We receive grace through the sacraments. Sin objectively contradicts the life of grace.
This raises a question: can a sinful priest really administer the sacraments?
On the other hand, angels are spiritual beings who are radically informed by grace.
This raises another question: can angels, therefore, administer the sacraments?
In this video, we will talk about who can and who cannot administer
the sacraments of Christ’s Church and why.
The ministers of the sacraments are instruments of
grace. Aquinas distinguishes two kinds of instruments.
The first kind of instrument is called a conjoined instrument. A conjoined instrument
is an instrument that is attached to or that forms part of the one who uses the instrument.
An example of a conjoined instrument is the human hand.
The human hand is employed by the human person for various tasks; and yet the
human hand is also attached to and forms part of the human body. With regard to the person
of Christ, his humanity serves as the conjoined instrument of his divine nature and personhood.
There is also another kind of instrument: a separated instrument.
A separated instrument is not conjoined to the one who uses the instrument. A separated instrument
can be used by the instrument’s minister but it does not form part of the instrument’s minister.
An example of a separated instrument is a pencil. The pencil serves an instrumental role in the
production of a human person’s writing, but the pencil is not, itself, part of the human person.
Aquinas explains that the ministers of the Church work instrumentally in
the sacraments. An instrument works by the power of the one who uses the instrument.
In other words, an instrument does not produce an effect by itself.
Moreover, an instrument only contributes to the production of an effect (like the
pencil’s instrumental production of words on the page) because of the one who uses the instrument.
Similarly, God is the principal cause of a sacrament’s interior effects. But God uses
ministers—living separated instruments—to confer the interior effects of a sacrament.
Can sinners (for example, a priest in a state of mortal sin) actually (or “validly”) administer
the sacraments? The short answer is yes, they can. But why can sinful ministers
administer the sacraments? Because the minister—whether he be personally sinful
or personally holy—does not confer grace through the sacraments by his own power.
Rather, it is Jesus Christ who confers grace through the sacraments by his own
power through the instrumentality of his ministers. Christ is the principal cause
of grace. Those who worthily receive sacraments by the instrumentality of an unworthy minister
are not likened to the sinful minister, but rather to the holy Christ—the principal cause.
Aquinas offers the example of a pipe to illustrate this point. He explains that water can pass
through a pipe whether the pipe be made of silver (which is good) or of lead (which is not good).
Similarly, Jesus can still impart grace to his
people whether a priest be holy and virtuous or sinful and disordered.
Does an unworthy minister, himself, sin further through the administration of the sacraments? Yes.
Why? Aquinas explains: The sacramental ministers
ought to be conformed to Christ—and Christ is always holy. An unworthy minister is still
able to serve as a sacramental instrument. But it is most unfitting to be an unworthy
minister of the sacraments because of the sacred effects that the sacraments confer.
In sum, because the minister of a sacrament is an instrument,
a minister’s unfortunate spiritual state does not frustrate the power of the sacrament. Christ’s
divine power is the principal cause of the grace that comes through the sacraments.
If the legitimate minister really intends to celebrate a sacrament—as long as he
intends to perform his sacramental role as an instrument—the sacrament is truly celebrated,
and Christ really imparts the grace of the sacrament to those who receive it worthily.
No sin can ultimately frustrate the power of Christ’s sacraments.
God—in his infinite wisdom and love—ensured that the power of the sacraments would depend not
upon the personal holiness of the priest, but rather on Christ’s perfect personal holiness.
But what about holy beings, like the angels? Can angels administer the sacraments?
The short answer is no, they cannot. Why can’t angels administer the sacraments?
Because the power of the sacraments flows from Christ’s Passion on the Cross—and
Christ’s passion belongs to Christ in his humanity (in his human nature).
Nonetheless, Aquinas also reminds his readers that the sacraments do not limit or restrict
God’s power such that God is unable to give a saving sacramental effect apart
from the celebration of the sacraments. God is not bound to the sacramental order.
In cases of emergency, of course, God can give the effects of the sacraments
even if the celebration of the sacraments is not possible. Thus, if God wanted to,
he could use angels to give the grace ordinarily dispensed through the celebration of the
sacraments. But a situation like this—even if possible—would be highly extraordinary.
Indeed, we must pause here to make a final critical point, in conclusion.
Although God is not bound to the sacraments, the sacraments are essential to the whole of the
Christian life. They are the ordinary instruments of grace. Therefore, the human person should never
presume to receive a sacramental effect without actually receiving the sacraments.
The sacraments are among the most precious gifts that Jesus gave to his Church. Therefore,
anyone who wishes to live in union with Jesus as his loving friend, happily and regularly avails
himself or herself of the sacraments of Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
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