| [DE - EN - ES -
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IT - PT] INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION THE RECIPROCITY BETWEEN FAITH AND SACRAMENTS
IN THE SACRAMENTAL ECONOMY
1. Faith and the Sacraments: Relevance and Timeliness
1.1. The Divine Salvific Offer Is Based on the Interrelationship between Faith and
the Sacraments
1. [Starting from Scripture]. “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in
peace and be cured of your affliction” (Mk 5:34). In the midst of the crowd that
pressed upon Him (Mk 5:24; 31), the hemorrhaging woman touches Jesus with faith
and receives healing, as a symbol of the salvation that Jesus brings to
humanity.[1] The case of the
hemorrhaging woman shows how faith springs from “the encounter with an event, a
Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”[2]
Faith is in the sphere of interpersonal relationships. Many sick people tried to
touch Jesus (Cf. Mk 3:10; 6:56), “because power came forth from Him and healed
them all” (Lk 6:19). However, He did not perform many miracles in Nazareth,
“because of their lack of faith” (Mt 13:58), nor did He satisfy Herod’s
curiosity (Lk 23:8). The humanity of Jesus Christ is the effective channel of
God’s salvation. However, this efficacy does not have an automatic character; it
requires an adequate contact with it: contact that is humble, imploring, and
open to the gift.[3] All these
attitudes lead to faith, as the most suitable means for receiving the offer of
salvation. “Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God.”[4]
The sacraments of the Church extend through time the works of Christ during His
earthly life. The healing power that emanates from the body of Christ, which is
the Church, is actualized in the sacraments, to heal the wound of sin and to
give new life in Christ.
2. [And from Tradition]. In the Trinitarian economy of salvation there is a
rich interweaving of faith and the sacraments:
Faith and baptism are, however, two mutually inherent and inseparable modes of
salvation, for faith is in fact perfected through baptism, and baptism, for its
part, is founded through faith, and both attain their fullness through the same
names. For as we believe in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, so
we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And
certainly the confession of faith goes forward, which introduces us into
salvation, but baptism follows, which seals our assent.[5]
The personal relationship with the Triune God is established through faith and
the sacraments. There is a mutual ordering and circularity between faith and the
sacraments; that is, an essential reciprocity. However, as Basil testifies in
the above text, confession of faith precedes sacramental celebration, while
sacramental celebration secures, seals, strengthens, and enriches faith. Yet in
pastoral practice today, this dynamic is blurred or even ignored.
1.2. The Current Crisis of Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments
a) Faith and the Sacraments: A Reciprocity in Crisis
3. [The Finding]. As early as 1977, the International Theological
Commission, referring to the sacrament of marriage, warned of the existence of
“baptized non-believers” who request the sacrament of marriage. This fact, they
said, raises profound “new questions.”[6]
This phenomenon has only increased since then, and it continues to create unease
in the celebration of the sacraments. Moreover, this problem is not limited
exclusively to the sacrament of marriage but encompasses the entire sacramental
economy. Particularly in Christian initiation—by the very nature of which the
reciprocity of faith and sacraments should be assured—concern and uneasiness are
often observed.
4. [Theological-Philosophical Roots]. Although the disassociation between
faith and the sacraments is caused by various factors depending on social and
cultural contexts, an observer who wants to go beyond the superficial level must
ask about the fundamental roots of this fracture. First, beyond possible
shortcomings in catechesis and a certain cultural unilateralism against
sacramental thinking, there is a deep-seated philosophical factor that destroys
sacramental logic. A widespread line of thinking, which began in the Middle Ages
(nominalism) and extended into Modernity, is characterized by an
anti-metaphysical dualism that dissociates thinking from being and categorically
rejects any kind of representative thinking, as is the case today with
postmodernism. This perspective rejects the Creator’s imprint in creation, that
is, that creation is a mirror (sacramental image) of the Creator’s own thought.
In this way, the world no longer appears as a reality that is expressly ordered
by God, but as a mere “chaos” of facts, which human beings must set in order
using human concepts. Now, if human concepts are no longer something like
“sacraments” of the divine Logos, but mere constructs, then there is a further
dissociation between the invisible—that is, immediate access to God through
personal faith (fides qua) —and any shared conceptual representation of
God (fides quae). In short, and as a decisive aspect, when one denies the
capacity of reason to know the truth of being (metaphysics), one implies that it
is impossible to get at the truth of God.[7]
5. Secondly, scientific and technological knowledge, which is so highly esteemed
today, tends to be imposed as the only model for all fields of knowledge and for
all kinds of objects. Its radical orientation towards an empirical and
naturalistic certainty is not only opposed to metaphysical knowledge, but also
to knowledge of a symbolic nature. While scientific knowledge emphasizes the
capacity of human reason, it does not exhaust all dimensions of reason or
knowledge, nor does it cover all cognitive needs for a full human life. Symbolic
thinking, with its richness and plasticity, collects and reflectively develops
the ethical affective dimensions of experience; and on the other hand, it
touches and transforms the spiritual and cognitive structure of the subject.
That is why the transmission of revelation, with its concomitant cognitive
content, lies in the symbolic sphere alongside all of humanity’s religious
traditions, and not in the empirical and naturalistic sphere. The sacramental
reality of participation in the mystery of grace can only be understood in the
unity of this double dimension of the symbolic experience: cognitive and
performative. Where the scientistic paradigm reigns, with its blindness to
symbolic thought, sacramental thought is impeded.[8]
6. Thirdly, we must still point out a significant cultural change that is proper to
the new civilization of the image, and which poses a new problem to the
theological elucidation of sacramental faith. Although it is true that
rationalist modernity minimized the cognitive value of the symbol, contemporary
postmodernity greatly exalts the performative power of images. Thus, it is
necessary to overcome the rationalist (modern) prejudice against the cognitive
value of the symbolic, without going to the opposite (postmodern) extreme, which
reduces the effectiveness of the symbol towards the emotional power of
representation, devoid of reference. In other words, the Christian intellect
must preserve the originality of the Christian sacrament from the risk of a
double voiding. On the one hand, there is a danger of reducing the
symbol-sacrament to the status of a mere cognitive sign that simply captures the
doctrinal meanings of the faith more easily, without effecting any
transformation (elimination of the performative dimension of the
symbol-sacrament). On the other hand, however, there is a danger of reducing the
symbol-sacrament to the pure aesthetic evocation carried out by its ritual
staging, according to the logic of a mere representation that replaces the
internal adherence to the symbolized reality of the mystery (suppression of the
cognitive dimension).
7. [Distortions of Faith]. There are other phenomena in today’s societies
that hinder the act of believing as proposed by the Catholic faith. Atheism and
the relativization of the value of all religions are advancing in many parts of
the globe. Secularism erodes faith and sows doubt, instead of nurturing the joy
of believing. The rise of the technocratic paradigm[9]
introduces a logic that is contrary to faith, which is a personal relationship.
The emotional reduction of faith leads to a subjective belief, regulated by the
subject himself, which moves away from the objective logic marked by the
contents of the Christian faith. This aforementioned culture of scientism tends
to deny the possibility of a personal relationship with God and His capacity to
intervene in one’s personal life and in history. The objectivity of the Creed
and the stipulation of conditions for the celebration of the sacraments are
understood, according to an increasing cultural sensibility, as a coercion of
the individual who has the freedom to believe according to his or her own
conscience; thus, one ends up maintaining an insufficient conception of the
freedom one intends to defend. This type of premise leads to a kind of belief or
way of believing that does not fit into the Christian conception, nor does it
correlate with the sacramental practice that the Church proposes.
8. [Pastoral Failures]. In the post-Vatican II era, there have also been
some widespread attitudes among the faithful and pastors that have actually
weakened the healthy relation between faith and sacraments. Thus, the pastoral
approach of evangelization has sometimes been understood as if it did not
include sacramental pastoral care, thereby losing the balance between the Word
of God, evangelization, and the sacraments. Other pastoral approaches have not
grasped that the primacy of charity in the Christian life does not imply
contempt for the sacraments. Some pastors have focused their ministry on
community building, neglecting the sacraments’ decisive place for that very
purpose in this endeavor. In some places, there has been a lack of theological
evaluation and pastoral accompaniment of popular Catholic piety for the sake of
helping the faithful to grow in faith and thus achieve full Christian initiation
and frequent sacramental participation. Finally, more than a few Catholics have
come to believe that the substance of faith lies in living the Gospel, despising
ritual as alien to the heart of the Gospel and, consequently, ignoring the fact
that the sacraments impel and strengthen the intense living of that Gospel.
Thus, all of this points to the need for an adequate articulation of martyria,
leitourgia, diakonia, and koinonia.
9. [Consequence]. Pastoral agents often receive the request for the
reception of the sacraments with great doubts about the faith intention of those
who request them. Many others believe that they can live their faith fully
without sacramental practice, which they consider optional and freely available.
With different but extensive emphases, there is a certain danger: either
ritualism devoid of faith, because of a lack of internalization or mere social
custom and tradition; or the danger of privatizing the faith, which is reduced
to the inner space of one’s own conscience and feelings. In both cases, the
reciprocity between faith and sacraments is violated.
b) The Purpose of This Document
10. [Purpose of the Document]. We intend to highlight the essential
reciprocity between faith and the sacraments, showing the reciprocal relation
between faith and sacraments in the divine economy. In this way we hope to
take steps to overcome the rupture between faith and the sacraments wherever it
occurs, in its two aspects: whether it is a faith that is not aware of its
essential sacramentality; or whether it is a sacramental praxis carried out
without faith or with a lack of vigor that raises serious questions regarding
the faith and the trustworthiness of the intention that the practice of the
sacraments requires. In both cases, sacramental practice and logic, which are at
the heart of the Church, suffer a serious and troubling injury.
11. [Structure]. We take as our starting point the sacramental character of
the divine economy,[10] which
includes both faith and the sacraments (Chapter 2). We formulate an
understanding of the economy that simultaneously includes the divine economy as
such in its Trinitarian, Christological, Pneumatological, ecclesial, and
dialogical (faith) dimensions; the place of faith and of the sacraments in it
(thus understood); and the reigning reciprocity between faith and the sacraments
that derive from it. This understanding forms the theological background for our
approach to the specific problem of the interrelationship between faith and the
sacraments in each of the sacraments that we discuss later. This chapter
illustrates how a celebration of a sacrament without faith is meaningless
because it contradicts the sacramental logic that underpins the divine economy,
which is constitutively dialogical.
12. Next, we shall examine the impact that the reciprocity between faith and the
sacraments has on some of the sacraments that are most pastorally affected by
the crisis of this reciprocity, either in their understanding or in practice,
such as the sacraments of Christian initiation (Chapter 3). In light of the
doctrinal elucidation of the specific role of faith in the validity and
fruitfulness of each sacrament, we offer criteria for elucidating what faith is
needed for the celebration of each sacrament of initiation. We go a step further
(Chapter 4) to address the interrelationship between faith and sacraments in the
case of marriage. We dwell on a question that the reciprocity of faith and
sacraments, by its very nature, could not leave aside: the elucidation of
whether the marriage union between “baptized non-believers” is to be considered
a sacrament. This is a unique case, in which the articulation of the reciprocity
between faith and sacraments in the economy is truly put to the test, as the
second chapter maintains. We end with a brief conclusion (Chapter 5), in which
we resume the reciprocity between faith and sacraments in the sacramental
economy on a more general level.
13. [Doctrinal Character]. The intention of the document is clearly
doctrinal. It is certainly based on a pastoral problem, which is differentiated
for each of the sacraments addressed. However, it is not intended to offer
specific or grounded pastoral guidelines for each of them. We want to insist on
the fundamental place of faith in the celebration of each sacrament, without
leaving out the doctrinal precision on the matter of the minimum faith necessary
for the sacrament’s validity. From this we can glean some general criteria for
pastoral action, as we do at the end of the treatment of each one of the
sacraments considered, but without going into detail, much less delving into
casuistry or supplanting the necessary discernment for each case.
14. [Selection]. We are aware that the pastoral situation regarding other
sacraments, such as penance and the anointing of the sick, also suffer from
serious deficiencies. It is not uncommon that full participation in the
Eucharist is sought without any awareness of the need for prior reconciliation
with God and the ecclesial community, from which we have been separated with our
sin and which we have damaged in its reality as the visible Body of Christ.
There is a dissociation between the Eucharistic life and the practice of
reconciliation on the part of many faithful, and even some ordained ministers,
who in the practice of their Christian faith disregard the harmonious unity of
the whole sacramental organism of the Church, where it is not possible to
subjectively choose which sacraments to “consume” and which to forego. The
anointing of the sick is also frequently experienced as being surrounded by
magical elements, as if it were a kind of spell invoking a miraculous
intervention of God or of the divine Spirit, without a personal relationship
with Christ, Savior of the person, of both his body and his soul. The limits of
space force us to focus on those sacraments that constitute Christian initiation
and marriage, all of which are of exceptional importance in building and
strengthening the Body of Christ. The way these sacraments are approached, as
well as the isolated references to the others and the general theological
framework that is offered, will allow us to draw conclusions for those
sacraments that we cannot consider individually.
2. The Dialogical Character of the Sacramental Economy of Salvation
15. [Introduction: Plan and Objective]. In this chapter we make a twofold
journey of a general nature to discern the reciprocity between faith and the
sacraments. In the first section, we consider the divine economy, highlighting
its sacramental character.[11] This
allows us to deepen our understanding of sacramentality as a constitutive
dimension of the divine economy. The treatment of sacramentality as such
requires, in itself, delving into faith, thus highlighting the
interconnectedness between faith and sacramentality as well as—and more
concretely—between faith and the sacraments. We conclude this section with a
review of the most prominent constitutive axes of the sacramental economy in our
presentation. This first step illuminates the reciprocity of faith and the
sacraments. In the second section, we pause to first consider faith and then the
sacraments of faith as such, showing in both cases, however, the intimate
reigning connection between faith and sacraments. Faith is constitutively
predisposed towards the sacramental celebration. The dialogical character of the
sacraments calls for sufficient faith in their celebration. Both sections of
this chapter have a complementary character, which allows us to show both the
breadth and depth of the reciprocity between faith and the sacraments, with
their different ramifications. We close the chapter with a brief conclusion.
2.1. The Trinitarian God: Source and End of the Sacramental Economy
a) The Trinitarian Foundation of Sacramentality
16. [Sacramentality: The Concept]. There pertains to sacramental logic the
inseparable correlation between a signifying reality that has a visible external
dimension, e.g. the integral humanity of Christ, and another meaning that has a
supernatural, invisible, sanctifying character, e.g. the divinity of Christ.[12]
When we speak of sacramentality we are referring to this inseparable
relationship, in such a way that the sacramental symbol contains and
communicates the symbolized reality. This presupposes that every sacramental
reality in itself includes an inseparable relationship with Christ, the source
of salvation—and with the Church—the depository and dispenser of Christ’s
salvation.
17. [Triune God: The Root]. The understanding of sacramental logic
presupposes an understanding of how the divine economy of salvation operates.
This understanding springs from the Trinitarian God (the communion of distinct
persons in the unity of a single divine substance) and from the redemptive
incarnation, in which the eternal Word, with no detriment to His unbounded
divinity, assumes our humanity with all its consequences. This framework clearly
affirms the presence of God Himself in the humanity of Jesus Christ, the Word
sent by the Father, who became incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the
Holy Spirit. The encounter with the humanity of Jesus Christ, anointed by the
Holy Spirit for His public mission, is—through faith—an encounter with the
Incarnate Word. These are the keys to understanding how it is possible for a
sensible, sacramental word, perceptible by us humans, to be simultaneously the
true word of God. Human persons are capable of perceiving, experiencing, and
communicating only in the “human” way, even when it comes to entering into a
relationship with God. How can the sacramental signs or sacred words of
Scripture be more than mere human creations and contain the presence of God
Himself? For there to be true communication, it is not enough to send out a
message; the message must be received. If God the Father had spoken to us in
Jesus Christ and no one had listened to His message (faith), then no
communication between God and humanity would have taken place. However,
according to the testimony of the New Testament, whoever enters into relation
with Jesus the man relates to God himself; that is, to the Word incarnate. It is
the Holy Spirit who works in such a way that the Word of God, confined
within the limits of the humanity of Jesus, is perceived by believers as the
Word of God. Gregory of Nazianzus formulates this reality like so: “From the
light that is the Father, we understand the Son in the light, this is in the
Holy Spirit.” And he adds: “brief and simple theology of the Trinity.”[13]
18. [Faith as a Dialogical Reception of Sacramental Revelation]. Thus, not
only does the inseparability between Jesus’ humanity and the Word of God come
into play, but also believers’ reception (faith) of this Word as divine through
the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the sacramental logic, through
which God Himself gives Himself in the sacraments. The primary
sacramentality of the Church and of the seven sacraments, which are derived from
Jesus Christ, are based on the Trinitarian faith. Only if Jesus Christ is true
God can He reveal the face of God to us. But in that case, sacramental communion
with Jesus Christ is sacramental communion with God. If the Holy Spirit is true
God, then He can open us to God and introduce us into the divine life through
the sacramental signs.[14]
19. [The Unfolding of Sacramentality]. Since revelation takes place in a
sacramental way, the sacramental element must permeate all of believing
existence and of faith itself. In fact, the sacramentality of revelation, of
grace, and of the Church is followed by the sacramentality of faith, as a
welcome and response to this revelation (DV 5). Faith is generated, is
cultivated, grows, and expresses itself in sacramentality, in that encounter
with the living God through the means by which He gives Himself. Thus,
sacramentality is the home of faith. But in this dynamic faith also
manifests itself as the door (cf. Acts 14:27) to access the sacramental:
to the encounter and relationship with the Christian God in creation, in
history, in the Church, in Scripture,[15]
and in the sacraments. Without faith, the symbols of a sacramental character do
not fully disclose their meaning and are silenced. Sacramentality implies
personal communication and communion between God and the believer through the
Church and sacramental mediations.
20. [The Correlation of Sacramentality with Anthropology]. The human
person is an incarnate spirit.[16]
We human beings are neither mere inanimate matter nor an angelic incorporeal
spirit. What defines us most authentically is that complementary union between
the material-corporeal (the visible) and the spiritual-incorporeal, which is not
detached from the material and is made known through it. The case of the
personal countenance, which is the expression of a material body, magnificently
manifests this union between our material being and face, and our spiritual
reality, our state of mind and personal identification. The face expresses the
whole person. The sacramental structure of divine revelation takes into account
our most authentic reality.[17] It
suits our most radical being, our capacity, and our way of interrelating in the
deepest dimensions of communication. The deepest encounters between human
persons are always interpersonal. The encounter with God participates in this
nature: it is a personal encounter with the Trinitarian God who makes Himself
present in Scripture, in the Church, and in the sacramental signs.
21. [The Sacramentality of Faith]. The “sacramentality of faith” is
basically a reiteration of what has been said, because all Christian faith is
sacramental faith thanks to the mediation of the Church as we make our
pilgrimage to the heavenly homeland. Faith is the reception of and response to
God’s sacramental revelation; faith expresses itself and nourishes itself in a
sacramental way, and it must do so in order to be a true Christian faith. From
this perspective, the sacraments are basically understood as an act of
ecclesial faith. The faith of the Church precedes, generates, sustains,
and nourishes that of the Christian. Faith, for its part, is not extraneous
to the sacramental but is constituted in its very essence by a sacramental
permeation and logic. Therefore, in the relationship between faith and
sacraments, two intimately reciprocal elements come into play: the sacraments,
which presuppose and nourish personal and ecclesial faith; and the necessary
sacramental expression of faith. The sacraments are therefore configured as a
kind of anamnetic representation that actualizes faith and makes it
visible.
b) The Sacramentality of Creation and History
22. [God the Creator]. According to the biblical testimony, creation (e.g.
Gen 1–2) is the first step of the divine economy. Christian understanding
sustains the free character of creation. God does not create out of necessity or
out of the lack of something. If this were the case, He would not truly be God.
He creates because of the overflowing fullness of love that He Himself is, and
with the aim of sharing His goods with to beings capable of receiving them and
of responding from the loving logic that presides over creation itself.[18]
23. [Sacramentality of Creation]. The Father carries out His creative design
through the Word and the Spirit. For this reason, creation itself contains the
trace of having been shaped by the Word and having been directed by the Spirit
towards its completion in the same God. Since God imprints His mark on creation,
theology speaks of a certain “sacramentality of creation,” in an analogical
sense, inasmuch as, in itself, in its own constitutive creaturely being, there
is a reference to its Creator (cf. Wis 13:1–9; Rom 1:19–20; Acts 14:15–17;
17:27–28), which allows it to later be elevated and consummated in the
redemptive work with no extrinsic compulsion. In this sense we have spoken of
the liber naturae.[19]
24. [The Human Person Responds to God]. In the whole of creation, the
human person stands out for having been created in the image and likeness of God
(Gen 1:26). St. Paul highlights the Christological dimension of this image: it
is Christ who is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4), since the
first Adam was the figure of the one who was to come (cf. Rom 5:14). This makes
the human person a being in whom God’s self-giving in creation can find a free
and personal response. For in the image of God, the more the human person gives
himself in a relationship of love (otherness), the more intensely he realizes
his own being (identity).
25. The rich reality of the human person as imago Dei includes various
aspects in which, through divine likeness, the capacity to respond to God is
highlighted, assimilating the human person’s being to the divine.[20]
Among these, communion and service stand out.[21]
If the Trinitarian God is essentially communion and interpersonal relation, then
the human person, as the image of God, has been created to live in communion and
interpersonal relation. This is magnificently expressed in the sexual
difference: “God created mankind in His image, in the image of God He created
them, male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). Hence the human person
fulfils his own being to the extent to which he expresses his relationality and
his capacity for communion with other human beings, with creation, and with God.
The exercise of this dynamic of communion and relation shines forth in its
fullness in Jesus Christ. The filial life that is shown in Him manifests the
height of the human vocation (cf. GS 10, 22, 41).
