The Holy Mass is not the only means of grace and progress in the spiritual life, that is, we would repeat and insist, in the making of the perfect man. Jesus Christ our Lord has told us that He has come "not to destroy but to perfect," and history has proved the truth of His words. The Catholic, every Christian, believes that by following His lead, and by using the means which He has provided, man is made the better as a man in this life as well as for the next, and that the whole tenure of this world is lifted up by adherence to Him and to His ordination. Indeed, he believes that this is what is meant by Christian civilization; he believes that by simply obeying His injunctions, and by no other way, has that great revolution been brought about in the history of mankind with which no other can compare.

Now, among the means which He has provided are some, so simple in themselves as almost to seem trivial, yet in their working, and because of their significance, absolutely fundamental to the whole Christian idea. These are the seven sacraments. The Catholic believes that there are certain outward ceremonies, certain actions, or tokens, instituted and appointed, at least in their essentials, in their matter and form, directly by our Lord Himself. These ceremonies, these actions, performed as He has ordained, with the intention which He had in mind, and in proof of our faith in His word and our adherence to Him, of themselves confer on the soul some special grace, some special mark of His bounty, which would be given in no other way. He knew how human nature tended to be drawn after, and to be influenced by external ceremonial, external manifestations, external symbolism. A shake of the hand, a salute of a superior, a simple word uttered, however conventional, a look, a gesture, a tone of voice, all these and many more, in themselves trifling and meaningless, yet become, as between man and man, so full of meaning, so expressive, that human life is made up of, and is guided by, their use. They are outward signs conveying inward meaning, speaking more than words, giving more than gold and silver; they are sacred ceremonies, natural sacraments, by which the whole human race is bound together, all the more because of their very insignificance.

We cannot then be surprised that, in His infinite bounty and stooping down to our littleness, God should have willed, through His Son Jesus Christ, to establish certain external signs or conventions, as between Himself and man, certain acts, or pledges, or tokens, in return for which man shall receive from God special proofs of His favor and love. These are the seven sacraments. They are not only signs of grace received, they themselves, in the very act, confer these graces; in this sense, that the man who performs the outward act, in the mind of Jesus Christ who constituted it, with the dispositions which He required, immediately and at once receives the grace which the act is intended to signify. As the joining of. hands, between two men, not only implies, let us say, sorrow on the one side, forgiveness on the other, but itself proves that both have been given and received, so the sacraments confer their special graces, not only in virtue of the recipient's dispositions and deserts, but of themselves and on their own account. Objectively and independently of the subject who receives them, as actual instruments in the hand of God, by the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord alone and not ours, the sacraments confer their grace. "Do this," says the Father to His son, "show me this mark of submission and confidence, and I will give you what I alone can give."

On this account it is that the Catholic puts the seven sacraments in a place apart. They form an integral element in his life, without which that life cannot rightly function; they are as the veins in the body, carrying the life's blood from the central heart, the heart of Jesus Christ, to every member; they are the channels along which the living water flows through the garden enclosed. The Catholic makes belief in the seven sacraments a distinguishing feature of his faith in practice; one may almost say that his devotion to, and reception of, the sacraments is the measure of his devotion to his faith. Certainly this is true; when it is said of a Catholic that he "frequents the sacraments," or that he does not, every other Catholic understands at once what is meant; on that point there is nothing more to be said.

It will not therefore be out of place to dwell for a moment on the significance of the seven sacraments in Catholic life. They are, as we have explained, a free gift of a loving God, over and above anything man otherwise receives. They depend upon himself only in so far as he does what is needed to receive them; but, that done, they pour upon him superabundantly the grace won for him by the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Each sacrament confers its own special grace; each is instituted for a special occasion, to meet a special purpose or need in the life of the human soul, such has been the providence and charity of God.

