The sacraments are rites, sacred ceremonies (comprising word and action) instituted by Jesus Christ, which give supernatural life to the soul.
What are the sacraments?
95.- Original sin is the sin committed by our first parents, which we all inherit at birth except for the Most Holy Virgin.
95.1. The Most Holy Virgin is the only one who was conceived without original sin. This is what we mean when we invoke her under the title of the Immaculate Conception. God granted her this privilege in view of the fact that she was to be the Mother of Jesus Christ.
96.- Original sin is washed away by the sacrament of Baptism.
96.1. The sacrament of Baptism, in washing away original sin, infuses sanctifying grace into our soul and makes us members of the Church, children of God and heirs of heaven.
In the world there are many unbaptized pagans. That is why the missionaries, leaving family, homeland and everything behind, go off to distant lands to instruct them, baptize them and make them children of God.
Jesus said to the Apostles: You shall be witnesses unto me even to the uttermost part of the earth.
We can and must help the work of the missionaries with our prayers, our sacrifices and our alms. We are bound to this, but according to the means of each one.
The Pontifical Mission Societies maintain in the Third World:
Seven hundred and seventy-four leper colonies.
Five thousand Hospitals.
Seven thousand Orphanages.
Eight thousand Dispensaries.
Nine thousand Homes for the aged.
And in the Third World they educate one million university students, six million secondary-school pupils and fifteen million in Primary education.
To maintain all this a great deal of money is needed, and many missionaries, men and women. Spain is the country in the world with the most missionaries: 25,000.
Sometimes one hears it said: Give up going to the missions. First let us establish the Church properly here. This is to fail to understand the catholicity of the Church. The Church is catholic, that is, universal. It must be established among the whole of humanity. It cannot be limited to one people or one race. Its universal charity extends to all without distinction. Equally to peoples in decline as to those with a brilliant future.
Wherever there is a soul, there is the Church. The missions are an actualization of the catholicity of the Church.
Pope John Paul II said: When we affirm that the Church is catholic, we mean that she is evangelizing, missionary and apostolic; were she not to have these characteristics she would not be the true Church of Jesus Christ.
96.2. The sacraments are rites, sacred ceremonies (comprising word and action), instituted by Jesus Christ, which, if they are received with good dispositions, give supernatural life to the soul, that is, they give us sanctifying grace, or increase it in us when we are already in grace. They are seven: Baptism, Confirmation, Penance (Confession), Eucharist, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. The Council of Trent defined that the seven sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ (931).
The Gospel tells us of the institution of five sacraments:
Baptism, Eucharist, Penance, Holy Orders and Matrimony.
Of Confirmation and of the Anointing of the Sick the Gospel does not speak, but the New Testament tells us that they existed in the time of the Apostles; therefore, they must have been instituted by Jesus Christ like the previous ones. Of Confirmation we are told in the Acts of the Apostles. And of Extreme Unction in the Epistle of Saint James. There is also mention of the institution of the priesthood in the Acts of the Apostles, and of matrimony in Saint Paul.
There are three sacraments that imprint a character. Character means in Greek an indelible seal. These sacraments imprint an indelible seal. That is, they place a spiritual seal on the soul that is never erased. For this reason they can be received only once. They cannot be repeated. They are: Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders. It is of faith that Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders imprint a character.
The sacraments are fundamentally actions of Christ: When Peter baptizes it is Christ who baptizes. Sacramental grace does not depend on the holiness of the minister, but on Christ who acts through him.
In celebrating a sacrament, the minister must have the intention of performing the sacramental action that Christ entrusted to his Church. Nevertheless, the sanctifying power of the sacraments depends neither on the faith nor on the holiness of the ministers, because when someone baptizes or forgives, it is Christ himself who baptizes or forgives.
It belongs to the Church to determine the conditions of validity and liceity of each sacrament, for Christ entrusted this mission to her. Each sacrament adds a specific grace to ordinary grace.
It is not a difference of being, but a moral one: according to the ends of each sacrament.
97.- It is obligatory to receive Baptism, Confession and Communion; but, in addition, those who wish to marry must receive Matrimony, and all must receive the Anointing of the Sick at the hour of death.
97.1. Confirmation is not absolutely obligatory for salvation, but all those who have not yet received it must receive it, if a fitting occasion presents itself, for it helps to attain eternal salvation more easily.
The sacrament of Holy Orders is only for those who wish to become priests.
Matrimony and Holy Orders are sacraments of state. This means that both sacraments are received not so much with a view to individual salvation, as to occupy a particular state within the Church, in order, within it, to serve the community. So that these sacraments are received by the individual less for himself than for others: spouses ought always to start from the assumption that each one obtains the necessary graces rather for the other spouse than for himself.
Author: Fr. Jorge Loring
Source: Encuentra.com
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(608) – Gospel of Saint Matthew, 19:17
(609) – Psalm 18
(610) – Epistle of the Apostle James, 2:10
(611) – Prophet Isaiah, 51:4
(612) – ALFONSO LÓPEZ QUINTÁS: El amor humano, I, 4. EDIBESA Madrid
