The sacrament idea




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The Sacrament Idea

Four addresses delivered on The Catholic Hour from June 6, 1954
through June 27, 1954 by the Rev. Gerald S. Sloyan. The program is
produced by the National Council of Catholic Men in cooperation with
the National Broadcasting Company.

BY

REV. GERALD S. SLOYAN

First Edition

August 31, 1954

National Council of Catholic Men
1312 Massachusetts Ayenue, N.W.

Washington 5, D. C.

Printed and distributed by Our Sunday Visitor
Huntington, Indiana



Nihil Obstat.

REV. EDWARD A. MILLER
Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:

Hh JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D.D.

Archbishop, Bishop of Fort Wayne



TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Sacrament Idea 5

Torrent Of Newness 11

Olive And Power 17

Life In Wheat And Wine , 25





THE SACRAMENT IDEA
Address Delivered on June 6, 1954

Ten years ago today the Nor-
mandy landings took place. In
a bold stroke that ranks fairly

with the tactical triumphs of
all military history, 176,000

troops in 4,000 craft made the
spearhead assault on a 60-mile
coastline, supported by an air
cover of 11,000 planes. Presi-

dent, then General Eisenhower,
had the unified command of
what was the largest amphibi-
ous operation in human history
— “Operation Overlord” —
better known as “D-Day.”

We had got our first taste of
peacetime compulsory military
training as a nation on Septem-
ber 16, 1940, with the passage
of the Selective Training and
Service Act. The draft is a fa-
miliar part of national life now,
but when almost sixteen and a
half million men registered,
one month to the day after that
law was passed, America had
the feeling she had entered on
a new and strange era. What
was a commonplace to ancient
empires and modern sovereign-
ties, but what had heretofore
been foreign to her tradition,
became the normal thing: re-
quired service under arms at
a time when the nation was not
at war.

Ancient Rome knew the
phenomenon well. Compulsory
military service in the empire

was sometimes called sacra-
mentum — “the draft,” we say
— by way of a short-cut of
language, deriving from the
oath of allegiance the inductees
had to take to the protective
gods of Rome. After all, it was
a sacred matter to serve under
the imperial eagles. Home and
hearth were at stake. The Ro-
man peace had to be extended,
moreover, for the barbarians’
own good.

The military oath was simply
part of a larger picture. When-
ever you made a binding oath
before sacred altars, or deposit-
ed stakes in a wager or a suit,
you had obliged yourself by
sacramentum. That word or
that object was your bond, and
a sacred bond because the gods
had been invoked in witness.
It was an outward sign, a re-
ligious sign, of a man’s inner
intention to serve his country
or to redeem a pledge.

When the followers of Jesus
of Nazareth in the West began
to speak Latin instead of the
Greek that had earlier been
more common, they had a seri-
ous problem in terminology on
their hands. This would be in
the second and third centuries
at Rome and in North Africa.
There was no problem in what
to do as a follower of Christ.
Their ritual behavior and their



6 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

suprahumanly good conduct
had been the same from the
start — ever since his apostles
began to spread the good news
of new life in God through His
only Son, Jesus. No, the prob-
lem was not one of practice but
of how to describe that prac-
tice which had been so long
agreed upon. To be a Christian
was to engage in a spirit of
faith, in certain rites whereby
God was worshipped and His
grace or favor received. You
may put it as simply as that.
A bath in water, sacred anoint-
ing with olive oil, a small meal
in wheaten bread and grape
wine — there is no historic
Christianity whatever except
in terms of this ritual behavior.
But how to speak of it?

Well, at the start the Christ-

ians felt under no compulsion
to describe it at all, so long as

they engaged in it. But after
a while a word from Greek
pagan religion seemed to suit
their purpose well, the word
mysterion, and so it was taken
over. For the Greeks it had
meant any matter that was sec-
ret (originally, “shut up”), in

the sense of ritual behavior
whose precise character one
was not free to divulge. If the
devotee had witnessed or ex-
perienced something symboli-
cally significant in the temple
rites, he had to keep mum
about it. He was bound to sec-
recy over the “mysteries,” or

sacred rites, of his religion.

