The Sacramental Mystery

By Paul Haffner

The seven sacraments lie at the centre of Christian life and experience, for here God the Holy Trinity touches human lives and hearts. This book is one of the few at the present time to offer a global synthesis of the main themes in the sac

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gracewing Publishing
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781781821022

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First published in 1999

by

Gracewing

2, Southern Avenue

Leominster

Herefordshire

HR6 0QF

www.gracewing.co.uk

Second edition 2007, revised, updated and reset

Reprinted 2008, with minor corrections

Third edition 2016, revised, updated and reset

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

© Paul Haffner 1999, 2007, 2008, 2016

The right of Paul Haffner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Nihil Obstat:

Mgr Cyril Murtagh, Censor Deputatus

Imprimatur:

Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth

3 September 1998

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat or Imprimatur agree with the content, opinions, or statements expressed.

ISBN 978 0 85244 894 6

E-ISBN 978 1 78182 102 2

Contents

Contents

Foreword

Preface to Third Edition

Preface to Second Edition

Preface to First Edition

Abbreviations

1 Sacraments in General

1.1 Christ, the Sacrament of the Father

1.2 The Church, the Sacrament of Christ

1.3 The concept of sacrament

1.4 Divine institution of the sacraments

1.5 Number of the sacraments

1.6 Sacramental causality

1.7 Matter and form of the sacraments

1.8 The minister and the intention

1.9 The recipient

1.10 The effects

1.10.1 Sacramental grace

1.10.2 The sacramental character

1.11 Sacraments and sacramentals

2 Baptism

2.1 Institution

2.1.1 Old Testament preparation

2.1.2 New Testament institution

2.1.3 Historical development

2.2 The External Sign

2.2.1 The matter

2.2.2 The Form

2.3 The Minister

2.4 The Recipient

2.5 Effects of Baptism

2.5.1 Forgiveness of sins

2.5.2 Union with Christ

2.5.3 Gift of the Holy Spirit

2.5.4 Adopted Child of God the Father

2.5.5 Membership of the Church

2.6 Gift and Response

2.7 The Necessity of Baptism

2.8 Infants who die without Baptism

3 Confirmation

3.1 Baptism and Confirmation

3.2 Institution and existence of Confirmation

3.2.1 Scripture

3.2.2 Church Fathers

3.2.3 Church teaching

3.3 The external sign

3.3.1 The matter

3.3.2 The form

3.4 The minister

3.5 The recipient

3.6 The effects

4 The Holy Eucharist

4.1 The institution of the Eucharist

4.1.1 Prefigurations in the Old Testament

4.1.2 Prefigurations in the New Testament

4.1.3 Institution by Christ

4.2 The external sign

4.2.1 The matter

4.2.2 The form

4.3 The Eucharistic Presence of Christ

4.3.1 Patristic belief

4.3.2 Theological development

4.3.3 The Reformation

4.3.4 Recent reaffirmations

4.3.5 Greek idea

4.4 The Eucharistic Sacrifice

4.4.1 Patristic concept

4.4.2 Further development

4.5 The minister

4.6 Eucharistic Communion

4.6.1 The recipient

4.6.2 Ecclesial Communion

4.6.3 Ecumenical issues

4.6.4 The effects

5 Penance

5.1 Scriptural Data

5.1.1 Old Testament

5.1.2 New Testament

5.2 Historical and theological development

5.2.1 Patristic period

5.2.2 The Middle Ages

5.2.3 The Reformation

5.2.4 Recent period

5.3 The sacramental sign

5.3.1 The quasi matter

5.3.2 The form

5.4 The minister

5.5 Reconciliation in the life of the Church

5.5.1 The recipient

5.5.2 The effects

5.5.3 Indulgences

6 Anointing of the Sick

6.1 Scriptural data

6.1.1 Old Testament

6.1.2 New Testament

6.2 Historical and theological development

6.3 The external sign

6.3.1 The matter

6.3.2 The form

6.4 The minister

6.5 The recipient

6.5.1 Serious illness

6.5.2 Care of the dying

6.5.3 Frequency of anointing

6.5.4 Ecumenical questions

6.6 The effects

7 Sacred Orders

7.1 Institution

7.1.1 Old Testament preparation

7.1.2 Institution of Orders by Christ

7.2 Historical and theological development

7.2.1 Orders in the primitive Church

7.2.2 Patristic period

7.2.3 Later development

7.3 The sacramental sign

7.3.1 The matter

7.3.2 The form

7.4 The minister

7.5 The recipient

7.6 The effects

7.6.1 Being of the recipient

7.6.2 Action of the recipient

8 Holy Matrimony

8.1 Institution of marriage

8.1.1 Old Testament

8.1.2 New Testament

8.2 Theological development

8.3 The sacramental sign

8.3.1 Consent

8.3.2 The matter and form

8.4 The ministers

8.4.1 Latin rite

8.4.2 Eastern rites

8.4.3 The intention

8.5 The recipient

8.5.1 Impediments

8.5.2 Special cases

8.5.2.1 Mixed religion

8.5.2.2 Disparity of cult

8.6 The effects

8.6.1 The bond

8.6.2 Sacramental grace

8.7 The goods and requirements

8.7.1 Unity

8.7.2 Indissolubility

