Lesson 5: The Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist

Photolanguage

Pictures or images that convey meaning

Signs and Symbols

Stoplight, Person with Disability (PDW) sign, Heart Symbol, Quiet Sign, Pag-mamano Gesture, Philippine Flag

Sacrament

• Sacra: Holy

• Mentum: Symbol/Sign

Sacrament (According to St. Augustine)

An outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace

Sacramentum Tantum or the Sign Itself

• Concrete

• It’s the external "sign" that points to something deeper.

• The physical, visible part — what you can see, hear, touch.

  • Examples:

    • Bread and wine at Mass

    • Water during baptism

    • The priest’s words ("This is my Body..."

Res Et Sacramentum or What it Signifies

The "middle" level — it's both a sign and a reality happening at the same time.

• Examples:

  • In the Eucharist: the Real Presence of Christ (Jesus is really there, though you still see bread/wine).

  • In Baptism: the baptismal character (a permanent spiritual mark showing you belong to God).

  It’s like the hidden gift that comes with the visible sign.

Res Tantum or The Reality Alone

The final effect, pure grace — no more signs needed, just God’s work inside you.

• In the eucharist, this is God's grace and further incorporation into the Body of Christ. Just as one loaf is made of many grains so we, the many, gathered at the eucharist become one body in Christ.

• In baptism, the spiritual effect is forgiveness of sins and entry into the Body of Christ.

• Examples:

  • In the Eucharist: deeper union with Christ and with the community (Body of Christ).

  • In Baptism: forgiveness of sins and new life as part of the Church.

  It’s the ultimate goal: God's invisible grace active in your soul.

Sacrament (According to St. Thomas Aquinas)

• defines that sacrament as an efficacious symbol.

• A sacrament, though, is a special sign that brings about what it symbolizes and symbolizes what it brings about.

Sacrament (According to the CCC)

Sacrament is a sensible sign, instituted by Christ , to give grace.

A Sensible Sign

• Sacraments, particularly, depend on signs and symbols which signify a sacred reality.

• Perceived by the senses.

  • Matter → External thing or actions (ex: water)

  • Form → Formula of words (ex: I baptize you…)

• The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ, the head, throughout the Church which is his Body.

• The Church, then, both contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense, that the Church is called a "sacrament."

Instituted by Christ

• Means that only God can give grace and therefore only He can decide what means or channels He will use to communicate it to us.

• Jesus instituted the sacraments by first being the sacrament of His Father through His whole life of word and action, and then by establishing the Church to be His basic sacrament. (CFC 1524 1525)

• Jesus in his humanity is the sacrament of God’s saving love for all; the Church is the sacrament of Jesus, and the seven ritual sacraments are the sacraments of the church.

• If we understand Christ as the first and most important sacrament, then we recognize that the sacraments are always actions of Christ. They are rooted in experiences in the New Testament where Christ uses specific symbolic actions (words, gestures, signs) as visible signs of the life he brings.

Primordial Sacrament

Jesus, Sacrament of the Father

Foundation/Basic Sacrament

Church, Sacrament of Jesus

To give grace

The Church has always taught that the sacraments give grace ex opere operato.

Ex Opere Operato

This means that any lack of holiness on the part of the minister does not prevent grace from being offered. Christ Himself acts through His Spirit when the sacraments are celebrated properly. (CFC 1527)

Two-fold effects of the Sacraments

1. To draw us into a closer relationship to the Church

2. To draw us into a closer relationship to Christ Himself, in the Spirit and to the Father

• All the sacraments have their special graces since they all manifest the different ways in which Christ comes to us, meeting us all. (CFC 1528)

• “It is principally through the sacraments that we obtain the grace of God. They are channels by which grace enter our souls, to give them divine life and to nourish them.” Most Rev. Louis LaRavoire Morrow, STh. D

What does the sacrament do?

1. They celebrate the Paschal Mystery. Each sacrament recalls the saving deeds of Jesus. In this way sacraments keep us in touch with our Christian heritage.

2. It demonstrates in the present that Jesus Christ lives. The sacraments bring about an actual meeting with Jesus through signs.

3. It prefigures our glorious future with Christ at the end of time. This point to this day in the future and because of the power of Jesus and Spirit they help accomplish the union.

Purpose of the sacraments

• To sanctify men and women

• To build up the Body of Christ, and

• To give worship to God

Sacrament

A saving symbolic act or a visible sign, arising from the ministry of Christ and continued in, by and for the Church, which when received in faith, fashions us into likeness to Christ in his Paschal Mystery, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sacraments of Initiation

• Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist

• Lays the foundation of every Christian life. By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity.

Sacrament of Baptism

• "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20).

• Basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to other Sacraments. (CCC 1213)

• Sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.

• Particularly the gospel accounts of baptism of Jesus by John.

Baptism

• The Baptism can only be received once.

• "Every person not yet baptized and only such a person is able to be baptized.“ (CCC 1246)

  • Infant Baptism, Adult Baptism

• Matter: The action with water (pouring of water or immersion)

• Form: “N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

• Ordinary ministers can baptize (Bishop, Priest, or Deacon for the Latin Church.)

• In case of necessity, any person, even someone not baptized, can baptize, if he has the required intention. (CCC 1256)

Effects of Baptism

• Forgiveness of original sin and all personal sin

• Birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father

• Becoming a part of Christ’s mystical body

• Becoming a temple of the Holy Spirit and Incorporation into the Church

• Made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ.

• Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian world.

Sacrament of Confirmation

• "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:14-17).

• It is called “Chrismation” (in the Eastern Churches: Anointing with holy Myron or chrism) because the essential rite of the sacrament is anointing with chrism.

• It is called Confirmation because it confirms and strengthens baptismal grace.

• The baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 1285)

Confirmation

• Can only be received once.

• Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of Confirmation. One must be in a state of grace. One should receive the sacrament of penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• Matter: The anointing of the forehead with chrism.

• Form: “Be sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

• Ordinary Minister: Bishop

• Extraordinary Minister: Priest

Effects of Confirmation

• The effect of Confirmation is a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit like that of Pentecost.

• This outpouring impresses on the soul an indelible character and produces a growth in the grace of Baptism.

• It roots the recipient more deeply in divine sonship, binds him more firmly to Christ and to the Church and reinvigorates the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his soul

• It gives a special strength to witness to the Christian faith.

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

• And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” Luke 22: 19 -20

• Completes the Christian initiation.

• Very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus which he instituted to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until his return in glory.

• Thus, he entrusted to his Church this memorial of his death and Resurrection.

• The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being.

• It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Holy Eucharist

• Holy Sacrifice, Most Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion, Holy Mass (Missa)

• Matter: Bread (Wheat) and Wine (Fruit of Vine)

• Form: "This My Body which will be given up for you. Do this in memory of Me … Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the New and Everlasting Covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.

• Minister: Validly ordained Priest (bishop) who acts in the person of Christ the Head in the name of the Church.

Transubstantiation

• Means the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of his Blood.

• This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit.

• However, the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the “eucharisticspecies”, remain unaltered.

Holy Communion

“… But the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ himself who has offered himself for us.” (CCC, 1382)

• Baptized believers in Communion with the Catholic Church (CCC 1396-1401), and those devoid of Mortal Sin (CCC 1415), can only receive the Communion.

• Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.

Effects of the Eucharist

• Increases our union with Christ and with his Church;

• Nourishment of spiritual life;

• Medicine of immortality,

• Separation from sin, removal of venial sin,

• Spiritual strength

• Union of the Body into One

• Strengthens us in charity (CCC 1391-1401)

Adoration of the Holy Eucharist

"The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession.“(CCC, 1378)