92. Fourth Monday of Lent

Meditations no. 138 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The sacraments are sources of supernatural life.

We are approaching the great feast of Easter, and the Church cannot contain her joy on contemplating the work of our redemption, which is about to be fulfilled. In the Entrance Antiphon she invites us to proclaim: I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad for your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction.

Christ’s Heart is ever-merciful, and he has given us the means to apply the merits of his redeeming Passion to ourselves always and everywhere. And thus, as St Augustine teaches, when the time of grace came, the incarnate Wisdom of God, through whom we were called to freedom, established the life-giving sacraments, by which the community of the Christian people was to be kept united.

The sacraments are divine channels through which grace reaches our souls. They are at one and the same time a sign commemorating the Passion of Christ, a manifestation of the grace which is produced in us through that Passion, and a pledge of future glory. Whenever we receive them with the proper dispositions, we are putting ourselves in vital contact with Christ in his Passion, the source of all grace, and hence we are putting ourselves in contact with God himself. St Thomas Aquinas explains that the principal efficient cause of grace is God himself. The humanity of Christ stands to God in the relation of a conjoined instrument, whereas a sacrament stands in the relation of a separate instrument. Thanks to the sacraments, the infinite merits of the Cross reach all people of all times and represent the firm hope of eternal life for everyone.

The sacraments are the main medicine the Church has to offer. They are not luxuries. If you voluntarily abandon them, it is impossible to advance along the road, to follow Jesus Christ. We need them as we need air to breathe, the circulation of the blood, and light to appreciate at every moment what God wants of us.

If the sacraments are abandoned, genuine Christian life disappears. Yet we should realize that particularly today there are many people who seem to forget about the sacraments and even scorn this redeeming flow of Christ’s grace. It is painful to have to speak of this sore in a so-called Christian society, but we must do so for it will encourage us to approach these sources of sanctification more gratefully and more lovingly.

Let us contemplate the mercy of God, who has shown us so much love; and may our hearts be set on fire with thanksgiving and the desire to respond to him more fully, through greater dedication every day.

They are outward signs which produce grace.

I would like us to reflect now on the sacraments, which are fountains of divine grace. They are a wonderful proof of God’s loving kindness. Just meditate calmly on the Catechism of Trent’s definition: certain sensible signs which cause grace and at the same time declare it by putting it before our eyes. God our Lord is infinite; his love is inexhaustible; his clemency and tenderness toward us are limitless. He grants us his grace in many other ways, but he has expressly and freely established, as only he can do, seven effective signs to enable men to share in the merits of the redemption in a stable, simple, and accessible way.

St Thomas says that it is natural for man to arrive at intelligible things through the senses, and the Truth of God shows itself to us through sensible signs which contain the saving effects of the Cross. The water poured on the head, the chrism which anoints the forehead, the hands of the bishop imposed on the future priest, the words pronounced in the name of Christ: all these are external signs of deep inner communion with our Lord. They stir up our faith and evoke the living Christ, who works wonders through his sacraments. And thus, through material things, God himself acts on the soul. As one of the Fathers of the Church explains: The flesh is washed, that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the sign of the Cross is made on the flesh, that the soul may be edified; the flesh is overshadowed by the hands of the priest, that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ, that God may nurture the soul.

The sacraments do not depend for their effect on the goodness of the person who administers them, for they act by virtue of a power conferred on them by Christ, who is always the principal minister: the sacraments are acts of Christ, who administers them through men. Theirs is a power which God alone possesses, for neither angels nor archangels can effect anything in those things which God gives us; they are administered by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The priest merely lends his tongue and his hands to God. Indeed, from the very first centuries of Christianity it was stated that all who receive baptism, be it from the hands of a drunkard, a murderer or an adulterer, if it is the baptism of Christ, are indeed baptized by Christ.

How great is Christ’s self-surrender in binding himself to the actions of men! How effective are his sacraments! Trusting in his mercy, we say to him with the Church: Father, Creator, you give the world new life by your sacraments. May we, your Church, grow in your life and continue to receive your help on earth.

We should thank God for these gifts.

How good Christ was to leave the sacraments to his Church! They are a remedy for all our needs. Venerate them and be very grateful, both to God and to his Church. To repay Christ’s love, we must prepare to receive them properly, so as to draw the greatest benefit from that meeting with him. We should not forget that the power of the sacraments, infinite in itself, is limited by the dispositions of the person who receives them. For this reason St Cyril said to the faithful of Jerusalem: Purify the vessel so that you may receive grace more abundantly, for the forgiveness of sins is granted equally to everyone, but communion with the Holy Spirit is bestowed on each in accordance with his faith. If you have worked but little, little will you receive; if you have worked much, great will be your reward.

Let us make a habit of preparing well, so that we may receive the sacraments worthily, for they are a meeting with Christ. Confession, for example, is not a human but a divine dialogue. It is a tribunal of divine justice and especially of mercy, with a loving judge who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; I desire that the wicked turn back from his way and live. The Eucharist is what we might call the sacrament of divine extravagance, in which God gives his grace and himself to us: Jesus Christ, who is always really present - not just during Mass - with his Body, with his Soul, with his Blood and with his Divinity. And, in due course, the Anointing of the Sick, a loving preparation for the journey which ends in the Father’s house.

The sacraments assimilate us to God, and gradually make us more holy. We are overwhelmed by this outpouring of divine mercy, and we entreat God our Lord: Through the gifts we present, may we receive the grace to cast off the old ways of life and to redirect our course toward the life of heaven.

A practical way of showing our gratitude to Christ for his gifts is to resolve to prepare better for this week’s Confession and our daily Communion, and to spend an appropriately generous time on our thanksgiving after Communion. If the Jews in the Gospel were ready to make Christ their king because he satisfied their hunger at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, what should we do, seeing that we are nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ?

Let us be grateful, then, and in thanking our Father God for all he has given us, let us follow the example of our Blessed Lady, who sang God’s praises, for the Almighty has done great things in me.