The Story and the Sacraments

The Christian Sacraments were instituted by Christ in the New Testament: "Go and make disciples, baptizing them..."; and, "do this in remembrance of me." Of course, most people already know this.

But the Sacraments are otherwise fully grounded in the biblical story, the drama of salvation. According to our story, the human person (ha-'adam) was made for Paradise, to dwell with God, to wear garments of God's glory, to drink from living water, eat from the tree of life, and to be united with a spouse. The pain, toil, death and disordered relationships that persons experience are not the Paradise that God created for them. Our story portrays the person -- represented by Adam and Eve -- losing access to Paradise. According to St. Paul, their story is the common human story: "all have sinned and lack the glory of God....Because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man" (Rom 3:23, 5:17). Each person participates in Adam-and-Eve, and has thereby received the consequences of their disobedience. Their plight is the common human plight.

The person lost access to Eden in Adam-and-Eve, but regains it through Christ's death and resurrection. The Catholic Catechism labels the Sacraments as the "fruits of Christ's Paschal mystery." This reminds me of St. Ephrem the Syrian's (4th century) understanding of the impact of Christ's death and resurrection: it re-opened Paradise (Eden). The Sacraments are those elements of the present fallen world that allow the person-in-Christ to experience Paradise -- as a foretaste.

In the Gospels, Christ authorized and empowered the 12 Apostles to administer these gifts of re-opened Paradise (e.g., freedom from spiritual oppression and broken bodies) to the world. Thus, the Sacraments of the 12 Apostles are grace, the gift of God. Moreover, Paul wrote that the person-in-Christ can participate (koinonia) in Christ's death and resurrection through Baptism and the Holy Meal. The Pauline tradition also contributed the idea that the spousal relationship signifies the love of God and the Church.

The Sacraments are therefore a more than, a manifestation of Supernature, a glimpse of the enchanted world that was created for the person. For example, the chrism oil is the balm of the tree of life, for the healing of the human person. These Sacraments may look to the natural eye like the religious rituals of humanity, just as Christ's sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary looked liked a socio-political execution in the bone yard. Seen with the eye of Christ-faith, these sacred mysteries are the real real, supernatural gifts (grace) that allow the person-in-Christ mystically to sniff the Eden created for her. They are also glimpses of heaven, therefore. [7.11.08]