Now, what the followers of

Jesus had engaged in from the
beginning was a whole series
of religious acts which had re-
ference to the body with its
senses, as well as to the mind
and heart. Some of it was of
their own devising, like placing
honey on the lips of a child, or
giving milk to the newly bap-
tized, but much of it was the
Master’s direct command. They
felt no freedom to do or not to
do certain things as they
pleased, if He had specified
them. Such an act was the lay-
ing on of hands by an apostle,
or by someone who had had an
apostle lay hands on him, for
the designation of a man who
would by changing the bread
and wine into the Body and
Blood of Christ make possible
the offering of the sacrifice-

meal known as the Lord’s Sup-
per. Like the Supper itself, this
form of deputation was re-
quired behavior in a context of
sacred worship. Interior reli-

gion, which is of course the
only important kind, was
roused or expressed or given
outward embodiment by some
visible object or outward ac-
tion. It was the Lord’s com-
mand, and He had said that the
proof of love was to keep his
commandments. Therefore,
never was there a time in the
history of the assembly called
by the Master His Church, when
there was no “sign” — or
“symbol” — activity in the
realm of sacred behavior.

Mysterion, we said, was the
Christian choice of a term to



THE SACRAMENT IDEA 7

describe a supernatural reality

or truth hidden beneath an ex-
terior available to the senses.

The Latins were not especially
good at thinking up equivalents
for Greek words. Sometimes
they just got lazy and spelled
the Greek word in their own
way, as is the case with the
word rodeo north of the Rio
Grande, and el Biesbol south of
it. Mysterium was an early way
used by the Latins to describe
the wonderful boon of God’s
invisible grace under visible
signs, but after a while the
word sacramentum won out as
a translation of mysterion. It

is not a very exact translation,
but it does the job. Any holy
thing or pledge, remember, but
especially the miltary oath,
was a sacrament to the Romans.
To the Church of Jesus Christ,
a sacrament has ever been a
pledge or token in the order of
the senses, of that infinite love

of God for man which no eye
can see.
There are certain people who

say they can not abide ritual
behavior, and indeed there is
much to be said in their favor.
If you have ever been caught
in an initiation ceremony or in
some fraternal activity where
the facts scarcely warranted all
the solemnity, you will recog-
nize the feeling. It is down-
right embarrassing to dress
oddly, to employ grandiose
formulas and gestures, to duck
and bob and weave at stated
times, when a few silently ex-
pressed sentiments of loyalty

to the organization and its
ideals would serve just as well.
Yet contrariwise, it seems en-
tirely proper to most minds
that an outstanding military
figure should be relieved of his
last command with honor on
the parade ground, full military
ritual being employed.

It would be quite erroneous
to conclude from what we have
just said that all fraternalism

is sham and all patriotism un-
der arms a sincere or even sac-
red matter. By no means. The
principle that does emerge is
that a thing must be vastly im-
portant in the realm of ideas
before it really deserves to be
translated into symbolic behav-
ior, but that when it is thus
important, nothing better or
more fitting, humanly, can be
done with it than so to act it
out. Do you recall how Saul’s
daughter Michol looked from
her window in scorn when she
saw her husband David the
King dancing wildly in the
street to celebrate the return
of the ark to Juda? “How glori-
ous was the king of Israel to-
day, uncovering himself before
man and maid, his own sub-
jects, graceless as a common
mountebank!”* The substance
of David’s reply was that to
make oneself a fool, even a
clown in the Lord’s eyes had a
lot to recommend it when He
had been good enough to
choose one king over His own
people, and not any other.

*11 Kgs. (II Sam.) 6:16



8 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

When the matter in hand
transcends human littleness ut-
terly, surely some special note
should be made of the event
by a man in his whole person,
not his silent inner self only.

And when that event is the
highest and holiest thing that
may occur to him in this mor-
tal life — namely, a sharing
in God’s blessed knowledge and
appreciation of Himself in a
way more proper to Him than
to us — then, should a man
sing and dance and play, he
acts not only reasonably but
one might even say in surpris-
ingly subdued fashion, given
the joy of the occasion.

