GUIDING PRINCIPLE
The sacraments are outward signs of grace that God gives to people to help them live a life close to Jesus. We are guided by an invitation to encourage the full, conscious and active participation of the faithful in sacramental life and prayer of the Church.
Sacramental life is one of the guiding principles in the All Things New pastoral plan. To learn more, visit stcdio.org/all-things-new/.
By Hansol Goo
At the center of what it means to be Catholic is a life lived in and through the sacraments: baptism, Eucharist, anointing, confirmation, reconciliation, matrimony and holy orders. But sacraments are more than a “to-do” list in the life of a Catholic. Sacraments are, simply put, faith in action.
A banal statement though it may be, it emphasizes that Christian faith is not a set of abstract ideas or moral codes. Born out of love and desire for God, faith consists of orienting oneself wholly toward God, not only one’s heart but one’s concrete actions in life. Sacramental life, then, refers to all of human life: its patterns, limitations, its complications and mysteriousness oriented toward the eschatological purpose and destiny of total union with God.
A common misunderstanding of sacraments even among lifelong Catholics is that sacraments are channels through which God’s grace is handed out to us. Although not “incorrect,” this shallow definition misses the deeper meaning of sacraments and the nature of the Church. It turns sacraments into containers of magic called “grace” and liturgy into human rituals through which we acquire grace with our own efforts.
The Dogmatic Constitution on Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” states that the roots of liturgy are founded in God’s loving will for humans as revealed in Christ: “God who ‘wills that all men be saved and come to knowledge of the truth’ (1 Timothy 2:4) … sent His Son, the Word made flesh, anointed by the Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart, to be a ‘bodily and spiritual medicine’, the Mediator between God and man” (SC, 5).
Sacraments are rooted in God’s desire for us that we be saved and come to know the deep truths of God. To achieve this, God sent his only Son to die on the cross bearing our sins: “in [Christ’s] dying,
he destroyed death; in his rising, he restored life.” (Easter Preface, Roman Missal; Cf. Romans 6:8-11).
How might we then understand this life given to us through Christ’s Paschal Mystery? First, let us be reminded that God’s gift, that is, life lived in grace and communion with God, is an invitation, rather than a one-time reward, to live our life, already here and now, with, in and through God. Sacraments are not disjointed moments in our daily life when we “receive grace.” Rather, they are the foundation and orientation according to which we live. The Catechism states that “the purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify [people], to build up the body of Christ and, finally, to give worship to God. Because they are signs, they also instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it” (CCC, 1123). Sacramental life rooted in the Paschal Mystery, through which God achieves his plan for our salvation, is continuous, repetitive and unceasing. In this sense, sacraments are not merely something we do as Catholics but how we live as Catholics.
Imagine the life of a professional baseball player. Every day, the player does the things necessary to be a baseball player: showing up to practice, putting on the uniform and gear, practicing running, throwing and catching the ball. The player does not play alone but on a team. A baseball player lives out his identity by playing in baseball games as a team.
So is the sacramental life lived not as an individual but as a community that is the Church. The Catechism states that “it is the whole community, the body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates [the liturgy]” (CCC, 1140). This means that living the sacramental life stems out of a shared sense of identity and belonging: my desire to participate in God’s life of grace is also your desire; your imperfections and struggles in living according to God’s will are also my task and burden.
As Church, we ask for God’s help, praise his loving providence, seek his beauty, supplicate God for mercy and thus hope together in joy for his unimaginable creative power to sustain and renew us.
When we live together the sacramental life, we as Church express the unity between the body of Christ that is the Church with Christ as the head. Our own actions and joyful participation in the Church’s liturgy and sacraments become the very place in which God’s presence becomes manifest in the world, especially to the least fortunate of us. Let us not forget the words of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Lumen Gentium,” that the very essence and mission of the Church is “to bring the light of Christ to all men, [who is] a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church” (LG, 1).
Let us be reminded also, that sacramental life consists of ecclesial celebrations carried out by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit which the Church and its faithful received at baptism. Through the Spirit, Christ is present in the sacraments and it is through the same Spirit that we become Church, the body of Christ. Living the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the sacramental life of the Church transforms us and fortifies us to proclaim the good news of salvation through Christ as the Light in the world.
How astonishing and humbling it is to imagine that God, as the Supreme Lover, tirelessly searches for us and woos us to live his life with us! Imagine! This, to me, is the radical claim of Christianity which is at the heart of the sacramental life; that we ourselves are called to be the face of God, to reflect his light, his loving mercy to our neighbors and
to all those who seek him.
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Take time to study the documents mentioned in this article: the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” “Lumen Gentium” and “Sacrosanctum Concilium.”
Hansol Goo is the assistant professor of liturgical theology and director of the Godfrey Diekmann Center at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville.
Pictured above: Hansol Goo facilitates the discussion during Awakening Hearts, a roundtable event Feb. 6 featuring diocesan delegates to the National Eucharistic Congress. (Photo by Dianne Towalski / The Central Minnesota Catholic)