This gem was buried in that longer homily, but it is from Pope St. Leo the Great:
“The visible presence of Christ has passed into His sacraments.”
That is such a powerful thought! Where is Christ visible today? Now, beware of importing a post-Tridentine definition of "sacraments" into the word. I doubt that anyone knows whether that great teacher of the Church would fix the number at four, seven, twelve, or twenty. The term was far more fluid. Even into high scholaticism of the Victorines the term could be used to describe the very Trinity: the sacrament of the Trinity. I think its patristic weight is usually simply the mysteries that Christ has revealed and passed on to His church.
But certainly there are two "poles" and a connecting "bar" - if you will - that characterize the sacraments:
Baptism (enfolding also confirmation, the laying on of hands for strengthening) - the Absolution - Holy Eucharist
The Christian lives from the visible presence of Christ in these events. Baptism, received once and applied daily. Absolution as the return to Baptism. Holy Eucharist as the weekly (or more often!) strengthening of our union with Christ through the forgiving grace of His body and blood.
Where is Christ today? We'd point to Baptismal water flowing in the name of the Trinity. Where is Christ today? We'd point to the hand absolving the penitent. Where is Christ today? We'd point to consecrated bread and wine over which "eucharist" had been made through the very words of Christ Himself.
The visible presence of Christ is there. In His sacraments. In all His sacred mysteries of salvation. And through them He continues to work - as also through the sacrament of preaching - to achieve in our lives the purpose for which He created us at the beginning: that we might share in the glory of being children of God, seated with Him upon His throne, icons of the very love of God.
9 comments:
You only plagiarize the best preachers. Speaking of preachers...
I'm tentatively planning on being in Hamel on June 24th and would be willing to preach. :-)
Please write more about your vacation. I want to hear (almost) everything!
Beautiful! Recently my four year old, Evelyn, has been wondering about seeing Jesus. I wrote about it on my own blog, http://thechildrenofgod.blogspot.com, and even linked to your post because it is such a great help!
Thanks, Emily. I LOVE the story on your blog. What a gem little Evelyn must be. A deep thinker there. You know, I don't know if it would help at all (and you seemed to have sorted it out for her well), but what was a HUGE eye-opener for me was Schmemann's little comment:
He said that we would make all things new; not that He would make new things.
Isn't that a dandy?
Pax!
You'll have to tell me which book that is from. I'm slowly reading through all the Schmemann books on my husband's shelf. I'm currently working on Liturgy and Tradition, but I don't mind adding another book to the reading list! (BTW, I think you know my husband)
I think it was from *For the Life of the World* - that's great you're reading Schmemann. He's an eye-opener alright. What I love is how he is so danged Lutheran. He'd be appalled to hear it, of course!
Who's your hubby?
Yes, I've read that one already. Maybe that is why it sounded sort of familiar. It's still worth a second read though!
My hubby is Benjamin Harju. I know he's run into you a couple of times via the web, but if I'm not mistaken he's also met you in person one or two places.
Ah! Wonderful! Please give Ben my greetings. I hold your husband in great respect. We've shared conversation and drink in the Fenton's backyard a time or two, and we were together at a conference last year.
Dear Pastor,
I have never been very keen on the Augustinian definition of what a "sacrament" is (visible sign of invisible grace)--I always found that it rather encouraged one to go "sacrament spotting" and to invent one's own sacraments, rather than take those that Christ has given to us. There is no such thing as a "sacrament" in the abstract. "Sacrament" is a word that only has meaning when used to describe a set of rites or actions previously identified by the authority of the Church as such.
I personally like the approach taken by the Catechism of the Catholic Church which gives the following definition: "The Sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify.” Thus, essential to every sacramental rite is the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. But this is not so much a "definition" (in the sense that it enables us to identify a sacrament) as a theological explanation of what happens in those sacraments already identified as such.
That being said, St Leo's definition is pretty good. "The visible presence of Christ has passed into his sacraments". This could give us (as you suggest) a way of understanding the Second Vatican Council's claim that the Church herself is "a sacrament".
You apply this defintion to baptism/confirmation, absolution, and the eucharist. But I would also like to suggest that it gives support to the claim of the Church that marriage, ordination and the anointing of the sick are sacraments too.
For Christ is, as St Paul says quite clearly in Eph 5, made present and visible in the marriage of two baptised Christians. He is present and visible in his ordained servants who act "in persona Christi". And St James (in James 5) assures us of the forgiving and healing action (and thus presence) of Christ in the anointing of the sick. Ergo, there is good reason, by St Leo's dictum, to assent to the Church's confession of faith that these too are true sacraments.
Dear Schütz,
It took me a while to "get" the ordination, marriage connection. But I often express it like this: these are sacraments, if you will, in a different sense. God establishes them not to give give grace TO the persons receiving them but to give grace THROUGH the persons receiving them. In that sense, of course, the Ap willingly granted that ordination is a sacrament. But it seems to miss the implications of Eph 5 for marriage - that God wishes to use the union of these two people to disclose the mystery of Christ and the Church, primarily to their offspring, but also the community, to those around them who see a couple that LIVE the one-flesh union in service to each other and together to their offspring.
About the anointing, you might find it interesting that Prof. David Scaer in his little book on James explicitly argues for anointing of the sick as a sacrament precisely because it is done "in the name of the Lord" - which he takes to mean at the Lord's own bidding and mandate.
What is REALLY a hoot is to look at the old Lutheran Worship (our previous hymnal) and to see that SOMEONE had a naughty time with arranging the hymnal. Following the Church Year section we have the following. What does this remind you of???
Baptism
Confession
The Lord's Supper
Marriage
Confirmation
Ordination
Death and Burial
Hmm?
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