Sacramental Events

Sacramental Events

Submitted by frlarry on

One of the more fascinating areas of study in Old Testament exegesis is what might be termed the study of sacramental events. In the restricted sense, the Church defines sacraments in ¶ 1131 of the Catechism, as follows:

The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.

In a more general sense, a sacrament may be defined as a sign, in the form of an action, created by the Word of God for the purpose of conveying grace, where grace may be an internal transformation, a personal aid to transformation, or public revelation. In the restricted sense, there are, as identified by the Church, seven sacraments. In the more general sense, there are many. The type of sacrament I wish to explore here is that which conveys revelation.

These signs vary in importance and overtness. The fact that there are variations in overtness should be no surprise to scholars who recognize that the term sacrament is derived from the Greek term mysterion. See Catechism, ¶ 774:

The Greek word mysterion was translated into Latin by two terms: mysterium and sacramentum. In later usage the term sacramentum emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation which was indicated by the term mysterium. In this sense, Christ himself is the mystery of salvation: "For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ." The saving work of his holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation, which is revealed and active in the Church's sacraments (which the Eastern Churches also call "the holy mysteries"). The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head throughout the Church which is his Body. The Church, then, both contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense, that the Church is called a "sacrament."

Christ, himself, as sacrament, is found in the encounter of Abraham with Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20):

And Mel-chiz'edek king of Salem brought out bread and wine;
he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said,
"Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!"

Another Christ symbol is found in the sacramental event of Numbers 21:6-9 (an event Christ, himself, refers to in John 3:13-15):

Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people,
and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
And the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned,
for we have spoken against the LORD and against you;
pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us."
So Moses prayed for the people.
And the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole;
and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."
So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole;
and if a serpent bit any man,
he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

And in John 3:13-15, Jesus tells Nicodemus:

No one has ascended into heaven
but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

Moses' action, mounting a bronze serpent on a pole at God's direction (which, incidentally, speaks of a "fiery serpent," not a "bronze serpent" — Moses, of course, could only approximate God's direction at further symbolic remove) has all of the characteristics of a sacramental ritual, except for the conveyance of sanctifying grace, which is itself symbolized by saving the physical life of the man who looks upon the mounted serpent image.

It is, of course, in John 3 that Jesus instructs Nicodemus on the sacrament of Baptism. In verses 5 and 6, Jesus tells him

Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The purpose of this sacrament, of course, is that the catechumen is to be "born from above." Washing with water is a symbolic parallel to washing in the Spirit, just as mounting a bronze serpent on a pole is a symbolic parallel to mounting a fiery serpent on a pole, and this, in turn, is a symbolic parallel to Jesus' being mounted on the cross. These sacramental actions both convey and effectuate (by means of God fulfilling his promises) God's saving work.

Nicodemus, for his part, finds all of this confusing and hard to believe. It is for this reason that Jesus tells him,

Are you a teacher of Israel,
and yet you do not understand this?
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know,
and bear witness to what we have seen;
but you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Nicodemus' skeptical "How can this be?" is found in the

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