Happily, there is no require-
ment of emotional exaltation in
Christ’s religion. While it may
easily prove untrustworthy, it
is nonethless not forbidden.

What He did impose was con-
verse with His Father through
the expressive language of
signs. This type of communica-
tion was the most natural in
the world, and as nature’s
Master (with the Father and
the Holy Spirit), Christ fitted
everything creaturely to the di-

vine plan.

How do Christians use signs
to speak to God, or more pro-
perly, how does He use signs
to converse with them?

There is essentially the use
of some stuff or substance, or
a formula of words in the or-
der of nature for its proper
purpose, which has the effect
of reminding the user and all

the Church of a loftier signifi-
cation in a world above the
everyday world of nature. For
example, water is good for
washing; you can also slake
thirst with it, and this some-
times makes it the difference
between life and death; a man
can be submerged in water to
the point of forfeiting his life,

drowning. Oil is helpful in re-
storing bodily strength, wheth-
er medical science be primitive
or highly perfected. Bread sus-
tains life; wine does that and
more. A spoken promise binds
a man, while a spoken charge
or commission can give him
both obligations and status. All
these uses and transactions are
the very stuff of human life.
They are symbolic of a man’s
course of days on the earth.
What more ingenious than that
the Author of Life should have
designed that the unseen real-
ity of the life of grace be trans-
mitted by means of signs that
closely parallel it in the order

of nature? The Christian does
not say, “It is entirely fitting.

Let us assume that Christ did
it.” He says, “From the New
Testament and from that early
Christian practice which the
New Testament partially re-
flects, it is evident that He did
it. Was this not because He
deemed sacramentalism so well
suited to our nature and our
needs?”

There are a few special
points that need to be raised
about sacraments, because they



THE SACRAMENT IDEA 9

are so widely misunderstood.
Let us list them in order.

1. A sacrament does not
merely remind the recipient of
God’s love. It bestows that love
in measure. In other words, the
sign of supernatural birth or
resuscitation or growth or nour-
ishment achieves the very thing
it signifies. Water gives divine
life, oil protects it, what seems
bread and wine sustains it.
God’s grace is not only be-
spoken by the sign, but resides
in the sign in virtue of His de-
termination of the thing, and
not by any human poetry or
guesswork. The outward real-
ity in nature is the instrument
of an unseen reality from on
high.

2. No man can be sanctified
against his will. He must have
a disposition to love God —
which includes sorrow for sin
— else barrels of oil, signs of
the cross and forgiveness —
formulas without number will
leave him totally unaltered ex-
cept for the worse guilt of sac-
rilege.

3. A sacrament is meaning-
less except in terms of the re-
demption in Christ’s blood won
for all men on Calvary, ratified
by God through His resurrec-
tion and ascension. All prayers,
rites and formulas are lifeless
observances but for the blood
of the new Lamb.

4. That the Master should
have designated how He chose
to save is enough for the dis-
ciple. But His choice of sym-

bolic prayers and actions is
subject to this much scrutiny:
it is very comforting to be as-
sured that on certain distinct
occasions, if we are not delib-
erately and in cold blood re-
jecting God’s grace, we are
really receiving it. No prayer
or work of charity gives the
same high certitude of this as
does a sacrament.

5. Many sacred signs over the
course of twenty centuries
have been described as sacra-
menta. Slowly but very surely
a distinction became clear be-
tween a restricted few and all
the rest. From the beginning,
three were in no doubt what-
ever as having power to sanc-
tify men in virtue of the effi-
cacy dwelling in their sign:
baptism, confirmation, and the
Lord’s Supper. Last anointing,
forgiveness of sins, matrimony
and sacred ordination were
four others which, while prac-
ticed since the beginning like
the other three rites gradually
emerged clearly even, being
equal to the other three in
grace-giving power.

6. A sacrament is simply an
extension of the Incarnation in
space and time. If God really
sent His Son to be one of us
men, nothing is more likely
than that His Son should at-
tempt to reach our innermost
selves through the only avenues
proper to man as a learner and
a lover, his senses. Such was
the means He used when with
us, and the Son of Man is not
a one to change.