26. As a relational being created for communion, the human person can be defined by
language. Language is a reality of a symbolic order, which points, on the one
hand, to the expression of what reality is in itself (God’s creation), and, on
the other, to interpersonal communication (communion). As a symbolic being,
created in the image of God, the person reaches his most authentic reality to
the extent to which he inscribes the actualization of his being in a specific
sphere of symbolic expression, in which all the richness of his own being is
unfolded: as a creaturely being, as an interpersonal being, and as a being
called to communion with God. The sacraments faithfully and efficiently
capture,express, develop, and strengthen this rich framework.
27. As an eloquent sign of his dignity and friendship with God, man is also charged
with exercising delegated dominion over creation (Gen 2:15; cf. 1:28; Wis 9:2),
naming all other creatures (Gen 2:19–20) and taking care of them according to
God’s plan.[22] For this reason,
human activity in the world is directed towards glorifying God, recognizing the
imprint of the Creator on the world (cf. GS 34). In this way, the human person,
through a kind of “cosmic priesthood,” leads creation towards its true purpose:
the manifestation of the glory of God.
28. [Sacramentality of History]. God’s desire to communicate His gifts is not
restricted to leaving the imprint of His love in creation. The whole story of
the people of Israel can be properly viewed as a story of God’s love for His
people. Within this story some special events stand out that prefigure essential
aspects that lay the foundations of the sacramental relationship of God with His
people, which will culminate in Christ. The way God relates to His people,
giving them graces, can be perceived in all of them. Thus, a sort of early
grammar for the later constitution of the sacramental language sensu
stricto is discovered in them. Among these events, of which we can do a
sacramental reading, we find: the election of Abraham, of David, and the
Israelites, as well as the gift of the Law, which will become the basis of every
sacramental discourse; the many covenants—which are within the one divine
design, in which a new relationship is established between God and humanity, and
in which sacramentality is at work in a special way; the liberation of Israel
from Egypt, the exile and the return to Jerusalem, in which the future salvation
of Christ is anticipated in a new way, as the sacramental function of the Church
is represented in figure (typos); the presence of God in the midst of His
people in the Tabernacle and in the Temple, which will take on a particular
richness in Christ and the Christian sacraments. Israel will remember and
liturgically fulfill the richness of God’s presence through different cultic
rites (e.g. sacrifices), sacred signs (e.g. circumcision), and feasts (e.g.
Passover), always illuminated by the reading of the Word. Christian theology
designates these realities as sacraments of the Old Law and attributes to them a
salvific character by their reference to Christ.[23]
Therefore, it is discovered [ex opere operantis] that salvation history
itself possesses a certain sacramental character.[24]
Through closely linked historical events, signs, and words, God Himself comes
closer to His people and communicates to them His will, His love, and His
predilection, while simultaneously showing them the way of friendship with
Himself and the truest human life.
29. [Sin]. Throughout history, many believers of all times have lived in
friendship with God, accepting His gift and responding generously to His mercy
and faithfulness. However, it is also true that despite God’s insistence, human
beings do not always accept this offer of love. From the beginning, not only is
there the temptation to ignore the path of friendship with God as the best way
to realize what it means to be a human person, but His offer is also rejected
(Gen 3). The history of Israel, and of humanity, can be understood as an eager
search for God to win back the warm friendship with man when it has been lost
(e.g. Ez 16). From this we can understand the profound sense that many of the
cultural signs of the Old Testament salvific order contain a meaning of
expiation or reconciliation with God (e.g. ablutions, sacrifices).
c) The Incarnation: Center, Summit, and Key to the Sacramental Economy
30. [Jesus Christ: Ur-Sakrament]. God’s desire to give Himself acquires its
unsurpassable summit in Jesus Christ (cf. DV 2). By virtue of this hypostatic
union (cf. DH 301–2), the humanity of Christ, true man, “who has similarly been
tested in every way, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15), is the humanity of the Son of
God, of the eternal Word incarnate “for us and for our salvation” (DH 150).
Recent theology affirms that Jesus Christ is the primary sacrament (Ur-Sakrament)
and the key to the sacramental structure of salvation history. In summary, we
discover in Jesus Christ that the divine economy of salvation is sacramental
because it is incarnational.[25]
For this reason it can be truly affirmed that “the sacraments are at the center
of Christianity. The loss of the sacraments is equivalent to the loss of the
incarnation and vice versa.”[26]
For in Jesus Christ, as the summit and the fullness of salvific time (Gal 4:4),
there is the closest possible unity between a creaturely symbol, His humanity,
and what is symbolized: the saving presence of God in His Son in the midst of
history. Christ’s humanity, as humanity inseparable from the divine person of
the Son of God, is a “real symbol” of the divine person. In this supreme case,
that which is created communicates the presence of God to the highest degree.
31. [The Humanity of the Glorious Crucified One: The Foundation of the Sacraments].
Consequently, Christ’s humanity is intrinsically empowered to be the “mediator
and fullness of all revelation” (DV 2), in a way that is qualitatively
insurmountable compared to any other creaturely reality, since it is the
humanity proper to the Son of God (cf. Heb 1:1–2). What creation inchoatively
pointed to is fulfilled in an eminent way in the humanity of Jesus Christ. All
the actions and words of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word incarnate, anointed by
the Spirit, are qualified by the incarnation. And this in such a way that
through His words and deeds, and the manifestation of His whole person, he
transmits to us the revelation of God (cf. DV 4). Thus, Jesus Christ Himself is
the mystery of God transmitted and revealed to human beings (cf. Col 2:2–3;
1:27; 4:3) and present in the various salvific mysteries of His life: birth,
baptism, transfiguration, etc. The unfolding of the mystery of Christ reaches
its summit in His glorious death and resurrection, followed by the ongoing gift
of the Spirit (cf. DV 4). There, the revelation of God’s love to the very end
(cf. Jn 13:1) and its redeeming power are condensed with a sublime and
insurmountable intensity. The result is the forgiveness of sin (cf. Col 2:13–14)
and the opening to participate in the eternal life of the Risen One, through the
gift of the Spirit who makes us sharers in the divine nature (cf. 2 Pt 1:4).
Thus, we understand that Jesus Christ constitutes the source and foundation of
all sacramentality, which then unfolds in the different sacramental signs that
generate the Church, where we find unique aspects and rich moments of His life:
forgiveness of sins (Penance), healing of the sick (Anointing of the Sick),
death, and resurrection (Baptism and Eucharist), election and institution of
disciples as pastors of the community (Orders), and so on. The sacramental
logic, inscribed in the Trinitarian revelation, is extended and condensed in the
sacraments, in which Christ makes Himself present in a particularly intense way
(SC 7). The sacramental structure and logic of faith rest on Jesus Christ, the
Incarnate and redeeming Word.[27]
32. Indeed, Jesus does not simply communicate to us something important about God.
He is not simply a teacher, a messenger, or a prophet, but
the personal presence of the Word of God in creation. Since He as true man is
inseparable from God, whom he calls “Father,” communion with Him means communion
with God (Jn 10:30; 14:6, 9). The Father wants to lead all men through the Holy
Spirit to communion with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is simultaneously the way
that leads to life and life itself (Jn 14:6); in other words: “He is, at the
same time, the Savior and Salvation.”[28]
With the sacraments of the Word celebrated in the Spirit, especially with the
memorial of His death and resurrection, we are offered a way and a remedy, after
the loss that is sin, to bring us closer to communion and personal relation with
God through participation in the life of Christ, integrating ourselves in Him.
Thus, the work of salvation is accomplished, which completes and culminates its
beginning with creation. However, God makes the acceptance of this gift
dependent on the cooperation of the recipients. As shown by the case of
Our Lady, the ecclesial model of the disciple, grace respects freedom. It is not
imposed without the consent of freedom (Lk 1:38), even if assent is made
possible by grace itself (Lk 1:28).
d) The Church and the Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy
33. [The Church: Grund-Sakrament]. The historical tangibility of grace, which
has been made present in history in Jesus Christ, remains (in a privileged, but
indirect way) through the work of the Holy Spirit.[29]
The being of the Church has a visible and historical structure that serves the
transmission of invisible grace, which she herself receives from Christ and
transmits thanks to the Spirit. There is a remarkable analogy between the Church
and the Incarnate Word (cf. LG 8; SC 2). From these premises, contemporary
theology has deepened our understanding of the Church as the fundamental
sacrament (Grund-Sakrament), in a similar vein to how Vatican II
understands the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation.[30]
As a sacrament, the Church is in the service of the salvation of the world (LG
1; GS 45) and of the transmission of grace whose reception has made it a
sacrament. Sacramentality always has a missionary character, a character of
service for the good of others.
34. Even as a sacrament, in the Church herself one can already perceive God’s grace,
that is, the irruption of the Kingdom of God. Thus, if on the one hand the
Church serves the establishment of the Kingdom of God, then on the other hand,
the presence of the Kingdom of Christ in mystery is already present in her (LG
3). Endowed with these means of grace, she can truly be the seed and the
beginning of the kingdom[31] (LG
5). As a pilgrim and made up of sinners, there is no total identification
between the Church and the Kingdom of God; as a reality constituted by grace,
she has an eschatological dimension, which culminates in the heavenly Church and
the communion of saints[32] (cf. LG
48–49).
35. [The Church: A Christological and Pneumatological Reality]. As a creature
who abides in the Trinity, that is, “the people united” within the unity of the
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,”[33]
the Church has an intimate relationship not only with the Incarnate Word, to the
point of being able to say that she truly is the Body of Christ (cf. LG 7), but
also with the Holy Spirit. And this is true not only because the Spirit, the
great gift of the Risen One (cf. Jn 7:39; 14:26; 15:26; 20:22), is at work in
her constitution (cf. LG 4), dwells within her and in the faithful as in a
temple (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19), unifies her, and generates the missionary dynamism
inherent in her (cf. Acts 2:4–13)—but also because the Church is a spiritual,
pneumatic people (cf. LG 12), enriched by the various gifts that the Spirit
gives to the faithful for the good of the whole community (cf. Rom 12:4–8; 1 Cor
12:12–30; 1 Pt 4:10). These charismatic gifts lead to a particular appropriation
of the richness of the Word of God and of sacramental grace, strengthening the
community and promoting its mission (cf. AA 3). In short: these gifts strengthen
the sacramentality of the Church.[34]
36. [The Sacramental Continuity of the Salvific Order]. The salvation
that was offered in Jesus Christ in history is continued through the Church (cf.
Lk 10:16)—the Body of Christ—through life-giving sacraments, thanks to the
action of the Spirit[35]; “what was
visible in Christ has passed into the sacraments” of the Church.[36]
The Catholic Church holds that the seven sacraments have been instituted by
Christ,[37] since only He can
authoritatively unite the gift of His saving grace to certain signs in an
efficacious way.[38] This statement
highlights the fact that the sacraments are not an ecclesial creation and that
the Church cannot change their substance,[39]
but that they are based on the event of Christ taken as a whole: Incarnation,
Life, Death, and Resurrection. The institution of the sacraments gives meaning
to the Incarnation (cf. §§ 30–32), for they specify characteristics of Jesus’s
humanity; that is, the unfolding of the mysteries of His human life which
culminate in Easter—for here Jesus gives Himself fully as the source of all
graces, including the gift of the Spirit. The Church is enlightened by the
Spirit whom she received at Pentecost and is encouraged by the celebration of
the Eucharist (cf. PO 5), which is the source and summit of the Christian life
(SC 10; LG 11). The Church has recognized that the sacramental gift of Christ is
eminently continued in the seven sacramental signs which go back to Christ
Himself in different ways,[40]
while maintaining that divine grace is not exclusively limited to the seven
sacraments.[41]
37. [Sacramental Grace and non-Christians]. The Church affirms that the grace
that justifies and saves is given, and therefore, true faith is also given
outside the visible Church, but not independently of Jesus (primordial
sacrament) and the Church (fundamental sacrament). The action of the Holy Spirit
is not confined to the limits of the visible Church, but “its presence and
action are universal, without any limit of space or time.”[42]
Non-Christian religions may contain elements of truth and may be the means and
indirect signs of the spiritual grace of Jesus Christ. But this does not mean
that they are salvific paths that run parallel to Christ or that are independent
of Christ and His Church.[43]
38. [Sacramental Grace and Faith]. In short, the Word of God, creative and
efficacious, has created the interpersonal language of the sacramental words,
which are the sacraments: words in which the Word continues to act thanks to the
Spirit. In the words the minister pronounces in the name of the Church, e.g. “I
baptize you,” the Risen Christ continues to speak and act.[44]
Since the sacraments make possible today, by the Spirit, a personal relationship
with the Lord who died and rose again, they have no meaning without such a
relationship, which is condensed in the word “faith.”
39. [Sacraments: Supreme Exercise of Ecclesial Sacramentality]. The
fundamental sacramentality of the Church is exercised in a privileged way and
with special intensity in the celebration of the sacraments. The sacraments
always have an ecclesial character: in them the Church brings her own being into
play, in the service of transmitting the saving grace of the risen Christ,
through the aid of the Spirit. Therefore, each and every sacrament is an
intrinsically ecclesial act. According to the Fathers, the sacraments are always
celebrated in the faith of the Church, since they have been entrusted to the
Church. In each and every sacrament, the faith of the Church precedes the faith
of the individual faithful. It is, in fact, a personal exercise of the faith of
the Church. Therefore, without participation in the faith of the Church, such
symbolic acts are rendered void, insofar as faith is what opens the door to the
sacramental signification at work.
40. [Sacramentals]. Ecclesial sacramentality is not expressed only in the
sacraments. There is another series of sacramental realities that form part of
the life and faith of the Church, from which Sacred Scripture stands out. The
so-called sacramentals are immensely important for Christian piety. The
sacramentals are sacred signs, designed according to the model of the
sacraments. Sacramentals dispose one towards the sacraments and sanctify the
various circumstances of life (SC 60). What is proper to the sacraments is that
in them there is an authorized and assured ecclesial commitment to the
transmission of the grace of Christ, provided that all the requirements are
fulfilled. However, the efficacy in the sacramentals is not like that of the
sacraments.[45] In the former,
there is a preparation for the reception of grace and a disposition to cooperate
with it, not an efficacy ex opere operato (cf. § 65), which is exclusive
to the sacraments. Thus, although the water of baptism produces the effect of
forgiveness of sins within the sacramental celebration, holy water, a
remembrance of baptism, does not have an effect by itself, but only to the
extent to which it is received with faith, for example when crossing oneself at
the entrance to the church.
e) The Axes of the Sacramental Economy
41. Outlining the main findings of our journey, we can establish the following
fundamental points:
a) The divine Trinitarian economy is sacramental because it is incarnational. Since
the economy is sacramental in character, the seven sacraments instituted by
Christ, which are preserved and celebrated by the Church, are of the utmost
importance within the Church.
b) The sacramentality of the divine economy derives from faith. It is through faith
that one comes to grasp this sacramentality and dwell within it. The perception
of sacramentality through faith is closely linked to the Incarnation, through
which the divine plan is made visible in a historical and tangible way; to the
Holy Spirit, who perpetuates the gifts of Christ by transmitting saving grace
through sacramental symbols; to the Church, a visible and historical institution
that, having received the sacramental gifts, continues to celebrate them in
order to nourish and strengthen the faith of the faithful.
c) Jesus Christ instituted the sacraments and gave them to His Church so that the
mysteries of faith would be represented in a visible way. The believer who
participates in these mysteries receives the gifts that are represented in them.
Consequently, the transmission of faith involves not only the communication of
doctrinal content of an intellectual nature, but also (and alongside it) the
existential incorporation into the fabric of the sacramental economy, which the
encyclical Lumen fidei has masterfully described:
But what is communicated in the Church, what is handed down in her living
Tradition, is the new light born of an encounter with the living God, a light
that touches us at the core of our being and engages our minds, wills, and
emotions, opening us to relationships lived in communion with God and with
others. There is a special means for passing down this fullness, a means capable
of engaging the entire person, body and spirit, interior life, and relationship
with others. It is the sacraments, celebrated in the Church’s liturgy. They
communicate an incarnate memory, linked to the times and places of our lives,
linked to all our senses; in them the whole person is engaged as a member of a
living subject and part of a network of communitarian relationships. While the
sacraments are indeed sacraments of faith [cf. SC 59], it can also be said that
faith itself possesses a sacramental structure. The awakening of faith is linked
to the dawning of a new sacramental sense of the life of man and of Christian
existence, in which visible and material is open to the mystery of the eternal.”[46]
d) The structure of the sacramental economy is dialogical. Faith represents the
moment of the human person’s graceful response to the gift of God. There is an
essential reciprocity between faith and sacramentality, in a general way, and
between faith and sacraments, in a specific way.
e) The dialogical character (faith) of the economy involves a series of significant
consequences when it comes to theologically understanding and to pastorally
offering each of the different sacraments. From the previous statements, one can
argue with good reason that effective sacraments without faith would mean
either: a mere causal mechanism that is extraneous to the realm of the relations
between the Trinitarian God and men, which are dialogical and interpersonal in
nature; a kind of magical action that is foreign to the Christian faith and to
the sacramental logic of the economy; or else a conception of God that is
incompatible with Catholic doctrine, and which does not take into account that
the same divine gift contains the grace that enables the creature to consent and
collaborate with divine action to the extent that is proper to the creature. In
other words: since the Trinitarian economy is dialogical insofar as it is
sacramental, it is not possible to understand the action of grace in them
according to the model of a kind of sacramental automatism.
2.2. Faith and the Sacraments of Faith
a) Insights from the Disciples’ Path of Faith
42. [Growth of Faith]. As spokesman for the disciples, Peter responds to
Jesus’ question, by formulating a confession of faith: “You are the Christ” (Mk
8:29 and parallel passages). However, Peter had to mature in this initial faith
because when Jesus begins to explain that He is Messiah in the manner of the
suffering Son of man, a Messiah who will be crucified, Peter rejects Him, and
Jesus harshly reproaches him (Mk 8:31–33). Thus, Peter had to follow a path of
growth in faith, combining his unconditional adherence to Jesus as Christ with
the knowledge of the doctrinal aspects that this implied. This is not just
Peter’s concern, but it reflects the reality of each believer. The apostles
themselves show us the way with their petition to the Lord; “Increase our faith”
(Lk 17:5). Paul notices this gradual growth and counts on it, since it refers to
“the measure of faith which God has apportioned” (Rom 12:3; cf. 12:6). He also
admonishes the Christians of Corinth, whom he is to treat as “children in
Christ,” giving them “milk” instead of solid food (cf. 1 Cor 3:1–2). The letter
to the Hebrews echoes this difference in speaking to members of the Christian
community (cf. Heb 5:11–14). Going beyond the basic rudiments of Christian
doctrine and faith, solid food is meant for believers who in their Christian
lives exercise discernment of good and evil, to those whose entire existence is
illuminated by the light of faith.[47]
43. The disciples and other admirers of Jesus, the multitudes, grasped something
special in the figure of Jesus before Passover. Specifically, in the context of
healings we are told of a “faith.” The phenomenology we find is quite varied:
Jesus performs miracles without explicitly mentioning faith (e.g. Mk 1:14–45;
3:1–6; 6:33–44); thanks to the faith of petitioners who intercede on behalf of
another person (Mk 2:5; Lk 7:28–29); in spite of a faith that considers itself
meager (Mk 9:24); or precisely thanks to faith (Mk 5:34). The disciples are
encouraged in many ways to grow in faith (Mt 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20), in
faith in God and in His power (Mk 12:24), and in understanding the unique role
of Jesus in God’s plan (Jn 14:1).
44. The death of Jesus put this initial adherence of the disciples to the test. They
all dispersed and fled (Mk 14:50). The women who went to the tomb very early in
the morning intended to anoint the corpse (Mk 16:1–2). However, with the news of
the resurrection and the gift of the promised Spirit (Jn 14:16–17, 26), the
faith of the disciples was strengthened, to the point that they will be able to
initiate others and strengthen them in their faith (Jn 21:15–18; Lk 22:32).
Pentecost marks the culmination of the disciples’ journey of faith. Not only do
they fully adhere to Jesus, dead and risen, as the Lord and Son of the living
God, but they become bold witnesses, filled with parresia, and able to
speak of God’s deeds and transmit the faith in all languages thanks to the
Spirit. Now they will be witnesses, even martyrs, proclaiming Jesus as the
crucified and risen Messiah, Son of the living God, Lord of the living and the
dead. In this model of faith, the believing adherence to Jesus includes the
doctrinal content of the resurrection and the unfolding of its meaning.
According to the sources, this transition to faith in the resurrection was
neither easy nor automatic, particularly for those who, like us, did not enjoy
the benefit of an apparition of the Risen One (Thomas: Jn 20:24–29). The
pericope of Emmaus (Lk 24:13–35) provides some valuable clues for initiating
others on the path of faith:[48]
walking at the pace of those who, going through disillusionment, express some
uneasiness; listening to their concerns and welcoming them; and patiently
contrasting them with the light of salvation history reflected in Scripture,
stimulating the desire to have more and better knowledge of the plan of God.
This opens the way to a faith that matures in the sacramental and ecclesial
dimensions proper to faith.