8.7.3 Fidelity and openness to offspring

Concluding thought

Select Bibliography

Index

Foreword

THIS BOOK IS a short introduction to sacramental theology which I hope will be helpful to the clergy, religious and laity who wish to deepen their awareness of these God-given gifts of our Christian life. It is a forthright exposition of the sacramental mystery and it embraces biblical, patristic, theological and spiritual themes interwoven with recent Magisterial pronouncements on the subject. It traces some of the chief aspects of the historical development of the Church’s understanding mystery of the sacraments. The book does not attempt to be particularly novel in its approach, but rather aims to present an organic synthesis of these saving signs of Christ’s presence in His Church. It is my hope that these pages will help Christians deepen their understanding of the sacraments, assist them in loving and appreciating those great moments of grace when Christ touches our lives through them, and thus promote a more frequent and devotional sacramental attendance among the faithful.

I warmly commend this work on the subject of sacramental theology, published at the auspicious time of the threshold of the Third Millenium. It should help Christians rediscover the sacramental dimension of their lives, and promote that reconciliation which is so much a part of the Holy Year, the Great Jubilee Year 2000.

His Grace Archbishop Csaba Ternyák

Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy

Vatican City, 24 June 1998

Preface to Third Edition

NEARLY TWENTY YEARS have gone by since the first edition of this book, and we have thought it fit to issue a third edition, revised, updated and reset. A few new documents and directives on the sacraments have been formulated since the second edition was published. Moreover, some corrections have been applied to the second edition which my readers kindly pointed out. Some new material has also been added, but without increasing too much the volume of this work. It is my hope as ever that this book will continue to be of assistance to students and general readers alike. I would like to thank Rev Canon George Woodall for his help in the preparation of this volume. Dr Jo Markette, Director of University of Mary-Tempe and Assistant Professor has also made useful observations.

Rome, Trinity Sunday 2016

Preface to Second Edition

NEARLY TEN YEARS have now elapsed since the first edition of this book, and we have thought it wise to publish a second edition, revised, updated and reset. Several new documents and directives on the sacraments have been formulated since the earlier edition was published. Moreover, some corrections have been applied to the first edition which my readers kindly pointed out. Some new material has also been added, but without increasing too much the volume of this work. It is my hope as ever that this book will continue to be of assistance to students and general readers alike. I would like to thank Claire Foster for her help in the preparation of this volume. I should add finally that His Grace the Most Reverend Csaba Ternyák, who wrote the Foreword, has now been named Archbishop of Eger, Hungary.

Rome, Trinity Sunday 2007

Preface to First Edition

THIS BOOK HAS been prepared to fulfil a need for an introductory text on sacramental theology. The treatment is from the standpoint of Catholic dogmatic theology. Liturgical, pastoral and canonical aspects are therefore only treated secondarily as are areas concerning spirituality. The work is written with College students of theology in mind; it is also intended for the non-scholarly reader who wishes to deepen his or her theological knowledge of this central aspect of Christian life.

The sacraments may seem to have changed a great deal in the past fifty years, especially in regard to the way they are carried out. However, this work seeks to highlight the continuity of the ongoing Tradition of the Church in order to stress the underlying continuity and essence of these sacred signs. In doing so, while respecting the value of scholarship, this text does not accept that theological truth derives from a consensus among thinkers, but rather from adherence to the revealed deposit of faith, which must of course be expressed with clarity for every epoch of the Church.

Several different schemes could have been chosen as a way of ordering the chapters. I have decided to follow the sequence followed by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Thus the book starts with the three sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist. Then the book moves to consider the sacraments of healing, namely Penance and Anointing of the Sick. Finally, the sacraments which serve Christian communion are treated, namely Sacred Orders and Holy Matrimony.