Thus, in <Baptism>, the soul is started on its supernatural career; it is initiated, born again, and we have seen elsewhere how that re-birth is taken as a very real thing. The child that is baptized was before a human being and no more, with none but a human being's rights; it has now become a being with a claim of its own to eternal life. It has received the grace of spiritual regeneration, it has been purified from original sin, the evil effect of the Fall of man, of which we have spoken elsewhere. By Baptism there is created in the soul the "new man," the regenerated man, "born of water and of the Holy Ghost," who lives by the life of Jesus our Lord. As St. Paul boldly expresses it, in Baptism the old man, the merely natural man, has died. By Baptism the soul has been buried with Jesus Christ and has risen with Him; henceforward it lives by a new life, which is His own risen life, a life eternal, with all the claims that eternal life implies. "Know you not that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus are baptized in his death? For we are buried together with him by baptism unto death, that, as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in the newness of life" (Rom. vi, 3, 4).

"For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. iii, 27).
"Buried with him in baptism: in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him up from the dead" (Col. ii, 12).

From these passages and others akin to them we may easily deduce that, in the mind of St. Paul and all his first Christians, the Sacrament of Baptism had a twofold significance and effect. In the first place it gave the grace of death to sin, the grace of spiritual crucifixion of the lower nature, the "old man"; by that grace the soul that is baptized is enabled to fight and to master the evil inclinations within itself. In the second place it conferred the grace of spiritual regeneration; that is, it incorporated the soul that was baptized with Jesus Christ its Lord, it gave it access to, and enabled it to participate in His very life. It lifted it up to a plane whereon it might live in conformity with His mind and His example, thus becoming a perfect Christian, another christ. But in consequence, as St. Paul never tires of insisting, on the side of the baptized there lies the corresponding obligation. To be baptized is to accept a responsibility, a glorious one, it is true, one that it is an honor to receive; nevertheless it is not a compulsion, there still remains human freedom with which Christ our Lord will never interfere, and of that the baptized soul must make use for itself. To combat sin and sin's causes, both within the soul itself and in the world about it, to adhere to Jesus Christ and to reproduce Him, these are the undertaking of him who is baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

<Confirmation> is the second of the sacraments; as its name implies, it adds a new strength to the soul in its battle, it stamps it as a soldier of Jesus Christ. As the child grows to manhood, as the time comes when it may be called upon to profess, openly and generously, and perhaps at some cost to itself, its belief in and adherence to Christ and His Godhead against whatever adversary, the Sacrament of Confirmation is given to it as a weapon of defense, a pillar of support; above all it is an antidote to that subtlest of enemies, human respect, which is sheer cowardice however general, and which prevents so many from the practice of the faith that is in them. Confirmation increases the light of faith; it gives a safe and reliable assurance of certainty even when reason may be dark, or when ignorance becomes aggressive; it engenders a gladness in the service of God when ail else leads to sorrow, and suffering, and even martyrdom.

By the Sacrament of Confirmation the Holy Ghost comes into the soul in a new way; with that indwelling His gifts, though already bestowed in the Sacrament of Baptism, are renewed and expanded and invigorated. Faith is enlightened that it may see the things that are more excellent, and may live its life with a yet greater certainty and joy; it penetrates deeper, it becomes part of the soul's very being, connatural. At the same time, while it thus opens the mind to understand and see, it also strengthens the will to act. With the help of Confirmation evil is more easily resisted, good is more easily done; Confirmation is, in brief, the Sacrament of Christian manliness, well adapted to the time when the battle of life begins in earnest.

The Sacrament of the <Holy Eucharist>, after all that has been said elsewhere in these pages, need not be further explained here; to give it its due, and the place it holds in the mind of every Catholic, "the world, methinks, would not be able to contain the books that should be written." The Catholic loves it as the apple of his eye, he cherishes it as his treasure, for which he is willing to part with all else; indeed, as we approach the end of this study, we ask ourselves whether it would not have been better for our purpose to have concentrated on this alone, and to have said that the Catholic mind, and life in the Catholic Church, was just that. All else leads up to it, or follows from it.

