Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/341

 SACRAMENTS

295

SACRAMENTS

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The priests make a retreat every year at the House of Retreats, Grass Valley. The following confraternities are in the diocese: Men's SodaUty of the B. V. M.; Wom- en's Sodality of the B. V. M.; Holy Angels; and the Holy Childhood; St. Aloysius Society; Altar Societies; Apostleship of Prayer; Catholic Truth Society; Catholic Ladies' Aid Society; Young Ladies' Institute; Young Men's Institute; Catholic Library Association; and Knights of Columbus. The growth of the Catholic population is steady. Converts are many.

Shea, The Hierarchy of the Cath. Church in the U. S. (New York, 1886); Shea, Hist, of the Cath. Church in the United States, IV (New York, 1886-93); Catholic Directory (1911); Lives of American Prelates in Mem. Vol. 3rd Plenary Council (Baltimore, 1SS5); Sacramento Union, files; Catholic Herald (Sacramento, 26 Dec, 1908); Monitor (San Francisco, 16 July, 1910); Statistics of Population of California, compiled for the use of the Legislature (1911); Missiones Catholicm (Rome, 1901).

John Henry Ellis.

Sacraments, outward signs of inward grace, insti- tuted by Christ for our sanctification (Catechismus concil. Trident., II, n. 4, ex S. Aug. "De catechi- zandis rudibus"). The subject may be treated under the following headings: (I) The necessity and the nature of a sacramental system. (II) The nature of the sacraments of the new law. (Ill) The origin (cause) of the sacraments. (IV) The number of the sacraments. (V) The effects of tlie sacraments. (VI) The minister of the sacraments. (VII) The recipient (subject) of the sacraments.

I. Necessity and Nature. (1) In what sense necessary. — Almighty God can and does give grace to men in answer to their internal aspirations and prayers without the use of any external sign or cere- mony. This will always be possible, because God, grace, and the soul are spiritual beings. God is not restricted to the use of material, visible symbols in dealing with men; the sacraments are not necessary in the sense that they could not have been dispensed with. But, if it be shown that God has appointed external, visible ceremonies as the means by which certain graces are to be conferred on men, then in order to obtain those graces it will be necessary for men to make use of those Divinely appointed means. This truth theologians express by saying that the sacraments are necessary, not absolutely but only hypothetically, i. e., in the supjiosition that if we wish to obtain a certain supernatural end we must use the supernatural means appointed for obtaining that end. In this sense the Council of Trent (Sess.VII, can. 4) declared heretical those who assert that the sacraments of the New Law are superfluous and not necessary, although all are not necessary for each individual. It is the teaching of the Catholic Church and of Christians in general that, whilst God was nowise bound to make use of external ceremonies as symbols of things spiritual and sacred, it has pleased Him to do so, and this is the ordinary and most suitable manner of dealing with men. Writers on the sacraments refer to this as the necessitas con- venienticB, the necessity of suitableness. It is not really a necessity, but the most appropriate manner of dealing with creatures that are at the same time spiritual and corporeal. In this assertion all Christians are united: it is only when we come to consider the nature of the sacramental signs that Protestants (except some Anglicans) differ from Catho- lics. "To sacraments considered merely as outward forms, pictorial representations or symbolic acts, there is generally no objection", wrote Dr. Morgan Dix ("The Sacramental System^', New York, 1902, p. 46). "Of sacramental doctrine this may be truly said, that it is co-extensive with historic Christianity. Of this there is no reasonable doubt, as regards the very ancient days, of which St. Chrysostom's treatise on the priesthood and St. Cyril's catechetical lectures

may be taken as characteristic documents. Nor was it otherwise with the more conservative of the reformed bodies of the sixteenth century. Martin Luther's Catechism, the Augsburg, and later the Westminster, Confessions are strongly sacramental in their tone, putting to shame the degenerate fol- lowers of those who compiled them" (ibid., p. 7, 8).

(2) Why the sacramental system is most appropriate. — -The reasons underlying a sacramental system are as follows: (a) Taking the word "sacrament" in its broadest sense, as the sign of something sacred and hidden (the Greek word is "mystery"), we can say that the whole world is a vast sacramental system, in that material things are unto men the signs of things spiritual and sacred, even of the Divinity. "The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands "(Ps. xviii, 2). "The invisible things of him [i. e. God], from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity" (Rom., i, 20). (b) The redemption of man was not accomplished in an in- visible manner. God renewed, through the Patriarchs and the Prophets, the promise of salvation made to the first man ; external symbols were used to express faith in the promised Redeemer: "all these things happened to them [the Israelites] in figure" (I Cor., X, II; Heb., x, 1). "So we also, when we were chil- dren, were serving under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman" (Gal., iv, 3, 4). The Incarnation took place because God dealt with men in the manner that was best suited to their nature, (c) The Church established by the Saviour was to be a visible organization (see Church: The Visibility of the Church): consequently it should have exter- nal ceremonies and symbols of things sacred, (d) The principal reason for a sacramental system is found in man. It is the nature of man, writes St. Thomas (III, Q. Ixi, a. 1), to be led by things corporeal and sense-perceptible to things spiritual and intelli- gible; now Divine Providence provides for everything in accordance with its nature {secundum modum suce condilionis); therefore it was fitting that Divine Wisdom should provide means of salvation for men in the form of certain corporeal and sensible signs which are called sacraments. (For other reasons see Catech. Cone. Trid., II, n. 14.)

(.3) Existence of sacred symbols. — (a) No sacra- ments in state of innocence. — According to St. Thomas (1. c, a. 2) and theologians generally there were no sacraments before Adam sinned, i. e., in the state of original justice. Man's dignity was so great that he was raised above the natural condition of human nature. His mind was subject to God; his lower faculties were subject to the higher part of his mind; his body was subject to his soul; it would have been against the dignity of that state had he been depen- dent, for the acquisition of knowledge or of Divine grace, on anything beneath him, i. e. corporeal things. For this reason the majority of theologians hold that no sacraments would have been instituted even if that state had lasted for a long time.

(b) Sacraments of the law of nature. — Apart from what was or might have been in that extraordinary state, the use of sacred symbols is universal. St. Augustine says that every religion, true or false, has its visible signs or sacraments. "In nullum nomen religionis, seu verum seu falsum, coadunari homines possunt, nisi aliquo signaculorum seu sacramentorum visibilium con.sortio colligantur" (Cont. Faust., XIX, xi). Commentators on the Scriptures and theo- logians almost unanimously assert that there were sacraments under the law of nature and under the Mosaic Law, as there are sacraments of greater dig- nity under the Law of Christ. Under the law of nature — so called not to exclude supernatural revelation