10 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

Outward show of religiosity
is a pompous, hateful thing.
Jesus spent all His energies in
combating it. Real religion is
of the heart, a matter of God’s

spirit and man’s locked in the
embrace of truth. Jesus spent
His days in fostering it. The
sacrament idea? It is not sham
—It is Love, known by a sign.



TORRENT OF NEWNESS
Address Delivered on June 13, 1954

In the Times Literary Sup-
plement of London for April
30 last, the British cultural his-

torian Arnold Toynbee had a
letter to the editor in which he
took strong exception to the

views of Mr. Douglas Jerrold,
also an historian. He criticized
the latter for making any spe-
cial claims for western civiliza-
tion on the ground that it is a
Christian and hence a superior
one. Let me quote him:

“Christ’s unique merits can-
not be appropriated by any hu-
man being or by any institu-
tion, either secular or ecclesi-

astical. To claim to appropri-
ate them is to commit the sin
of pride. The pretension is un-
tenable, because no human be-
ing or institution ever has the
monopoly of being Christ’s in-
strument . . . Pride is a desper-
ate sin, because it is a denial of
the sinner’s need for God’s
grace — and God’s grace is for-
feited when it is taken for
granted.”

So Mr. Toynbee, now that is
earnest confusion at the very
highest level. For if there is
one thing sure about the preach-
ing of the apostles and of those
who came in succession after
them, it is precisely that they
claimed a monopoly as Christ's
instrument. Peter and Paul and
John, Barnabas and Silas were
agreed on one thing more surely
than any other: that the unique

merits of the Master were avail-
able through His living Body
the Church, and not, by positive
design of God, through any oth-
er means. You may not like
their claim, but you had better
not deny that they made it,
short of resolutely determining
never to look in the New Testa-
ment again. The same men who
preached the humble Christ
proclaimed in all humility that
salvation was not to be found
elswhere than in His name,
whose word they preached so
confidently (Acts. IV, 30). He
told them, “He who hears you,
hears Me.” (Luke X. 16), and
they never for a moment acted
as if they doubted the identifi-
cation. The assembled church in
Jerusalem, wishing to hammer
out some basic legislation for
the Gentile converts of Syrian
Antioch, prefaced their direc-

tives with the phrase, “It has
seemed good to the Holy Spirit
and to us.” (Acts XV, 28). On
Mr. Toynbee’s reading of things,
the apsotles and elders could
not have got much prouder than
that. Instead of deserting them,
however, God’s grace went on
to accomplish even greater
marvels through their instru-
mentality.

“The Father has put every-
thing under His dominion,” St.
Paul wrote of Christ, “and
made Him the head to which
the whole Church is joined, so



12 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

that the Church in His body, the
completion of Him who every-
where and in all things is com-
plete” (Ephesians I, 23).
The first Christians never

took God’s grace for granted

—surely that is sin; but they
took for granted once the Mas-
ter had taught it to them, that
there was no source of grace
above the Church and its sacra-
ment — surely that and that
only is historic Christianity.

“Each of us, brethren,” wrote
Clement, Bishop of Rome,
around the year 96, “must in his
own place endeavor to please
God with a good conscience,
reverently taking care not to

deviate from the established
liturgy . . . we are obliged to
carry out in fullest detail what
the Master has commanded us
to do at stated times ...” (XLI,
1 and XL, 1).

First and foremost of these
commands was that of giving a
ritual bath as a sign of initi-
ation. “Go, and make disciples
of all nations,” Jesus said, “bap-
tizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit ...” (Matt.
XXVIII, 19). History’s record
is that no one was considered
to have any part with Christ
until this was attended to.

* * *

Almost at the very beginning
of the Bible, in its opening book
called Genesis (which means
beginning”), you read these
lines:

The earth was waste and
void; covered by the abyss, and

the spirit of God was stirring
above the waters. (Gen. I, 2-3)
Within the past three years
there have been a number of
excellent books available, on
the riches of life in the depth
of the sea. Miss Rachel Carson
of the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service has given us
“The Sea Around us” and the
the earlier Under the Sea
Wind, and a year or so ago
there appeared The Silent
World, by Captain Jacques Ives
Cousteau.