The sacramental mystery is indeed the ‘mystery of mysteries’ for here the human and the divine, the material and the spiritual realms are intimately intertwined. The mystery is the work of the Most Holy Trinity and in this context the book is offered as a Jubilee Year meditation. The sacraments are the chief means in the Church via which mankind is reconciled to the Father, through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I should like to thank the people who helped to bring this book to fruition. First of all, my gratitude goes to Rt Rev Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth. Also I am very grateful to Archbishop Csaba Ternyák, Secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy who kindly wrote the Foreword. Next, several priest colleagues helped me on one point or another, and here my thanks are given to Fr Matteo Byeon, Fr Gabriel Delgado, Fr Fintan Gavin and Fr Christopher Kunze, LC. At the publishers, Tom Longford and Jo Ashworth deserve my gratitude for being the ‘midwives’ through whom this offspring came to birth.

Rome, 31 May 1998

Trinity Sunday

Abbreviations

The Scriptural quotations and abbreviations in this work are generally taken from the New Jerusalem Bible. The Vulgate numbering of the psalms is employed.

1 Sacraments in General

Forth from the Father He comes

with His sevenfold mystical dowry,

Pouring on human souls infinite riches of God.

‘Salve festa dies’, from the York Processional

THE SACRAMENTAL MYSTERY lies at the very heart of Christian life in the Church. For it is through the Church and in the sacraments, that God the Father through His Son by the working of the Holy Spirit communicates His divine life to His people. Although God is not bound by these efficacious sacred signs instituted by His Son, in general they are the privileged channels where He touches the lives of His faithful. This chapter introduces some general themes which are common to all of the sacraments, in order to render an easier understanding of each one when it is treated separately; it also indicates the theological basis of the sacramental Christian experience.

1.1 Christ, the Sacrament of the Father

In a sense, the sacramental dynamic starts with the inner life of the Most Holy Trinity. It is the initiative of God. However, before there can be a sacramental system, there has to be a material creation, which in its turn makes possible the mystery of the Incarnation. God has prepared His sacramental economy at the heart of His plan of salvation. Christ has come to reveal and make present among people the life and love of the Holy Trinity. Christ is the Sacrament of the Father, the One who is sent by the Father, and who makes Him visible, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In this sense, the sacramental mystery is rooted in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. However, it is a gratuitous gift, for God was never bound from external or internal necessity, to create, never obliged to reveal Himself, and never forced to share His Life and Love.

Before the theme of the Incarnation can be addressed, it is necessary to consider the dogma of Creation, the first article of the Creed, as the logical and ontological basis for all theology. This first step is also important because of the fundamental difference between the Judaeo-Christian vision of creation and other approaches. The Christian vision is marked by order, coherence, rationality, goodness, linearity with respect to time, a rejection of superstition, and a promotion of man and woman as stewards of creation. Ancient and modern pagan approaches often involve a chaotic or chance vision of reality, some idea that matter is evil, and a cyclical notion of history. The Christian vision of creation brings in its wake philosophical realism which is also a necessary foundation of the sacramental economy.¹ Sacramental theology is bound up with a realist approach to the fabric of space and time.

The creation of man and woman provides a further foundation for sacramental understanding. For the human person is both material and spiritual, external and internal, visible and invisible. These elements must be present therefore in the sacraments and liturgy to harmonize with human nature. Since a sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace, it harmonizes with the composite characteristics of human nature as both material and spiritual. Material elements are employed in sacraments, for example water, wine, bread, oil. The sacramental system is consonant with the nature of the human person as body and soul, material and spiritual, external and internal.

The outward signs of the sacraments are themselves made possible by the creation, and were prefigured in various ways in the Old Testament. The Old Testament covenant involved some important signs like the rainbow (Gn 9:11‒17), circumcision (Gn 17:6‒13), the Passover (Ex 12), the covenant ratification with bull’s blood (Ex 24:1‒11), the tent (Ex 29:43‒45) and the Temple (1 K 6). Sacred signs were perfected in the New Testament to express Christ’s power and His Kingdom, and these include the changing of water into wine at the Wedding Feast at Cana (Jn 2:1‒12) and the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Jn 6:1‒15) which both prefigure the Holy Eucharist.

In the Christian picture, the Incarnation brings about a new meaning to creation and history and brings together the Transcendence and Immanence of God. Christ is outside of time and yet in Him time and eternity meet. Christ, God and Man, is a Mystery and a Revelation. The sacraments therefore must be based on two fundamental pivots: the nature of man and woman and also the mystery of the Incarnation. Hence sacraments are a harmonious fusion of the external and internal, the material and spiritual, the human and the Divine, grace and nature. However, the sacramental economy must also take account of the reality of sin and evil, in the concrete forms of the Fall, original sin and actual sin, sickness, suffering and death. Christ came to heal and redeem fallen man. The Creation and Incarnation must, as a result of the Fall, be seen in the light of redemption through the Paschal Mystery. The sacraments are regarded especially by the Eastern Fathers of the Church as the healing power of Christ, the Divine Physician.