45. [The Need for Patient Discernment]. The Bible, a reflection of salvation
history, presents a multitude of situations in which faith, as a dynamic and
vital reality with triumphs and setbacks, finds itself in multiple positions:
from the search for a tangible benefit, which looks exclusively at personal
interest, to the extreme generosity of sacrificial love. Jesus categorically
rejected hypocrisy (e.g. Mk 8:15), called for conversion and belief in the
Gospel (Mk 1:15), but He magnanimously welcomed many who came to Him longing in
some way for God’s salvation. For this reason, one must appreciate the value of
incipient faith, the faith that is on its way to maturity, the faith that does
not exclude unresolved questions and hesitations in its desire to know God, the
imperfect faith that finds some difficulty in adhering to the totality of the
content that the Church holds as revealed. It is the task of all pastoral agents
to help in the growth of faith, at any stage, so that it may discover the full
countenance of Christ and the record of doctrinal elements which includes the
believing adherence to the dead and risen Lord. Because of this diversity, the
same faith is not required for all sacraments or in the same circumstances of
life.
b) Modulations of Faith
46. [The Need for Some Clarifications]. Classical reflection on faith
and the sacraments has emphasized the articulation both of the irrevocability of
the gift of Christ (ex opere operato) and of the dispositions necessary
for a valid and fruitful reception of the sacraments. These provisions are
fundamentally misunderstood if they are seen as a sort of arbitrarily imposed
impediment to hinder access to the sacraments. Nor do they have to do with
“elitism,” which would scorn the faith of the simple. It is simply a matter of
highlighting the believer’s internal dispositions for receiving what Christ
freely wants to give us in the sacraments. That is to say, what is manifested in
these dispositions is the proper match between faith and the sacraments of
faith: what faith do the sacraments of faith require by their very nature?
Without losing the gains made through theological reflection, it is useful to
expound on some of the various aspects of personal faith, and then discern in
the following chapters how they come into play in the sacramental celebration
understood as a dialogical encounter.
47. [The Theological Dimension]. The peculiarity of faith lies in the
fact that it is expressly inscribed in the relationship with God. Theology
distinguishes different aspects within the single act of faith.[49]
This is the difference between “credere Deum” or believing that God
exists (which refers to the cognitive element of faith) from what is believed (fides
quae). The essence of faith is to be directed towards God. That is why faith
has a theo-centric character. “Credere Deo,” to believe in God, expresses
the formal aspect, the reason for giving assent. God is also the cause for which
one believes (fides qua), so faith has a theo-logical character. Thus,
God is the object believed and the reason for faith. However, these fundamental
aspects do not reflect the act of faith in its entirety. There is also “credere
in Deum,” believing toward God. Here the volitional aspect is more clearly
manifested, insofar as, integrating the two previous elements, faith also
includes a desire and a movement towards God and the beginning of a journey
towards God, which will be consummated in the eschatological encounter with Him
in eternal life. For this reason, faith has a theo-eschatological
dimension. The act of faith in its entirety presupposes the concurrence of the
three aspects. This occurs in a characteristic way in the “in Deum,” which
includes the other two.
48. [The Trinitarian Dimension]. In Christian faith, believing in God
implies believing in Jesus Christ as the Son, thanks to the Spirit.
Characteristically, the symbol repeats “in Deum” three times, referring to each
of the divine persons, which marks the Trinitarian dimension. The formulation
refers to the difference from any other act of comparable trust, for example,
trust in a human person.[50] The
relationship with the Trinitarian God is distinguished from the relationship
with what has been produced or created by Him. In Deum credere represents
the perfect figure of personal relationship; it includes hope and love,[51]
or as Augustine describes it: “to adhere by believing God, him who does good, in
order to do good by cooperating with him.”[52]
This is the true form of faith, which includes the two aforementioned
dimensions: believing in God and believing God (credere Deum and credere Deo).[53]
The formula “credo in Deum” is not reduced to an expression of a confession and
conviction, but the process of conversion and surrender: the believer’s journey
of faith. It is precisely this personal dimension that endows the symbol and its
various articles with coherence. This takes place with particular intensity in
sacramental celebrations, proper to the economy of the Spirit,[54]
in which one perceives that faith is always ecclesial[55]:
In the celebration of the sacraments, the Church hands down her memory
especially through the profession of faith. The creed does not involve only
giving one’s assent to a body of abstract truths; rather, when it is recited the
whole life is drawn into a journey towards full communion with the living God.
We can say that in the creed believers are invited to enter into the mystery
which they profess and to be transformed by it.[56]
49. Implicit in the Trinitarian faith is a personal relationship of the believer
with each Person of the Holy Trinity. By faith, the Spirit leads us to knowledge
of the full truth (Jn 16:12–13). No one can confess Jesus as Lord except in the
Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). Thus, the Spirit dwells in the believer and empowers him to
walk in the Spirit towards God, to bear witness to his faith, to spread
Christian charity, and to live in hope, so that he may reach the maturity of the
fullness of the believer, according to the measure of Christ (cf. Eph 4:13). The
Spirit therefore acts in the believer in the subjective act of believing itself,
in the contents believed, and—of course—in the vital dynamism that it imprints
on the believer. This dynamism implies a deeper appropriation of the Beatitudes,
a portrait of the heart of Christ and, therefore, of the disciple.[57]
With His gifts, the Spirit strengthens the individual believer[58]
as well as the Church. By faith we confess Jesus Christ as the Lord, the Son of
the living God; we become His disciples, walking towards conformity with Him
(cf. Rom 8:29). Through faith, and thanks to the mediation of the Son and the
Spirit, we know the plan of God the Father, we enter into a relationship with
Him, we praise Him, we bless Him, and we obey Him as beloved children. We set
out to fulfill His will for us, for history, and for creation.
50. [The Reformation and its Influence]. The Reformation has exerted an
influence, which is difficult to overstate, on the supremacy of the individual
act of faith over the confession of ecclesial faith. The individual
characteristics that stand out are the concentration of faith in one’s own
justification, the qualification of the act of faith as an appropriation of
grace, and the identification of the certainty of faith with the certainty of
salvation. This subjectivization of truth has also influenced part of the
theology of faith of recent Catholicism when, under the umbrella of personalism,
it has taken on a unilateral subjectivist orientation. For this reason, these
approaches describe faith less as confession than as a personal relationship of
trust (faith in someone), and at least tendentially, is opposed to doctrinal
faith (faith in something).
51. [Fides qua: fides quae]. If the dialogue between God and man involves a
sacramental character that runs through the whole of revelation, then the
response, through faith, will also have to take on a sacramental logic, impelled
and made possible by the Spirit. There can be no subjective understanding of
faith alone (fides qua) that is not linked to the authentic truth of God
(fides quae), which is handed down in revelation and preserved in the
Church. There is therefore “a profound unity between the act by which we believe
and the contents to which we give our assent. The apostle Paul helps us to enter
into this reality when he writes: “one believes with the heart and one confesses
with the mouth” (cf. Rom 10:10).”[59]
It is the sacramental signs of God’s presence in the world and in history that
inspire, express, and preserve faith. In the Christian conception, it is neither
possible to think of a faith without sacramental expression (in the face of
subjectivist privatization), nor a sacramental practice in the absence of
ecclesial faith (against ritualism). When faith excludes identification with
confession and the life of the Church, this faith is no longer an integration in
Christ. The privatized and disincarnated faith of the Gnostics is a temptation
that runs through the history of Christianity.[60]
But there is often the opposite tendency too: an outward faith that adheres
verbally to the confession of faith without appropriating it through personal
understanding or prayer. Subjectivist privatization and ritualism represent the
two dangers that the Christian faith must overcome at all costs.[61]
52. [The Fundamental Equality of All Believers in the Faith]. Each
believer’s personal faith can admit varying degrees both in terms of the
intensity of the relationship with the Trinitarian God and to the extent to
which its contents are made explicit. Since faith is a personal relationship,
the capacity to grow in both dimensions is intrinsic to its own dynamics: the
capacity to grow in the knowledge and appropriation of the truths of the faith
and its internal consistency, on the one hand, and in the confidence and the
determination to orient one’s whole existence based on the intimate relationship
with God, on the other.[62]
53. In the history of theology, some have raised the question of the indispensable
minimum with respect to the reflective knowledge of the content of faith, as
well as that of the role of what we call “implicit faith.” The scholastic
theologians showed great appreciation of the faith of the simple (simplices,
minores). According to Thomas Aquinas, not everyone should be required to
have the same level of explicitness when it comes to knowing how to reflect the
contents of the faith.[63] The
difference between “implicit” and “explicit” faith refers to certain contents of
the faith that are either included in the faith itself and, in that sense, are
settled in the act of believing—implicit; or they are believed reliably and
consciously (actu cogitatum credere) —explicit. It is not necessary that
simple believers know how to give a detailed intellectual account of Trinitarian
or soteriological developments. Implicit faith includes in itself the
fundamental predisposition to identify with the faith of the Church and to unite
oneself to it.[64]
54. [The Creed: Minimum Content of Faith]. According to St. Thomas, all the
baptized are obliged to believe the articles of the Creed in an explicit way.[65]
Therefore, it is not enough to believe in a general saving will of God, but in
the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ, which is possible only
through faith in the Trinitarian God. This is the faith “in which all attain new
life,” in which every Christian is baptized.[66]
The rule of faith played a similar role in the Fathers’ time: it functioned for
all believers as the compendium of the fundamental content, as well as the
guideline of verification of the binding elements of faith.[67]
St. Thomas argues that this knowledge of the faith does not presuppose other
prior knowledge but is accessible to simple people. Moreover, thanks to the
feasts of the liturgical year, its content is present to everyone. The fact that
all members of the Church have the obligation of an explicit faith in the Creed
consequently means the recognition of the equal dignity of all Christians.
55. [Notes on Lack of Faith]. The opposite of faith is not the deficiency of
knowledge, but the obstinate rejection of some truths of faith[68]
and indifference. Along these lines, Hugh of St. Victor makes a clear
distinction between two groups. There are believers who have little intellectual
insight into the faith and who are also not characterized by a deep personal
relationship with God and who nevertheless cling to their belonging to the
ecclesial community and put their faith into practice in their lives.[69]
Others, however, are believers only “in name and by custom.” They “receive the
sacraments together with the other believers, but without any thought for the
goods of the world to come.”[70] A
crucial element of the Christian faith is mentioned here: whether “future goods
are expected” (cf. Heb 11:1), and whether this believing hope is strong enough
to guide human action.
c) The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments
56. [The Concept of Sacrament]. The Triune God, who creates to
transmit His gifts and who created man in order to call him to communion with
Him, enters into relation with man in a mediated way, through creation and
history, and through signs, as we have seen. The Christian sacraments occupy a
very prominent place among these signs, for they are the signs to which God has
linked the transmission of His grace in a definite and objective way. In fact,
the sacraments of the New Law are efficacious signs that transmit grace.[71]
As we have already said, this does not mean that the sacraments are the only
means by which God transmits His grace;[72]
it does mean that they occupy a privileged position, marked by certainty and an
ecclesial nature. Devotion and personal piety can unfold through different
practices such as different forms of prayer linked to Sacred Scripture,
lectio or contemplation of the mysteries of the life of Christ,
contemplation of God’s works in creation and history, the various sacramentals
(cf. §40), and more.
57. [Faith and Sacraments in the Second Vatican Council’s Definition of Sacrament].
Throughout history there have been different definitions of what a sacrament is.
Vatican II characterizes it this way:
The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of
Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God; because they are signs they also
instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also
nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called “sacraments of
faith.” They do indeed impart grace, but, in addition, the very act of
celebrating them most effectively disposes the faithful to receive this grace in
a fruitful manner, to worship God duly, and to practice charity.[73]
This dense text emphasizes several fundamental aspects of the essential
reciprocity between faith and the sacraments, which we shall summarize. First,
the sacraments have a pedagogical purpose for our faith in that they illustrate
the way salvation history happens, that is, in a “sacramental” way. Jesus Christ
instituted them to teach us that He communicates Himself and transmits His
salvation to us in a sensatory and visible way, that is, adapted to the human
condition[74] (cf. esp. §§ 20, 26).
Second, the sacraments presuppose faith in a twofold sense: as “access”
to the sacramental mystery—if faith is lacking, the sacrament appears only as an
external symbol or an empty rite, with the risk of becoming a kind of magical
gesture; and as a necessary condition for the sacrament to subjectively produce
the gifts it objectively contains. Third, the sacraments manifest the
faith of the subject and of the Church. The celebration of the sacraments is a
profession of lived faith. The sacraments are signs by which one professes the
faith by which man is justified. The sacramental word requires the response of
the faith of the believer who, because of it, learns and recognizes the mystery
fulfilled in the sacrament. Fourth, the sacraments nourish faith on two
fundamental levels: they communicate the gift of divine grace, which makes or
strengthens the Christian life of the believer; and they are celebrations in
which the mystery of salvation is effectively signified, forming the faith and
nourishing it continuously. The sacraments are therefore signs of faith in all
aspects of the dynamism of their realization: before, during, and after the
celebration. Consequently, since the sacraments presuppose faith, it is obvious
that the recipient of the sacraments is a member of the Church. We cannot forget
that it is through faith and the sacraments of faith that we enter into
dialogue, into vital contact with the Redeemer, who is seated at the right hand
of the Father. The glorious Christ does not just reach us internally, but in the
concreteness of our historical being, elevating the fundamental circumstances of
our existence to sacramental circumstances of salvation.
58. [Connecting Faith and the Sacraments]. Faith is not forever guaranteed at
the time of conversion. It must be cultivated through the practice of charity,
prayer, listening to the Word, communal life, instruction, as well
as—pre-eminently—through the assiduous reception of the sacraments. In the realm
of relationships, what is not explicit and expressed runs the risk of becoming
diluted or even disappearing. The gift, which is Christ, cannot be accepted
only in an invisible or private way. On the contrary, he who receives it is
empowered and called to incarnate it in his life, words, thoughts, and actions.
In this way, one contributes to the transformation of the original
sacramentality of the Savior into the fundamental sacramentality of the Church.
In truth, the seven fundamental realizations of the Church (the sacraments)
achieve what they signify. For their reception to be fruitful, however, it is
necessary that the recipient be willing to deepen, to live, and to bear witness
to what he or she has received.
59. The intrinsic connection between faith and the sacraments is evident if we
consider other essential aspects. Noteworthy aspects include
a) The sacramental celebration: in which a particular action or material reality,
which already has a meaning of its own, is put in relation with the history of
salvation and determined by the event of Christ. Through the Word, the sign
becomes the presence, memory, and promise of the fullness of salvation.[75]
Thus, for example, water as such possesses the property of cleansing. However,
only coupled with the invocation of the Trinity does it produce the regenerating
effect of eliminating sins.
b) The terminology: “sacramentum (sacrament)” is used as a translation from the
Greek “mystérion (μυστήριον).” The mysteries celebrated in the Church are rooted
in the mystery as such, “hidden from ages past in God” (Eph 3:9) and now
are made known as Christ: He who through His incarnation, passion, and
resurrection, wants to “draw everyone to [Him]self” (cf. Jn 12:32), to reconcile
them to God (cf. 2 Cor 5:19–21). According to the letter to the Ephesians
(3:3–21 and 5:21–33; cf. Col 1:25–27; 2:2–9), the Church is included in the
mystery of Christ. As “body” and “bride” she belongs to the “hidden mystery,” to
God’s salvific plan.[76] The New
Testament concept of “mystérion” designates the reality of God, who communicates
Himself to human beings in Jesus Christ. To the extent to which it is an
inexhaustible reality, it remains hidden even in the very event of revelation,
because it surpasses all understanding and conceptualization. Although the Latin
translation “sacramentum” highlights revelation more than concealment, the Latin
concept also preserves the dimension of reference to the inapprehensible. It
follows that whoever celebrates the liturgy of the Church or receives a
sacrament is called to transcend (through his personally believed faith) the
believed content in view of the infinitely greater mystery.
c) There is a second aspect also relating to the terminology that is very
revealing. Originally sacramentum means a “sacred oath” that, in contrast
with “ius iurandum,” produces a sacred bond. This is the meaning
that Tertullian has in mind when he calls baptism a “sacrament”[77]
and compares it to the commitment that soldiers make when they pledge
allegiance. It is not possible to commit oneself to something without knowing
what its content is.
60. [The Need for Catechesis]. Based on what has already been said, we
are starting from a dual basis. First, there can be no sacramental celebration
without faith. Second, personal faith is a participation in the faith of the
Church, a response to the sacramental event of revelation witnessed to and
proposed by the Church, thanks to the Spirit. Therefore, since the reception of
a sacrament is simultaneously an act of a strictly personal nature and of a
manifestly ecclesial character, an adequate catechesis must precede the
celebration of the sacrament. In such catechesis, the paschal mystery must
occupy a predominant place because of its centrality in the Christian faith. In
the case of baptism, catechesis is part of the very incorporation into the
Church, as perceived in the development of the catechumenate in the ancient
Church. From another perspective, the primitive form of baptism included a
confession of faith in the form of dialogue, as Traditio apostolica
testifies.[78] The confession of
faith and the divine-human dialogical nature of the reception of the sacraments
must continue through the mystagogical catechesis, which takes place at each
reception of the sacraments. In a certain way, mystagogical catechesis supposes
entering into the eschatological presence that happens with the sacraments,
continuously progressing in knowledge through participation in the mysteries
celebrated.
61. [The Manifestation of Faith]. The sacraments are part of the
sacramental economy into which the believer is introduced. This economy implies
the existence of visible aspects as an expression of invisible grace. Although
faith in God revealed in Christ is a gift of grace, the recipient is not a mere
object of this gift. This is why Thomas Aquinas makes it clear that faith is a
“virtus infusa vel supranaturalis.” Faith as “virtue” is the capacity for action
made possible by grace and which, like every faculty, can be perfected. In other
words, the deeper a believer’s relationship with Christ, the more intense is the
sacramentality of his faith, his prayer, his confession, his identification with
the Church, and his love. Consequently, since faith is a virtue, it must be
manifested in an external and visible way, in a style of life that corresponds
to the double commandment to love God and neighbor, and in a relationship with
the praying Church.
62. There can be a general faith, as assent to divine revelation, without including
the hope in God and the love of God inherent to it. The scholastic distinction
between “fides informis” and “fides (caritate) formata” reflects the problem of
a faith that has not yet reached the level of maturity that is essential for it.
According to the letter to the Hebrews, faith is necessary for salvation:
“without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb 11:6); conviction is
rooted in the medieval understanding of faith.[79]
While a mere desire to believe the truth (fides informis) does not
establish communion with Christ, loving faith (fides caritate formata)
results in rootedness in the participation in the salvific and blessed reality
of God. In other words, there can be a form of faith that is not internally
shaped by a personal relationship with Christ. In that sense it is considered
informis: it is not informed in its configuration by the love of Christ, as
a response to His love. There is also a kind of faith that is molded by a
personal and loving relationship with Christ. That is why it is called
caritate formata: configured by the charity that is inherent in the truth of
the relationship that faith seeks to express.
63. Following this distinction, it must be established that loving faith is indeed
the beginning of eternal life.[80]
The personal act of believing (actus credendi) and the virtue of faith (virtus
fidei) are the only things that make the salvific event effective in
the believer. Now, the act of faith is not possible without the affirmation of
that reality which makes it possible. This being so, however, the reception of
every sacrament does not presuppose a faith formed by charity, as is
particularly emphasized in the sacrament of penance. In the opinion of Thomas
Aquinas, neither baptism nor marriage requires the same level of faith imbued
with love as the Eucharist does. The fruitful reception of Holy Communion
presupposes not only faith in the real presence of Christ in the sacramental
species, but also the will to maintain the bond of union with Christ and with
His members (cf. §120).
64. Because supernatural love (caritas) is an immediate effect of grace, the
presence of a “fides caritate formata” cannot be ascertained based on human
criteria. Consequently, no one can know for sure whether the faith of another
person, or even one’s own faith, possesses this quality. This can only be
inferred from certain indications or effects.[81]
Therefore, one can in no way claim to make a judgment about how a person
presents himself before God or seek to confirm or deny another person’s belief
as a supernatural gift of grace. However, since the reception of a sacrament is
an ecclesial public act, the external and visible is decisive: that is, the
intention expressed, the confession of faith, and the fidelity to the baptismal
promise in life.
d) The Dialogical Character of the Sacraments
65. [Faith, Validity, and Fecundity]. The Council of Trent (DH 1608) used the
term “ex opera operato” to express the following. When a sacrament is
celebrated in an appropriate manner, in the name of the Church and in accordance
with the meaning given to it by the Church, it always conveys what it signifies.
This clarification does not imply a disregard for the participation of the one
who dispenses and receives the sacrament. On the contrary: he who dispenses a
sacrament must have the intention of doing what the Church does (DH 1611:
faciendi quod facit ecclesia). On the part of the recipient, a distinction
must be made between fruitful (fertile) and unfruitful (infecunda). The
term “opus operatum” is not directed against the participation of the
person administering the sacrament or of the person receiving it. It emphasizes
that neither the faith of the one who dispenses the sacrament nor the faith of
the one who receives it produces salvation, but only the sacramentally mediated
grace of the Redeemer. Thus, it is not that because the one who dispenses the
sacrament and the one who receives it believe in what they perform in the
sacrament, and then Christ acts through the sacrament for that reason. Rather,
it is true of the following: whenever a sacrament is celebrated in an
appropriate way, according to the meaning given to it by the Church, Christ
links its action to that of the Church.
66. In this sense, in contrast to the theology of the reformers, the Council of
Trent clearly affirmed the efficacy of the sacraments.[82]
However, an ecclesial practice that attends only to validity damages the
sacramental organism of the Church, because it reduces it to one of its
essential aspects. A valid sacrament transmits what technical terminology has
called “res et sacramentum,” as a constitutive part of the sacramental
action of grace. For example, in the case of baptism it would be the
“character.” However, the sacraments point to and obtain their full meaning in
the transmission of the “res,” of the grace proper to the sacrament. In
the case of baptism, it points to the grace of new life in Christ, which
includes the forgiveness of sins.
