A Word on Evangelization

2nd Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024

Deacon Mike Meyer

Unlike other Christians, Catholics have a fully sacramental understanding of God’s saving activity.

The word “sacramental” is here used in three different senses. First, we have the incarnational sense, which means that God can be known and experienced in and through what he has created. Catholicism has always remembered that God looked upon his creation and pronounced it “good” (cf. Gen. 1:31). So instead of being suspicious of human activity and the material world, the Church has often encouraged people to develop and use their abilities and to do all things for the greater glory of God. It’s no surprise that some of humanity’s greatest art, architecture, and music has been commissioned and preserved by the Church.

The second sense of “sacramental” refers to the Eucharist and the other six sacraments, which are visible signs and sources of God’s grace active in the world. God, as our Creator, is fully aware of our human limitations. Because human beings are both body and spirit, the Lord relates to us not only in an invisible, spiritual way but also through the use of human gestures and material items we can see and hear and touch and taste: bread, wine, water, oil, words, and so forth. Most Christians agree on the essential requirement of water for baptism, but Protestants are not consistent in treating as sacraments the other sacred actions Jesus gave to the Church.

Thirdly, the noun “sacramental” refers to a blessed item or gesture that, for those who have faith, can be an experience or source of God’s grace. Sacramentals of this sort include holy water, scapulars, crucifixes, medals, rosaries, ashes on Ash Wednesday, the Sign of the Cross, and so on. Sacraments, by God’s promise and power, are effective in and of themselves, whereas sacramentals depend on the disposition of the believer. Though much less important than sacraments, sacramentals can be a valuable source of grace and spiritual favor.

If Jesus was willing to humble himself by becoming human (Phil. 2:6–7), it’s logical that God would continue working in and through human beings and the material order he himself created. The Catholic Church, with its sacramental emphasis, lives this out through the example and actions of the clergy and the faithful.