Dogma (Explain Christ is the primordial sacrament )

 16. (a) Explain Christ is the primordial sacrament and Church is the sacrament of Christ; Sacraments are celebration of the paschal mystery of Christ. (b) What is the meaning of the word ‘sacrament’? Explain the nature and the effects of each sacrament. (c) Explain how the Eucharist is a sacrifice and sacrament of unity as well as the ‘summit’ and ‘source’ of faith and of the life of the Church. 

Introduction: Sacraments are the expression of God’s love for humankind and at the same time our faith relationship to God in the Church. Sacrament confers God’s loving and redeeming grace. These are the efficacious signs instituted by Christ to communicate God’s grace for us. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit these sacraments make present efficaciously the grace that they signify.

Christ is a Primordial Sacrament

Definition of Primordial Sacrament:  In general sense, Primordial means basic, fundamental or eternal without which existing of a person, thing or subject is possible. 

According to Oxford Dictionary- Primordial means that which exists from the beginning of the world. 

According to Contemporary Theologian Schillebeeckx:The dogmatic definition of Chalcedon according to which Christ is ‘one person in two natures,’ implies that one and the same person, the Son of God, also took on a visible human form. Even in his humanity Christ is the Son of God. The second person of the most Holy Trinity is personally man; and this man is personally God. The man Jesus as the personal visible realization of divine grace of redemption is the sacrament, the primordial sacrament, because this man, the Son of God himself, is intended by the Father to be in his humanity the only way to the actuality of redemption.

In Christian Religious Point of View: Jesus Christ is that person, the eternal ‘logos’ who exists from the beginning not only of the world but of the whole ‘cosmos’. He is the primordial sacrament of God. It means that He is the sign that exists eternally. This term was first used by Carl Feckes (d.1958) in twentieth century who, in reviving these ideas, called Jesus Christ the ‘primordial sacrament. 

Arguments: When Jesus Christ said, ‘He who sees me sees the Father’, he implied that his humanity, the visible presence in the world was the sign and instrument of God’s presence in the world. Therefore, he fulfilled the sacramental concept in absolute and unique manner. Thus we see that He is a sacrament of God, the Primordial Sacrament. Here we raised some logical arguments regarding this dogmatic statement. These are as follows: 

Jesus, in His humanity, as a sacrament: In Jesus there are two natures humanity and divinity. Since sacramental events require both sacrament (sign, symbol) and reality, so Jesus’ humanity is sacrament and divinity is the reality of God’s grace. St. John in his Gospel, identifies Jesus’ preexistence as the “Logos” (Jn.1:1) which became incarnated but ‘born, not of the will of the flesh or of will of man, but of God’ (Jn.1:13). Thus He became the living sign of God through which the God’s abundant grace came upon the humanity. 

Jesus is the Visible Image of the Invisible of God: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:8). The very statement of Jesus reveals the image of God. He is thus became image or sign of God for all human kind. 

Transcendent God became Immanent: He is one who is beyond human understanding or speculation. God though Jesus reveals Himself fully. Jesus is the fullness of prophesy. He is the final revelation and promised Messiah. Here we see God humiliates Himself for the sake of love Now we understand God as Immanent God only when His Son Jesus Christ became incarnated. This incarnation ensures us that humanization of God is to divinization of man. Thus He became sign or sacrament of salvation for us as the primordial sacrament.  

Jesus is such a Sign that People ever Experience: People did not only experience the teaching of Jesus but also they experienced Jesus’ healing, Jesus’ listening to the needs, Jesus’ responding to their questions, and Jesus’ filling up their hearts and souls with a sense of completeness. In search of these human experiences of God, person of Jesus have to be seen as sacrament. His total human historical existence was a sacrament of God’s forgiving grace. Jesus said that “but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth”(Mt.12:39-40). The very statement of Jesus discloses Him as such a sign that people had ever experienced. It is His death and resurrection. Thus we can even say that He alone is the savior: “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by whom we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). He is the bearer of life, light and grace.  

All Christian Sacraments have their meaning only in and through Jesus: Jesus was the sacrament of God for the people. He was a sign of the presence of God among men. “Through His incarnation, God bound Himself to a visible sign, the supreme sacrament of the manhood of Son.  He is Christ who encountered in and through every the sacraments. Sacraments are signs of Christ’s presence, and ultimately of God the Father’s. Since Christ is neither God alone nor a human being alone, but the God-man, the human actions of Christ which is memorialized and represented in the sacraments. “It becomes the sign of Christ’s presence and ultimately of God the Father. So we can’t think of sacrament without the presence of Christ. Actually sacraments are nothing but Jesus’ deed that the Church continues in order to receive grace of God. 

Church is the Basic Sacrament of Christ

Reference: This statement is taken from the dogmatic constitution of second Vatican council on the Church. It is said that “The Church is in the nature of a sacrament- a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all Men (LG.1).  

Explanation: Jesus establishes the Church and by the Church Jesus is still living acting. St. Paul said, Church is the body of Christ. The Church is a reality, which is completely elated with Christ. The Church is such who is the body of Christ that does action. The Church is the real presence of Christ. Thus he is still bodily present is the sacramental action. Jesus his lifetime had acted through his divine presence in his human body. Now the Church is the same human presence of Jesus Christ. 

Arguments: The Church is the Basic Sacrament of Christ. This statement includes a deep theological meaning. It has a true Christological ground to find its inner truth. Some logical arguments are given below regarding this dogmatic statement to clarify the inner truth of this statement. 

The Church is Body of Christ Where Christ is the Head of the Body: He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might have first place in everything (Col1:18). This body is Mystical body exists on this earth. Thus the members of the Church are bound together by a supernatural life communicated to them by Christ through the sacraments (Jn.15:5). Christ is the centre and source of life to Whom all are united, and Who endows each one with gifts fitting him for his position in the body (John 15:7-12). 

As Christ is Sacrament so the Church by its relation to Christ becomes a Sacrament: It is clear to us from the above discussion that Christ is the Primordial sacrament of God.  The Church has an ultimate relation with Christ, the true Vine because the Church, as branches cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the Vine (cf. Jn.15:4). This Vine is the sacrament of salvation from God, the Father. “Christ and the Church are then two great signs of revelation and in fact the only two signs. All the historical signs of revelation come back to Christ and all the signs from Pentecost to Porousia come back to Christ’s Church as His bride and mystical body of His risen life. Thus the very relation of Church with Christ proves that the Church is the fundamental sacrament of Christ. 

The Celebration of Sacrament in the Church is the Presence of Christ on the World: The Church is the communion of faithful.  This communion is centered round by the celebrations of sacraments in the life of faithful. It brings an abundant grace on the life of the faithful because Christ is present in every sacrament. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Mt.18:20).  This gathering marks the Church where Christ is present. So we can realize that the Church has no existence without the presence of Christ. 

As the Church shares the life of Christ, so it becomes the fundamental sign of Christ: The Church is none but sharing and experiencing the life of Christ. This sharing and experience mostly comes through sacraments. “Then the Church has an essential role in the sacraments for it shares the mystery of Christ. For example, sharing the body of Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up in to communion with Him and with one another. Because bread is one, we, though many are one body, all of us who partake of the one body” (1Cor12:27).  Thus “The Church becomes a sacramental communication of Father’s love for human beings in Christ. It is communion with the Father in Christ through gift of the Holy Spirit. This communion is reflected in the Church and thus the Church becomes a sign, a basic sacrament of Christ.  

Meaning of Sacrament: This word derived from the Latin, sacramentum, which means oath or pledge of money or property which was deposited   by the presence of two parties as a lawsuit (contact). Later it comes to mean a ‘sacred oath’ of soldiers before the commander for gods of Rome. In second century, it got a new meaning and entered into Christianity. At first it applied to mean the initiation (Baptism). Thus it refers a kind of making promise or oath to be born again in Christ. Tertulian first used the term ‘Sacrament’. St. Augustine (354-430AD): Sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace. St. Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-74): Sacraments are the instruments to receive God’s grace. According to CCC: Sacraments are ‘powers that comes forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are ‘the masterworks of God’ in the new and everlasting covenant (CCC-1116).

The Nature and the Effects of each Sacrament

Baptism: Baptism marks the entry of the believer into the Christian community. Along with Confirmation and Eucharist, it is one of the Sacraments of Initiation, giving access to the full sacramental life of the Church. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and joined with Christ, sharing in His divinity and destined for eternal life. In the words of St. Paul, "We were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too may we live a new life." (Romans 6:4).

Confirmation: Before Jesus was put to death, He promised His followers that He would send His Spirit to comfort and strengthen them. True to His promise, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them on Pentecost, forty days after His resurrection from the dead. The Sacrament of Confirmation is our own Pentecost. Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace: it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!". it unites us more firmly to Christ;  it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us; it renders our bond with the Church more perfect; it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross.

Eucharist: The word ‘Eucharist’ is derived from Latin word ‘Eucharistia’ means thanksgiving and the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life’. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.The Eucharist is the sacrament in which we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. The Church teaches that Christ is really present in the bread and wine that have been consecrated by the priest at Mass. As Jesus celebrated the Passover at his last supper with the apostles, He blessed, broke and shared with them bread and wine, declaring that it was His body and blood. Thus Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Life in Christ has its foundation in the Eucharistic banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me (CCC 1391).

Reconciliation or Penance: The Sacrament of Reconciliation gives us the opportunity to express our sorrow for things we have done wrong, to heal broken relationships, to forgive ourselves and others, and to open up the channels of communication between ourselves and God. The sacrament of reconciliation celebrates this Kind of spiritual communion with God as well as man. Jesus is the reconciling one. He, in his humanity, is the sacrament of God’s own limitless reconciliation. When we are reconciled in the sacrament of penance, we experience this loving forgiveness of Lord and at the same time we are called to be man of boundless forgiveness towards the fellow brothers and sisters.  The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship. Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation "is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation. Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true "spiritual resurrection," restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God (ccc 1468).  

