From the bulletin of the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020
I’m sorry it has been such a long time since I’ve put anything in this column! I am glad, however, that we are beginning a gradual return to something like “normal.” As part of that, I want to pick up where we left off. You may remember that the last few columns talked about Martin Luther, The Reformation, Faith and Works, and being Instruments of God. So, our historical journey has taken us up to the point of the 1500s when the “Reformation” took place and raised the questions we’ve been dealing with.
In response, the Church called for another ecumenical council. This time, it was held in Trent, Italy so it was called the Council of Trent and took place from 1545-1563 with a lot of interruptions along the way. At one point, the a lot of the work done by the bishops at these meetings was nearly lost to history, but God’s providence ensured that we did not go astray at this difficult time in the history of the Church. Though it was a very different kind of crisis, it is nonetheless a good lesson to us that God will provide for the truth and for our salvation even the greatest of trials.
Well, this council covered a lot of what I’ve already discussed and was supposed to be the Catholic answer to the Reformation. Indeed, we often call the time after this council the “Counter-Reformation” or “Catholic Reformation” because it actually did reform the Church rather than simply starting a rebellion. Many great saints in our history come from this time period right after the council. In addition to clearly reinforcing the correct understanding of indulgences, the Council of Trent reaffirmed things like what books belong in the bible, the importance of faith and works, and the value of the Sacraments. It also fully defined and identified the 7 Sacraments as we know them today. The Sacraments were always in the Church, but they way they were celebrated has shifted over time and it wasn’t always clear where one Sacrament began and the other ended. And it’s about the sacraments that I primarily wanted to write about for this weekend, since we’re only just now getting to have the access to them we used to have.
The official definition of a sacrament is “an efficacious sign instituted by Christ to give grace.” “Efficacious” is a fancy word that means “it does what it says it does.” In other words, they are effective and are not just empty symbols. The other key part is that they were instituted by Christ. We don’t just make them up. Finally, they give grace – the power of God at work in us. Since the Protestant rebels did not like and did not understand the value of “works,” they mostly rejected the sacraments. Most of them recognized Baptism, but considered the rest to be mere symbols that weren’t essential. But they are essential. It’s not because God can’t give us grace without them – He is God after all! – but that God prefers to give us grace in a way that makes sense for our human nature. As creatures made in God’s image, it makes sense that we would imitate him in doing the “work” of growing in holiness. He makes us holy, but we reflect that making process by cooperating with him. We are also a body-soul unity, so it makes sense that God would make us holy in a way that involved body and soul rather than just shooting invisible grace directly into our souls. So, every one of the 7 Sacraments are tangible in some way: touch, sound, sight, and even taste and smell.
This is why it hurt for us to be away. We are meant to interact with God and each other in a physical and spiritual way. It is why I and most priests were more than willing to risk our own health to physically interact with sick people who needed the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Without being risky or foolish, we cannot let a worldly idea of health and sanitation scrub away the value of touching and tasting the things of God because, in the end, only the things of God will matter in the end, not the safety and comfort we had along the way. Stay cautious, but do rejoice as we move closer together again. That instinct to be physically present, it has some spiritual truth in it as the Sacraments prove.
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert