|
Early Christians used
the word "Sacrament" to affirm that Jesus instituted certain
privileged actions to do what they signified. Through the
sacraments Jesus continues to forgive us, feed us, and heal us - as he
did the people in gospel times. And as we may make this remarkable
comparison: As Jesus acted in gospel times through the
physical actions of his physical body, so he acts in our times
through the liturgical actions of his
mystical
body, the Church.
Commenting on the
liturgical actions of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the
Catechism of the Catholic Church calls them "perceptive" and
"appropriate" signs by which the People of God participate in the work
of God.
| |
From this it
follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action
of Christ the priest and of the Body which is the Church, is a
sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the
Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same
degree.
ccc, 1070 |
|
The
Sacraments,
as explained by the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
follow with the accompanying reference paragraph numbers:
1113 - The whole
liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice
and the sacraments. There are seven sacraments in the Church:
Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation (or Penance), Anointing
of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
1118 - The sacraments
are "of the Church" in the double sense that they are "by her" and "for
her". They are "by the Church", for she is the sacrament of
Christ's action at work in her through the mission of the Holy Spirit.
They are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the
Church", since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the
Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is "love", one in
three persons.
1119 - Forming "as it
were, one mystical person" with Christ the head, the Church acts in the
sacraments as "an organically structured priestly community."
Through Baptism and Confirmation the priestly people is enabled to
celebrate the liturgy, while those of the faithful "who have received
Holy Orders, are appointed to nourish the Church with the word and grace
of God in the name of Christ".
1131 - The sacraments
are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to
the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible
rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present
the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who
receive them with the required dispositions. |