Far from being a silent tomb
of lifelessness, however, the sea
is shown by these marine biolo-
gists to be the relatively noisy
home of millions of animal and
plant species. There is life there
in abundance, and water, while
not the cause, is the condition

of it undoubtedly. In fact, with-
out the waters of the seas, no
life anywhere on the earth
would be possible.

We live out our human lives
so long as blood keeps flowing
in our veins. Like so many
liquids, blood is largely water,

and in our blood “sodium, pot-
assium and calcium are com-
bined in almost the same pro-
portions as in sea water.” The
sea gives evidence of being our

mother, in the sense that she is

a necessary condition for our

life.

Did Moses, did the ancient
Jews know all these things
about the waters of the abyss?

Hardly so; but they knew that
God in His all-persuasive power



TORRENT OF NEWNESS 13

was like a mighty wind. They
called Him “Breath’’ or “Spirit”
because, although He was un-
seen, He was the cause of all.
They could not describe His
creative power better than by
declaring, under the influence
of divine inspiration, that the

darkness of the abyss, its tur-
bulence, and its chaos, were
completely under the sway, now
gentle, now mighty, of the life-
giving God. “The spirit of God
was stirring above the waters.”

In Christian art you some-
times see a dove fluttering over
the waters of a stream, usually
near the font in a baptistry. The
symbolism is evident. This is
the Holy Spirit, a Person of the
tri-Personal God, who was
seen as a dove by Jesus and by
John the Baptizer, as the latter,
hesitantly doing as he was told,
immersed his cousin from
Nazareth in the waters of the
Jordan.

In Holy Baptism, the sacra-
ment or rite of initiation into
Christian life, the spirit of God
stirs above the waters. The can-
didate is enlivened. He already
possesses the life proper to
man’s nature — human life —
in itself a great gift. He is giv-
en in addition new life, a kind
of existence more proper to God
than to man. He begins to live
on a higher plane than before —
born of water and the Holy
Spirit. He lives unto God.
God is the cause of this new

life. One is tempted to say;
water is its condition. But that
would be wrong. That would

not be good sacramental doc-
trine. Christians have believed
from the beginning that God
takes the water and makes it
to become the very instrument,
the cause, of new life. We live
to God in baptism, He lives in
us, with the saving flow of
water as the instrumental
cause. Water gives us more-
than-natural life. That is why
the Fathers of the Church used
to love to describe the baptis-
mal font as the womb of Mother
Church, which the Holy Spir-
it has made fruitful.

Our Lord said to Nicodemus,
that influential Pharisee who
came to visit Him by night

:

“Do not be surprised, then, at
my telling you, ‘You must be
born anew,’ ” He had been sur-
prised, though. He had been
skeptical, and it was only na-
tural because the claim Jesus

made was so startling.

“Believe me,” Our Lord went
on to say, “no man can enter
into the kingdom of God unless
birth comes to him from water,
and from the Holy Spirit. What
is born by natural birth is a
thing of nature, what is born by
spiritual birth is a thing of

spirit.” (John III, 6-7).

At the University College of
Cork in Ireland there is a re-
markably beautiful little church
for student worship, a memori-
al, called Honan Chapel. The
sanctuary walls in their en-

tirety are a rich blue mosaic in

which dozens of fish play in the

running stream. The graphic



14 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

representation is an old one,
going back to the days of the
catacombs. The fish are bap-
tized Christians and the waters
are their life-giving element.

Why fish? Well, it was early
discovered that the five-letter

Greek word for fish, ichthys,
was formed by the first letters
of the five Greek words for
“Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Savior,” and since much had
to be done in secrecy in per-
secution times, and earlier still
out of a reticence over holy
things this symbolic word “fish”
was substituted for our Lord as
a harmless code word to throw
enemies of Christ off the scent.

Every baptized person is an-
other Christ, and he is at home
in the “living waters” of the sac-
rament. He lives again in the
new element—water.

Traditionally, in Christian

practice, certain blessed objects

or blessings have been used to
excite believers to thoughts of
trust in God, of love, of the
shortness of life, of sorrow for
sin. Such objects are ikons or
images of Christ and the saints,
ashes, palms. The lifeless ob-
ject has an effect, but chiefly
through the action of God’s
grace on a free human will. By
employing these sacramental
objects, Christians are moved
to action. The efficacy of the
object of itself is at a minimum,
compared with the prayerful
disposition of the user.