The .Gospels themselves find their climax in the sermon in the synagogue at Capharnum and the Last Supper in Jerusalem. As Jesus Christ our Lord Himself said, the first marked the parting of the ways, the second would be followed by His death and victory; all posterity would be divided according as it accepted or did not accept His own Body and Blood for its food and drink. Nowhere is Catholic unity more proved and vindicated than round the Eucharistic table; nowhere does non-Catholic disunion show itself more glaringly, more hopelessly. The very doctrine of Infallibility may be shown to rest upon, to be a necessary consequence of, the infallible Word who gave us His Body and His Blood. He who said: "This is my Body," who said: "Do this for a commemoration of me," also said: "I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world"; "He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me." Thus the Holy Eucharist nourishes at once each human soul that receives it and also the whole Church of God, making it one with Himself, the very truth, infallible. That both the body and the members may live and grow, they need sustenance suited to their life; and since that life is itself divine, none other than a divine sustenance can feed it. This is given to us in the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Christ's very Body and Blood, His Soul and His Divinity. It transforms us into other christs and fills us, really, and not merely as it were, with His Spirit, His mind, His virtues, above all with His living self—begetting love, both for God and for man.

If the soul has the misfortune to lose this life of grace by grievous sin, or if ever it is stained by venial sin—and what soul at some time is not?—then there is the healing Sacrament of Penance to wash away the guilt, to effect a fresh reconciliation, to give new hope and courage and to enable the sinner to begin again. <In multis peccavimus omnes>; we have all done evil in many ways, we know it, each one knows it in himself and the loving God knows it of us all.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (I John i, 8-10).

Jesus Christ our Lord came into the world, first and foremost, "to save his people from their sins." He spoke of Himself above all things else as one sent, less for the just than for "one sinner that would do penance." Once only in His life did He prove His divine right directly by miracle, and that was when He first presumed to use the words: "Thy sins are forgiven thee." When He had again risen from the dead, and again had taken the Apostles to His own, He sealed the bond between them with their new commission: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven." In these and other ways He has taken care that of all His sacraments none shall have more manifest confirmation than the Sacrament of Penance; for it is the sacrament by which the saving virtue of His precious Blood is applied to the soul. That soul is but asked to acknowledge its own guilt, to be truly repentant, to be resolved to break with evil-doing, to be firm in its will to sin no more, and by the act of absolution it is forgiven. To lay down less conditions would be unworthy, of God and of man; once the contrition is sincere, then the forgiveness, complete and all-healing, is of the nature of God Himself.

There is another hour of weakness for which the tender understanding of Jesus Christ our Lord has provided. When death comes to knock at our door we have need to be strengthened anew, and to be prepared, as far as help, human and divine, can prepare us, to go forward and stand before the throne of the living God, the Just Judge, from whom nothing is hidden, in whose sight the angels are not pure. There may be distress and fear because of past offenses, or what is worse, there may be no distress, there may be only callousness and hardness of heart. Present weakness, whatever the guilt, may make us shrink from the prospect of coming judgment; more pitiful still, the soul may be passing into another world with an affectation of defiance. Then is given the Sacrament of <Extreme Unction> to fortify the one, to bring the other to a realization of the truth. The anointing with consecrated oil is bestowed on the senses of the body, the gateways by which sin may have entered in; at the same time there is poured into the soul a grace of consolation and of spiritual renewal. Hardness of heart gives way to truth, remains of sin are cleared away, confidence is revived, the final trials and temptations are met, the soul is filled with that hope voiced by St. Paul, who claimed that he had fought the good fight, and rejoiced in the prospect of the crown that awaited him. And with regard to this Sacrament of Extreme Unction, let the writer be allowed to conclude with one remark. We hear much of miracles, wrought in an answer to the prayers and devotion of the faithful; we believe that the miracles surrounding the Sacrament of Extreme Unction surpass them all, miracles both temporal and spiritual. Probably no priest who has had much experience in dealing with the dying, has not had occasion to be struck with the ways of God in their regard; procuring by extraordinary ways that His own in their need should receive the sacrament, or when it has been received, pouring down His consolations, natural and supernatural, in ways manifest to all.

