The word sacramentum was used with a distinctive Christian meaning for the first time in the Old Latin Bible and in Tertullian (at the end of the second century). In the Old Latin and the Vulgate, it was used to translate gr. mysterion, mystery (eg, Eph 5:32; 1Ti 3:16; Rev 1:20; Rev 17:7). For a long time, it was used not only to refer to religious rites, but also to doctrines and facts.
Because of the absence of any definite sacramental concept in early church history, the number of sacraments was not considered fixed. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were the main ones. In the twelfth century, Hugh of Saint Victor listed 30 sacraments that had been recognized by the church, while Gregory of Pergamon and Peter Lombard listed only seven: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, the order and marriage. This list was adopted by Thomas Aquinas and later by the Council of Trent.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were considered expressions of faith and obedience to God (Mat 28:19-20; Act 2:38; Rom 6:3-5; 1Co 11:23-27; Col 2:11-12 ). They are symbolic acts that explain the central truths of the Christian faith: death and resurrection with Christ and sharing in the redemptive benefits of Christ’s mediatorial death. They are visible representations of the gospel message that Christ lived, died, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and will one day return, and that all of this is for the salvation of mankind.
See BAPTISM; See LORD’S SUPPER; See MYSTERY.
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
This word does not appear in the Bible. Among the Romans, the s. it was the oath of loyalty that a soldier made to the emperor. It was also applied to an object put as security for something, which was deposited for sacred purposes. Over time, the term took on the meaning of something sacred and was applied, among Christians, to the rites practiced by the church. Some thirty centuries were counted, but among Catholics seven are recognized (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, order, marriage, penance and extreme unction).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
See MYSTERY, esp. Last paragraph.
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Sensitive sign through which grace is communicated. In a general sense, it is equivalent to “mystery”, a word that the first Christians preferred to refer to the signs of the Eucharist or Baptism, in which the divine presence was invoked in the midst of people gathered in community and of the signs or sacraments that were made.
However, it is convenient to remember that sensitive signs have been typical of all religions, due to the sensory need that nature has to perceive and communicate beliefs and feelings.
The Jews also had their sacramental signs, circumcision being the most significant of the Israelites.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
SUMMARY: I. Fundamental experiences of life and sacraments. II. sacramental mindset. III. Theology of the sacraments. IV. The celebration of the sacraments: 1. Keys to the celebration of the sacraments; 2. Internal structure of the celebration. V. Catechetical presentation of the sacraments.
Vatican II carried out the most far-reaching liturgical project of all those in the history of the Church. The constitution on the liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium) was the first conciliar work and helped frame the subsequent documents in the context of salvation history, and the use of biblical, patristic and pastoral language. The liturgical renewal sought the growth of Christian life, adaptation to the present time and progress towards Christian unity. The liturgy is situated at the heart of the history of salvation and is understood as the action of God on man. The liturgy is not only one of the three great pastoral actions of the Church, but it is understood as the culmination and source of pastoral action: “The liturgy is the summit towards which the activity of the Church tends, and at the same time, the source from which all its strength flows. For the apostolic works are ordered so that, once made children of God by faith and baptism, everyone gathers together, praises God in the midst of the Church, participates in the sacrifice and eats the Lord’s Supper. For its part, the liturgy impels the faithful… to the compelling charity of Christ” (SC 10).
To understand the sacraments well, we must refer to the history of salvation, and place there the meaning of the saving work of Christ in itself and in its historical dimension. The sacraments in the time that goes from Pentecost to the Parousia are the signs that communicate the mystery of salvation accomplished in Christ. The Church has Christ as its head (cf Col 1:18), and the sacraments build the Church as the “body of Christ” in this world. The connection between the salvation accomplished by Christ and the sacraments is total. When speaking of sacramentality, the holy Fathers speak of the events of the Old and New Testaments, as well as of the celebrations of the Church1; in this way they express how the revelation of God takes place in time and through signs.