67. [Adequate Faith for the Sacraments and Intention]. As an essential
constituent, sacramental logic includes the free response, the acceptance of
God’s gift, in a word: faith—however incipient that faith may be, especially in
the case of baptism. The most recent theology has taken the world of meaning
that is proper to symbols and signs as a reference point to illuminate the
transmission of grace that takes place in the sacraments. This area lies in an
order very close to human language and interpersonal relations. Since the
sacraments are in the dialogical and relational realm of the believer with
Christ, this approach has its advantages. The meaning of symbols or signs is not
grasped if one does not participate in the world that the symbol in its
signification creates. Similarly, it is not possible to receive the effects of
sacramental grace (fruitfulness or fecundity) conveyed by sacramental signs
without entering into the world that these sacramental signs express. Faith is
the key that opens the door to that world which makes sacramental realities
truly become signs that signify and efficaciously cause divine grace.
68. The reception of the sacraments can be valid or invalid, fruitful or fruitless.
For an adequate disposition it is not enough to not externally or internally
contradict what the sacrament means. In other words, the recipient must believe
both in the content (fides quae) and existentially (fides qua)
that which Christ gives him sacramentally through the mediation of the Church.
There are varying degrees of conformity with the doctrine. What is decisive here
is that the recipient does not reject the Church’s teaching at all. There are
also degrees of intensity of faith. What is decisive here is the positive
disposition to receive what the sacrament signifies. Each fruitful reception of
a sacrament is a communicative act and thus part of the dialogue between Christ
and the individual believer.
69. While it is true that the doctrine regarding intention arose out of reflections
on the indispensable requirements of ministers who dispense the sacraments, the
intention stands at a crucial point. On the one hand, it completely preserves
the efficacy “ex opera operato,” that is: the efficacy of sacramental
actions is due wholly and exclusively to Christ and not to the faith of either
the recipient or the minister of the sacrament. But it also leaves intact the
dialogical character of the sacramental event, so that one does not fall into
either magic or sacramental automatism. The intention expresses the
indispensable minimum of voluntary personal participation in the gratuitous
event of the sacramental transmission of saving grace.
70. The sacramental symbols and symbolic actions, performed through water, oil,
bread, wine, and other visible and external factors, invite each believer to
open their “inner eye of faith”[83]
and see the salvific effects of each sacrament. These symbolic actions, carried
out with these material elements, are in fact in the service of performing an
action of Christ, the Savior. What happens in the administration of the
sacraments is rooted in what happened in the actions of Christ the Savior in His
earthly life, such as in healings. Many believed in Christ (Ur-Sakrament)
and thus attained sanctification, including the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well
(Jn 4:28–29; 30); Zacchaeus, when he received Jesus into his house (Lk 19:8–10);
the Syrophoenecian woman, who obtained healing for her daughter by an unshakable
faith (Mk 7:24–30), and so on. These symbolic, “sacramental” actions of Jesus,
carried out with material elements, were in service of the intensification of
faith in the beneficiaries and of sanctification, thanks to the inner
faith-vision. The strengthened faith must be translated into a believing
confession through the Christian witness of life in the world.
71. [Dialogical Character]. The liturgical celebration of the sacraments
describes not only God’s katabatic (descending) salvific action, but also, and
inseparably from the former, the anabatic (ascending) movement of the recipient,
beginning with the “amen” response to gestures, such as the extension of the
hands in the reception of communion. All the sacraments are communicative
actions, inscribed in the salvific economy: of the historical unfolding of God’s
desire to enter into a personal relationship with human beings. Thus, the
character of being a covenant which marks and accompanies the whole
history of salvation is reflected in the sacraments. Where the dialogical
character of the sacrament diminishes, misunderstandings of a magical nature
(ritualism), and those centered on individual salvation (subjectivist
privatization), arise.
e) The Sacramental Organism
72. [The Sacramental Organism]. The sacramental organism of the Church,[84]
shaped through an evolution spanning centuries, attends to the key circumstances
of the life of the individual person and of the community in order to strengthen
Christians in their faith, to incorporate them more vividly into the mystery of
Christ and of the Church, accompanying and strengthening them throughout the
whole journey of their life of faith. Not only does it gather rich moments of
the unfolding of the mystery of Christ in His earthly life, but by making these
moments sacramentally present, it ensures that His work is continued. In this
way, the original sacramentality of Christ, through the sacramental celebrations
of the Church, reaches out to the individual believer and makes Him the living
sacrament of Christ. Thanks to water, bread, wine, oil, and sacramental words,
which contain a meaning of direct reference to Christ and make it a reality, the
believer is fully incorporated in this reality and is configured by it, provided
that he accepts these signs with the proper dispositions.
73. [Sacraments of Initiation]. The sacraments of initiation, located at the
beginning of the journey, incorporate the believer fully into Christ and into
the ecclesial community, enabling him—by grace—to in a way be the sacrament of
Christ with his life. Thus, baptism is the gateway. Being immersed in the waters
and coming out of them expresses participation in Christ’s death and
resurrection, becoming part of His Body and being conformed to Him, becoming a
living and active member of Christ’s Church (cf. infra Chapter 3.1).
Confirmation, with the reception of the chrism, implies a further step in this
same direction. The anointing with the chrism, in parallel with the anointing of
Christ, empowers the Christian by the gift of the Spirit to witness to the faith
by assuming this responsibility in the Christian community with a more
missionary and ecclesial faith (cf. infra Chapter 3.2). Through the
Eucharist (the sacrament of the Body of Christ), incorporation, communion, and
full participation in the Body of Christ is expressed in every sense:
Christological, sacramental, and ecclesial (cf. infra Chapter 3.3). At
the end of initiation, the Christian is already a member of Christ and His
Church, having received all the ordinary means of christification, which enable
him to lead a Christian life and to bear true witness.
74. [Sacraments of Healing]. Those who receive the sacraments of initiation
do not always behave with full fidelity and integrity with respect to what is
signified in them. For this reason, there are also sacraments called sacraments
of healing, which bear in mind our fragility and sin. With penance, upon
receiving the welcome of the minister (who represents Christ and the Church and
pronounces in the name of Christ and the Church the words of absolution), not
only does reconciliation with God take place, after having denied Him with one’s
own life, but also with the ecclesial body which proclaims the goodness of God
in Jesus Christ as a community of the forgiven. Thus, thanks to penance, the
Christian can once again set his journey of faith back on course. Since the
Eucharist is the sacrament of the Body of Christ par excellence, full
participation in it is meaningless for those who, having seriously damaged what
incorporation into this Body means, have not received the gift of forgiveness
which reconciles one to God and joyfully reintegrates one into community
membership.
75. The Anointing of the Sick is celebrated in a state of frailty, such as in
illness. Christ’s chrism, healing ointment and fragrance, expresses the Lord’s
strength to save the whole person and bring him to His glory, even though there
would have been serious failures (sins) of incoherence with the life of faith,
expressly including forgiveness (cf. Jas 5:14–15). Thus, it is testified that
even sickness can be an occasion for the manifestation of the glory of God (Jn
11:4); and that, in sickness, in life, and in death we are of the Lord (Rom
14:8–9) by sharing with Him His passion and sufferings on the way to glory. In
this way, both sin and sickness become an occasion to grow in union with the
Lord and to witness that His mercy is stronger than our frailty.
76. [Sacraments in the Service of Communion]. Other sacraments look more
directly at the service of communion. The community requires a structure and
governance that reflects its sacramental reality. That is why ordained ministers
represent Christ the Head and configure themselves expressly to Him through the
exercise of pastoral charity. Thus, Christ remains present in His Church not
only as the gift that begot her, but also sacramentally as the one who
continually gives Himself to her, unceasingly begetting her anew. Furthermore,
from another perspective and as members of the Church, ordained ministers also
represent the Church, especially in their liturgical prayer, praising God and
beseeching His grace on behalf of all. Thus, Christ the Shepherd and Head
continues to edify His Body in history. The whole Church recognizes in the
ordained ministry, again and again, how it is due to the gift of the Lord, in
His Word and in His sacraments, while ordained ministers are to conform their
life to Christ to be pastors after His own heart.
77. Those who have been born again of water and the Spirit also exercise their
common priesthood (cf. LG 10), which is inseparable from the life of faith, in
the love they profess to each other as spouses. The love publicly professed by
husband and wife is a sacred bond with which they make Christ’s love for us His
Church historically visible and present in the world. In this way and thanks to
marriage, the Christian community grows, and children are begotten. They are the
fruit of love who, by breathing faith in the family, increase the number of
members of the Body of Christ. Thus, the family becomes the domestic Church, the
preponderant place for the reception, expression, and living of faith (cf.
infra Chapter 4).
f) Faith and the Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy
78. This joint review of faith and the sacraments in the sacramental economy has
shown us several aspects that are of vital importance for our topic.
a) In the divine economy everything starts from the salvific revelation of the
Trinitarian God. This economy reaches its apex when the Father reveals His Son
through the Pasch of the Son and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. These
salvific mysteries are perpetuated in history through the Church and the
sacraments thanks to the action of the Spirit.
b) This revelation and communication of God has a sacramental character: invisible
grace is transmitted through visible signs. The sacramental character of
revelation is perceived through faith.
c) Faith is a personal relationship with the Trinitarian God, through which one
responds to His grace and His sacramental revelation. Therefore, faith is
essential and constitutively dialogical. It is also a dynamic reality that
accompanies the believer through his or her whole life. Like any relationship,
it can grow and become stronger, but also the opposite: it can weaken and may
even be lost. At the same time, it has a personal and ecclesial imprint. Since
the personal relationship with the Trinitarian God is already lived with faith,
faith leads to salvation and eternal life.
d) God’s salvific action, the economy, extends beyond the visible confines of the
Church. This factor would seem to deny the sacramental character of the salvific
economy. However, a careful consideration of the way salvation works in such
cases shows that God’s salvific action, welcomed by an implicit faith, is not
done outside the sacramentality of the divine economy, but precisely because of
it.[85]
e) Under different forms and aspects, the celebration of the sacraments must always
be accompanied by faith in its various aspects: a personal faith, which, in its
dynamism towards God, participates in the faith of the Church and adheres to it
through the desired ecclesial belonging or, at the very least, makes its own the
specific ecclesial intention inherent in sacramental celebrations. In this way,
the sacramental celebration never falls into a sacramental automatism.
f) In its very essence, faith itself has a natural tendency to express itself and
nourish itself sacramentally, precisely because of the sacramental structure of
the economy that gives rise to it. Not only should faith in the saving grace of
Jesus Christ (Ur-Sakrament) not be opposed to its historical permanence
in space and time thanks to the Church (Grundsakrament), but it should
not even be considered different.
2.3. CONCLUSION: Dynamisms of Faith and Sacramentality
79. Finally, we can conclude with a series of outstanding dynamisms that have
emerged from this consideration of the dialogical character of the sacramental
economy:
a) Faith constitutes the dialogical response to the sacramental exchange of the
Trinitarian God. This factor seals the reciprocity between faith and the
sacraments. In the believer’s journey, faith is modulated and expressed in the
various situations of his life, accompanied by the various sacraments that the
Church offers for Christian life throughout the earthly pilgrimage.
b) By its own constitution, the Christian faith is sacramental. For this reason,
there is a connaturality between faith and sacramentality. One of the
fundamental dynamisms of faith consists, then, in its sacramental expression, as
a way of nourishing, strengthening, enriching, and manifesting itself.
c) In the sacramental expression of faith, both the personal (subjective) and the
ecclesial (objective) dimensions of faith come into play. In its dynamism of
growth, personal faith adheres more intensely and is identified more with the
faith of the Church. Reciprocity between faith and the sacraments excludes the
possibility of a sacramental celebration that is totally detached from the faith
of the Church (intention).
d) The sacramentality proper to faith always entails a missionary dynamism because
it actively involves the believer in the dynamics of the divine economy,
endowing him with a certain leading role, for which divine grace provides. Those
who receive a sacrament intensify their christification thanks to the Spirit,
reaffirm their ecclesial incorporation, and perform a liturgical act of praise
to God, who distributes His goods to us through the sacraments. From this
standpoint, it is understood, for example, that those who receive baptism
are—first and foremost—gratuitously graced: they are configured to the paschal
mystery of Christ. But at the same time, they are called to bear witness to the
gift received through a life of praise that springs from the faith of the
Church. No one receives the sacraments exclusively for himself, but also to
represent and strengthen the Church, which, as a means and instrument of Christ
(cf. LG 1), must be a credible witness and an effective sign of hope against all
hope, witnessing for the world the salvation of Christ, God’s sacrament par
excellence. Thus, through the celebration of the sacraments and the proper
living of them, the Body of Christ is strengthened.
3. Reciprocity of Faith and the Sacraments in Christian Initiation
80. [Introduction]. Now that we have seen the essential reciprocity that
prevails between faith and the sacraments on a general twofold level, from the
standpoint of sacramental economy and from that of faith and the sacraments, we
shall now consider its implications for the sacraments of Christian initiation.
It is therefore a matter of applying the notions and points of view gained in order to make them bear fruit in each of the three sacraments of
initiation. Each sacrament has its own specificity, which is to be respected.
However, in order to systematize the treatment of the main question, we proceed according to five articulated steps, with exceptions adapted to each sacrament. These steps are: (1) the principal biblical foundation; (2) the correlation
between the said sacrament and the appropriate faith for the celebration thereof; (3) the problems that arise today
around this correlation; (4) the illumination starting from the distinguished
and chosen moments of the Tradition; and, in the light of the preceding reflection on the place of faith in the
celebration of the sacrament, (5) a theological proposal ordered to pastoral
care about the faith necessary for the celebration of each sacrament. Due to the
differential problem of baptism of adults and children, this scheme is adapted
to each case. We start from the baptism of adults and complete the treatment
with the specific elements of the baptism of children. We presuppose a more
complete theology of each sacrament. We simply collect some essential elements to articulate a meaningful response to the question of the reciprocity
between faith and sacrament in each of the sacraments of initiation.
3.1. The Reciprocity between Faith and Baptism
a) Biblical Foundation
81. After the great kerygmatic preaching on the day of Pentecost, the listeners were
“cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles: ‘What are we to do, my brothers?’
Peter [said] to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit’. […] Those who accepted his message were baptized” (Acts
2:37–38, 41). Conversion, the human response to the proclamation of the Gospel,
seems inseparable from the sacramental rite of baptism, which is linked to
several fundamental aspects of Christian life: the remission of sins, the gift
of the Spirit, and belonging to the community (cf. 1 Cor 1:11–16). Through
baptism, the believer participates in the paschal mystery of Christ (cf. Rom
6:1–11), anticipated by Christ in his own baptism and fulfilled in his passion
and resurrection (cf. Mk 10:38; Lk 12:50); the believer is clothed in Christ, is
configured to Him, and he comes to be in Christ and with Christ. Thus, we become adopted children and new creatures. The
apostle Paul also understands that with baptism:
Christians have been entrusted to a “standard of teaching” (týpos didachés),
which they now obey from the heart (cf. Rom 6:17). In baptism we receive both a
teaching to be professed and a specific way of life which demands the engagement
of the whole person and sets us on the path to goodness. Those who are baptized
are set in a new context, entrusted to a new environment, a new and shared way
of acting, in the Church.[86]
One is also incorporated into the Church, the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:13).
Through baptism, one receives the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5), forgiveness
of sins (Col 2:12–13), justification. In this way, the newly baptized, the new
creature, by this new birth (Jn 3:3, 5) belongs to Christ and to the Church, is
able to live the Christian life, witnessing to it with a new life.
b) Faith and Adult Baptism
82. Baptism is the sacrament of faith par excellence. Mark 16:16 already links faith
and baptism: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” In addition, the
baptismal mandate with which Matthew’s Gospel ends (28:19) contains a baptismal
formula, in which the Church has recognized the synthesis of her Trinitarian
faith. Moreover, the rite of baptism clearly reflects the importance of faith.
In the current rite of acceptance into the catechumenate, the catechumen asks
the Church for “the faith” that gives “eternal life.”[87] In the ancient Church, the rite of triple immersion was accompanied by
responses to an interrogative creed.[88] Today, the renunciations and profession of faith are an integral part of
the rite. The ritual celebration itself, with its scrutinies, highlights the
dialogical character of the event: the public proclamation of the faith of the
catechumen, previously tested during the catechumenate in its various phases,
and the reception of the baptism conferred by an ecclesial minister. The
scrutinies themselves carry out the function of ensuring adherence to the
Church’s faith on the part of the one being baptized, beyond the previous demonstrations of knowledge of doctrine,
conformity to moral demands, and the practice of prayer during the
catechumenate. Since a sacrament is a gift from God, no one administers it to
himself. Just as faith is received through preaching and listening to the Word,
so too the sacraments are part of this logic of receiving the gift of God.
83. The Christian thus configured to Christ continues his pilgrimage in faith,
receiving the Holy Spirit on other occasions in the celebration of the other
sacraments and other sacramentals. Two analogies illuminate this reality: the
infusion of the “breath of life” by God upon Adam (Gn 2:7); and most
importantly, the whole public ministry of Jesus, marked by the reception of the
Spirit sent by the Father. The Spirit was the one with whom he was anointed in
baptism (Mk 1:10 and parallel passages), the one who led him into the desert (Mk
1:12 and parallel passages), and the one with whom he proclaimed to be anointed
in the synagogue of Nazareth (Lk 4:16–21); the Spirit was the one through whom
he expelled demons (Mt 12:28), and the one whom he exhaled on the cross (Mt
27:50; Lk 23:46).His entire mission can be described as a baptism, with
reference to Easter (cf. Lk 12:50). In this way, the life of the Christian is
understood as a progressive unfolding of what the initial gift of the Spirit in
baptism sets in motion, up to the consummation of one’s own life, giving it to
the Father, as Jesus has done.
c) Pastoral Proposal: Faith for Adult Baptism
84. With baptism—the sacrament of new birth and new life in Christ[89]—one embarks on a journey, becomes part of the Church, and enters into the
sacramental economy. In the ancient Church, this change of life was expressed
visibly and bodily, with the baptized turning from the West, where one looked
during the renunciations, towards the East, during the profession of faith.
There has always been a call for preparation through the catechumenate or other
forms of instruction, but there has also been much awareness of the initiating
character of the baptismal faith. For this reason, the previous catechumenal
process must have been followed seriously and assiduously, with the catechumen
making a responsible proclamation of his adherence to the Trinitarian faith he
received, the desire to grow in knowledge of it, and the desire to progress in
conforming his life to it, thanks to the gift of baptismal grace. Since baptism
is the port of entry, the faith required for baptism need not be perfect, but incipient and accompanied with a desire for growth.
85. Just as the catechumenate is understood as a part of initiation, baptism likewise does not consist of a rite that is closed in on itself, but rather its internal dynamic requires a dynamic manifestation of life as a baptized person. Nor has the understanding of the faith been closed, despite the
equivalence between the faith that is celebrated in the rite and the faith that
is believed.[90] Post-baptismal catechesis corresponds to this, in a certain sense as a
further phase of instruction specifically dedicated to the sacrament. The
practice of the ancient Church reflects the conviction that the true
understanding of the “mysteria” occurs after its reception.[91] In any case, it was not assumed that the understanding happened by itself,
but that neophytes were introduced to the sacraments through mystagogical
catechesis.
86. [Insights from the Tradition].Cyril of Jerusalem insistently tells of the
conversion of the heart and warns: “If your intention remains wrong (…) then you
will receive the water, but not the Holy Spirit.”[92] He does not explicitly demand the strength of faith in the sense of an
extraordinary force capable of moving mountains, but believing adherence to the
ecclesial proclamation: “You need faith, which depends on you, faith in God, so
that you may receive the faith that God grants and works superhuman things.”[93] Faith can and must grow; the willingness to grow in faith is part of the
very decision to be.[94]
87. When the classical catechumenate, with its seriousness and its various stages,
was gradually disappearing during the Constantinian shift, the Church adapted to
a new circumstance: society became predominantly Christian. In this situation,
general socialization included a certain religious socialization, which was at
least comparatively greater than in the previous epoch. However, the Church maintained the necessity of an ecclesial figure of the faith (godparents); and of a minimum prior instruction, which allowed a responsible and conscious personal adherence. The case of the
Americas is instructive. In spite of the existence of different tendencies and
of the fact that in the theology of the time salvation was closely linked to
baptism, the opinion that best safeguarded the dignity of the indigenous people and the dialogical character of the sacraments ultimately prevailed.[95] Along these lines, the Dominican, Francisco de Vitoria, together with
other theologians, wrote a report on the question of the adequate preparation of
the Christians of the new continent, in the midst of an enormous shortage of
priests, on whom the burden of catechesis fell: '
They are not to be baptized before they have been sufficiently instructed not only in the faith, but
also in Christian mores, at least insofar as it is necessary for salvation. They
are not to be baptized before it is plausible that they understand what they are
receiving or before they respond and confess in baptism and wish to live and
persevere in the faith and Christian religion.[96]
88. [Pastoral Proposal]. The Church is always eager to celebrate baptism. It
involves the joy that new believers are receiving justification, are
incorporated into Christ, recognize Him as their Savior, configure their life
with Him, become part of the Church, and witness to the new life in the Spirit,
with which they have been graced and enlightened. However, in the complete
absence of personal faith, the sacramental rite loses its meaning. While
validity is based on the administration of the sacrament by the minister with
the appropriate intention (cf. §§ 65–70), without a minimum of faith on the part
of the baptized, the essential reciprocity between faith and the sacraments
fades away. Without faith that visible signs (sacramentum tantum)
transmit invisible grace (e.g. immersion in water as a transition from death to
life), these signs do not transmit the invisible reality signified (res
sacramenti): forgiveness of sins, justification, rebirth in Christ through
the Spirit, and entry into filial life. In this case, baptism becomes a mere
social convention or is imbued with pagan elements.
89. This minimum of faith seems indispensable for those who receive the sacrament to
minimum of faith seems indispensable for those who receive the sacrament to begin to possess the intention of carrying out what the Church believes. Some of the elements of this minimum of faith can be deduced from the very
dynamic of the sacramental celebration[97]: the Trinitarian faith, with the invocation of the Three Divine Persons over
the neophyte; the conviction of being reborn in Christ, symbolized by immersion
in the waters, as waters of life;[98] the birth to a new life, signified by the clothing with the white garment;
and the confidence of receiving the light of Christ and the desire to witness to
it, represented by the reception of the light of the paschal candle.
