Theology of the Body Extended Part II: The Parts of the Human Fingers and the Sacraments

by Scott Pauline

Our beloved St. John Paul II gave us an incredible treasure, the Theology of the Body, which revealed the age-old wisdom of the saints of the Church: though the Eucharist is the greatest Sacrament in terms of grace, the greatest sacramental sign could be Marriage, since it images our ultimate calling, to unite with God forever in the next life. The Trinity is imaged by the human family, in that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are given a visible, although limited, image in man, woman, and child. Too, man to woman is a physical picture of Christ to the Church, or derivatively, Creator to creature spiritually. This unfathomable gift from God, that the second-most precious aspect of human nature, secondly to our spiritual component of intellect and will of soul, is a picture of the deepest mysteries of our existence, was so incredibly unfolded and elaborated upon by the same Saint Great[!], that it is said it will unpacked for centuries!

BUT, what if it doesn’t STOP THERE! What if, in fact, that just as it is said that Christ, in His Human Nature, is the Word of God INCARNATE, the Word of God made VISIBLE, that there are is even FURTHER THEOLOGICAL MEANING to Christ’s Body than merely sexuality? What if unbelievable treasures await us in His five great Wounds, His Crucified feet and toes thereupon, and His Crucified hands and fingers thereupon? What if these profound signs on His Body, His very manner of death, image theological mysteries of truth, grace, sacraments, ecclesiology, and ages of humanity?

It may sound insane, but simply, come and see! Review these analogies with Catholic doctrine, sacraments, and history and you decide their veracity!

So come along and relax, read, and rejoice! God bless you if you find the time to read any or all!

One Body, Many Parts, the Finger Parts as Sacraments

The hand performs the works of our hands, which are moral choices we make with our wills. And to truly please God with our works, we need grace, and the greatest sources of grace are the sacraments. How much more appropriate should the hand, once again, a part of the body (there are many parts, though One Body ) image the Sacramental mystery.

The Lifetime Sacramental Journey of the Married Priest [or Deacon]

From the article on the crucified hands of Christ, with five fingers each, as image of the five sacraments that heretics lack and which pole them on two extremes, presumption and scrupulosity, we might ask, what about the other two sacraments?

Well, lo and behold, there is an amazing way to place the steps of the whole Sacramental journey of a man who will become a married priest or deacon on the phalanges of the fingers, that is, the finger bones partitioned by the knuckles.

Admittedly, this sounds crazy at first, since, from cursory glance, there are way more than 7 such phalanges across all the fingers. In fact, there are TWICE as many, 14, as we will see! But, when we look at a DEEPER picture, an amazing fit will exist. Let us look at how we will do it.

First, how do we get 14 total phalanges across the five fingers. Well, here we go:

First of all, all fingers but the thumb (that is, four fingers: the index, the middle, the ring, and the pinkie fingers) have 3 phalanges each. So that is 4 x 3 = 12 phalanges there. The remaining thumb finger, as the exception, has only 2 phalanges and not 3. So that is 12 + 2 = 14, bingo!

But how in world, do you say, will we find 14 steps in a married priest's life when there are only 7 Sacraments. Ok, well, just check this out:

There, are of course, the seven sacraments the person journeys who will become a married priest. We will use the theological order of the Roman Rite. So here they are:

Baptism
Confession
Eucharist
Confirmation
Marriage
Holy Orders
Anointing of the Sick

Now what? WELL! First, the man both is BORN and DIES, NATURALLY! This adds 2 more steps:

Birth [natural]
Baptism [supernatural birth]
Confession
Eucharist
Confirmation
Marriage
Holy Orders
Anointing of the Sick
Death

Ok, so that is 7 + 2 = 9. Long way to go! We need 5 more to make 14. But where have we seen 5 before? Look above! The article on the crucified hands told of FIVE Sacraments that require a priest! These are the theological sacraments that are lost by heretics [5 loaves, 2 fish!]. Bingo! FIVE times in the above timeline, the man who will become the married priest must pass through a PRIEST to get to the next sacrament or step:

Confession

Eucharist

Confirmation

Holy Orders

Anointing of the Sick

The other two times, Baptism and Marriage, the man will not need a priest to confer it, but a deacon can do so. Deacons, who are not priests, can only confer or preside over Baptisms and Marriages. Baptism does NOT require a priest to confer: a deacon can do it, and even a Protestant minister can do it. (The Baptism of heretics is valid, DE FIDE). Similarly, for Marriage, Marriage is conferred by the man and woman upon each other, not by the priest, the deacon, or the Protestant Minister.

Let us put it all together, placing a "priest" step BEFORE every Sacrament that requires one:

Birth [natural]
Baptism [supernatural birth]
priest
Confession
priest
Eucharist
priest
Confirmation
Marriage
priest
Holy Orders
priest
Anointing of the Sick
Death

There we have it: 14 steps. Now let us map them the 14 Sacramental-like steps out over the 14 phalanges. Here, the steps will be traversed on the phalanges of the fingers starting from the base of the thumb and traversing the phalanges of the fingers one by one in immediate sequence, ending with the pinkie, the opposite end of the thumb, and each time you start a new finger, you start on that new finger from the base and move up to the end of the finger, and so forth. That is, the order of phalanges on the finger are traversed from proximal to distal, closest to palm out to farthest from palm).

