THE SACRAMENTS AND THE PASSION OF OUR LORD

 

THE SACRAMENTS AND THE PASSION OF OUR LORD 

 

The work of Christ to redeem us from our sins by his Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension is referred to in the liturgical books and teachings of the Church as the Paschal Mystery.  Pascha is the Hebrew word for Passover and roughly means “passage.”  Passover commemorates the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt approximately 1,500 years before the birth of Christ, when they marched out of the country under the leadership of Moses.  The Jewish feast of Passover commemorates this event and is the most solemn of all the Jewish festivals.  Jesus celebrated his Last Supper as a Passover meal on the night of his arrest.  This began his “passage” through the Passion to the Resurrection and Ascension.  These saving events, taken together, constitute the Paschal Mystery. 

 

My articles for the next seven Sundays will consider the relationship of the sacraments to the Paschal Mystery.  The sacraments are also called “mysteries,” especially by Eastern Catholics and Orthodox. They communicate the grace which Christ won for us by his Paschal Mystery.  A sacrament is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, which gives grace. The nature of the grace which is given is indicated by the signs.  I hope to show in a brief explanation each week of how the sign(s) of each sacrament evoke(s) the Paschal Mystery.  The first sacrament we will consider is the first that each of us received, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. 

 

            Saint Paul teaches that by Baptism an individual shares in the death of Christ, in his burial, and in his Resurrection. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). The immersion into water, or the pouring of water over the head, is the sign of dying with Christ. The water falling off the body of the baptized person is a sign of rising with Christ. The words of the minister who says, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” joined with the appropriate symbolic action and done with the intention to do what the Church does in celebrating Baptism, creates the sacrament, and infallibly makes the one who is a baptized a new creation in Christ.  

 

The Baptism of a child unites him or her to the communion of the Church and gives a new identity as an adopted son or daughter of God, which can never be undone even if one were later to deny it.  This is why the individual who is baptized is described as being “sealed” in Christ.  His or her identity cannot be undone because the Paschal Mystery cannot be undone.  By it, Christ has saved the human race.  Therefore, one who is baptized is assured of heaven as long as he or she does not break communion with God and the Church through mortal sin. However, if communion is broken, the baptized may be restored because they always remain God’s adopted sons and daughters, and He is their perfect Father. 

 

The primary means which God uses to restore someone back to communion with him and the Church is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which itself derives its grace from the Paschal Mystery.  With the help of the Holy Spirit “The faithful Christian who has ‘kept the seal’ until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life ‘marked with the sign of faith,’ with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God – the consummation of faith – and in the hope of resurrection” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 1274).