Before we can move on to the next teaching I had to resolve, we need to take a bit of a side quest. In order to comprehend the answer to my next question, which was “How does one enter into that faith and become saved,” we need to understand what a sacrament is. We will go deeper into the individual sacraments, but this explanation of what a sacrament is deserves its own chapter to refer to.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) defines the sacraments:
“The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.” - CCC 1131
In my Protestant days, I remember being taught about “The Means of Grace.” An example of this is the Word of God.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” - Romans 10:17
In this scenario, the Bible, the Word of God would be the means by which God’s Grace would be distributed. The hearer would hear and Faith would be the result. Or not. There are those that reject the offer of salvation. In various denominations anything can happen from the hearer rejecting the Word or God of their free will or, in other denominations like Calvinism, perhaps the hearer was not one of the elect and therefore had no chance of having faith.
This is juxtaposed to a Sacrament where the effect of the act itself works. There is a Latin phrase, “Ex Opera Operato” which means “by the very fact of the action’s being performed.” God works His work. Jesus does all the verbs. The sacraments give grace by God’s power and the action itself, not because the priest is holy or the person receiving it is good.
Sacraments are “powers that come forth” from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are “the masterworks of God” in the new and everlasting covenant. - CCC 1116
It is Christ who is truly doing the act through the Priest, through His church in the Sacraments.
The Elements of A Sacrament
There are two things that constitute a Sacrament. One is the Form and the other is the Matter. The Form is the Word of God. The matter is some tangible or physical element. For example, in the sacrament of Baptism, the Form are the words given to us by Jesus,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” - Matthew 28:19
The matter would be the Water. In Holy Communion, the matter would be the bread and wine. In the sacrament of communion and the anointing of the sick, the matter would be oil. For ordination there is the laying on of hands. In the sacrament of reconciliation, there is contrition and in marriage there is consent.
Conclusion
We are to understand a Sacrament as a means of Grace by which God administers and dispenses faith, grace, mercy and the salvation won once and for all at Calvary, to individuals throughout history and in the present. The Sacrament is the power of God that may be performed in the person of Christ by the Priest, but is solely the work of the Holy Spirit.