That is how sacramentals
work. With sacraments it is dif-

ferent. Sacraments are like-
wise signs and reminders, but
they are much more powerful
than sacramentals. They are a
marvelous new creation of
Christ our Lord, not of men,
and are like nothing else in the
world. They are a family of
seven signs—things that we use
and do — which He has devised
to act as vehicles for His won-
derful work of redeeming and
sanctifying us. What He accom-
plished for us on Calvary’s hill,
He shares with us in this most
soul-satisfying way. They give
to the soul not temporary helps
to holiness but God’s permanent
grace, the love that lasts as

long as we continue to love in
return.

They are signs which bring
about in the order of grace that
marvel which, in the order of
nature, they somehow parallel.
While hands are in motion or a
thumb is tracing a cross in
olive oil a transaction is, at that

very moment, in progress be-
tween heaven and earth. Sacra-
ments are not just reminders
They are real causes or effectors
of holiness.

What does the outward sign
of holy baptism convey to the
mind? Two things: a burying,
and a washing. What are the
spiritual gifts that holy bap-
tism transmits? They are like-
wise two: burial with Christ
only to rise with Him again,
and cleansing of all guilt of sin.

In our Lord’s day and for
many centuries afterwards in



TORRENT OF NEWNESS 15

warm climates, the usual man-
ner of being baptized was to
be wholly immersed. It was
custom, which the Church, act-
ing as Christ in the world, felt

free to modify when it became
difficult to realize for practi-

cal reasons. The candidates for
baptism, so called because of
their vestes candidae, or white
robes, were led down by the
administering bishop or priest
into a bath which had steps in
the form of a V. They buried
in the waters the man they had
been with his life of sin; in this
grave or running water they left
all former wickedness, just as
Christ had left His mortality
behind Him in the rock tomb
provided by Joseph of Arima-
thea. Christ's resurrection in

glory is paralleled by the can-
didate's emergence from the
water, who comes to life in a
new kind of life. He has died
a sinner and risen a supernatur-
al man.

“In our baptism," says St.
Paul, “we have been buried
with Him, died like Him, that
so, just as Christ was raised up
by His Father's power from the
dead, we too might live and
move in a new kind of exist-
ence." (Rom. VI, 4).

A new kind of existence!
Washed in water, the universal
sign of cleansing, the Christian
goes cleansed and takes on a
more than earthly lustre. He is
a member of Christ, a sharer in
all He won for His brothers,
new-born unto God whether

two weeks old or thirty years,
or eighty-three.

Sometimes an abrupt change
is required in putting on the
full mind of Christ. There is a
considerably altered outlook

necessary before some adults
can say: “I would be brought
to life in this supernatural

world." They may find the price
of full Christian faith too high;

they know they must break
with the past and are not ready
to; they realize that burial of

their former selves is neces-
sary, with an abrupt end to
these habits or familiar ways,
those attachments or forbidden
loves, and they are not equal
to the choice.

“Give me chastity," the
young Augustine prayed, “but
not yet awhile." “I sighed and
longed to be delivered, but was
kept fast bound, not with out-
ward chains but with my own
iron will. ‘Presently,' ‘by and
by'; but this ‘presently' did not
presently come, these delays
had no bounds, and this ‘little
while' stretched into a long

time."

Christian baptism is a double
choice. It is God’s loving choice

of men, and their responsive
choice of God.

A baby cannot choose, cannot
love, and so the Church believes
for that child, hopes, and loves
for him, until at the discretion-

ary years, he comes to choose to
be a member of Christ in his
own name. We know that by the
second century, the custom of



16 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

baptising infants was already
widespread. The earliest pattern
of Christian baptism was the
burial and the cleansing of
adult pagans and Jews. Many
of the latter were just and many
pagans sincere, but others had
lived their lives up to that point,
on very different terms. Per-
haps they had envied or lusted,
been gluttonous, or deceived.
That is why the prayers ac-
companying even infant bap-
tism seem so mysterious to us,
with their numerous quizzings
about fidelity to Christ and
their several exorcisms of the
devil.

