As we’ve discussed in previous episodes, we human beings are composites of an immaterial
soul and a material body. The body is the matter, and the soul is the form.
The soul informs the body. Furthermore, our souls have the power of intellect and the power of will.
And our bodies have the powers of the senses. And we've referred repeatedly to how the sacraments
respond to our human condition. Today we will discuss why sacraments are signs.
As Aristotle and St. Thomas explained, our intellectual power depends for its
operation on data from the senses. And our volitional power depends upon
the operation of the intellect. In a loose sense,
we could describe the human dynamic as moving from the senses to the intellect to the will.
That dynamic describes all human beings of all times and all places. After the Fall
of Adam and Eve, we human beings find our wills to be weak and wavering from sinful
tendencies. Our intellects are dulled by confusions, especially from the senses.
Our senses are unruly and seem to have a mind of their own, looking for love in all the wrong
places. And our physical bodies get sick and die. All of these aspects of the postlapsarian
human being afflict even those of us who are graced by Christ to be in the state of grace.
The structure of the sacraments as both physical and spiritual responds to our human
composition, both insofar as we are physical and spiritual and insofar as we are sinners.
The sacraments are physical in that they use physical human gestures and words. The sacraments
are spiritual and immaterial in that they are moved by God. They are spiritual and immaterial
in that they confer spiritual, immaterial grace, a participation in God’s own life.
And they are spiritual in that their specific physicality speaks, signifies, to our human
intellects. Our physical senses apprehend how the sacramental minister gestures and speaks,
and how the sacramental recipient receives the minister’s actions.
Let’s take the example of baptism. In the sacrament of baptism, a minister,
such as a Catholic priest, pours water over the head of a person and says a particular phrase;
Roman Catholics say: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Christ’s gracious movement in this sacrament is to unite that baptized person to Himself,
to free the person from sin, and to raise up that person to the state of holiness. The spiritual
cleansing and rejuvenation of baptism is signified by and works through the physical cleansing
of the baptismal rite. Powerful spiritual and intellectual meaning is in the very physicality
of the objects and actions. To understand this, we need to examine those objects and actions.
Let’s begin with water. The sight of water can mean many different things to different people,
depending upon the context and use. In a shower or bathtub, water suggests cleaning.
In a manmade swimming pool, water suggests fun water games or exercise.
But if you’re swimming all alone in the middle of the ocean,
and there are shark fins swimming around you, all of that water screams danger and death.
So, the very existence of water in these examples can speak something concrete.
What water says partly depends upon how we use it. With respect to cleaning with water, we want to
use clean water, not dirty water. It’s better for our health. Indeed, what’s good for our health is
species-dependent. Chickens, for instance, clean themselves in dust, not water. We can see water,
and washing with clean water, as signs of good human health, but chickens, they do not.
Continuing our example of baptism, we can note that babies get dirty, and mothers and fathers
lovingly wash their babies in clean water. But those washings are not baptisms. Why not?
Because there’s no indication of any such baptism.
Baptism is just one of many kinds of washings with water. A mother can bathe
her baby and sing “Splish Splash I was taking a bath” or “Rubber Duckie” or “Baby Shark,”
and it’s great fun but not a baptism.
For a baptism to occur, in addition to the washing with water, the minister needs to indicate more
clearly what he is doing. This occurs through a verbal formula, for instance the one I mentioned
earlier, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
The words specify that this is a baptism and not an ordinary child’s bath time.
The sacramental combination of physical objects, gestures, and words is like how an animal’s
physical body is informed and shaped by its spiritual soul. We’ll talk more about this in
a few episodes when we look at sacramental matter and form. For now, the relevant point is that the
objects, gestures, and words in a sacrament all signify Christ’s action of sanctification.
For each sacrament, there’s a specific combination of objects,
gestures, and words that signify and bring about a particular spiritual sanctification. Nonverbal
objects or actions are not enough, and words are not enough. One needs the entire combination.
That dynamic of signification responds to who we are as fallen
human beings. Through these gestures and words, Christ leads us from “things
corporeal and sensible to things spiritual and intelligible.”
Christ’s condescension to use physical things for spiritual transformation is even more merciful
for us human beings after Adam and Eve insofar as we are overly interested in the physical.
In a sense, Christ says to us: ‘I know, my brothers and sisters, that you like to do physical
things and that you’re attracted to shiny objects. Here in my sacraments are holy physical things,
objects that will make you shine on the inside.”
Could Christ just snap His fingers and sanctify us without all of these physical helps?
Yes. But in Christ’s wisdom, another aspect of His sacramental
mercy is that He incorporates us as actors in His salvific works.
One human being, for instance, a Catholic priest, can be a minister of a sacramental rite,
and there are one or more other human beings who are sacramental recipients.
And moving both the minister and the recipient is another agent, a divine one, God.
God works through the minister’s physical actions in order to spiritually sanctify the
recipient. Given all of these different agents, here is another reason that the
sacraments are signs. The human minister has to indicate to others—the recipients—a human
change (sanctification) that occurs through divine power.
There are too many agents in this movement to have a change without some form of signification, for
instance, by God’s simply doing the change. Christ could simply sanctify the recipient, but He gets
us involved in the action, and thus we need to use signs. Signification, for instance, talking or
writing, is essential to any human communication, and the sacraments are human communicative events.
And just like good human communications,
we can misspeak in the sacraments. The word “yes” indicates assent,
it is the opposite of “no.” Our words matter. Our speech matters. Our actions speak.
If we don’t use the right objects, actions, and gestures—if we thus change the signification—the
attempt to form a sacramental sign can falter and fail. If a wannabe
baptismal minister tries to baptize with dust—as a chicken would like—or
with black petroleum, the sign would be off. No baptism would occur.
So, sacraments involve physical objects, gestures, and words that bring about spiritual holiness. In
Christ’s mercy, responding to our human condition, He has given us these sacramental helps as signs.
For readings, podcasts, and more videos like this go to Aquinas101.com.
While you're there, be sure to sign up for one of our free video courses on Aquinas.
And don’t forget to like and share with your friends, because it matters what you think!