1.2 The Church, the Sacrament of Christ

Christ desired to found a Church and its sacraments. Sacraments have always been viewed in relation to the Church, although understanding of this link has undergone and continues to undergo a theological development. Discussions about non-Christian ministers of baptism in the early Church and the efficacy of sacraments administered to non-Catholics bear witness to this type of question. A very fruitful line of approach regards the Church herself as a sacrament, but in an analogous way to the application of the term to the seven sacraments. Locating the sacramental economy within the context of the Church as the sacrament of Christ sheds light on the recurrent theme of the relation between the individual and community emphases in the celebration of the sacraments. The sacraments are essentially ecclesial and in this perspective any tension between the individual and the community can be resolved. Seeing the sacraments in an ecclesial context also indicates that they are manifestations of Christ‘s power, theophanies which reveal and make present God’s love. They are a privileged point of encounter with God in today’s world.

The unity between Christ and His Church set up by the redemptive Incarnation forms the basis for the efficacy of the sacramental system. This Trinitarian sacramental economy is already present in outline in the Pauline letters: ‘He has let us know the mystery of His purpose, according to His good pleasure which He determined beforehand in Christ’ (Ep 1:9). The gradual unfolding of a mystery of revelation is the basis for understanding the Church’s continuing role in this economy: ‘Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: He was made visible in the flesh …’ (1 Tm 3:16).

Indeed, the word ‘mystery’ rendered by mystérion (μυστήριον) in Greek and by the Latin sacramentum, lies at the etymological root of the English word ‘sacrament.’ The theological basis of the Church seen as Sacrament is both the Incarnation and the Redemption or Paschal Mystery. In the Incarnation, Christ reveals the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Redemption opens the way for union with God which had been lost by sin. Christ is both God and man. As God He has the power to institute the sacraments: as Man He carries out this institution for us. The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ enables a relationship with God, in the Church, which is the sacrament of Christ. Developments in ecclesiology over the past century led to the Church being regarded as the primordial sacrament. The theology of the whole Church as a sacrament was developed during the nineteenth century by J. H. Oswald and M. J. Scheeben. Last century, O. Semmelroth unfolded further this idea.² The Second Vatican Council made this approach its own by stating: ‘The Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament—a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among men.’³ The concept of the Church as sacrament gives meaning to those various other descriptions such as new people of God, mystical Body of Christ, Bride of Christ.⁴

The model of the Church which best squares with the flavour of this book is the bridal image in which Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church His mystical Bride. This picture was prepared and prefigured in the Old Testament in the bridal image of the Song of Songs, which St Hippolytus, Origen, St Athanasius, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Bernard of Clairvaux, St John of the Cross and other Fathers and Doctors of the Church have interpreted as symbolic of union between Christ and His Church. The bridal imagery has many implications, but it applies especially to Christ and the Church (cf. Ep 5:32). One of the sacraments, Matrimony, thus becomes an image for the nature of the Church as a primordial sacrament. The permanent character imparted by some of the sacraments reflects the indissoluble bond between Christ and His Church. Christ cares for His Bride though the sacraments, in the power of the Holy Spirit. He washes her clean through Baptism, anoints and strengthens her with the oil of chrism in Confirmation and feeds her with His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Christ heals the sins of her members through Penance, soothes their sickness in Anointing. He ministers to His mystical Bride in the sacrament of Orders and reflects His love for her in Holy Matrimony.

1.3 The concept of sacrament

Certain sacred signs in the Old Covenant foreshadowed the sacramental economy brought about by Christ. In the New Testament, salvation and eternal life are transmitted through matter and the word, as is seen in St Paul’s bridal imagery for the Church: ‘He made her clean by washing her with water with a form of words’ (Ep 5:26). This divine life communicated by the sacraments of the new law is the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises: ‘How much more effectively the Blood of Christ, who offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we can do our service to the living God’ (Heb 9:14).

St Paul’s reference to the bridal imagery of Christ and His Church involved the expression ‘mystery’, a term which is capable of various interpretations (See Ep 5:32). The Greek word mystérion which denotes mystery here, derives from the expression muo meaning ‘to shut the mouth’. The expression mystérion in biblical terms refers to a hidden thing, a secret or a mystery, and in rabbinic writings denoted the mystic or hidden sense of an Old Testament saying or of an image seen in a vision. In its turn, the Latin word sacramentum renders the equivalent of mysterion in the Vulgate. The English word sacrament is a translation of the Latin word, which for the early Christians had the sense of something sacred, secret, involving initiation to some type of service. Among the Romans the expression was adopted specifically for the oath which soldiers took on entering the service of the emperor.⁵ Tertullian (steeped in the Roman legal tradition) was one of the first to apply the word in the context of Christian rites, especially those of initiation.