90. Therefore, fidelity to the doctrine of the Church, charity, and pastoral
prudence, together with creativity in welcoming and in the selection of
catechumenal itineraries, are required. Failure to defend sufficiently what the sacrament is and means, out of fear of the minimum requirements, does greater damage to the sacramentality of the faith and of the Church. It is detrimental to the integrity and coherence of the very faith that it
is intended to safeguard. The faith of the recipient is certainly not the cause
of the grace at work in the sacrament, but it is part of the adequate disposition that is necessary for the efficacy of the sacrament, so that it may be fruitful. Without any kind of faith, it seems difficult to affirm that the indispensable
minimum is maintained with respect to the disposition, which includes, at the
very least, not putting any obstacles in the way.[99] In this sense, without a modicum of faith, the gift of God which makes the
baptized person the living “sacrament” of Christ, a letter from Christ (cf. 2
Cor 3:3), he fails to produce the fruit that is proper to it. On the other hand,
those who confess Christ as their Lord and Savior will not hesitate to associate
themselves as intimately as possible, sacramentally, with the central nucleus of
Christ’s saving mystery: Easter.
d) Faith and Baptism of Children
91. The baptism of infants has been attested since ancient times.[100] It is justified on the basis of parents’ desire for their children to
participate in sacramental grace, to be incorporated into Christ and the Church,
and to become members of the community of God’s children just as they are
members of the family, since baptism is an effective means of salvation, of
forgiving sins, beginning with original sin, and of transmitting grace. The
infant does not knowingly seal his or her membership in his or her natural
family, nor is he or she proud of it. If socialization follows its ordinary
course, he will do so as a youth and as an adult, with gratitude. With the
baptism of infants, it is emphasized that the faith in which we are baptized is
the ecclesial faith, that our growth in faith takes place thanks to our
integration into the communal “we.”[101] The celebration solemnly initiates it after the profession of faith: “This
is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it.”[102] On this occasion, the parents act as representatives of the Church, which
welcomes these children into her bosom.[103] For this reason, the baptism of children is justified by the
responsibility of educating them in the faith, which the parents and godparents
assume, parallel to the responsibility of educating them in all other areas of
life.
e) Pastoral Recommendation: Faith for the Baptism of Children
92. Many families live the faith and explicitly and implicitly pass it on to their
children, whom they educate in the faith having baptized them shortly after
birth, following an ancestral Christian custom. There are, however, several
problems. In some places, the number of baptisms is decreasing drastically. In
countries with a Christian tradition, it is not unusual for children preparing
for first communion to discover at that time that they are not baptized. Very
often, parents request baptism for their children out of social convention or
because of family pressure, without participating in the life of the Church and
leaving serious doubts about their intention and ability to provide a future
education in the faith for their children.
93. [Insights from the Tradition]. The Church has consistently defended the
legitimacy of infant baptism, despite the criticisms that this practice has
received since ancient times. We are told of baptisms of entire families in
early times (cf. Acts 16:15, 33). The tradition of infant baptism is very old.
It is already witnessed by the Apostolic Tradition.[104]
A synod of Carthage, from the year 252, defends it.[105]
Tertullian’s well-known challenge to the baptism of infants only makes sense if
it was a widespread custom.[106]
This practice has always been accompanied by a significant ecclesial figure
close to the children (parents, godparents), who committed to provide education
in the faith along with the ordinary education of the children. Moreover, to the
extent that infant baptism became the most common practice, the need for a
post-baptismal catechesis to instruct the baptized in the faith, and thus
contribute to avoiding (as much as possible) their total estrangement or
distancing from the faith, was accentuated.[107]
Without this representative figure of the ecclesial faith, baptism, a sacrament
of faith with a marked dialogical character, would be missing one of its
essential components.
94. [Pastoral Recommendation]. In the case of children, there must be a hope
based on education in the faith, thanks to the faith of the adults who assume
this responsibility. Without any hope for a future education in the faith, the
minimum conditions for a meaningful reception of baptism are not met.[108]
3.2. The Reciprocity between Faith and Confirmation
a) The Biblical and Historical Foundation
95. [The Biblical Foundation]. Like baptism, the sacrament of
confirmation also finds its foundation in Scripture. The Spirit, as we have
said, plays a crucial role in the life and mission of Jesus and occupies a
prominent place in Christian life. The disciples are to be clothed with the
“power from on high” (Lk 24:46–49; Acts 1:4–5, 8) before they become witnesses
to the Risen One. According to Acts, the Spirit descended on the disciples (Acts
2:1–11) and on many others, including the Gentiles (Acts 10:45), who thus
proclaimed and witnessed to Christ and the Gospel (Acts 2:43; 5:12; 6:8; 14:3;
15:12; cf. Romans 15:13). The promised Paraclete (Jn 14:16; 15:26; 16:7) helps
the disciples progress in their life of faith and bear witness to it before the
world. Some passages distinguish the reception of baptism from a subsequent
outpouring of the Spirit, linked to the intervention of the apostles through the
laying of hands on Christians who are already living their faith (cf. Acts
8:14–17; 19:5–6; Heb 6:2). Just as we can differentiate the moment of Easter
from Pentecost, so also in the life of the Christian who is incorporated in the
sacramental economy there are two distinct and interconnected moments: baptism,
which accentuates the Easter configuration; and confirmation, which refers more
directly to Pentecost, with the reception of the Spirit, and to full
incorporation into the ecclesial mission. In the Christian initiation of adults
both aspects take place in a single joint celebration.
96. [The Historical Foundation]. Since ancient times, a series of
post-baptismal rites have been recognized, which are not always clearly
distinguished from baptism itself. Such post-baptismal rites include the laying
on of hands; the anointing with the oil of chrism; and the signing with the sign
of the cross.[109] The Church has
always maintained that these post-baptismal rites were part of full Christian
initiation. With the passing of history and the growing number of Christians,
the East maintained the consecutive unity of baptism, chrismation, and first
Eucharist, given by the priest, although only the bishop is responsible for the
blessing of oil. In the West, however, the anointing with the oil of chrism was
reserved for the bishop,[110] and
for centuries (until an intervention by Pius X in 1910[111])
this took place during the bishop’s visit, before First Communion. The
difference and temporal distance between baptism and confirmation is recognized
as early as the beginning of the fourth century, in the Council of Elvira (ca.
302).[112]
b) Faith and Confirmation
97. In the ritual of Confirmation, the renunciations are renewed, and the profession
of baptismal faith is repeated. This marks its continuity with baptism as well
as the need for the precedence of the latter. The uniqueness of Confirmation
resides in a double element related to faith. In the first place, a fuller
adherence to and a “special strength” of the Holy Spirit (LG 11), as the same
rite points out: “N., by this sign receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.”[113]
Secondly, Confirmation implies a “closer bond with the Church” (LG 11). Thus,
the ecclesial nature of faith is reaffirmed. Consequently, baptismal faith is
strengthened in several dimensions: it is a faith more disposed to the public
witness of the ecclesial faith; it is a faith with greater vigor and ecclesial
identification; it is a more active faith, insofar as it is more conformed by
the gift of the Spirit, after the first baptismal reception of the Spirit. These
aspects denote a maturing of faith with respect to the initial faith required
for baptism. Without these dispositions of faith, the sacrament is in danger of
remaining in an empty rite.
98. The presence of the bishop, the “original” minister of Confirmation (LG 26),
emphatically expresses the ecclesial character of Confirmation. Union with the
Church is added to the union with the Holy Spirit. Participation in Confirmation
is the sign and means of ecclesial communion. Confirmation celebrated by the
local bishop promotes spiritual unity between the bishop and the local Church.
The confirmed person is incorporated into the Church, contributing to the
building of the body of Christ (cf. Eph 4:12; 1 Cor 12). In addition,
Confirmation strengthens his or her Christian life, which began with baptism.
Through the new gift of the Spirit, he or she is better prepared to be a living
witness of the faith received, as happened with the early Christians at
Pentecost.
c) Current Problems
99. The present location of the sacrament of Confirmation in the West is due more to
historical and pastoral circumstances than to properly theological reasons or
reasons derived from the specific nature of the sacrament. In the Christian
initiation of adults, the original and more theologically consistent pattern is
maintained: Baptism, Confirmation, and then the Eucharist. Although the
sacrament of Confirmation offers the possibility of continuing instruction in
the faith, incorporation into the Church and the personalization of the decision
that the parents and godparents once made for the child, it cannot be expected
to resolve the difficulties of youth ministry or the disaffection of young
people who were once baptized with respect to the ecclesial institution and the
faith. Despite praiseworthy efforts and the fact that at times it supposes a
more mature rediscovery of the faith with the passage to a more conscious and
adult active belonging, on more than a few occasions young people experience the
celebration of Confirmation as if it were a school graduation: once they have
their diploma, there is no need to go back to the classroom. Others simply think
of Confirmation as a condition for further steps, such as marriage, without
grasping what is proper to this sacrament, which has eroded in the feelings of
many faithful.
d) Pastoral Recommendation: Faith for Confirmation
100. The importance of baptism has been steadfastly maintained, as has its
theological profile. The postponement of Confirmation, where it is deferred for
a long time—or even not administered at all—has made it difficult to appreciate
its place in Christian initiation as a sacrament of the Spirit and of the
Church, both fundamental elements in Christian initiation. A missionary Church
is made up of confirmed Christians who, in the power of the Spirit, assume full
responsibility for their faith. A Christian logically wants to be the sacrament
of Christ. That is why he is fully incorporated into the Church and asks for the
gift of the Spirit through the Chrism and the laying on of hands, if it was not
received together with baptism. Just as Christ received the anointing of the
Spirit as He came out of the waters, so the Christian who is configured to
Christ also accomplishes his journey of faith in the Spirit, strengthened by
Confirmation.[114]
101. In adult Christian initiation, the faith required for Confirmation coincides
with the faith necessary for baptism. In the case of deferred reception of both
sacraments, baptismal faith will have matured in several dimensions. Progress
will have been made in the personal appropriation of the ecclesial faith and in
the sense of belonging. This implies a better knowledge, a greater capacity to
give an account of the ecclesial faith, and an adequate conformation of one’s
life to it. There will also be a path for a personal relationship with the
Trinitarian God, particularly through prayer. More decisively, faith will have
shaped the Christian’s biography, since he or she will have made a journey of
following Christ in the Church. Confirmation implies the desire and decision to
continue walking this path, to find, through the discernment made possible by
the Spirit, the proper way to follow Jesus and witness to Him. The key to this
is a deep personal relationship with the Lord gained through prayer, which leads
to witness, ecclesial belonging, and assiduous sacramental practice. Just as the
sacramental economy does not end with Easter, but includes Pentecost, so
Christian initiation does not end with baptism. If there was a phase of waiting
and preparation for the reception of the gift of the Spirit, presided over by
prayer (cf. Acts 1:14), so also the adequate catechesis for the reception of
Confirmation, without forgetting the other elements—both doctrinal and
moral—offers the opportunity for an intensification and personalization of the
Christian’s relationship with the Lord through prayer.
3.3. The Reciprocity between Faith and the Eucharist
a) Biblical Foundation
102. What happened at the Last Supper (Mt 26:26–29; Mk 14:22–26; Lk 22:14–23; 1 Cor
11:23–26) has always been considered the institution of the Eucharist. There are
also other events in which the Church has observed a Eucharistic tenor: the
multiplication of the loaves (Mk 6:30–44 and parallel passages; 8:1–10 and
parallel passages; Jn 6:1–14); Paul’s admonitions to the community of Corinth (1
Cor 10–11); or the episode that closes the meeting of Emmaus with the Risen One
(Lk 24:30–31, 35). Following the force of the command “do this in memory of me”
(1 Cor 11:24, cf. 25; Lk 22:19) from the beginning (e.g. Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7;
27:35) to the present day, wherever there are Christians and the Church, the
Eucharist is celebrated, as the memorial of the Passion and Resurrection of the
Lord until He returns, His saving gift for “many,” for all (cf. Rom 5:18–19;
8:32).
103. At the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus condenses the meaning of His whole life, His
impending death, and His future resurrection, so that He may hand it down to His
disciples as a memorial and an eminent sign of His love. For this reason, what
happened there and the sacramental remembrance of His Passion and Resurrection
display an extraordinary richness. In the Eucharist, the Church celebrates the
actualization and making present of Christ’s gift of His sacrifice for all of us
to the Father. In the Eucharist, thanksgiving to the Father “through Christ,
with Him and in Him”[115] made
present by the action of the Spirit, the Church unites herself to Christ,
associates herself with Him, and becomes His Body. For this reason, it has been
possible to affirm with truth that the Church is born of the Eucharist.[116]
Since the Eucharist contains the very essence of the life of Christ and,
therefore, of the Christian life, it is both the source and the summit of the
Christian life (LG 11; SC 10).
b) Faith and the Eucharist
104. [Trinitarian Faith]. Every Eucharist begins “in the name of the Father
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”: with a reminder of the baptismal
formula and of the Trinitarian Creed which runs through and permeates the whole
celebration. “The first element of Eucharistic faith is the mystery of God
himself, Trinitarian love.”[117]
For in the Eucharist, we enter into communion of life with the love of the
Trinitarian God. As the greatest sign of His love, the Father gave His Son for
our salvation, who in turn offered himself “through the eternal Spirit” (Heb
9:14). In the Eucharist, we are made partakers of this loving flow, inherent in
the divine intimacy. To the Trinitarian God, we present the best possible praise
through Christ in the unity of the Spirit, as solemnly proclaimed by the
doxology with which the Eucharistic prayer culminates. Thanksgiving to the
Father through the Son given for us and through the gift of the Spirit is sealed
with the praise which involves personal witness in ordinary life.
105. [The Unity of Faith and Charity]. The penitential act, situated at
the beginning of the Eucharistic celebration, manifests the need of every
sincere believer to receive the forgiveness of sins, to be reconciled with God
and with his brothers and sisters, so that he can enter into communion with God.
Furthermore, the penitential act highlights the inseparability between the
vertical communion with Christ, whose surrender will be remembered immediately (anamnesis),
and the horizontal communion with other Christians and, beyond that, with all
people. True Eucharistic faith is always an active faith through charity (cf.
Gal 5:6). In the Eucharist: “love of God and love of neighbor are truly united:
the incarnate God draws us all to Himself. We thus understand how agape
also became a term for the Eucharist: there God’s own agape comes to us
bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us.”[118]
106. [Faith as a Response to the Word of God]. Since the eleventh century, the
same creed that concludes the baptismal rite has been a fixed part of the
Eucharistic celebration on Sundays and solemnities. This confession of faith is
simultaneously a response to the Word of God and an expression of unity among
believers. Through faith in the proclamation of the Word, we hear the voice of
Christ.[119] The prophetic
dimension of faith also emerges. This Word is powerful: capable of transforming
the world, just as it happens in the heart of the Eucharistic celebration with
the gifts that are presented and the assembly that celebrates. Thus begins the
eschatological transformation of which the Church, the body of Christ, is a
harbinger.
107. [Pneumatic Dimension of Faith]. The pneumatic character of the sacraments
is seen clearly in the Eucharistic celebration. In the current Latin rite, there
is a double epiclesis. The first is over the gifts, which will be
transformed into the given body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. The second is
over the assembly, which in turn also becomes the body of Christ, entering into
living communion with all the saints. This communion is already seen in the
solemn song of the sanctus, in which the voices of heaven and earth unite
in common praise. Therefore, in the Eucharistic liturgy we take part in the
heavenly liturgy (cf. SC 8). Consequently, the pneumatic dimension of ecclesial
faith comes into play in a substantive way in the Eucharist and illuminates the
Spirit’s power to transform both the believer and the worldly reality, to
elevate them and lead them to divine communion and praise.
108. [Faith as Devotion to Mystery]. After the words of the consecration, the
celebrant proclaims: “Mysterium fidei”[120]
(the mystery of faith). This solemn acclamation is simultaneously an
affirmation, an announcement, and an invitation addressed to all. To such an
extent is the Eucharist a mystery of faith, and without faith it can neither be
understood nor celebrated. The acclamation manifests that the sacramental truth
of what is celebrated (that the species of bread and wine have become the Body
and Blood of Christ) is really a mystery of faith. Like the eyes of faith
perceived in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah of God, so those same eyes now
perceive the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ.[121]
The mystery of Christ is known through revelation (cf. 1 Cor 2:7–11; Col 1:
26–27; 2:2; Eph 1:9; 3:3, 9).
109. [Faith as Recognition of the Sacramental Economy]. In the recitation of
the solemn Eucharistic Prayer, the great milestones of the sacramental economy
are recalled in thanksgiving and in supplication: from creation to final
eschatological consummation. In particular, we remember the gift of the Lord
Jesus on the Cross, His Resurrection, and the meaning that the Lord Himself gave
to his redemptive death in the context of the Last Supper. Faith in the divine
economy as a whole is educated and strengthened in the Eucharistic liturgy.
110. [The Eschatological Dimension of Faith]. The sacramental
celebration of the mystery brings together the past (the memory of what
happened), the present (the making present or the actualization of what
happened), and the future (which is anticipation of the final fullness that we
await).[122] The eschatological
novelty initiated by the Word through His incarnation, life, death, and
resurrection has already begun to be realized in the christification of the
assembly and of the world that takes place in the Eucharist.
111. [Faith and Communion with Christ]. Communion, as its name implies,
expresses an intimate union with Christ, through the Spirit, which is impossible
without faith. One cannot commune intimately with someone while ignoring them or
against one’s will. The faith that responds to the Eucharistic gifts with the
word “amen” is related to the disposition to not only receive the sacrament, but
to embody it. This communion with Christ brings about the personal
sanctification of the Christian, concomitant with the communion of life with
Christ. This sanctification necessarily implies a sending.
112. [The Missionary Character of Faith]. The final sending forth with
which the Eucharist ends, “Ite, missa est,”[123]
supposes a missionary return to ordinary life, to make the life received in the
sacrament present in it, and to become a Eucharist for the world in the likeness
of Christ and in his own way. In fact, not only does Jesus Christ offer himself
in the Eucharistic offering, but every believer who participates in the
Eucharist also offers himself together with Christ (cf. SC 48; LG 11; Rm 12:1).
The personal offering, as well as the acceptance of being sent and its
associated practice, cannot take place without faith. Everything that the
faithful Christian receives in the sacrament (the forgiveness of venial sins,
the renewal of baptism, the preaching of the Word, communion with Christ, and
transformation into the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit) implies a
strengthening that enables him now, as a Christianized person, to witness faith
in the world and to transform reality according to God’s plan. Thus, after the
event of the reception of the gift of the Father, by the gift of the Son
received in the Spirit, which takes place in every Eucharist, the Christian is
expressly sent on mission at the end of the celebration.
113. [Strengthening Personal Faith]. The faith of the believer is enriched and
strengthened by intimate communion with Christ. The ecclesial being of those who
participate in the Eucharist, their incorporation into the visible body of
Christ, is actualized and intensified. Incorporation into Christ is of such
caliber that Augustine says to the faithful: “If you are members of the body of
Christ, your mystery rests on the table of the Lord….be what you see, and
receive what you are.”[124] In
short, in faith we recognize that the Eucharist constitutes the most intense way
of Christ’s presence among us, since it is a real, corporal, and substantial
presence.[125] For this very
reason, full participation in the Eucharist from the standpoint of faith implies
maximum communion with Christ.
114. [Building the Ecclesial Body]. Not only is the individual faith of the
believer strengthened in the Eucharist, but the Church is generated in the
Eucharist[126]: Christ, who gives
Himself to her in sacrifice as to His beloved Spouse, constitutes her in His
body.[127] Communion among the
Churches, that is, the sharing of the same faith received, is expressed through
Eucharistic communion following a very ancient tradition. The Church herself is
the body of Christ, constituted as such by divine design, thanks to the
sacramental Trinitarian action. This body actualizes what it is when it
proclaims the faith received, sanctifies history, sings the praises of the
Trinity, and undertakes the mission to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed.
115. [The Eucharist: The Highest Expression of Sacramental Faith]. We can
therefore conclude by affirming that: “The sacramental character of faith finds
its highest expression in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a precious nourishment
for faith: an encounter with Christ truly present in the supreme act of his
love, the life-giving gift of Himself.”[128]
116. [The Necessity of Faith for Participation in the Eucharistic
Celebration]. Paul’s admonition to the Christians at Corinth is especially
instructive. He who is involved in idolatrous behavior cannot partake of the
Body or Blood of Christ (1 Cor 10:14–22). Communion with “the table of the Lord”
requires not only having been initiated into the Christian faith and being a
member of the Body of Christ, but also a coherence of life with what is meant
therein. In the same way, a conduct so inconsistent with the Christian faith as
divisiveness in the community and a notable lack of charity towards one’s
brethren (1 Cor 11:21) is incompatible with “[eating] the Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor
11:20). This requires us to discern whether we are living in a fundamental line
of conformity with what is being celebrated (1 Cor 11:29). In short, Eucharistic
participation requires a living faith, which is manifested through charity and
the abandonment of idols. Eucharistic praxis requires the exercise of charity as
well as doctrinal conformity and ecclesial incorporation.
117. The penitential institution of the ancient Church temporarily excluded from
Eucharistic communion (not from the Church) members of the faithful who had
publicly renounced their faith, or who had violated the Creed and the rules for
life prescribed by the Church. After a public confession, the sinner, converted
on occasion of public scandal, was expelled from Eucharistic communion for a
time (excommunication), to be received again solemnly after having completed his
penance (reconciliation). Thus, it became visible that penance was not only used
for the reconciliation of the sinner with Christ, but also for the purification
of the Church. The penitent understands himself as the stone of a Church that is
to be the light of the world. When this ceased to be so because of a public sin,
it became necessary in a certain way to remove it (excommunication), to “repair
it” it through penance and to put it back in place (reconciliation).[129]
Despite the change in the way penance is celebrated, which is no longer public,
the basic theology has not changed. Nowadays, however, this close relationship
between penance and the Eucharist has been obscured in many practicing
environments.
c) Current Problems
118. Many of those who consider themselves Catholics believe that regular Sunday
Eucharistic attendance is excessive. Others maintain the practice of frequent
communion or receiving communion every time they attend Mass, without ever going
to the sacrament of confession. More than a few take the Eucharist as a personal
devotion, freely available to them according to their own needs or feelings.
During great liturgical feasts, especially Christmas, Easter, or some great
local feasts, as well as in some unique celebrations (such as weddings and
funerals), there are some non-habitual faithful who come to participate in the
Eucharist, including reception of Holy Communion, without any qualms of
conscience; and then they disappear until the following year or the following
exceptional occasion. These practices, though theologically inconsistent,
reflect the persistent influx of the Christian faith in the life of people who
are non-practicing or distant. This remnant of Christian influence, albeit with
deviations, can serve as a starting point for a more conscious ecclesial
reintegration and offers the possibility of reviving a lifeless faith. However,
these practices also show, in their ambivalence, how in many ways there is a gap
between what the Church professes to be celebrated in the Eucharist, the
requirements for full participation in the Eucharist, the consequences it
entails in ordinary life, and what many believers are seeking in occasional or
sporadic celebrations of the Eucharist.
d) Insights from the Tradition
119. The conditions for the reception of the Eucharist have been established since
the earliest times. As we have said, Paul warns those who approach the
Eucharist: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and
drinks judgement upon himself” (1 Cor 11:29), highlighting certain indispensable
requirements. From the Gospel of John, it can be inferred that a reception of
the sacramental species without faith, that is, without Spirit, is of no avail,
because it requires faith (cf. Jn 6:63–69). Justin Martyr mentions the following
as necessary requirements: believe that the gifts are what they signify; the
recipient must be baptized, and must not deny the doctrine of Christ through his
life.[130] The recently quoted
Pauline exhortation resounds again in the Didache: “If anyone is a saint,
let him come; if anyone is not a saint, let him be converted!”,[131]
and in a similar way in the Apostolic Constitutions.[132]
It is reflected in the liturgical invitation “the holy to the saints”[133]
that was already commented on by Theodore of Mopsuestia. By “saints” he is
referring first of all to the baptized (as did Paul), that is, those who live
with the Church. This thinking is manifested both in the homilies of John
Chrysostom[134] and in Cyprian:
Communion with Christ cannot be dissociated from communion with the Church.[135]
The doctor of the Eucharist demands that his priests, if necessary, reject some
people.[136] Augustine, too,
warns just as clearly that sacramental food produces salvific effect and life
only when it is eaten “spiritually,” with faith in its invisible content and
with an upright conscience.[137]
That is to say, with a life that corresponds to the love of Christ and His
members.
120. Scholastic theology calls this disposition “fides formata,” a faith
shaped by love[138] (cf.§§
62–64). In this sense, St. Thomas Aquinas distinguishes the following: the
content of this sacrament can only be received in faith, since it is a
“sacrament of faith” (mysterium fidei).[139]
“Infidelity” (infidelitas) makes one unfit in eminent degree for the
reception of the sacrament, since unbelief “separates from the unity of the
Church”[140]; unity that the
Eucharist signifies. In certain circumstances, however, when one “wants to
receive what the Church gives,” then in that case one does receive the
sacrament, even if his faith is deficient in its contents.[141]
Someone who believes in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist but is not in a
state of grace receives the sacrament, but he commits a grave sin.[142]
St. Thomas argues that a lie has been perpetrated (falsitas): what the
sacrament expresses, the love that unites Christ with His faithful, does not
take place in the recipient.[143]
St. Thomas realizes that a fruitful participation in baptism and in the
Eucharist requires a different degree of disposition generated by faith
in each case. For baptism, the intention of receiving what the Church gives is
sufficient. In Holy Communion, however, it is necessary to understand the
sacrament as such and to believe.[144]
121. This interconnection between faith, love, and the reception of the Eucharist is
clearly perceived in the liturgical traditions, particularly in the East. For
example, in the convocation to the communion of the people, it says: “Draw near
with faith, charity and fear of God.”[145]
In the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and in that of St. Basil, the deacon, the
priest, and the people recite a confession of Christological faith expressed
before Christ, who is present in Body and Blood. It says: “I believe, Lord, and
confess that you are Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world
to save sinners. I also believe that this is your immaculate Body and this is
your Precious Blood.”[146] The
Syriac tradition, witnessed by Ephrem, understands that the promises linked to
the two trees of Eden (Gen 2:17; 3:2) are to be truly fulfilled. The initial
error of eating of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” produced a fall,
which had to be redressed. Eating from the “tree of life” becomes a reality in
Eucharistic communion with the Eucharistic offering of Christ on the tree that
is the Cross.[147] In the
Eucharistic celebration, the liturgy of the Word becomes a fruitful and
corrective eating of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” After that
righteous meal, all are invited to eat from the “tree of life” in Eucharistic
Communion.
e) Pastoral Recommendation: Faith for the Eucharist
122. Baptism is the beginning of a pilgrimage, the culmination of which can only be
reached at the Eschaton. That is why Christians receive the sacrament of
the Eucharist, the food for this journey, again and again. For this reason, the
Church has never ceased to gather to celebrate the mystery of the Passover, to
read in this context “what referred to Him in all the Scriptures” (Lk 24:27) and
to celebrate the banquet at which the self-giving of the crucified and risen
Savior is transmitted in the present to believers. However, one cannot
adequately receive the gift that is inherent in the existential sacrifice of
Christ if one is not willing to allow oneself to be existentially configured by
this gift in faith. Without faith, neither Pilate, the Roman soldiers, nor the
people understood how in Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross, God was reconciling
the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:19). Without faith one cannot perceive that He who
hung on the tree is the Son of God (Mk 15:39). The believing gaze sees not only
blood and water coming from the pierced side, but also the Church, founded on
baptism and the Eucharist (cf. Jn 19:34). The blood and water that flow from
there is the source and power of the Church.[148]
The Son of God truly becomes “Emmanuel” in every Christian through their
participation in the Body and Blood of Christ.[149]
123. [Sacramental Faith and the Eucharist]. Without sacramental faith,
participation in the Eucharist, especially—the reception of Holy Communion—is
meaningless. The Eucharist does not refer to an undifferentiated or generic
relationship with divinity. The sacramental faith that intervenes in the
celebration of the Eucharist is a Trinitarian faith. In the Eucharist we profess
a living relationship with the Trinitarian God. We thank the Father for the gift
of salvation we have received through the gift of His Son in the power of the
Spirit, which is now recalled and made present in the celebration.
124. Sacramental faith presupposes that such an action of the Trinity is recognized,
and that the Eucharistic banquet is perceived as an authentic anticipation of
the future eschatological banquet. The power of God is already breaking through,
transforming and sanctifying believers, making them fellow citizens with the
saints (Eph 2:19) and citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Heb 12:22; cf. Rev
21–22; Heb 11:13).
125. Sacramental faith is expressed, moreover, in the irrevocable self-binding of
Jesus Christ to the sacrament (ex opere operato) with the species of
bread and wine consecrated through the invocation of the Spirit in the
epiclesis. The result is that the recipient can not only hope, but he knows
in faith that at a certain moment he receives what the consecrated species
signify.
126. Sacramental faith also implies the sacramentalization of the recipient himself.
He not only receives a sacrament, he himself becomes in a certain sense a
“sacrament”: in the sense that an intense conformation to Christ has been
brought about by the action of the Spirit; and he now lives in close union with
Christ and the Church, which enables him to offer himself to God as a living and
spiritual sacrifice (cf. Rom 12:1) and to bear witness to the Christian life. In
other words, he is transformed into a living stone of the confessing community,
which Vatican II calls Christ’s means and instrument to bring all men to His
home.
127. [Sacramental Faith and Ecclesial Communion in the Eucharist]. From this
standpoint, the individual living out of personal faith cannot be separated from
the faith of the community celebrating the sacrament. There is unity and
continuity between what is celebrated (lex orandi) and what is lived (lex
vivendi), in the framework of which flows Christian life, personal prayer,
and sacramental celebration. Since the truth that Christians profess is a
person, Jesus Christ, it must also be represented personally by the apostles and
their successors. Each individual’s Eucharistic communion with Christ is to be
effected through the communion of faith with the Pope and the local bishop,
mentioned by name in each Eucharistic celebration. Those who receive Holy
Communion do not confess Christ alone, but also commune with the confession of
faith of the community in which he participates in the Eucharist.
128. Translated into other categories, this means a clear and conscious adherence to
the faith of the Church, which explicitly includes the following: the
Trinitarian faith embodied in the Creed; Christological faith centered around
the redemptive meaning of the death of Christ, the Son of God, the Lord, “for
many” and “for me,” and of the resurrection; pneumatological faith, particularly
active and present through the double epiclesis, which is fundamental for
the celebration; and faith in what the Eucharist signifies as sacrament of the
body of Christ and of the ecclesial body. All of this is part of a believing
journey, which aspires, trusting in the powerful force of the Spirit and His
permanent help, to conform one’s life to the mystery of Christ and to witness to
it with joy amid the vicissitudes of life. On this journey, Christians often
turn to the Eucharistic food, to receive the gift of communion with Christ, in
order to continue to grow in faith, hope, and love until eternal life.
129. [Inconsistency of Eucharistic Participation without Faith in What It
Celebrates]. Full participation in the Eucharist means communion with the
body of Christ (cf. LG 3) and the Church. It does not seem possible to approach
it with consistency: if one does not recognize what the sacramental presence of
Christ means in the Eucharist; if one rejects the Trinitarian faith of the
Church, invoked at various times during the celebration and sealed with the
recitation of the Creed; if Christian charity is suffering serious deficiencies
in one’s personal life; or if any conscious and deliberate act has been
committed regarding a matter that seriously compromises what faith and ecclesial
morals dictate (mortal sin[150]).
130. [Ways of Growing]. Those who are on a journey with Christ attend the
Sunday Eucharist not because it is an obligation established by the Church, but
out of the desire to be strengthened by the loving mercy of the Lord. This
desire includes readiness for necessary sacramental reconciliation with Christ
and the Church, when needed. Now, even without the emotional pressure of desire,
those who participate in the Catholic faith know that they have joined a
community with a sacramental structure. For this reason, they are also aware
that their sacramental participation and, concretely, the Eucharist is part of
the public witness to which they have freely committed themselves. They commit
to testify to the sacramental reality of faith, in order to make clear the
visibility of grace and thus strengthen the sacramentality of the Church, their
community of belonging.
131. Because of the reciprocal causality between faith and the Eucharist, in areas
where, due to the limits of the ecclesial institution, there was not or is not
usually a celebration of Mass and sacramental catechesis, it becomes more
difficult to discover the meaning of the Sunday Eucharistic praxis. At the same
time, the lack of frequent participation at the table of the Word of God and the
Body of Christ, through personal or pastoral failures, is a privation that
hinders growth toward a fuller sacramental faith. In addition to taking care of
every detail of Eucharistic celebrations, in accordance with their meaning, it
is appropriate to propose paths of reintegration into the ecclesial faith when
it has been lost; paths that culminate in the Eucharist as the crowning of this
return. It is also appropriate to propose other types of non-Eucharistic
celebrations and spaces for encounter, prayer, and extended Christian catechesis
for people with a still-limited immersion in Christianity, whose evangelization
has not yet matured to the point where they participate consciously in the
Eucharist.
4. The Reciprocity between Faith and Marriage
132. [The Problem]. If there is one sacrament in which the essential
reciprocity between faith and the sacraments is put to the test, it is marriage.
This is true for various reasons. In the very definition of the sacrament of
marriage, according to the Latin Church, faith does not appear explicitly (cf. §
143). It is presupposed, so to speak, by the prior act of baptism, the sacrament
of faith par excellence. Furthermore, for the validity of marriage between
baptized persons in the Latin Church, the intention to celebrate a sacrament is
not required[151]; it not
required that the persons have the desire or awareness of the sacramentality of
the marriage union, but only the intention to contract a natural marriage, with
the properties that the Church considers inherent in natural marriage. In this
understanding of marriage, it is incumbent upon theology to elucidate the
complex case of marriages between “baptized non-believers.” An extreme defense
of the sacramentality of such unions would undermine the essential reciprocity
of faith and the sacraments, as proper to the sacramental economy, and would
sustain (at least in the case of marriage) a sacramental automatism that we have
been rejecting as improper to the Christian faith (cf. supra ch. 2).
133. [The Approach]. Aware of the difficulty of the question posed
under the heading “reciprocity of faith and marriage,” we shall proceed as
follows. First, since (while sharing a common origin) there are notable
differences in the theology of marriage between the Latin tradition and the
Eastern tradition, we shall focus exclusively on the Latin understanding. The
rich Eastern tradition has its own physiognomy. We shall point out some
distinctive aspects between the two. While in Latin theology the predominant
understanding is that the spouses are the ministers of the sacrament and that
the sacrament takes place through the free mutual consent of the spouses, for
the Eastern tradition the blessing of the bishop or priest belongs in its own
right to the essence of the sacrament.[152]
Only the sacred minister has been given the faculty to invoke the Spirit (epiclesis)
to accomplish the sanctification inherent in the sacrament. It has its own
complete canonical regulation.[153]
This is due to a conception of the sacrament of marriage that springs from a
theology with its own personality and profile, in which the sanctifying effects
of the sacrament are brought to the forefront.[154]
134. Second, we shall refer to the usual methodology (cf. § 80), as adapted to
marriage, to treat the ordinary case of this sacrament. Next, we shall
investigate the thorny question about the sacramental quality of marriages
between “baptized non-believers,” in a twofold approach: first looking at the
state of the question; and then offering a theological proposal for a solution,
congruent with sustained reciprocity, faith, and sacraments, which does not
contradict the current theology of marriage.
4.1 The Sacrament of Marriage
a) Biblical Foundation
135. [Marriage in the Divine Plan]. Although each sacrament has its own
specific uniqueness, the case of marriage stands out for its particularity.
Marriage as such belongs to the creaturely order, within the divine plan (cf. GS
48). The natural reality of marriage rests on the relational capacity between
people of different sex, male and female (Gn 1:27), closely linked to fertility
(Gn 1:28), which culminates in such a form of union that they form “one flesh”
(cf. Gn 2:23–24). God’s sacramental dialogue throughout the divine economy of
salvation finds a reality here that is created by God in His image, in the image
of the Trinitarian God,[155]
which is very much able to be expressed by the loving, covenantal relationship
between God and His people, His bride, always symbolically represented by a
woman. In the Christian perspective, this creaturely reality becomes a
sacrament, that is, a visible sign of Christ’s love for the Church (Eph 5:25,
31–32).
136. [Marriage in the Teachings of Jesus]. Faced with the practice of
repudiation (Dt 22:19, 29; 24:1–4), Jesus reiterates God’s original plan: “What
God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mk 10:9 and Mt 19:6; cf.
Gen 2:24; 1 Cor 6:16), clarifying that divorce was a concession due to hardness
of heart (Mk 10:5 and Mt 19:8). Throughout history, the interpretation of the
Matthean clause has been very controversial: “Whoever divorces his wife, unless
the marriage is unlawful (πορνεία), and marries another commits adultery” (Mt
19:9; cf. 5:32). After innumerable discussions, no consensus has been reached
either on the porneia or on the exact consequences it would have. It is
for this reason that the Latin Tradition has always excluded the possibility of
a second union[156] after a valid
first union (cf. Mk 10:10–11), which is consistent with the perplexity of the
disciples according to the text of Matthew (Mt 19:10).
137. [Marriage and the “Mysterion”]. The very presence of Jesus at the wedding
at Cana (Jn 2:1–12), with all its significance as a messianic wedding, along
with other allusions of a nuptial nature (Mt 9:15 and parallel passages; Mt
25:5–6), highlight the capacity of the conjugal relationship to express profound
aspects of the mystery of God, such as His fidelity to our infidelity to His
covenant (cf. Ez 16 and 23; Hos 2; Jer 3:1–10; Is 54). The letter to the
Ephesians (5:31–32) correlates the marriage covenant expressly with the
“mysterion” (sacramentum) of the irrevocable covenant between Christ and
the Church. Taking the biblical testimony as a whole, the Church has considered
indissolubility as a fundamental element of both natural and Christian marriage.
The union between man and woman, indissoluble by nature, fulfils its truth in
fidelity and in the good of the offspring. After the reception of baptism (of
the configuration of the spouses to Christ and their sanctification by the
indwelling of the Spirit), it in itself becomes in a certain way a sacramental
representation of Christ’s fidelity.[157]
The love between spouses is no stranger to the new source of their Christian
life and faith. In the Christian life, faith and love cannot be absolutely
dissociated.
138. [Marriage: Qualified by Faith]. Following St. Paul, the Church has also
understood the conjugal relationship as something highly qualified by the
presence of faith (cf. 1 Cor 7:12–16). In the case of the marriage of a
Christian to a non-Christian, Paul says the following: “The unbelieving husband
is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by a
believing husband” (1 Cor 7:14). This passage (esp. 1 Cor 7:15) is the
foundation for the so-called Pauline privilege in which a higher qualification
is discerned, in the order of grace, of sacramental marriage over natural
marriage.
b) Insights from the Tradition
139. The typical “marrying in the Lord” that is characteristic of Christians, has
been expressed in different ways throughout history. According to the letter to
Diognetus, Christians did not at first distinguish themselves: “They marry like
everyone else.”[158] However,
this was soon to evolve. Ignatius of Antioch already maintains that it is
advisable to communicate the marriage bond to the bishop.[159]
Tertullian, for his part, praises the unions that the Church blesses.[160]
Beyond the precise interpretation of the scope of the expressions of these early
theologians, it is clear that the event of marriage was not foreign either to
the faith of the bride and groom or to the ecclesial community. From the fourth
and fifth centuries onward, the ecclesial blessing in the presence of a
minister, was an established custom.[161]
From this period forward, a Christian liturgy of its own was taking shape,[162]
which integrates typically pagan customs and transforms them, as in the case of
the “velatio,”[163] the
coronation,[164] the giving away
of the bride, the union of the hands,[165]
the blessing of the rings, and the Arras or the kiss of the betrothed At the
same time, it adds others, such as the presentation to the spouses of the
“common cup,” which is typical of the Byzantine liturgy.[166]
The marriage liturgy, in its prayers and the interpretation of gestures,
expresses the unique place of marriage in the divine economy, with allusions to
the biblical texts on marriage. Both Peter Lombard and the Second Lateran
Council consider marriage a sacrament; something that both the Council of
Florence and the Council of Trent would emphatically endorse.[167]
In this same Council, the necessity of the canonical form for the validity of
the sacrament is determined, without modifying the doctrinal understanding of
the sacrament, thus showing how it is about an ecclesial reality and the order
of faith that happens “in facie Ecclesiae,”[168]
as opposed to the doctrine of the reformers which considers marriage to be a
merely civil matter.[169] In this
way, the ecclesial character of marriage is recognized, far from being
understood as a private matter between the spouses.
c) Marriage as a Sacrament
140. If the sacraments presuppose faith (SC 59), marriage is no exception: “Led by
the love of Christ, pastors are to welcome engaged couples and, above all, to
foster and nourish their faith: for the Sacrament of Matrimony presupposes and
demands faith..”[170] A marital
union between a non-baptized man and a non-baptized woman, is from the
standpoint of the Christian faith, a tremendously valuable natural reality,
capable of being elevated to the supernatural order, for example, in the case of
a later conversion of the spouses. In other words, in “natural” marriage there
is a significant reality open to its full realization and completion in Christ.
In the first communities, the reality of marriage was not lived apart from
faith. Christians live the conjugal covenant “in the Lord” (1 Cor 7:39). Certain
public behaviors that are contrary to the faith in the context of couple
relationships may become cause for excommunication from the community (1 Cor 5).
For conjugal love between Christian spouses has become a sign, a sacrament,
which expresses Christ’s love for his Church. This sign of an irrevocable love
only expresses what it means if this same bond is indissoluble. This
indissolubility is already present “from the beginning” in the divine plan and
therefore essentially configures the reality of every authentic marriage in its
theological nucleus. In this way, that human reality as deep as the love of a
couple, so characteristic of our relational being, and the capacity for mutual
self-giving between spouses and children, expresses the deepest part of the
divine mystery: love.
141. Two baptized Catholics confirmed and with a habitual Eucharistic praxis, take a
beautiful and significant step forward in their life of faith when they
celebrate their marriage. They receive the grace of the sacrament of marriage,
which basically consists in the fact that they now “manifest and share in the
mystery of the unity of the fruitful love between Christ and the Church (Eph
5:32), they help each other to sanctify themselves in conjugal life and in the
procreation of children.”[171]
Their paths of faith have come together to witness to the power of Christ’s love
for the Church, for mutual enrichment, for Christian education of children, and
for mutual sanctification.[172]
They form a “domestic Church”;[173]
“They are fortified and consecrated by a special sacrament” (GS 48). In this way
they give concrete expression to the maturity of the faith proper to
Confirmation, assuming a state of Christian life (cf. LG 11) and some
responsibilities in the Christian community. In the celebration of their
marriage, their faith is presupposed, expressed, nourished, and strengthened by
the action of Christ in the sacrament, who “abides with them” (GS 48), with the
marriage covenant and with family life that they now undertake under the
blessing of God and the Church. Catholic marriage intensely expresses that it is
a project of life conceived and encouraged from the faith,[174]
as a way of mutual sanctification, in which the spouses exercise the common
priesthood by giving each other the sacrament[175]
(cf. LG 10). The consciousness and purpose of being a sacrament of God’s love
presuppose and express the personal faith of each of the spouses. Thus, it truly
appears as a sacrament of faith, in which Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of Love (cf. Rom 5:5), act efficaciously. The love that the spouses
profess for each other is already determined by their reality as baptized. The
sanctification brought about by the sacrament impels this supernatural love in
the realization of the conjugal and family community.
d) Faith and the Goods of Marriage
142. The presence of faith and the efficacious action of sacramental grace impel the
spouses to realize the goods proper to marriage: “As a mutual gift of two
persons, this intimate union and the good of the children impose total fidelity
on the spouses and argue for an unbreakable oneness between them” (GS 48).
Indissolubility (cf. GS 49) is understood from the standpoint of faith as the
essential feature of the conjugal relationship, because otherwise it would
deviate from God’s original plan (Gn 2:23–24) and would cease to be a visible
sign of Christ’s irrevocable love for His Church. Fidelity between spouses and
the generous search for the good of the other spouse (cf. GS 49) is lived as
something that flows gently and congruently from faith and from the personal
relationship with the Lord Jesus. For faith puts us in a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, while serving as a model of following the One who gave His
life for sinners (Rom 5:6–8; 14:15; Eph 5:2). By faith Christian husbands and
wives try to translate into their married and family life the maxim according to
which “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). By faith we
know fertility is inscribed in God’s plan (Gn 1:28), and offspring are one of
the signs of the blessings of this plan. The love of the Trinitarian God teaches
us, through faith, that true love always includes maximum loving reciprocity and
maximum openness towards the other. For this reason, faith prevents us from
understanding marriage as a kind of calculated couple selfishness. An active
faith of both spouses includes an understanding that God, as the author of
marriage, “has endowed it with various goods and ends” (GS 48) which Christian
spouses strive to live and unfold. As a result, a living and shared faith in the
realm of marital union reduces the possibility that egocentric or
individualistic tendencies will take root in each spouse as well as in the
couple, even despite the environmental pressure of the surrounding culture.
4.2. A Quaestio Dubia: The Sacramental Quality of the Marriage of
“Baptized Non-Believers”
a) Posing the Question
143. [Definition]. Marriage is a creatural reality. Through baptism the
natural bond is elevated to a supernatural sign: “The matrimonial covenant, by
which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole
of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the
procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons
has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”[176]
According to the theological doctrine and the canonical practice currently in
force, every valid marriage contract between baptized persons is “by that very
fact” a sacrament,[177] even in
the absence of faith of the contracting parties. In other words, in the case of
the baptized, the inseparability between a valid marriage contract (which
corresponds to the natural order of marriage) and the sacrament is affirmed. The
baptized could not have simultaneously entered into the supernatural order
through baptism, without this affecting such a life-determining and
sacramentally significant reality as marriage, which would be removed from the
supernatural order to which the spouses irrevocably belong after baptism (cf.
§§166 d and 167 d). Should this doctrine also be applied to the case of the
marriage union between “baptized non-believers”? In this delicate matter, the
“reciprocity of faith and sacraments” that we have been defending seems to be
called into question. To approach the question in an appropriate way, we need to
clarify the status and terms of the question in greater detail.
144. [Baptized Non-Believers]. By “baptized non-believers” we mean those
persons in whom there is no sign of the presence of the dialogical character of
faith, which is proper to the personal response of the believer to the
sacramental dialogue of the Trinitarian God, as we explained in the second
chapter. This category includes two types of people. First, those who received
baptism in infancy, but subsequently and for whatever reason have not managed to
make a personal act of faith that involves their understanding and their will.
This is a very common case in traditionally Christian countries, where the
widespread de-Christianization of society is accompanied by great negligence in
education in the faith. We also use “baptized non-believers” to refer to those
baptized persons who consciously and explicitly deny the faith and do not
consider themselves to be Catholic or Christian. They sometimes even make a
formal act of abandonment of the Catholic faith and separation from the Church,
without the purpose being to enter into another church, community, or Christian
denomination. In both cases, no “disposition to believe”[178]
is evident.
145. [Preliminary Formulation of the Question]. Thus, the question that arises
is whether two unmarried baptized non-believers of opposite sexes, who fall into
either of the two categories just described, are married by a sacramental
celebration or by some other valid form of union: Is it a sacrament? The topic
is the subject of debate and has generated an abundant literature. Its solution
is not clear, since several major elements come into play in simultaneous
interaction. Next, we shall go through some significant milestones of its
development in recent years, in order to responsibly consider the terms of the
question.
b) Statement and Terms of the Question
146. [International Theological Commission]. In 1977, the International
Theological Commission (ITC) produced a document entitled Propositions on the
Doctrine of Christian Marriage. It supported a series of highly nuanced
theses that suggest a tension between the conviction of the necessity of faith
for the celebration of a sacrament and the reluctance to declare faith as the
determinant of the sacramentality of marriage. From their affirmations, which
shall not reproduce in their entirety, the following are especially relevant to
our topic.
147. The existence of a constitutive and reciprocal relationship between
indissolubility and sacramentality. And the ITC specifies: “sacramentality
constitutes the final grounds, although not the only grounds, for its
indissolubility” (§2.2.).
148. Regarding the interrelationship between faith and the sacrament of marriage, the
ITC held that in the sacrament of marriage the source of grace is Jesus Christ,
not the faith of the contracting parties. And it added: “That, however, does not
mean that grace is conferred in the sacrament of matrimony outside of faith or
in the absence of faith” (§ 2.3.). Faith would be a “dispositive cause” for
fruitfulness, not for validity.
149. About baptized non-believers, the ITC said:
The existence today of “baptized non-believers” raises a new theological problem
and a grave pastoral dilemma, especially when the lack of, or rather the
rejection of, the Faith seems clear. The intention of carrying out what Christ
and the Church desires is the minimum condition required before consent is
considered to be a “real human act” on the sacramental plane. The problem of
intention and that of the personal faith of the contracting parties must not be
confused, but they must not be totally separated. In the last analysis the
real intention is born from and feeds on living faith. Where there is no
trace of faith (in the sense of “belief”-being disposed to believe), and no
desire for grace or salvation is found, then a real doubt arises as to whether
there is the above-mentioned general and truly sacramental intention and whether
the contracted marriage is validly contracted or not. As was noted, the personal
faith of the contracting parties does not constitute the sacramentality of
matrimony, but the absence of personal faith compromises the validity of the
sacrament (§2.3. Emphasis added).
In his commentary, which was published along with the document, then-secretary
of the Commission, Msgr. Philippe Delhaye, states: “The key to the problem is in
the intention; the intention to do what the Church does by offering a permanent
sacrament that entails indissolubility, fidelity, fruitfulness.”[179]
150. Further on, the Commission document reaffirms the inseparability between
contract and sacrament: “For the Church, no natural marriage separated from the
sacrament exists for baptized persons, but only natural marriage elevated to the
dignity of a sacrament” (§ 3.5).
151. [St. John Paul II]. Throughout his pontificate, John Paul II repeatedly
turned to the subject of marriage of the baptized non-believers and the
necessity of faith for the sacrament of matrimony. Proposition 12.4 approved by
the Fifth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family
(1980), said: “Let there be examined more seriously if the assertion that a
valid marriage between baptized persons is always a sacrament also applies to
those who have lost faith. Let the juridical and pastoral consequences be drawn
from it.”[180]
152. The post-synodal exhortation, Familiaris consortio, did not accept this
suggestion. John Paul II would argue consistently that the marriage act is
intrinsically qualified by the supernatural reality to which the baptized
irrevocably belong, beyond the express awareness of this reality.[181]
On our subject, it clearly states:
As for wishing to lay down further criteria for admission to the ecclesial
celebration of marriage, criteria that would concern the level of faith of those
to be married, this would above all involve grave risks. In the first place, the
risk of making unfounded and discriminatory judgments; secondly, the risk of
causing doubts about the validity of marriages already celebrated, with grave
harm to Christian communities, and new and unjustified anxieties to the
consciences of married couples; one would also fall into the danger of calling
into question the sacramental nature of many marriages of brethren separated
from full communion with the Catholic Church, thus contradicting ecclesial
tradition.[182]
153. In spite of everything, John Paul II does not fail to recognize the possibility
that the bride and groom could simultaneously ask for the ecclesial celebration
of marriage and “show that they reject explicitly and formally what the Church
intends to do when the marriage of baptized persons is celebrated.” In this case
he prescribes: “the pastor of souls cannot admit them to the celebration of
marriage.”[183] We can interpret
this to mean that in that case there would be no true sacrament. That is to say,
John Paul II demands some minimum requirements, even if it is only the absence
of explicit and formal rejection of what the Church does. In his own way,
therefore, he also rejects what we can call an absolute sacramental automatism.[184]
154. Later, in an important address to the Roman Rota (January 30, 2003), he clearly
warned of the non-existence of two types of marriages, one natural and the other
supernatural: “The church does not refuse to celebrate a marriage for the person
who is well disposed, even if he is imperfectly prepared from the
supernatural point of view, provided the person has the right intention to
marry according to the natural reality of marriage. In fact, alongside
natural marriage, one cannot describe another model of Christian marriage with
specific supernatural requisites.”[185]
John Paul II had already clearly defended this opinion in another address to the
Roman Rota (February 1, 2001).[186]
In 2001, he stressed that faith should not be demanded as a minimum requirement,
because it is extraneous to tradition.[187]
He reaffirmed the natural purpose of marriage and that marriage consists of a
natural reality, not exclusively supernatural. In this context he said: “To
obscure the natural dimension of marriage, therefore, with its reduction to a
mere subjective experience, also entails the implicit denial of its
sacramentality.”[188] That is to
say, the basis of everything lies in the natural, creaturely reality.
155. [The Development of the Code of Canon Law]. In the work leading up to the
drafting of the Code of Canon Law, the question of the inseparability between
marriage as a natural reality and sacramental marriage as a salvific reality was
discussed extensively. In the end, the legislator opted to maintain the most
common doctrine, without attempting to elucidate the issue doctrinally, as it
was not within his competence. When legislating, the most commonly accepted
theological presuppositions were included.[189]
This inseparability was discussed during the Council of Trent. In those
discussions, the figure of Melchior Cano stands out as one of its noteworthy
opponents. It has not been defined, although it is the most constant opinion.
Many classify the inseparability as Catholic doctrine,[190]
and the Code of Canon Law includes it in canon 1055, § 2, already mentioned.[191]
156. [The Jurisprudence of the Roman Rota]. The jurisprudence of the Rota,
following Catholic doctrine, considers indissolubility to be an essential
property of natural marriage. However, in a highly secularized social and
cultural context, in which convictions very different from those of the Church
are widespread and deeply ingrained, the question arises whether in the absence
of faith, the indissolubility of marriage is de facto accepted. Thus, for
some years now, jurisprudence has held that lack of faith may influence the
intention to enter into a natural marriage.[192]
In a way, it seems to echo the sensibility expressed in proposition 40 of the XI
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which took place in October 2005 under
the pontificate of Benedict XVI, and dealt with the Eucharist. In response to
the issue of the divorced and remarried, it said:
The Synod hopes that all possible efforts will be made to ensure the pastoral
character, presence and correct and solicitous activity of the ecclesiastical
tribunals in regard to causes of marital annulment (cf. “Dignitas connubi”),
both by further deepening the essential elements for the validity of marriage,
and also by taking into account the problems arising from the context of
profound anthropological transformation of our time, by which the faithful
themselves run the risk of being conditioned, especially if they lack a solid
Christian formation.[193]
157. [Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI]. The then Prefect of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, stated clearly in 1997:
“It needs to be clarified whether every marriage between two baptized persons is
‘ipso facto’ a sacramental marriage. In fact, the Code states that only
the ‘valid’ marriage between baptized persons is at the same time a Sacrament
(cf. CIC, canon 1055 § 2). Faith belongs to the essence of the sacrament; what
remains to be clarified is the juridical question of what evidence of ‘absence
of faith’ would have as a consequence that the sacrament does not come into
being.”[194] As Pope Benedict
XVI, he would qualify this opinion in an address to priests in 2005, indicating
that the problem is very difficult, that he now had more doubts about faith as a
reason for invalidity, and that the question still requires further exploration.[195]
158. In his last address to the Roman Rota,[196]
Pope Benedict XVI once again discussed this issue that is so important to him.
We quote some of his contributions below. At the beginning of his reflections,
he alludes to the question of faith and intention, in line with the
International Theological Commission, whose document he mentions:
The indissoluble pact between a man and a woman does not, for the purposes of
the sacrament, require of those engaged to be married, their personal faith;
what it does require, as a necessary minimal condition, is the intention to do
what the Church does. However, if it is important not to confuse the problem of
the intention with that of the personal faith of those contracting marriage, it
is nonetheless impossible to separate them completely.[197]
159. He then explains how faith and openness to God greatly determine the conception
of life in all its facets and specifically in something as delicate as a
lifelong bond (indissolubility, exclusivity, and fidelity). “The rejection of
the divine proposal, in fact, leads to a profound imbalance in all human
relations, including matrimonial relations, and facilitates an erroneous
understanding of liberty and of self-fulfillment.” From there follows, according
to Benedict XVI, “an erroneous understanding of liberty and of self-fulfillment
which, together with flight from the patient tolerance of suffering, condemns
people to withdraw into selfish egocentricity.”[198]
160. This lack of faith does not automatically make a natural marriage impossible.
However:
Faith in God, sustained by divine grace, is thus a very important element for
living mutual dedication and conjugal fidelity. (…) Yet, closure to God or the
rejection of the sacred dimension of the conjugal union and of its value in the
order of grace certainly makes arduous the practical embodiment of the most
lofty model of marriage conceived by the Church according to God’s plan and can
even undermine the actual validity of the pact, should it be expressed, as the
consolidated jurisprudence of this Tribunal assumes, in a rejection of the
principle of the conjugal obligation of fidelity itself, that is, of the other
essential elements or properties of matrimony.”[199]
161. Later on, he explores how faith decisively affects the good of the spouses: “In
truth, there is in the resolve of Christian spouses to live a real communio
coniugalis a dynamism proper to faith, for which the confessio, the
sincere personal response to the announcement of salvation, involves the
believer in the impetus of God’s love.”[200]
He goes on to affirm how confession of faith, far from remaining on an abstract
level, fully involves the person in the charity confessed, since truth and love
are inseparable. And he concludes: “One must not, therefore, disregard the
consideration that can arise in the cases in which, precisely because of the
absence of faith, the good of the spouses is jeopardized, that is, excluded from
the consent itself.”[201] In such
a way that the lack of faith “may, although not necessarily, also damage the
goods of marriage, since the reference to the natural order desired by God is
inherent in the conjugal pact (cf. Gen 2:24).”[202]
162. [Pope Francis]. The need for further study which Benedict XVI
requested, is still valid, according to the findings prior to the last synodal
assemblies on the family and the statements of Pope Francis. Thus, the
Intrumentum laboris for the III Extraordinary General Assembly if the Synod
of Bishops (2014) summarized our question: “Very many responses, especially in
Europe and North America…they see a need to investigate the question of the
relationship between faith and the Sacrament of Matrimony, as suggested by Pope
Benedict XVI.”[203] The
Relatio Synodi, which serves both as the conclusion of the III Extraordinary
General Assembly and as the Lineamenta for the XIV General Assembly of
the Synod, also alludes to the question[204];
and so does the Intrumentum laboris for the XIV Assembly (2015).[205]
The post-synodal exhortation Amoris laetitia warns in its
introduction: “The complexity of the issues that arose [during the synodal path]
revealed the need for continued open discussion of a number of doctrinal, moral,
spiritual, and pastoral questions.”[206]
And it adds: “This having been said, there is a need for further reflection on
God’s action in the marriage rite; this is clearly manifested in the Oriental
Churches through the importance of the blessing that the couple receive as a
sign of the gift of the Spirit.”[207]
The present reflection on “reciprocity between faith and marriage” is set
modestly on this path.
163. Pope Francis has also addressed our issue on several occasions. In his address
to the Roman Rota on January 23, 2015,[208]
he referred to the possible defects of origin in consent, which can affect
validity, pointing out how it can be given “both directly as a defect of valid
intention, as well as by grave deficit in the understanding of marriage itself
to such an extent that this is what dictates one’s will (cf. canon 1099).”[209]
And he added: “Indeed, at the root of the crisis of marriage is often a
crisis of knowledge enlightened by faith, that is, knowledge informed by the
adhesion to God and his design of love realized in Jesus Christ.”[210]
164. Following this line, the apostolic letter in the form of a motu proprio,
Mitis iudex Dominus Iesus[211]
(15 August 2015), states: “Among the circumstances of things and persons that
can allow a case for nullity of marriage to be handled by means of the briefer
process according to canons 1683–1687, are included, for example: the defect of
faith which can generate simulation of consent or error that determines the
will.”[212] Thus, lack of faith
may be decisive for validity.
165. When speaking to the Roman Rota[213]
the following year (January 22, 2016), he expressed himself in this way: “It is
worth clearly reiterating that the essential component of marital consent is not
the quality of one’s faith, which according to unchanging doctrine can be
undermined only on the plane of the natural (cf. CIC, canon 1055 § 1 and 2).”[214]
And he endorsed the doctrine that holds the presence of the habitus fidei
to be operative after baptism, even without a psychologically perceptible faith.
He concludes: “A lack of formation in the faith and error with respect to the
unity, indissolubility and sacramental dignity of marriage invalidates marital
consent only if they influence the person’s will (cf. CIC, canon 1099). It is
for this reason that errors regarding the sacramentality of marriage must be
evaluated very attentively.”[215]
166. [The Terms of the Question]. From this brief overview of the teachings of
the most recent popes on our subject, as well as those of official ecclesial
entities, it seems clear that the fundamental issue is not entirely resolved,
even though it is quite focused. By making an interpretative and systematizing
balance, these aspects come into play in dynamic interrelation and tension:
a) In marriage, as in every sacrament, there is a transmission of the grace of
Christ. This grace is not due to the faith of the ministers, according to the
Latin tradition of the contracting parties, but is a gift of Christ, who is
actively present in the conjugal covenant, and of the Spirit.
b) There can be no sacrament without faith. A kind of sacramental automatism would
deny the dialogical character of the sacramental economy, which is structured
around the intimate connection between faith and sacraments (cf. Chapter 2).
Thus, in order for there to be a sacrament in the case of marriage between
baptized non-believers, there must be some active faith, regardless of the
difficulty in positively determining it, either in the spouses or in attributing
all of it to Mother Church.
c) The practical difficulty of verifying the lack of faith of the spouses is a
difficult and complex pastoral problem (cf. § 61). However, it is up to theology
to dogmatically clarify this point which is so central to a proper understanding
of the sacrament of marriage.
d) Validly received baptism has irrevocably grafted the baptized into the
sacramental economy with the imprint of the character (cf. § 65). His personal
reality, beyond his conscious acts of understanding and will that are proper to
faith,[216] is already marked by
this belonging without sin or the absence of faith, whether formless or formed,
being able to erase or annul what the irrevocable gift of Christ has produced.
e) The most established Catholic doctrine maintains the inseparability between
contract and sacrament (cf. § 155). The definitive clarification of this aspect
is still pending. The separation between contract and sacrament would have a
direct impact on the question we are discussing. Given the present state of
Catholic doctrine, we follow the current prevailing view about the
inseparability of contract and sacrament.
f) The faith of the spouses is decisive for the fruitfulness of the sacrament (cf.
§ 68). Validity and, with it, sacramentality, depends on whether a true marriage
bond has taken place: a natural marriage.
g) The minimum requirement for there to be a sacrament is the intention to enter
into a true natural marriage (cf. § 154).
h) In the case of the sacrament of matrimony, faith and intention cannot be
identified, but they also cannot be completely separated (cf. §§ 149 and 158).
Since it is clear that the sacramental truth of marriage depends on intention
and that faith influences intention, it is not entirely clear how and to what
extent lack of faith affects intention.
We propose to delve deeper into this last point for the case of the baptized
non-believers described above (cf. § 144). This is an aspect that is congruent
with the reciprocity between faith and sacraments that we have been defending.
167. [Possible Theoretical Alternatives to Resolve the Issue]. But first, to
be thorough, let us look at some possible theoretical solutions to our topic and
their theological soundness, evaluated from the theological perspective that we
previously established and that we have been considering (Chapter 2).
a) First, one could defend an absolute sacramental automatism. Regardless of the
faith of the spouses, the fact of baptism would imply that the marriage contract
is elevated “eo ipso” to the supernatural reality of the sacrament. This
solution clashes with the dialogical character of the sacramental economy, which
we have explained sufficiently, and thus we shall discard it.
b) A second possibility would be to defend the separation between contract and
sacrament. Since it is true that the identity between contract and sacrament has
not been solemnly defined, in order to consider this separation as theologically
certain, it would be necessary to provide a specific convincing argument in this
regard. We shall refrain from exploring that avenue and follow the most common
terms of current Catholic theology about marriage.
c) A third option would assert the presence of the faith of the Church, despite the
absence of personal faith of the contracting parties. The faith of the Church
would substitute the lack of a personal faith on the part of the contracting
parties. This option, however, also presents some problems. On the one hand, the
essence of the sacrament is given in the consent between the spouses. On this
basis, the Church can demand certain formal requirements for its validity, as in
fact happens today, as the product of a long history. On the other hand, during
our exploration of the dialogical character of the sacramental economy (Chapter
2), we have shown how the faith of the Church precedes and accompanies personal
faith, but never supplants it completely. To attribute the sacramentality of
marriage exclusively to the faith of the Church would imply denying the
interpersonal character of the sacramental economy.
d) A fourth possibility lies in attributing sacramentality to the efficacy linked
to the character imprinted by baptism. The character is due to the
irrevocability of Christ’s gift. It implies incorporation into the sacramental
realty of the divine economy. It enables the dialogical exercise of
sacramentality, without by itself implying an active exercise of the
sacramentality. The habitus, linked to the character, is a disposition to
act; it is neither an act or an enactment. It requires that it be exercised by a
power, such as the will.[217]
Thus, with the imprinting of the character and the infusion of habit, the
sacramental dialogue on the part of God is affirmed, with all certainty, but the
dialogical response of a personal nature on the part of the graced subject (who
is still able to enact this response) is lacking.
e) As we have already noted, it is still possible to argue about the intention,
since for the validity of every sacrament there must be the intention of doing
what the Church intends in each sacrament.
