69 — THE SACRAMENTS

Presence of God. — O Jesus, who with such abundance give me Your grace, grant that in me it may not be vain.

Meditation

1 — Just as the human body is endowed with organs capable of “providing for the life, health, and growth of its individual members, so the Savior of the human race... in a marvelous way provided His Mystical Body with sacraments, by which the members, as through uninterrupted degrees of graces, might be sustained from the cradle to the final breath” (Myst. Corp.). The Church, Mystical Body of Christ, is a living body, endowed with organs capable of propagating, preserving, and nourishing life in all its members. This vital power comes to her from her divine Head and consists in grace which He, most loving Redeemer, merited for her one day by dying on the cross and which even now, through the sacraments, He diffuses in each one of her members. In fact, “when the sacraments are administered by the Church with external rite, it is He who produces the interior effect” (ibid.). Jesus, author and Lord of grace - created by Him as Man and merited as man - can dispense it as He wills and to whom He wills, even without the mediation of the sacraments; nevertheless He normally wills to communicate it precisely through this means, thus giving us a sensible sign that renders us more certain of having received it. We must not forget, however, that if the external rite of the sacrament is indispensable to receive corresponding grace, this grace is always produced by Jesus who, cooperating with His ministers, intervenes with His sanctifying power each time they administer a sacrament. This demonstrates the profound and inseparable union between Jesus and His Church; He wills to use her external work for the sanctification of souls, but reserves to Himself the power to vivify and make that work efficacious. When we receive a sacrament, it is not only the priest who attends to the good of our soul, but with him is Jesus, whose omnipotent action penetrates and vivifies the deepest fibers of our spirit. This is why the sacraments, administered to subjects capable of receiving them, have in themselves an infallible efficacy: in them there is God’s own action.

2 — The sacraments act “ex opere operato,” that is, they always produce the grace they signify, precisely because Christ’s omnipotent action intervenes in them. This is the profound reason for the great esteem and great respect we must have for them. The frequency and ease with which certain sacraments can be received mean that we often approach them carelessly, inattentively, and at times even with that ease with which one treats things of little value. This comes from lack of understanding and valuation, from lack of spirit of faith. How necessary it is to renew and reactivate our faith, to place ourselves actually and sincerely in the Lord’s presence, so as to throw open the soul to His action! To approach a sacrament means to approach Christ, to come into contact with Him to receive the outpouring of His grace, to welcome the renewed communication of His divine Life. “It is true,” teaches Pius XII, “that the sacraments have an intrinsic power, insofar as they are actions of Christ Himself who communicates and diffuses the grace of the divine Head into the members of the Mystical Body; but, to have their due efficacy, they require the good dispositions of our soul” (Mediator Dei). In other words, every time we approach a sacrament, Jesus infallibly offers us the gift of His grace, but this will produce in us its sanctifying effect only in proportion to the intensity of our good dispositions. As seed, even the most fertile, thrown on unsuitable ground produces little or no fruit, so divine grace, though sanctifying in itself, bears fruit in us only to the measure of our good will. Oh, how Jesus desires that the grace which He so generously bestows on us through the sacraments find in us hearts well disposed, hearts open to His invasion, docile to His motion!

Every sacrament brings us a gift of sanctifying grace: either first grace or increase of it; moreover it offers us the “sacramental grace” proper to it. Therefore these are immense riches of divine helps, immense possibilities of holiness placed at our disposal. Let us strive with all our strength so that gifts so great may not be lost!

Colloquy

“O Incarnate Word, You gave us the sacraments which bear the fruit of Your Blood and Your Passion. Through them our soul is washed in the Blood, adorned in the Blood, nourished in the Blood.

“Your sacred Side is the source of water and Blood, from which comes the water of baptism and the blood of the sacraments. We are bathed in the water of this source by receiving holy baptism, and by this laver we become capable of God’s glory and His gifts. We drink the Blood of this source through the holy sacraments, in particular through confession and the Sacrament of the altar, by which the soul feeds and nourishes itself by taking refuge, O Christ, in the source of Your sacred Side.”

“Oh, how great is the dignity of priests! They are ministers of this source: they bathe us with baptismal water and then nourish us with Your Blood! Oh, what great dignity is theirs! They are, Lord, Your secretaries and Your treasurers, for by administering Your word to us they manifest Your secrets, and by administering the sacraments to us they give us Your treasures” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

“O sweetest good Jesus! Father of lights from whom every perfect gift comes, look with mercy upon us who confess You, we who truly know we can do nothing without You. You who gave Yourself for us as the price of our ransom, grant us, although unworthy of such a price, that we may surrender ourselves to Your grace, entirely, perfectly, and in all things; so that, conformed to the image of Your Passion, we may recover also the image of Your divinity which we lost by sinning” (St. Bonaventure).