Why the Sacraments are Mysterious

Sacraments

As Bernard Cooke (1994) notes, for many centuries, sacraments were what "structured people's lives and experiences" (p. 6). The celebration of the holy mysteries (the concept that is denoted by the word sacrament) gave meaning and purpose to the lives of individual Christians as they united themselves to their Church and through that institution to their God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who instituted the sacraments. Christ's institution of the sacraments was a way for Him to continuously come to His faithful followers throughout the centuries and throughout their lives. The mysterious nature of this arrangement, of this institution was a feature of their confection. In fact, the mysterious nature of the sacraments is reflective of Christ's own mysterious nature, as depicted by Rausch (2017). Both are similar in that each requires an act of faith on the part of the follower. One must have faith in Christ to share with Him in the Eternal Sacrifice, just as one must have faith to share in the graces received through the sacraments.

Rausch (2017) reflects on the mystery of Jesus when he states that "the death of Jesus raises a host of questions, some historical, others theological and personal" (ch. 6). The same way in which Christ's death raises these questions, the sacraments also raise questions -- historical, theological and personal questions. As Rausch points out, the historical reasons for Christ's death are easily enough assigned. The theological reasons can be understood in the light of the Old Testament (the putting to death of the Old Prophets), the Suffering Righteous One. The personal reasons are also there in the Gospels: the fulfillment of the mission of Jesus Himself, as enunciated at the Last Supper, is the most obvious explanation.

Likewise, the sacraments appear to be tied to this mission of Christ. The sacrament of marriage is instituted at the wedding feast in Cana -- one of the "nature miracles" that occurred when Christ turned water into wine to celebrate a marriage and effectively give His blessing on the institution (ch. 5). The mystery of Christ, who proclaimed to His mother that it was not yet His time, took on a new shade when He performed this miracle. It was as though Christ were stepping out of hiding for one of the first times since His childhood and revealing His power at this marriage celebration, uniting His own glory to that of the sacrament of matrimony.

If the wedding sacrament symbolizes new life generationally speaking (marriage leads to procreation), the Last Supper sacrament symbolizes new life spiritually speaking (Christ explains that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood). Rausch states that the Last Supper meal "was to take on an entirely new significance through the Last Supper and after Jesus' death as the disciples carried on this tradition (cf. Luke 24:13-35)" (ch. 4). The sacrament instituted by Christ at the Last Supper united the mystery of the Son to the mystery of another kind of union -- a spiritual one.

In conclusion, Christ and His sacraments have always had a mysterious nature about them -- something that cannot be grasped by the minds of men and that require faith to make that final leap from reason to belief and devotion. The mystery of Christ is bound up in the mystery of the sacraments, how they confer grace and so on. The very name of sacrament, as Cooke states, is based on the old Greek word for mystery -- "mysetrion" (Cooke, 1994, p. 7). Thus, just as Christ, in His celebration of the wedding at Cana, in his celebration of the Last Supper, and in His Death, showed forth some of his own mysteriousness, the sacraments that were confected over the centuries since that time were rooted in this same sense of respect for the mysteries of God.

References

Cooke, Bernard. Sacraments and Sacramentality. March 1994.

Rausch, Thomas P. Who is Jesus: An Introduction to Christology. Collegeville, MN

Liturgical Press, 2017.