Christ as Sacrament?

Christ as Sacrament?

“Adhering to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consensus of the Fathers, we profess that the sacraments of the new law were, all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (CCC 1114).

“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.”  (CCC 1131).  

“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.”  (CCC 774).

Therefore calling Christ as a sacrament, although causing theologians some discernment regarding the strict usage of just the seven sacraments exclusively, the basic premise is correlated with the above quote from the CCC. 

Down through the ages the bible has been translated from Greek to Hebrew, to Latin, to English.  In the interim many words in English for instance, do not have a proper meaning for some other languages' pronouns or prepositions or they may use common words to give meaning to several expressive terms.  Therefore, translating from one language to another and not forgetting culture descriptions the exact meaning can sometimes get lost or misunderstood.  

These will create roadblocks to the person(s) trying to get the original scribe’s work as it was first written.  And in those early years there were no printing presses, computers, or spell-checks to identify incorrect words or proper meaning to a sentence.  

“The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.  Sacramental grace  is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament.  The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God.  The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior.”  (CCC 1129.

Ralph B. Hatha