Christ Is With Us
Celebrating the Gifts of the Sacraments
By Most Rev. Dr. John Onaiyekan
Catholic Archbishop of Abuja - Nigeria
(Article: Page 1 of 8)
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 We often use the expression "a practicing Catholic" to mean a Catholic who frequents the different sacraments as appropriate. If we were to remove the sacraments from the life of a Catholic, there would be little left of his Catholic faith and practice. As we celebrate the sacraments, we receive the gifts of God's divine presence and saving action in our midst. Christ is not only with us in the sacraments. The sacraments bring us to Christ.
Sacraments are often described as sacred signs. In our modern world, this can become problematic in certain quarters, especially where the concept of sacred is said to be no longer easily appreciated and understood. We hear often that we live in a secularized and desacralized environment. To the extent that such is the case, it becomes a challenge to explain and above all to embrace the deep meaning of Sacrament as a sign of the sacred. Similarly sacraments are considered as the effective signs of a spiritual reality within us. In a culture that tends to consider everything to be only at the level of technology and physical causality, the concept of the sacrament as an "efficacious" sign requires very careful explanation and handling.
The Sacraments: A Legacy of the Church
We are all probably familiar with the dry and dense catechism definition of sacraments. What the catechism does not tell us is that this is the final outcome of a long history of doctrinal development in the Church.
When St. Paul was talking about the Holy Eucharistic to his Corinthian audience, he made a very pertinent statement: "This is what I received from the Lord and in turn passed on to you…" ICor 11:23. Then he goes on to tell the story of the institution of the Holy Eucharist during the Last Super of the earthly Jesus with his disciples. "What I received…I passed on to you." It is a question of tradition. The sacraments derive their origin, directly or indirectly, from the very beginning of the Church of Christ. This is not to say that what we have today is exactly as it was in the beginning. But it does mean that what we have today is somehow derived from what we obtained in the very beginning. It is Catholic belief that the development of both the doctrine and the ritual and practice of the sacraments are in a coherent line, under the guideline of the Holy Spirit. This same Holy Spirit promised by the Lord Jesus on his church assures us that the Lord Jesus is with us until the end of time as he has promised. A firm belief in the action of the Holy Spirit on the church down through the ages is necessary if we are to grasp the doctrine of the sacraments from the beginning until today.
There are many books in the bookshops today on the sacraments, many of them nice and stimulating. Most of us may not have the expertise or the patience, not to talk of the money, to buy and wade through them all. But we do not really have to do that to know where the Church now stands on the doctrine of the sacraments. If anyone wants a systematized and comprehensive summary of the Catholic doctrine on sacraments, one cannot find a better presentation than what we have been given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This document is highly to be recommended to all of us, especially as it is available not only in the integral full edition which runs into hundreds of pages but also in the form of a compendium which summarizes everything in simple and clear language. It can be said that the approach of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a successful presentation of the classical traditional doctrine of the church in the light of the modern world and mentality. It is a pity however, that it has not yet received the kind of wide usage that it deserves.
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