It will be seen that these five sacraments are given to sanctify and to provide for the individual soul in its own passage through life. There is the sacrament of the beginning and the sacrament of the end. There is the sacrament of maturity, Confirmation. There are the life-giving sacraments, the one to heal the wounded soul, Penance, the other to give it the bread of life, the Holy Eucharist. There remain two more. Man is not only an individual, he is also a member of Society. And Society is twofold, spiritual and temporal. To establish and confirm man in each of these there is a further sacrament, consecrating him and sanctifying him for his place in relation to other men.

First, there is the Sacrament of <Holy Orders>. This sacrament gives to the ministers of the Church the powers conferred by Jesus Christ our Lord on the Apostles; which powers, seeing that the Church was to be for all time, they were to hand on to those who were to come after them. These are the powers of consecrating the Holy Eucharist in Holy Mass, of absolving from sin in the name of Jesus Christ, of administering the other sacraments, as also the commission to go and preach His word. And in addition to the powers given by the sacrament there is also conferred corresponding grace.

There is the grace to be worthy of those powers, to live in such a way, to such a standard, that the priest ordained may prove himself a faithful servant; in particular there is given an increase of love for God, for the person of Jesus Christ whom he represents, for the Blessed Sacrament of which he is appointed the special guardian, for the souls of men, for whose sake he consecrates his life. He is given the strength of purpose to accept his responsibility with a glad and generous heart; to ignore himself, if need be to sacrifice himself, in union with the Master who has chosen him, and has "set him that he may bring forth fruit, and that his fruit may remain." None but a priest can know the significance of these graces; but for him it is not too much to say that they are tangibly real, so real that because of them his whole outlook on life, and therefore his whole attitude to life, are altered.

Lastly, there is the family, the unit from which all society is built, the destruction of which has invariably meant the destruction of civilization itself. By nature the family is sacred, and Jesus Christ our Lord, who came "not to destroy but to perfect," would make it still more sacred by His own blessing and sanctification. Jesus Christ our Lord has made the bond which secures the unit of the family far more sacred than any civil contract; He has raised it to the rank of a sacrament, so that what has been joined together no man and no thing shall put asunder. The Sacrament of Matrimony gives to husband and wife a confidence and trust in one another which no human bond can give; it adds the grace and the strength to meet the obligation, on the fulfillment of which not their own lives alone but the whole of human society depends. It gives them first, if they will accept it, the grace of absolute and constant fidelity to one another, and to the vow which loves induces them to make, to respect the sanctity of the marriage bond, despite the urging of an evil nature. It prompts them to respect the rights of God, the Lord of earth and heaven, and the absolute Master of all life, in its beginning as well as in its end, so that fathers and mothers may be faithful not only to each other, but also to whatever God may wish to give them as blessing to them from their union.

Thus for each important circumstance in the spiritual life of man, for every duty, individual or social, Jesus Christ our Lord has provided in the sacraments a wonderful support of sanctifying grace; and that this sanctifying grace may be put into operation, each of the sacraments gives, in addition to its own special grace, a right to further actual graces, bestowed upon us that we may be stirred to the practice of the special virtues which those conditions or duties require. Indeed the life of the sacraments is preeminently the life of grace; to understand the one is to understand the other, to accept the one is to accept the other, and that understanding and that acceptance are the characteristic of the Catholic mind. They lie behind his faith, making it natural and easy; they set before him the supernatural as an objective reality, to which the things of time and space are only secondary; they give him at once a goal of ambition beyond anything this world can suggest, and a stimulus and power to attain it. It is for the soul itself that receives and is inspired by the grace of the sacraments to correspond. It will dispose itself, as perfectly as it may, to receive the graces which Jesus Christ its Lover offers to it, it will make much of the dignity and honor which every sacrament received confers; it will keep these things in mind in its actual life, bearing about the mark of Jesus Christ upon itself. Reverence for the sacraments, the reception of the sacraments, the sovereign means of its own security, and of union with God and man, these are so characteristic of the Catholic mind that its very enemies point to them as its chief distinguishing feature.