The Faith Explained by Leo Trese

Author:Leo Trese [Trese, Leo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scepter Publishers
Published: 2011-02-09T05:00:00+00:00

Why seven sacraments?

If each sacrament gives (or increases) sanctifying grace in the soul, then why did Jesus institute seven sacraments? Wouldn’t just one sacrament have been enough, to be received as needed?

Yes, one sacrament would have been enough, if sanctifying grace were the only kind of grace God wanted to give us. If the spiritual aliveness which constitutes sanctifying grace had been the only help God intended us to have, then one sacrament would have been sufficient. But God, from whom all parenthood takes its meaning, did not choose simply to give us spiritual life and then let us shift for ourselves. Parents do not say to the newborn baby; “We have given you life; from now on it’s up to you. There’ll be no food when you’re hungry; no medicine when you are sick; no supporting hand when you are weak. Just go ahead and live as long as you can.”

God gives us the spiritual life which is sanctifying grace and then does all that he can (short of taking away our free will) to make that life operative within us; all that he can to expand that life and intensify it; all that he can to preserve and protect it. Consequently, in addition to the sanctifying grace which is common to all the sacraments, there are other special helps which God wills to give us, helps keyed to our particular spiritual needs and our particular state in life. The specific kind of help which each sacrament gives is called the “sacramental grace” of that particular sacrament.

At this point it might be interesting to pause and to ask ourselves, “Now, if God had left it up to me to decide how many sacraments there ought to be, how many sacraments would I have designed?” We might, of course, decide on three or five or ten or some other number; but, thinking of our spiritual needs in terms of our human needs, it is very possible that we too, might come up with a total of seven, even as did God.

The first thing that happens to us, in the natural order, is that we are born. In birth, we not only receive life but also the power to renew life—the regenerative power by which bodily cells are continuously replaced and repaired and life is continued. It would seem to us very apposite, then, that there should be a sacrament which not only would give us spiritual life (sanctifying grace) but also would confer upon us the power (sacramental grace) to preserve and ceaselessly to renew that life. It is no surprise to discover that God has given us such a sacrament—Baptism—in which we not only receive sanctifying grace but also a continuing chain of graces enabling us to preserve and extend that grace by the practice of the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

After birth, the next great thing that happens to us in the physical order is that we grow up, we mature. Should we not then have a

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