Before the Church arrived at a unified vision of the sacraments it took nearly eleven centuries. During this time, it became necessary to distinguish the sacraments from other sacred realities in the life of the Church. The Greeks, following the Alexandrian school in the works of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, employed the word mystérion or its plural mystéria. They thought in Platonic categories, according to which the world of the senses is a world of images and symbols, above which lies the true world of divine ideas. Origen adopted the expression mystérion to refer to baptism and the Eucharist, and by the beginning of the fourth century this usage seems to be common. At the end of the fourth century, St John Chrysostom used the formulation ‘the mysteries’ to refer to the Holy Eucharist. Unfortunately, among certain pagan rites such as those of Mithras, the cult was also described in terms of mystéria. As the pagan religions faded away, the word mystéria was used increasingly also in the West so that two words evolved into use for the idea of sacrament in the Latin West, sacramentum and mysterium.⁶ Gradually, in the West, the word sacramentum became more favoured to describe the rites, while mysterium wasused to denote the realities of the faith and salvation in themselves, like the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Thereafter, in the West, controversies took place which refined the usage of the expression sacramentum. St Augustine made the important distinction between the sign (signum) and content (res). This distinction was adopted in the struggle against the Donatists, who arose in the context of a development of the dispute between the See of Rome and that of Carthage concerning the re-baptism of apostates and heretics. St Cyprian and the Church in Carthage maintained that an apostate needed to be re-baptized. Pope Stephen I objected to this, because it was a departure from the Tradition of the Church. In the year 256, Pope Stephen wrote to Cyprian stating that, in accordance with Tradition, heretics should be reconciled by the sacrament of penance, and not by re-baptism.⁷ Later, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Donatists emerged in North Africa, denying the truth that Baptism is once and for all. The Donatists, while believing that re-baptism was necessary, twisted the doctrine of baptism to their own end, maintaining that as they really had the sacrament of baptism (and this could not be denied after Stephen I had spoken), then they were the Church of Christ. In this context, St Augustine gave the word sacramentum the refinements which have remained with it ever since. He distinguished between the sacramental sign (signum) and the grace content (res). In this formulation, the Donatists received the sacrament validly, but not the grace, as they put an obstacle in the way by opposing the true Church of Christ.

St Augustine stressed the visible sign aspect of the sacrament, and its relation to the spiritual reality which it signifies. Further steps in sacramental theology led to the medieval picture. Isidore of Seville (d. 636) distinguished more sharply than Augustine between sign and reality; although he employed the word sacrament in many senses, he was the first to offer the idea of sacrament to a unified picture of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.⁸ St Isidore was therefore a bridge in sacramental theology linking St Augustine with medieval thought. Hugh of St Victor conceived the sacraments as containing grace rather like a vessel contains liquid:

A sacrament is a corporal or material element manifested externally, which represents by resemblance, signifies by institution and contains by sanctification a certain spiritual or invisible grace.⁹

Around the year 1150, Peter Lombard arrived at his famous definition in the Fourth Book of the Sentences:

A sacrament is properly said to be such a sign of the grace of God and form of invisible grace as to be at the same time the image and cause of it.¹⁰

These ideas paved the way for St Thomas who defined a sacrament in the proper sense of the word to be a sign of a sacred reality inasmuch as it sanctifies man.¹¹ The Council of Trent took up these Augustinian and Thomistic ideas by regarding a sacrament as a ‘visible form of invisible grace’.¹² Traditionally sacraments have been understood as outward signs of inward grace instituted by Jesus Christ. More recently, they have been defined as ‘efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,’ which are God’s masterpieces in the new and everlasting covenant.¹³

1.4 Divine institution of the sacraments

The Church and its most important treasures were directly founded by Christ the Saviour. Among these treasures are the inspired Word of God, the Papacy and the sacraments. In most of the cases where there are details in the New Testament concerning Christ’s institution of each individual sacrament, there is a reference which deals with an institution before the first Easter and one after the first Easter. The reason is that the pre-Paschal institution lays the foundation for the sacrament, while the post-Paschal institution brings the sacrament about in its fullness. Only after the accomplishment of the Paschal Mystery can the sacraments become fully