Tertullian introduced in the third century the term sacrament, which originally meant the promise of fidelity made by the military to the emperor, and which was manifested by the seal they wore. Little by little, the initiation rite called mystery began to be called a sacrament. The New Testament translates the Greek term mystérion sometimes by mysterium and sometimes by sacramentum; According to Paul, Christ is the “mystery-sacrament” of God, since in him is the full and historical manifestation of God’s plan (cf Eph 3,9; Col 1,27). The Church, as the sacrament of Christ, sacramentally celebrates salvation in all times and places; the sacraments of the Church communicate what they mean in relation to Christ; each one of the seven sacraments are moments of the only sacrament that is Christ, and among all the sacraments they accomplish in each believer the salvation of Christ.
I. Fundamental experiences of life and sacraments
When we humans have an experience that overwhelms us with meaning, we need to resort to symbols. These are the appropriate mediation so that what has been lived becomes conscious and is expressed as a community. The symbol always has an aspect that cannot be conceptualized or linguistic, since the wealth of aspects that the fundamental experiences of life have -birth, growing up, committing oneself, forgiving, sharing, aging and dying- cannot be express adequately in any of the conventional languages. “Man is a symbolic being, because he captures, interprets and expresses reality in a plural, profoundly affective way, and socially celebrates certain events in his life that are especially important and significant. At the same time, we Christians know that the liturgy is the fullest and most genuine expression of the Church, since in the celebration and the sacraments the Christian community realizes its own identity”2.
Faith is the experience of the encounter with God in the person of Jesus Christ; this encounter resizes the entire life in such a way that humanly we would never have glimpsed it. Faith presupposes acceptance of the novelty of God, trust and full surrender (cf Rom 16,22; 2Cor 10,5; DV 5). Faith is the fundamental experience of the believer that globalizes and gives meaning to the whole of life; for the same reason it can be expressed and celebrated symbolically. The New Testament, when it speaks of baptism and the Eucharist, does so in experiential terms: participation in Christ’s Passover (cf Rom 6:3-5; Col 2:11-13), living in the Spirit (cf Mt 3 ,11; Jn 1,33; He 11,16), to be freed for freedom (2Cor 3,17; Jn 1,31-34), experience of fraternity (ICor 11,17.34) and communion (Jn 6,22 -40; 13.33-35).
Christ sacramentally manifested the saving will of the Father; his words and actions were and are salvific, since he is the fullness of God’s revelation; Risen from the dead, he continues to meet sacramentally with those who come to him with faith and hope, in the ecclesial community. The sacramental septenary is situated in the most significant experiences through which the human being passes throughout his life. The celebration of the sacraments is situated in the secular context in which Christian communities live: the joys and tensions of existence, the ambiguity, the conflicts, the concerns and aspirations of those who celebrate, and the injustices of our world. “In order to achieve this link between the celebrations and the lives of people, the biological-natural succession of the sacraments is not enough, but rather to place the sacraments in the fundamental experiences where existence opens up to transcendence and the meaning of life is played. and the future of humanity.”
One way of expressing the connection of the sacraments with human experiences, seen from faith in Jesus of Nazareth, could be the following4: 1) Baptism: sacrament that makes us children of God and brothers from a liberated and liberating community. 2) Confirmation: sacrament of the fullness of the Spirit to be witnesses of the gospel, co-responsible in the Christian community and committed to the Kingdom. 3) Penance: sacrament of the unconditional love of the Father, received in the conversion process and in the forgiveness of and of the brothers. 4) Eucharist: sacrament of the gift of Christ in fraternity and for solidarity with the poor and excluded. 5) Marriage: sacrament of the Christian project of the couple who love each other in the community and for the Kingdom. 6) Priestly order: sacrament of those who witness Christ in service to the community. 7) Anointing of the sick: sacrament of Christ’s love that is stronger than pain, illness and death.
II. The sacramental mindset
L. Boff affirms that the sacrament is a “way of thinking” about reality in a symbolic way5. Human life has a sacramental structure, since it develops in the encounter of human beings with each other and with reality; in this relationship people and things become significant. Religion arises in the encounter of God with man, through mediations that become sacraments for those who have had this experience. Faith gives the believer the perspective to recognize the presence of God in events and in history.
Religious experience starts from a fundamental question: how does the human open up to the transcendent, and how does the transcendent become present in the human? Jesus of Nazareth is the concrete and universal answer to the two questions that we have just formulated, because with his words and actions he communicates divine life to us and reveals to us that we are children of God and brothers among us. “The irruption of God in the midst of men leads us to a new mentality and a new ideal of life,…