The Significance of a Sarcrament

I'm going to try a new series here. I know, I don't think I finished anything else I started, why should this be any different? Well... reasons. And stop making fun of my ADHD, it makes finishing things and keeping focus very

What follows is based on a paper that I wrote years ago for a religion class that I had. If you're interested in reading the original paper, don't be; the paper is quite horrible.

The Church has a certain number of sacraments that are administered. In the Roman Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church the sacraments are numbered at seven (Wikipedia). In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is said that anything that the Church does is sacramental, though it does share seven sacraments with the RCC and the OOC.

Those seven sacraments are Baptism, Confirmation/Chrismation, The Eucharist (Communion), Anointing of the Sick (Holy Unction), Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders (Priesthood), and Penance/Confession.

The Seven Sacraments by Rogier van der Weyden

The sacraments, by their very virtue, are both signs and symbols of the Church.

Webster's Dictionary defines a symbol as 

1 : an authoritative summary of faith or doctrine : creed

2 : something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance especially : a visible sign of something invisible // the lion is a symbol of courage (Symbol, Webster's)

So from this definition we can see that a sacrament, as a symbol, is a summary - and sign, of the Christian faith. This fact can be seen especially in the Eucharist wherein many Christians believe the bread and wine to be the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is the reason that the Orthodox go to the Divine Liturgy because, "The Eucharist is the most distinctive event of Orthodox worship because in it the Church gathers to remember and celebrate the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ and, thereby, to participate in the mystery of Salvation." (Fitzgerald)

Webster's also defines a sign as, "a motion or gesture by which a thought is expressed or a command or wish made known." (Sign, Webster's) 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch." (Pual)

J.J. Mueller states, Tertullian "developed the notion that a sacramentum is a sign that sanctifies because it is efficacious, meaning that the sign produces an intended effect or that it is effective." (Muller)

The Eucharist is a sign of the Christian Church, and Saint Ignatius of Antioch even goes so far as to call those who do not hold to the Eucharist heretics, "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes." (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, sourced below).

Obviously, the Eucharist is the sign by which to judge whether a church can be labeled as "Christian" or not.

Along with being signs and symbols of the Christian faith, sacraments are signs of revelation and mystery. The very word "sacrament" comes from the Latin word sacramentum which is equivalent to the Greek word mysterion meaning, "something hidden or secret" (Muller), this is also where the word "mystery" originates. The Eucharist is quite a mystery as it is the literal blood and body of Jesus whilst also being bread and wine. Even more mystifying is that the original Eucharist - which was when Jesus was still alive - was also the literal blood and body of Jesus. This mystery is just as awe-inspiring today when it is realized that the Eucharist signifies not only the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also His second coming.  Truly, "The Eucharist is a celebration of faith which touches not only the mind but also the emotions and senses." (Fitzgerald)

As previously mentioned, all other sacraments point to the Eucharist. It is for this reason that the Orthodox Church treats all things done as a sacrament, "The Eucharist, the principal sacrament mystery of the Orthodox Church, is not so much a text to be studied, but rather an experience of communion with the Living God in which prayer, music, gestures, the material creation, art, and architecture come into full orchestration." (Fitzgerald)

The reason of the Divine Liturgy is the Eucharist. Liturgy means the work of the people and is a unifying experience which is emphasized by Saint Ignatius, 

"Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth ] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God." (Epistle to the Philadelphians)

 Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald states, "The Divine Liturgy is properly celebrated only once a day. This custom serves to emphasize and maintain the unity of the local congregation. The Eucharist is always the principal Service on Sundays and Holy Days and may be celebrated on other weekdays." (Fitzgerald) Saint Justin Martyr also hits on the unity of the Church and the Eucharist,

"Then we rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayer and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons." (First Apology)

 Muller states, "sacraments, like symbols, strive to accomplish the difficult task of communicating spiritual reality." (Muller) In the Eucharist, we see the difficult reality that what is to our eyes bread and wine is also blood and flesh. We see the gifts transfigured (Fitzgerald) into the blood and body of Christ, we acknowledge His death and His resurrection, and we hope in the coming salvation brought about by all of the above.

The bread and wine can be seen as signs of the Eucharist, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine, fruit of the 'work of human hands,' but above all as the 'fruit of the earth' and 'of the vine' - gifts of the Creator. The Church sees int eh gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who 'brought out bread and wine,' a prefiguring of her own offering." (Pual) The bread and wine both come together to form the symbol of the Eucharist. 

Saint Justin Martyr in his First Apology says,

 "For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said 'This do ye in remembrance of me, this is My body' and that, after the same manner having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, 'This is My blood;' and gave it to them alone."(First Apology)

 As seen in all of the above paragraphs, the sacraments all come together as signs and symbols to convey important truths. Not all churches recognize seven sacraments, and some even go so far as to only call them ordinances (as I can recall the Southern Baptists doing), but those important truths are still present, albeit not fully. These sacraments convey a message of faith and a creed to the rest of the world; these sacraments are a flashing sign that points the way to salvation for the world. These sacraments convey a message that implies the absolute fullness of faith.

Lastly, the sacraments are not just mere signs and symbols that convey what Christians believe and hold dear, but sacraments are communications from God (Muller). In the Eucharist we that God is telling us that He gave us His only Son to due for us. We see God telling us that Christ has defeated death and has now made it possible for us to do the same and spend eternity with Him in His kingdom. We can see God telling us that all things are possible; He can turn water into wine, and He can turn bread and wine into flesh and blood. If there were room and time, one could delve so deeply into the theological meaning of the Eucharist that the whole of the Nicene Creed could be gleaned therein. Sadly, there is not enough room in the world to delve that deep into the most wonderful of sacraments.

I hope you have enjoyed the first of what I hope to be a new series on the sacraments. I plan on covering all seven of the commonly accepted sacraments, including the Eucharist just a bit more. Since this post relied so heavily on my aforementioned paper, instead of searching for quotes online and such I used the original quotes. I have listed the Works Cited from that paper below. The quotes from Saints Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr both come from the AntiNicean Fathers cited below.

Works Cited

AntiNicean Fathers. I. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Pub., 1994. 174-368. Print.

Fitzgerald, Rev. Thomas. "The Holy Eucharist."www.goarch.org. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America , n.d. Web. 23 Jun 2013. <http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7077>

Mueller, J.J. . Theological Foundations Concepts and Methods for Understanding Christian Faith. Revised and Expanded. Minnesota: Anselm Academic, 2011. 187-210. Print.

Pual, J. L. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Roman Curia, 1993. Web. <http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM>