Our Gospel reading today is testifying to the sacramental life of the Catholic Church, which was instituted by Jesus Christ. But, we don’t often talk about what that really means. Let’s unpack it a little bit today.
The book of Genesis tells us that we are created in the image and likeness of God. That means, we're intended to be sacraments of the living God. Just as Jesus is the sacrament of the living God.
This is why the Church embraces a sacramental view of life and creation. All creation is meant to point towards God. All creation is meant to help us encounter God. The natural world is meant to be signs of God and ways to experience God’s presence and love in a more tangible way.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate Sacrament of God in the world. He is the Word of God made flesh, revealing the will of God in everything He says and does. The Catholic Church is called to be the Sacrament of Jesus Christ, the ‘Body of Christ’. The Church continues His mission to bring God’s reign into the world and acts as His authority in a broken world.
This sacramental worldview is reality. We live in a broken world precisely because it is detached from the reality of the sacramental worldview. Our politics are broken. Our governments are broken. Our society and culture are broken. Perhaps even some of our families are broken. The Catholic Church has the answer: just look at life, interpret life, and act upon life through the lens of the sacramental worldview.
Unfortunately, we often take what the world, the flesh, and the devil tell us and treat that as reality. We forget that only God is the author of reality. It is only through the lens of the sacramental worldview that we can truly see this reality. If everyone embraced the sacramental worldview, truly lived the sacramental life of the Catholic Church, our world would be a much better place.
It is up to us to develop within us that deep interior disposition to embrace the sacramental worldview in all aspects of our life. In many ways, that is a life-long journey. However, we can start with the seven Sacraments that Jesus instituted in the Catholic Church. The seven Sacraments, which are visible signs, instituted by Christ, to give grace. Visible signs of an invisible reality.
Through the sacraments, we can start diligently living the sacramental life of the Church and allowing the rest of the aspects of our lives to flow out from that sacramental worldview.
That's what we will be focusing on today, the seven Sacraments, which are the basis of the sacramental life of the Church and lay the foundation for an authentic Christian life.
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.
A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'
The Gospel of the Lord
I believe this reading from Luke encapsulates the Sacrament of Baptism in a very particular way that enables us to spiritually enter into the full mystery of what we experience.
Let's take a quick review of the characters in this parable. Each of us have been in the role of the victim, prior to our Baptism. We had been robbed of our original dignity by the father of lies and left to live a life without grace. Baptism restores this dignity and births us into the life of grace, which is the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. During the Rite of Baptism, the person about to be baptized is the victim.
The good Samaritan, as you might imagine, is Jesus. He anoints the victim with oil and wine (the wine representing the Sacraments of Initiation which are Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist). He bandages the wounds of the victim (the bandages representing the Christian dignity that comes with sacramental birth).
In the parable, the Good Samaritan takes the victim to the Inn and asks the Innkeeper to take care of the victim until He returns. Many don't realize this, but the Inn is the Catholic Church and the Innkeeper is the Pope, echoing the three-fold instruction of Jesus to Peter in the Gospel of John to tend to and feed His sheep until He returns at His second coming. This is the Catholic Church fortifying us with the Sacraments in this life so we can live with Jesus forever in the next.
Every well designed church has the baptismal font at the main entrance of the church. The idea is that it is through baptism that we are born into the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. Baptism is the prerequisite for all the other Sacraments. As the Catechism says, “through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as children of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission.”
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.
Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”’ So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His father ordered his servants, ‘Let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’”
The Gospel of the Lord
So, we have been baptized. We have been brought to the Inn of the Catholic Church to be spiritually fed by the Sacraments. However, living in the Inn means that we are living by everything Jesus teaches through His Holy Catholic Church.
There are certainly times in our lives when we are tempted to think we know better than the Catholic Church. That temptation may lead us to choose to break one of the Ten Commandments or choose to not follow one of the Precepts of the Church.
Objectively speaking, when we make that choice, we have committed a mortal sin. At that point, since we are no longer in a state of grace, we are no longer living in the Inn but instead living in the swine trough. Because we are no longer in a state of grace, we have been effectively cut off from the grace of God. We are no longer in a relationship with Father, until that relationship has been repaired in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
There is a really moving scene from the show, “The Chosen”. Mary Magdelene had effectively left the Inn. She had returned to her sinful way of life, among the swine. Jesus sends Peter and Matthew to find Mary in order to bring her back.
When she comes back, she is very hesitant to approach our Lord as she is filled with extreme guilt and shame. Our blessed Mother Mary holds her hand, encourages and strengthens her, and leads her into a private room with Jesus where her contrite heart meets the Sacred Heart. Jesus gives her absolution, pardon, and peace. Jesus embraces Mary like a father embraces a child.
That is what happens when we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we return to the Inn. We sacramentally encounter Jesus in the confessional. Through the voice of the priest, we receive absolution, pardon, and peace from Jesus. We are brought back into the Inn, the sacramental life of the Church. Our life of grace is restored. Our relationship with the Father is restored.
I find it helpful to do an examination of conscience often and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation frequently to help me live the sacramental life of the Church more diligently, more intentionally, and more efficaciously.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks my blood remains in Me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will have life because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
The Gospel of the Lord
The Eucharist is the New Covenant. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Faith. The words of Flannery O'Connor are so true, “If it's just a symbol, to hell with it.” If there is no Eucharist, there is no covenant, no sacramental life, no salvation.
Throughout history, the establishment of a covenant required two things: an initiation by one party and a response by the other party. God initiated a covenant with Adam, and Adam responded imperfectly. God initiated a covenant with Noah, and Noah responded imperfectly. God then initiated a covenant with Abraham, and Abraham also responded imperfectly. God initiated a covenant with Moses, and Moses (as you can probably guess) responded imperfectly. And, so one and so forth throughout the history of Israel in the Old Testament....until we get to the Last Supper.
At the Last Supper, in the context of the Jewish Passover, Jesus Christ through His divine nature initiated the new and everlasting covenant. Then, on the cross, Jesus Christ through His human nature offered the perfect response. On the cross, Jesus Christ drank from the fourth and final Passover cup (which is known as the Chalice of Hallel). On the cross, Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself as the true Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. On the cross, Jesus declared the consummation of the new covenant finished.
This transaction between initiation of and response to the new and everlasting covenant is the authentic context of Jesus's role as our one and true mediator with God. Only Jesus Christ in His divinity could initiate an eternal covenant. Only Jesus Christ in His humanity could offer a perfect response.
At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, to be our Passover Feast. The Eucharist is the way Jesus desires us to worship Him. But more than that: The Eucharist is the mechanism Jesus gave us that allows us to substantially participate in His once-and-for-all sacrifice on Calvary. The Eucharist is the mechanism Jesus gave us that allows us to efficaciously (effectively) participate in His perfect response to the new covenant.
This is why the Mass is so important. Without our active participation in the Mass, our personal response to the new covenant is imperfect at best, and quite possibly not efficacious. We need the Mass. We need the Eucharist. We need to drink from the chalice from which Jesus drank (namely, the Chalice of Hallel that is offered at every single Mass through the host). We need to eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood in order to have salvation and eternal life.
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter then testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
The Word of the Lord.
We are tempted to think of Confirmation as a Catholic graduation, because that is what it looks like from a secular worldview. But, in reality, it is meant to be a personal Pentecost. It is through Confirmation that we are more perfectly bound to the Body of Christ. It is through Confirmation (along with Baptism) that we receive the charisms God wants us to have in order to fulfill the mission He has for us, and we are strengthened with that grace. We are given our assignment to be true witnesses of the faith, and to spread and defend that faith through word and deed.
The same fire of the Holy Spirit that descended upon Mary and the Apostles in the Upper Room, descended upon us in the Sacrament of Confirmation. The same grace the Apostles received to be fearless witnesses of Him. The same grace the Apostles received to be strengthened at every stage of life. The same grace the Apostles received to be safe from all spiritual dangers. The same grace the Apostles received to be protected against invisible enemies. This grace is the same grace offered to us through Confirmation.
Every time we go to Mass, we are beneficiaries of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Eucharist. Every time we receive the Eucharist, we are strengthened with grace to exercise the charisms we received from the Holy Spirit. The charisms we received explicitly for this mission: to spread His word and do His work. Or as it says in the Catechism, to truly be “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
Jesus encapsulates the sacramental view of Confirmation at the time of the Ascension when He said, “The Holy Spirit has come upon you and you have received great power. Now go, be my witnesses to the ends of the Earth.”
That is our call as confirmed Catholics, to extend the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout the world and, to paraphrase the Catechism, call the whole of humanity together into the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation through the Sacramental world view. To call the whole of humanity into the fulfillment of Noah's Ark in order to save them from the flood of human secularism. Confirmation makes this possible.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
The Gospel of the Lord
In this reading, we see the discourse playing out between the Sacramental bond of marriage, conjugal love, and the dignity of the human person. Jesus is contrasting the purity of the original innocence of humanity to the sinfulness that is a consequence of the fallen nature of humanity.
Jesus is confirming that human dignity is found in the image and likeness of God, which is found uniquely in humanity.
A man leaves his parents and cleaves to his wife. Through the sacramental bond, they become one flesh. This sacramental bond, joined by God, is divine in its unity and indissolubility. Humanity simply does not have the capacity to separate what God has joined.
God created man to be male and female, both modes of mankind bear the divine image in the body. Male and female are the perfect gift of self to the other. Human beings are created to be gifts to the other. A total gift of self in a reciprocal relationship.
A reciprocal relationship of deferential love similar to that of the Holy Trinity. In fact, Holy Matrimony is to be a sacramental image of the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Trinity is a communion of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. An eternal union of Love. A love where each person is a total gift of self to the other. A love that is humble and self-deferential, putting the other before Himself. We are designed in that image. We are designed for that relationship...the relationship that is intended to be Holy Matrimony.
Apostolic Tradition tells us that the wedding at Cana is where Jesus Christ elevated Marriage from its natural state instituted by God in the Garden to Eden to its sacramental state in the Catholic Church. Cana is the moment Jesus institutes the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
There is a lot of symbolism in the reading of the Wedding of Cana, not just Holy Matrimony, but all of the sacraments: wine representing the flow of grace through the sacramental life of the Church, six stone jars symbolizing six of the sacraments (all of which are actions of Jesus) with Jesus Himself being the seventh Sacrament, namely the Eucharist, the transubstantiation of water into wine, the servants (prefiguring the diaconate) preparing the jars for Jesus in order to confect the transubstantiation, and of course Jesus representing the priesthood. There are also many other powerful symbols.
Throughout Scripture there is a lot of imagery of Jesus as the Bridegroom and the Catholic Church as the bride. Not only are our marriages meant to be a sacramental image of the Holy Trinity, but they are meant to be an extension of the eternal marriage of Jesus and the Church...the eternal marriage of which its consummation is presented to us at each and every Mass....a consummation that we participate in every time we receive the Eucharist.
Just as the stone jars were effectively meaningless until Jesus changed the water into wine, our marriages need to be continually transformed and strengthened by the Mass and the Eucharist. A true sacramental marriage cannot be separated from the Eucharist...at least, not without “running out of wine” as vividly declared at the Wedding of Cana.
Virginia and I had the opportunity to rent electric bicycles in the Canadian Rockies. As we were riding, I was struck by an analogy to Holy Matrimony.
Imagine if you and your spouse are riding a tandem bicycle up a mountain. If the bike were a regular tandem bike, representing a natural, non-sacramental, marriage, this would be a difficult task. Likely, it would be a miserable time, including resentment towards each other for a perception that the other isn't peddling hard enough. You may even have to get off and push the heavy bike up the mountain.
With an electric tandem bike, while the electric motor does not replace your efforts, it augments your efforts and helps you get through the challenges of pedaling up the mountain. Similar to a sacramental marriage, we still have to do the work, we still have to face the difficulties, we still have to overcome the challenges, but the sacramental grace is there to support us, to strengthen us, and to see us through.
That said, the electric motor of the bike doesn't work without electricity that flows from the battery. Similarly, a sacramental marriage does not work without the grace that flows from the Eucharist. And, just as the battery needs to be recharged on a regular basis, we need to go to Mass regularly to receive the Eucharist.
Our marriages need to be renewed and strengthened from an authentic and thorough love for the Eucharist.
Allow Jesus to love your spouse through you. Allow your marriage to be one with the eternal marriage of Jesus and the His Holy Catholic Church. Model your marriage after the deferential love of the Holy Trinity. Live your marriage through the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. So they went off and preached repentance. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
The Gospel of the Lord
In the Anointing of the Sick, the Church is first and foremost, uniting our suffering to the passion and death of Jesus Christ in a very substantial way. It allows Jesus to sacramentally take on our infirmities and bear our diseases. This sacrament helps us turn our suffering into a true sacrifice in union with the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It brings a new depth of meaning to our suffering as we participate in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
In Scripture, Jesus did not always physically heal the sick. The same can be said of Jesus acting in the Anointing of the Sick. In those times this sacrament does not bring physical healing, it can still be an agent of conversion, helping the sick person let go of the things of this world in order to focus on the things of God.
Thus, this sacrament can provide something far more radical than just physical healing: it can provide the victory over sin and death through the Passover of Jesus Christ. This includes the forgiveness of sin.
When administered close to the moment of death, Anointing of the Sick completes our conformity to the death and resurrection of Christ, just as Baptism began it. This sacrament completes the holy anointings that mark the whole Christian life: Baptism seals the sacramental life in us. Confirmation strengthens us in the sacramental life and aids us in the combat of this mortal life. This last anointing fortifies us in the sacramental life at the end of our mortal life while preparing us for the final struggles before entering eternity.
We don't need to wait until we are on our deathbed to receive the Anointing of the Sick. Anytime we have a condition where we are in danger of death, including when we are to undergo a serious operation, we should receive the Anointing of the Sick. Two other situations that I recommend are senior citizens experiencing increased frailty and those illnesses that may have a spiritual component to them, such as addictions, anorexia, extreme depression, and the like.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you that from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you. It is you who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
The Gospel of the Lord
There are a lot of things going on at the Last Supper. The institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the Mass, and the institution of the Priesthood, among other things related to the sacramental life of the Catholic Church.
I've mentioned the priesthood during many of the other sacraments because it is through the priesthood that Jesus Christ administers His sacraments. It is through the priesthood (ultimately the Pope) that Jesus tends to and feeds His sheep until He comes again at His second coming. It is through the priesthood (particularly the bishops) that Jesus continues to teach, sanctify, and govern in His Kingdom.
That makes the priesthood immensely important. We must always pray for our priests, that they will be true sacraments of Christ in our parishes. We must always pray for their spiritual protection from the evil one. We must always pray for future priests, that young men will be open to and answer the call of God in their lives. We must always encourage the young men in our lives to consider a vocation in the priesthood. Too many times, we ask our children what they want to be when they grow up, but we rarely ask them what God wants them to be.
Without priests, we don't have the Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, we don't have eternal life. It is that simple.
Pray for our priests, and always be open to how Christ is operating through the priests in our lives and in our parishes.
The whole aim of the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church is to enable us to interact with the Divine through the world around us, to conform us into Christ, to purify us of those things that are not compatible with the true image of God, and to make us part of the whole Christ.
There is one moment mentioned in the Catechism that we should all look forward to participating in: “The Father's power 'raised up' Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including His Body into the Trinity.”
Think about that for a moment.
His Body, the Body of Christ, consisting of those who diligently live the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church, introduced perfectly into the Holy Trinity.
The mechanism for this is ultimately through the Eucharist and authentically living the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church.
Brothers and sisters, embrace the reality of the Sacramental life of the Church. Embrace this reality where we see divine love all around us. Embrace this reality where we see divine love in all created things. Embrace this reality where divine love makes intimate contact with us through created things like water, oil, bread, and wine. Embrace this reality in order to truly share in the life of God Himself.
Thanks be to God!