Anointing of the Sick: It is the sacrament which celebrates the presence of Lord even in our physical difficult moments. Through Jesus' suffering and death, God joins His suffering to the suffering of human beings. And by doing this, He transforms and gives it a new meaning. Through the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick we are assured that God will raise us up, like Jesus, from our bed of pain and sickness and lead us to eternal life. we as Christians both celebrate in the sacrament of anointing the healing presence of the Lord and carry a healing spirituality with us. A particular gift of the Holy Spirit. The first grace of this sacrament is one of strengthening, peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death.135 This assistance from the Lord by the power of his Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the soul, but also of the body if such is God's will. Furthermore, "if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (CCC-1520)

Holy Orders: The Sacrament of Holy Orders began with the Last Supper, when Christ Jesus commissioned his Apostles to continue the Eucharistic celebration. As people of God, we all share in the priesthood of Christ, and so the Church speaks meaningfully of ‘the priesthood of all believers’ but this is common priesthood. The priesthood is ministerial Priesthood which known as Holy Orders. Holy Orders is the sacrament of Apostolic ministry. As in the Pastoral Epistles, the rite consists of the Bishop's laying on of hands on the head of the priest-candidate with the consecrating prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the gifts of the ministry. There are three dimensions to ministry, that of Bishop, Priesthood, and the Diaconate. This sacrament configures the recipient to Christ by a special grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ's instrument for his Church. By ordination one is enabled to act as a representative of Christ, Head of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and king (CCC1581). 

Matrimony: The union of a man and a woman is natural. The sacrament of marriage gives the couple the grace to grow into a union of heart and soul, to continue life, and to provide stability for themselves and their children. Children are the fruit and bond of a marriage. Jesus stresses the significance of the marriage bond in his Ministry (Matthew 19:6, 8). The importance of marriage is substantiated by the presence of Christ at the wedding feast of Cana, where he began his public ministry at the request of his mother Mary by performing his first miracle (John 2). Marriage as sacrament is not only a covenant or consent between a man and woman for a life together, but it is as a sacrament, a union that the couple in Christ and Christ in the couple want to live out, reflecting the love of Jesus for the Church and Church for Jesus. Marriage reflects the life giving relationship found at the heart of Trinity. From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament. The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself. From their covenant arises "an institution, confirmed by the divine law, . . . even in the eyes of society.The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.(CCC-1638-39).

Eucharist is a sacrifice: At the last Supper, on the night when he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Church is eaten, the mind mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Article 47) The divine sacrifice of the Eucharist is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and true nature of the Church. “As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out” (CCC1364). The  Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit: (CCC1366).

Eucharist is a sacrament of Unity as well as the ‘Summit’ and Source of Faith and of the life of the Church:  The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity, through love it prepares the way for the unfailing union of the redeemed in glory. From all parts it gathers men together; it unites them round the Lord’s table of sacrifice, the prophetic sign of the banquet of the last days, at which the Master serves his servants (Lk. 35-40; John 6:51-60; Apoc. 2:7; 3:20).The Eucharistic body of Christ has profoundly influenced St. Paul’s doctrine on the Church as the body of Christ: “Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17).  The “one body” has here the same meaning as “the body of the Lord” in the preceding verse, i.e., the real body of the risen Lord. By their conduct with the Eucharistic body, Christians come into vital, dynamic union with the person of Christ. That they are identified with the body of Christ is no mere metaphor, borrowed from social or civil life, for the power and life of the Spirit of Christ is present in each of them ( 1 Cor. 6:15; 12:27; Eph 5:30).  The communion (koinonia, sharing, partaking: 1 Cor. 10:16) of the individual Christian with the Eucharistic body is thus the cause of their union, common among themselves (Acts 2: 42). The first effect of the Eucharist is a more profound incorporation into the unity of the Church. St. Thomas himself regarded the Eucharist as the sacrament of the Church’s unity (III, q. 82, a. 2). According the Karl Rahner, the Church is “most manifest and in the most intensive form, she attains the highest actuality of her own nature, when she celebrates the Eucharist” (The Church and the sacrament, p. 84).  The Church at the Eucharist is a structured community, a community listening to the word of God, a community in continuity with the preaching, ministry, death, and resurrection of its Lord, a community looking forward to the coming of the Kingdom, a community conscious of its sinfulness and repentant of its sins, a community convinced of the power of the God’s grace, a community ready to serve others, i.e., to carry out “the breaking of the bread” beyond the Church, and a community here and now open to the presence of the Lord and his Spirit.  

Conclusion: The whole Christian life is the sacramental life in Christ. Sacraments as the outward officious signs gives the inward abundant grace of God to the Christ believers. So as a Christian, it is very essential to the Sacraments which we have in our Roman Catholic Church. Sacramental Theology is that study which gives us deep insights and profound knowledge about Sacraments.  It does not gives us only knowledge about sacraments rather it increases our faith and we become true followers of Christ as Sacraments brings in our lives an abundant grace of God.