The Sacraments - Part 1

The Sacraments - Part 1

The Sacraments are something instituted in the Catholic Church by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. He either established something new or took something already established and brought it to the fullness of glory through the infinite merits of God. In truth, each of the seven Sacraments has an Old Testament equivalent, but as with the law of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ brought them to fulfillment.

The Seven Sacraments - Part 1

The First Three Sacraments:

• Baptism
• Confirmation
• Confession (Reconciliation)

The Seven Sacraments can further be separated into the Sacraments of the Living and the Sacraments of the Dead. This distinction is based upon the state of either Spiritual Life or Spiritual Death. The Sacraments of the Dead bring you to Spiritual Life through Sanctifying Grace, and the Sacraments of the Living also give you Sanctifying Grace, but it is of a sustaining nature.

However, to properly explain the effects of the Sacraments, you should understand grace—that is, God's grace and the types of grace, and how they are dispensed through the Sacraments. Grace is constituted of sanctifying grace, which has a first and second effect. Grace is also understood in the form of actual grace.

Sanctifying Grace

Sanctifying grace, as I just mentioned, is of a first and second effect. The first sanctifying grace is attributed to the Sacraments of the Dead, as the first grace takes you from a state of mortal sin and brings you to a state of justification. The second sanctifying grace reinforces the first sanctifying grace, providing a means of further growing in grace.

Actual Grace

Actual grace, as I like to say, is the nudging you get from God to do right and avoid wrong. It is a supernatural gift, like all forms of grace, that enlightens you, moves you, and gives you strength to overcome temptations and to do what is right.

With that said, we can still resist God's grace. It is a gift, but like any gift we can refuse it; grace does not remove our free will.

Baptism

This is the means by which one joins the new and eternal covenant of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament equivalent is that of circumcision, which was an outward sign of being in covenant with God. Baptism is regenerative, meaning it washes away the stain of Original Sin from our souls. This also infuses Sanctifying Grace into our soul, bringing us from a state of spiritual death. As Sacred Scripture states, we are to be born of water and the Holy Ghost; the waters of Baptism provide just that, and the Holy Ghost cleanses our souls. We are to be baptized in the appropriate manner, meaning the Trinitarian manner: "I baptize thee, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Baptism imprints or marks the soul with the permanent character of a Christian, and with it come certain virtues and gifts that we will discuss in Module Two.

In the absence of water baptism, there are also the baptisms of martyrdom and of desire. Baptism of Martyrdom, sometimes referred to as baptism by blood, is, as its name suggests, the death of a believer for the sake of their belief. Baptism by desire is another form of waterless baptism, and the most popular Scriptural reference for this is that of the baptism of St. Dismas, also known as the Penitent Thief. He was on the cross next to our Lord Jesus Christ, and in his desire to be saved, he asked Jesus to forgive him and remember him when He returned to His Kingdom (Heaven). This is known as baptism by desire—someone desiring to be saved, being repentant, and then dying before formal acceptance via water baptism.

Confirmation

This has been referred to as a personal Pentecost. This also has the Old Testament equivalent of "anointing." But what do I mean by either of these things? Well, at Pentecost, the Holy Ghost came down on the Apostles and confirmed them in their faith and perfected their other virtues and gifts from baptism. The gifts received in Confirmation are the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.

Confession (Reconciliation)

This Sacrament is the other Sacrament of the Dead, Baptism being the first. This Sacrament is the means of confessing your sins—the sins that you have committed after baptism. This Sacrament is where you examine yourself, your actions (or inactions), and your thoughts regarding sins you have committed, and you accuse yourself of the transgressions against God. You do this through an Examination of Conscience. To better understand this, you must first come to understand Mortal and Venial Sin.

Mortal Sin

Mortal sin is an act in which you fulfill three conditions:

• The object is of grave matter
• It is committed with full knowledge
• It is done with deliberate consent

What does this mean when it comes to sin? The object, in this case, is what is being done, and "of grave matter" means it is in direct contradiction to the law of God and His Church. For example, murder, theft, and adultery are all grave matters mentioned in the Decalogue (Ten Commandments). However, so is deliberately missing Mass on Sunday or on holy days of obligation, as those are days we are told to keep holy, both by the Ten Commandments and reiterated in Church law. There is a gradation of gravity in sins as well—murder is worse than theft, and violence against your parents is worse than violence against strangers. The requirements of full knowledge and full consent are significant as well, since a person must know that what they are doing is wrong and still choose to do so. Mortal sin deprives you of sanctifying grace and of charity.

Venial Sin

A venial sin occurs when someone does not observe or disobeys a moral law or standard, but without full knowledge or full consent of the will. Venial sin weakens your charity—the thing for which something is done out of love for God—and can lead you into habitual sin, which can become mortal sin. Venial sin does not deprive you of sanctifying grace.

The Sacrament of Confession

When we are baptized, we are washed free from the stain of sin—original sin, and if you are old enough to have committed them, actual sins such as mortal and venial sins. Confession is a necessary sacrament because it not only brings you back to spiritual life after having chosen to commit sins against God (sins deserving of punishment), but in the sacrament you are forgiven of the eternal consequence of your sins and brought back into the friendship of God.

It is important to realize that you must have sorrow for your sins; otherwise you are not penitent and not actually seeking God's forgiveness. The process for a good confession is that you perform an Examination of Conscience, have sorrow for your offenses, make a resolution not to sin again (with the grace and help of God), confess your sins to a priest or bishop, and perform the assigned penance. Penance can be anything from praying a few prayers or psalms to asking forgiveness of the person you have wronged (if necessary).

Many non-Catholics tend to have an issue with what I said above: "confess your sins to a priest or bishop." A general response to that is the supposed unbiblical nature of it. However, the opposite is true. Christ gave the Apostles and their successors this authority when He said: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain are retained" (John 20:23). And in 2 Corinthians 5:18, 20, we actually see the Sacrament of Confession under another name—the Ministry of Reconciliation: "But all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ; and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation" ... "For Christ we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us. For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God."

Another objection that I have encountered is that this authority was for the Apostles alone and ended with them. This assumes that the Apostles were a one-time occurrence and that when they died, the office of Apostle died with them. In the book of Acts chapter 1, we see that the office of the Apostle did not end with the Apostles themselves. The 12 Apostles were the original Bishops of the Catholic Church, and when Judas betrayed Jesus Christ and subsequently killed himself, the remaining eleven Apostles gathered and elevated Matthias to the then-vacant office, forming a succession—an Apostolic Succession, if you will.