4.3 The Intention and the Establishment of the Matrimonial Bond in the Absence
of Faith
a) Intention Is Necessary for There to Be a Sacrament
168. [Necessity of Intention]. As we have said[218]
(§§ 67–69), the traditional doctrine of the sacraments includes the conviction
that for the sacrament to be given, the intention to do what the Church does is
a minimum requirement: “All these sacraments are accomplished by three elements:
namely, by things as the matter, by words as the form, and by the person of the
minister who confers the sacrament with the intention of doing what the Church
does (cum intentione faciendi quod facit Ecclesia). If any of these is
absent, the sacrament is not accomplished.”[219]
According to the Latin Church’s understanding, the ministers of the sacrament of
marriage are the spouses, who mutually give themselves to each other in
marriage. In the case of sacramental marriage, at least the intention to perform
a natural marriage is required. Now natural marriage, as the Church understands
it, includes as essential properties indissolubility, fidelity, and ordering to
the good of the spouses, and the good of the offspring. Therefore, if the
intention to enter into marriage does not include these properties, at least
implicitly, then there is a serious lack of intention, which can call into
question the very existence of a natural marriage, which is the necessary basis
for sacramental marriage.[220]
169. [Interrelation between Faith and Intention]. With varying emphases, the
magisterium of the last three pontiffs confirms the interconnection between a
living and explicit faith and the intention to celebrate a true natural
marriage: one that is indissoluble and exclusive and focused on the good of the
spouses, through sincere oblative charity, and open to offspring. John Paul II
asks that spouses who reject “explicitly and formally what the Church intends to
do when the marriage of baptized persons is celebrated” (cf. § 153) not be
admitted, while maintaining the necessity of having “the right intention to
marry according to the natural reality of marriage” (cf. § 154). Benedict XVI
notes the remarkable impact of the absence of faith on the conception of life,
on relationships, on the very bond of marriage, and on the good of the spouses,
which can even “damage the goods of marriage” (cf. § 161). Francis shows how the
root of the marriage crisis lies in the “crisis of knowledge enlightened by
faith” (cf. § 163) and invokes lack of faith as a possible motive for simulation
of consent (cf. § 164). The jurisprudence of the Roman Rota is in conformity
with Benedict XVI (cf. § 156). More precisely, with the exception of John Paul
II, the aforementioned ecclesial instances consider that the lack of living and
explicit faith raises well-founded suspicions about the intention of truly
celebrating an indissoluble, definitive, and exclusive marriage, as a free
reciprocal gift that is open to offspring, even though at the root they do not
rule out the possibility of this happening. In no case does a simplistic
sacramental automatism arise.
b) The Predominant Cultural Understanding of Marriage
170. [The Predominant Culture and Understanding of Marriage]. In
countries whose predominant culture holds polygamy as a value, which is opposed
to the divine plan (cf. Gen 1:26; 2:18–24), it seems more difficult to consider
that in the absence of explicit faith, the intention to enter into marriage
includes the exclusivity inherent in natural marriage according to the Christian
conception. Furthermore, the cultural context of polygamy, along with other
things that can occur independently of polygamy, clashes with the “principle of
parity” of the spouses, rooted in the fact of their creation in the image and
likeness of God.[221] This is
inherent in the very good of the spouses (bonum coniugum) and is one of
the fundamental goods of natural marriage.
171. Years ago, in traditionally Christian countries there was a consensus on the
reality of marriage, which was informed by the influence of the Christian faith
in society. In this context, it could be assumed that every natural marriage,
regardless of a living and explicit life of faith, included in its intention the
properties of natural marriage as understood by the Church. Today, with the
entrenchment and spread of other conceptions about the family that are clearly
divergent from the Catholic one, greater caution is warranted, giving rise to
new doctrinal and pastoral problems.
172. The fact that marriage is a creational reality implies that anthropology is an
intrinsic part of its essence in a double sense, in which both are closely
connected. On the one hand, the conception of what the human person is comes
fully into play; the human person is someone who—as a relational being—fulfills
his or her own being in self-giving. On the other hand, the essence of marriage
is also touched by the understanding of sexual differentiation, male and female,
as an element of the divine plan oriented towards procreation and towards the
conjugal covenant, as a reflection of the divine covenant: a reflection of God
with the people of Israel and of Christ with the Church. Both elements come
fully into play in natural marriage. It is indissoluble, exclusive, and focused
on the reciprocal good of the spouses, through interpersonal love, as well as on
the offspring. Thus, the Church appears, sometimes alone and under attack, as
the cultural bulwark that preserves the natural reality proper to marriage.
However, without falling into catastrophic lamentations, a sincere look at our
cultural context cannot help but notice how aspects that lead to questioning the
anthropological roots of the natural basis marriage are becoming increasingly
entrenched as unquestionable axioms in postmodern culture. Thus, without wishing
to be exhaustive, the predominant tendency embraces as evident, for example,
these widespread, deep-seated, and sometimes legislatively sanctioned
convictions that are clearly contrary to the Catholic faith:
a) The search for self-actualization, centered on the satisfaction of the self, as
the main goal of life, which justifies the most substantive ethical
decisions—including in the realm of marriage and family. This conception is
opposed to the meaning of loving sacrifice and oblation as the greatest
achievement of the truth of the person, which the Christian faith proposes, thus
achieving its meaning and fulfillment in a magnificent way.
b) A “macho” type mentality that undervalues women, damaging the conjugal parity
linked to the good of the spouses and understanding marriage as a covenant
between two who would not be equal by divine design, nature, and juridical
rights, versus the biblical conception and Christian faith.[222]
Jesus’ counter-cultural stance against divorce (cf. Mt 19:3–8) was a defense of
the most vulnerable party in the culture of the time: the woman.
c) A radical “gender ideology” that denies any biological determination of sexual
character in the construction of gender identity, undermining the
complementarity between the sexes inscribed in the Creator’s plan.
d) A divorce mentality, which undermines the understanding of marital
indissolubility. On the contrary, this mentality leads people to consider the
conjugal ties, more commonly known as “partnerships,” as essentially revisable
realities, in direct contradiction with the Jesus’ teaching in Mk 10:9 and Mt
19:6 (cf. Gen 2:24).
e) A conception of the body as absolute personal property, freely available for
maximum pleasure, especially in the sphere of sexual relations, detached from an
institutional and stable conjugal bond. Paul, however, affirms that the body
belongs to the Lord, excluding immorality (πορνεία), in such a way that the body
becomes a channel for the glorification of God (cf. 1 Cor 6:13–20).
f) The dissociation between the conjugal act and procreation, contrary to the
entire tradition of the Catholic Church, from Scripture (Gen 1:28) to the
present day.[223]
g) The ethical and sometimes legal equating of all forms of pairing. Thus, not only
successive unions, de facto unions, or those without a formal marriage contract,
but also unions of persons of the same sex are all spreading. Successive unions
de facto deny indissolubility. Temporary or probationary cohabitation disavows
indissolubility. Same sex unions do not recognize the anthropological meaning of
the difference in sexes (Gn 1:27; 2:22–24) inherent in the natural understanding
of marriage, according to the Catholic faith.
c) The Absence of Faith May Compromise the Intention to Contract Natural Marriage
173. [The Absence of Faith May Compromise the Intention to Celebrate a Marriage
that Includes One of the Goods of Marriage]. From the standpoint of dogmatic
theology, there is reason to doubt that in the case of marriages between
baptized non-believers, according to the typology we have described, a sacrament
of faith takes place because of a serious defect of intention to contract
natural marriage, presumably as a very possible consequence that is
quasi-inherent in the lack of faith and enunciated differently by the last two
pontiffs. The lack of faith in the case of the baptized non-believers described
above can be qualified as unequivocal and determinant of the conceptions of
life. Therefore, the doubts mentioned by the pontiffs in a generic way can be
assumed in their entirety for these cases. One cannot desire, pretend, or love
what one does not know or explicitly rejects.
174. [The Effect of the Absence of Faith on the Natural Goods of Marriage]. In
Christian marriage, there is a bond, much greater than in any other sacrament,
between creaturely and supernatural reality and between the order of creation
and that of redemption. “Marriage has been instituted by God the Creator,”[224]
and then elevated to the dignity of a sacrament. Given this very close bond, it
is understood that a modification of the natural reality of marriage, a
departure from the creational project, directly affects the supernatural
reality, the sacrament. This connection also takes place in the opposite
direction, at least in the extreme case of marriages between baptized
non-believers. For the express denial of supernatural reality, the explicit
abandonment of faith (sometimes even with a formal act), or the total absence of
adherence to the faith, baptized but who never personally assumed the faith,
places these persons totally at the mercy of current social opinions on
matrimonial and family matters; and it blocks their access to the creaturely
source of marriage.
175. Indeed, if we consider together the previously outlined dominant cultural
paradigm and the line of reflection of Benedict XVI in his last address to the
Roman Rota (January 26, 2013), we can affirm that in the absence of clear and
explicit faith, the intention regarding the essential goods of marriage suffers
a serious detriment. Benedict XVI has clearly illustrated this with respect to
the good of the spouses. His starting point was as follows: “In the context of
the Year of Faith, I would like to reflect in particular on several aspects of
the relationship between faith and marriage, noting that the current crisis of
faith, which is affecting various parts of the world, brings with it a crisis of
the conjugal society.”[225] In
other words, the supernatural element directly affects the natural reality. And
he goes on to say:
It escapes no one that the basic decision of each person to enter into a
lifetime bond, influences the basic view of each one according to whether or not
he or she is anchored to a merely human level or is open to the light of faith
in the Lord. It is only in opening oneself to God’s truth, in fact, that it is
possible to understand and achieve in the concrete reality of both conjugal and
family life the truth of men and women as his children, regenerated by Baptism.[226]
176. The truth of man in natural marriage is part of God’s plan. Benedict XVI links
the sacrificial capacity of true generous love, a good of the spouses, to
openness to true love, which is God, from the intimate unity between truth and
love. For the specific love of the good of the spouses to be given, they need to
be open to the ultimate truth of love, that is, to the love of God. In a society
that proclaims personal self-actualization as the supreme good, it seems
difficult that in the clear and explicit absence of faith the conjugal bond is
understood from sacrificial love. In the words of Benedict XVI: “‘He who abides
in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can
do nothing’ (Jn 15:5). This is what Jesus taught his disciples, reminding them
of the human being’s essential inability to do what is necessary for achieving
his true good alone.”[227] The
understanding of life and the practice of love as unselfish self-transcendence,
which seeks first the good of the other person, is perfected with divine grace.
177. Sacrificial love and unselfish self-transcendence are not confined to the
reciprocal good of the spouses, but they fully affect the good of the offspring,
the splendid fruit of the fecundity of conjugal love. If the good of love
between the spouses is damaged at its root, then the good of offspring will
directly and explicitly be affected.
178. The lack of faith itself includes serious doubts about indissolubility in our
cultural context. The deeply ingrained social way of understanding the marriage
bond is highly desirable in its permanence, but clearly debatable in the
understanding of what it actually is as a bond; and the sadly abundant
proliferation of separations means that, without specific source of knowledge,
faith as a means of adherence to God’s creational plan, there are reasons to
doubt that there is a true intention of indissolubility of the bond when
contracting marriage.
179. In summary, we have articulated the following points. Faith determines very
fundamentally the anthropology that is lived. The substantial reality of
marriage is of an anthropological, creaturely nature. A total absence of faith
also determines anthropology and, with it, the natural reality of marriage,
which is more at the mercy of the dominant cultural paradigm. A lack of faith of
this caliber in this context is good cause for doubting the existence of a true
natural marriage, which is the indispensable foundation on which sacramental
marriage is based. In other words, the intention to enter into a natural
marriage cannot be presupposed as guaranteed, nor can it be excluded at the
outset.
180. [From Sacramentality]. This point of view is in full conformity with the
conception of sacramentality that we have been defending (cf. esp. § 16). Let us
remember that this consists in the inseparable correlation between a
visible, external reality, the signifier, and another of a supernatural,
invisible, signified character. The conception of Catholic marriage is based on
this understanding of sacramentality. Therefore, for sacramental marriage to
take place, a kind of love is required as an external visible reality that, by
its particular qualities (goods of marriage: GS 48–50) and together with the
help received by grace, can signify the love of God. In other words, a marital
bond that does not include indissolubility, fidelity, the sacrificial
disposition towards the other spouse, and openness to life would not be a sign
that is capable of signifying Christ’s love for the Church. The Church
understands that in this type of bond the truth of married love does not emerge.
181. [Conclusion]. Our proposal rejects two extremes. On the one hand, we
reject an absolute sacramental automatism (cf. esp. §§ 41 e and 78 e), which
holds that every marriage between the baptized would be a sacrament, either
through the presence of a minimal faith linked to the character of baptism or
through the intervention of Christ and the Church presupposed by baptism. On the
other hand, we also reject an elitist sacramental skepticism that holds that any
degree of absence of faith would vitiate the intention and thus invalidate the
sacrament. We affirm that, in the case of an absence of faith as explicit and
clear as that of the described baptized non-believers, serious doubts about an
intention that includes the goods of natural marriage, as understood by the
Church, make it possible to maintain serious reservations about the existence of
a sacramental marriage.
182. [Pastoral Care]. Both the cultural context described (cf. §§ 156, 170–72)
and the existence of marriages between “baptized non-believers” are motivation
for the pastoral care of marriage to unfold all its vigor and potential, in line
with the suggestions of Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis.[228]
The radiance of the profound humanity that is witnessed in Christian families,
whose heart is the faith lived by all its members, will be a beacon and lodestar
capable of attracting and convincing. One of its objectives could be precisely
these marriages of baptized non-believers, since an awakening of faith would
mean the emergence of the force of sacramental grace. In any case, the best
response to the “desire for family,” which despite the difficulties is
experienced everywhere, is “the joy of love experienced by families.”[229]
5. CONCLUSION: The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments in the Sacramental
Economy
183. [Sacramental Visibility of Grace]. The sacramental economy, as an
incarnational economy, demands in itself a visibility of grace. The Church,
heiress and perpetuator of Christ’s work, constitutes this visible sign in
history. Its meaning is not reduced to procuring the means of salvation for the
faithful themselves. It makes God’s saving grace visible in the world. If the
Church were to disappear, the historical tangibility of salvation in Jesus
Christ would vanish. For this reason, the Church herself renders a service for
all. The Church is the means and instrument that proclaims the presence in
history of the universal plan of salvation in Jesus Christ. Every Christian
participates in this ecclesial mission, which each sacrament strengthens in its
own way. In each sacrament there is a reception of God’s gift; there is a
configuration to Christ and an ecclesial mission for the life of the world.
184. Since the sacramental sphere refers to external and verifiable visibility, when
access to the sacrament is denied, for example in the case of divorced and
remarried or others, no conclusion can be drawn about the whole truth about the
quality of that person’s faith. Christians of other denominations are not in
full visible sacramental communion with the Catholic Church because of the
persistence of profound differences in doctrine and Christian life. For this
reason, the sacramental celebration cannot make full communion visible.[230]
However, it is not excluded on principle that a non-Catholic Christian’s union
with Christ, through charity and prayer, may be more intense than that of a
Catholic, despite the fact that the latter enjoys the objective fullness of the
means of salvation. As the liturgy affirms, the ultimate judgment about the
quality of each person’s faith belongs to God alone: “whose faith and devotion
are known to you.”[231]
185. [Growth, Catechumenate]. Faith, as a virtue, is a dynamic reality. It can
grow, strengthen, and mature; but it can also do the opposite. The catechumenate
helps ensure that the sacraments are received with a faith that is more
conscious about what one is receiving and about what one is committing to.
Pastoral charity will have to decide the concrete terms of the catechumenate
according to the sacrament in question and the persons who ask for it, taking
into account the quality and intensity of their religious background. The
formation of catechists and their witness of life are crucial. On the other
hand, the very reception of the sacrament, with the commitment it implies,
invites us to continue the catechumenate, through mystagogical catechesis,
certainly after the sacraments of initiation and marriage. Both growth in faith
and a kind of continuous catechumenate are rightly present in some of the
so-called new ecclesial movements. In these movements, there is a socialization
achieved in faith and in ecclesial belonging. Moreover, they strongly emphasize
the sacramental dimension of faith through the emphasis on the grateful
reception of the gift, adoration of the Lord, and frequent reception of the
sacraments, emphasizing above all the irrevocable gift of God, which binds his
grace to the sacraments without conditioning it to the perfection of the
ministers or to the merits of those receiving them. From the vertical dimension
of sacramentality, they are strengthened, for they do not rely on themselves to
witness horizontally before the world how God’s grace makes breaks through
weakness (2 Cor 12:9).
186. [Insertion into the Sacramental Economy through Faith and the Sacraments].
The incorporation of the Christian into the sacramental economy happens through
faith and the sacraments. The sacraments offer to those with the desire and the
adequate disposition something as valuable as the pledge of eternal life and
loving closeness of Christ.
187. In the realization of the sacramental economy, like the unfolding of the
incarnation and its logic, the paschal mystery is highlighted as the culmination
in which love is fulfilled to the extreme (Jn 13:1; 15:13). The Christian,
through baptism (the sacrament of faith) is incorporated into this mystery,
participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus in a sacramental way (Rom
6:3–4); and at the same time, he becomes the living stone of the Church. Thus,
Christian life begins with incorporation into the essential core of the
sacramental economy.
188. The mystery of Christ included in its gift the gift of the Spirit, as the great
gift of the Risen One. At Pentecost, with the reception of the Spirit at the
culmination of her own constitution, the Church was fully aware of being graced
and sent on a universal mission. The Christian is incorporated into the
Pentecostal event through the sacraments of initiation, with a strengthening of
his faith and of responsibility both ad intra of the ecclesial community
and ad extra as a “missionary disciple.”
189. At the Last Supper, Jesus anticipated the meaning of His whole life and mystery
in words and gestures: His body was given, and His blood was shed for the many.
In the Eucharist, the Christian again receives the gift of the Lord, which he
expressly accepts as such in the “Amen,” so that he himself may continue to be
an active member of the body of Christ present in the world.
190. The dynamics of the sacramental economy can be interpreted as God’s covenant
with His people: an image with some nuptial connotations. In the mystery of
Christ as a whole, the definitive and irrevocable renewal of God’s covenant with
His people takes place through Christ. Christian spouses, by marrying “in the
Lord,” become a sign that testifies to the love that presides over Christ’s
relationship with the Church.
191. With his life, death and resurrection, Jesus brought God’s salvation, which
includes the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and reconciliation
among brethren by breaking down the wall of separation (Eph 2:4–6, 11–14). When
the Christian contradicts the meaning of the Gospel and the following of Christ,
he is reconciled with God and with the Church by receiving the sacrament of
penance with a repentant faith. Thus, if on the one hand the Church is renewed,
the one forgiven becomes an ambassador of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
192. Jesus approached many sick people, comforted them, healed them, and forgave
their sins. The one who receives the anointing is sacramentally united to Christ
at this moment when the power of sickness and death seems to triumph, to
proclaim in faith the victory of Christ and the hope of eternal life.
193. Jesus gathered around Himself a group of disciples and followers, whom He
instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of God and to whom He manifested the
mystery of His person. Those who respond in faith to the Lord’s call and receive
the sacrament of Holy Orders are configured to Christ, as Head and Shepherd, to
continue proclaiming the Gospel, leading the community in the likeness of the
Good Shepherd and offering the living and holy sacrifice.
194. [Sacramental Character of Faith]. The divine economy of salvation begins
with creation, is carried out in history, and moves toward eternal consummation.
However, not every look at history grasps the presence of God’s action in it;
for example: that the departure from Egypt was a deliverance wrought by God.
Likewise, one can know that Jesus performed miracles or that He was crucified,
but only the gaze of faith recognizes in the miracles signs of his messianic
nature (cf. Lk 7:18–23) and His divinity (cf. Mt 14:33; Lk 5:8; Jn 5), not the
power of Beelzebub (cf. Mk 3:22); or that on the cross the forgiveness of sins
(cf. Mt 27:39–44) and reconciliation with God (2 Cor 5:18–20) took place, and
not only an execution.
195. Therefore, following Augustine and Origen,[232]
we can distinguish what can be called a simple historicist look at the events of
salvation history. It is characterized by limiting itself to the knowledge of
the events and by giving credibility to the witnesses who narrate them, but
without grasping their historical-salvific meaning. However, the gaze proper to
faith, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, not only knows the historical events
in their historical materiality, but also perceives in them their salvific
nature. In other words, this gaze penetrates the authentic sacramental reality
of what is happening. By grasping the visibility of the historical, it perceives
the depth of grace present and at work in these events. This form of faith,
which is properly the Christian faith, is responsible not only for grasping the
presence of divine action in visible history, but also for the ability to
perceive the connection of these events with hope in the future life. Therefore,
this kind of faith does not only believe in eternal life, in the Holy Trinity,
and in Christ our Lord, but it is also the type of faith proper to the persons
who recognized the Risen One in the apparitions. Without this faith, history
does not take the form of a divine economy of salvation; it is resolved in an
accumulation of facts whose meaning is difficult to discern. In any case, it is
attributed to it from the outside. However, with the gift of faith, the meaning
of the course of historical events lies in the meaning that God himself gives
them: the divine economy presides over and governs history, leading it to
eternal life. In sum, the Christian faith is genuinely sacramental.
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