Here is the list, breaking up the steps by finger:

THUMB:

Birth [natural]

Baptism [supernatural birth]

INDEX FINGER:

priest

Confession

priest

MIDDLE FINGER:

Eucharist

priest

Confirmation

RING FINGER:

Marriage

priest

Holy Orders

PINKIE:

priest

Anointing of the Sick

Death

Now, here is an ADDITIONAL thing that is amazing: there is a deeper theology to the fingers. No one finger has any more than one type of sacrament on it, per Vatican II partitioning.

What do we mean? We mean that Vatican II gave us a way to partition the Sacraments not by Christian division, as we have been doing, but by TYPE, or CATEGORY:

Initiation

Vocation

Healing

So, again, every finger, by itself, contains only one type of sacrament, and no more:

Thumb: the only sacrament on the Thumb is Baptism, which is Initiation.

Index finger: the only sacrament on the index finger is Confession, Healing.

Middle Finger: the sacraments on the Middle Finger are Eucharist and Confirmation, both of which are only Initiation.

Ring Finger: the sacraments on the Ring finger are Marriage and then Holy Orders, which are both only Vocation

Pinkie: the only sacrament on the pinkie is Anointing of the Sick, which, like Confession, is only Healing.

Theology of the Thumb, Baptism:

Here is another profound aspect: the thumb stands apart from all the other fingers: It is the strongest, and it protrudes from a different side of the hand than all the other fingers: the thumb protrudes from the side of the palm rather than from the top of the palm, as with the other succeeding fingers.

The only sacrament on the thumb is Baptism. Baptism is unique to all the other sacraments in two great characteristics: it is the one sacrament necessary to be received before any others can be, i.e., it must be the first Sacrament received. Secondly, out of all the seven sacraments, Baptism is the only sacrament that is absolutely necessary for salvation, either literally or by desire!

The Evil Hand Sign

Immoral, dark rock music tends to make the sign of holding up only the index and pinkie. Note, these are the two fingers that complete the Healing sacraments, Confession and Anointing of the Sick, and Death. It is interesting to note that these three aspects of earthly life will never exist in heaven, and even are the only steps above that will never exist in heaven.

Three Sacramental Signs shall never be again in heaven:

Confession: There shall never be sin in heaven ever, nor is there penance or healing to do, for we will have been utterly purged, if necessary, in purgatory or on earth, and utterly made selfless.

Anointing of the Sick: Every tear shall be wiped away; there is no more suffering in the heaven, nor need for healing.

Natural Death: though we will have to die naturally, our soul first shall partake of the beautiful life that shall never end, and then, at the end of time, our body also: “And death and the netherworld were cast into the lake of fire.”

Moreover, the implications of these negative elements of earthly life will persist in hell forever:

The Three Sacramental Signs forever in Deprivation:

Confession: You had a chance at mercy in Confession, and you threw it away at all impasses. Now you will forever sin and never have possibility for mercy.

Anointing of the Sick: You thought the earthly pains should be avoided at all costs and shunned the last chance at mercy; now, forever, again, there shall be no more chance of mercy, nor shall there be healing for sickness. The torments of hell last forever, and there is no cure.

Natural Death: Not only have you died naturally, but eternally you have died spiritually, forever to die, the second death!

Hence, the index finger and pinkie are indeed ominous, the signs of the things that shall never be in heaven and yet, that, in the rejection of them, are supreme, eternal torments in hell.

The Beautiful, Mystical Hand Sign of Jesus

By way of implication, the remaining three fingers contain sacramental signs and steps in the earthly life that shall exist forever in heaven, whether by indelible mark on the soul, or by analogous experience (note, in this case, there are six aspects, five sacraments plus natural life, in case it is confusing). It interesting to note that there is an ancient painting, rare, that shows Jesus holding up these very three fingers, that is, the thumb, the middle finger, and the ring finger, as if to show us the Sacramental mysteries that shall be probed in principle forever in heaven:

Six Sacramental Signs will remain forever:

Natural life: Forever will we live, even supernaturally.

Baptism: Forever will we be children of God; forever will we continue to know and love God, the Baptismal Disposition, and forever will the indelible mark of Baptism remain on our soul.

Confirmation: Forever will we be a mature member of the Church, sealed with the Spirit, and the indelible mark of the Gifts of the Spirit will forever remain on our Soul.

Eucharist: Forever shall we commune with our brothers and sisters, and with God--the Holy Communion; forever shall we feast on God's truth and love and one another's love, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb; forever will the eternal Sabbath last, the eighth day of Creation.

Marriage: Though literal sexual intercourse in marriage will never be again ("They shall be as the angels"), nevertheless, forever will we be spouses of the Christ, both individually and collectively, receiving into our inner being the love and truth of God and offering ourselves back to Him in unfathomable ecstasy.

Holy Orders: Forever will we be marked a servant of Our God, whether by literal mark of Holy Orders, or by the vocation that God gave us as servants and handmaids: mediating grace as a priest, as a biological father, as a single lay person in his talents and gifts, or too, in the feminine sense, motherly gifts and service, and sisterhood.

Conclusion

The human hand, in its finger partitions, perfectly images sacramental mysteries. And the hand, again, performs the works of our hands, which are moral choices we make with our wills. And to truly please God with our works, we need grace; and the greatest sources of grace are the sacraments. How much more appropriate should the hand, once again, a part of the body (there are many parts, thought One Body ) image the Sacramental mystery. Coincidence?