The modern ceremony is a
simple telescoped version of a

whole series of rites that used
to be spread over several years,
in the lives of grown-ups.

“Sylvia, what do you ask of
the Church of God?”

“Faith.”

“What does faith bring you
to?”

“Life everlasting.”

And for that introductory ex-
change, the thirty-six year old
matron Sylvia would embark
on a two-year training course as
a catechumen. Signed with the
cross on brow and heart and
still tasting the symbolic salt of
heavenly wisdom, she would
begin to learn of the mysteries
of God, chiefly at the Sunday
instruction, before Holy Mass
proper began. On the Wednes-
day following the third Sunday
in Lent before her baptism, she
would embark on n series of
final tests in religion called

“scrutinies.” Only in these last
two and a half weeks of non-
Christian life would she hear
the Lord’s Prayer and the Apos-
tles’ Creed for the first time and
have them explained to her. She
was on the brink of a heavenly
existence; its secrets must be
unfolded.

Life in the Church of Christ
is a life of signs. There is pro-
gress in holiness, which is a
thing unseen, through a series
of outward signs. At the font
or bapistry we are brought to
birth in the living Christ. Water
is the sign that has done it. Ev-
ery time we come to God’s holy
temple to take part in the
Christian Sacrifice we sign our-
selves with holy water. It is a
sacramental, not a sacrament,

and so it says: “Remember,
Christian soul, that by water
you live again. By water you
were enabled to believe the
words you hear read and
preached, by water you were
given power to pray the Mass
in union with Christ. You are
a person of supernatural worth
you are a creature who can be
to the world a treasure, because
you live again by water and the
Holy Ghost.”

That water was a torrent
once, a coursing stream that
brought only life and newness.
Cracked cisterns can make
parched fields, dry lips. Is there
life, still from the former fresh-
et? Or does it lie in the future,
for souls who have yet to come
alive, in water and the Holy
Spirit?



OLIVE AND POWER
Address Delivered on June 20, 1954

In 1680, the Dutch scientist
Christian Huygens described an
internal combustion engine
which would utilize gunpowder.
It has only been in relatively
recent times, however, that suc-
cessful engines have been con-
structed to burn gasoline and
fuel oil. Nikolaus Otto introduc-
ed this principle of the internal
combustion engine in 1876,
burning gas, but it was Gottlieb
Daimler who constructed the
first gasoline engine ten years

later. Rudolf Diesel’s invention
came only in 1895. The com-
mercial exploitation of petrole-

um in this country had begun
in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, with
the opening of Drake’s oil well.

The energy of the sun has
been stored in the ground in
historic plant life compressed
by the centuries. All fuels are
storehouses of potential energy,

and this heat energy is convert-
ed by engines into useful work.
Surely, then, it is no exagger-
ation for our modern petroleum
companies to proclaim in their
advertising, “Oil is power.”

Oil is power in another and
quite different sense. Why do
we read that the Iranian gov-
ernment and the British com-
monwealth dispute so bitterly,
that Russia would play the
Arab world off against Israel,
and vice versa, if it is not simp-
ly that oil is wealth, oil is pow-
er. You have all heard amusing

stories, I suppose, about the
Cherokee Indians who have it
as a problem in modern Okla-
homa, which Cadillac they shall
use. Again, oil has done for
them what four centuries of pa-
tronizing interest in their sur-

vival could not accomplish.

Oil was a sign of power in
the ancient world just as it is
in the modern. It was the oil
of olives then, but still, a com-
modity which spelled influence
and power.

Joel the prophet, wrote of the
Lord God; “His answer comes,
Here is grain and wine and oil
to your hearts’ content; no more
will I let the nations mock
you.” (Jl. II, 19). That was the
trinity of commerce which re-
curs continually throughout the
Bible, “grain and wine and oil.”

Moses called Palestine a
“land of olive oil” (Deut. II, 8).
Nobody can remember a time
when olive trees were not
growing there. The kings of
pre-Christian Samaria derived
the chief wealth of their realm
from fat olives of the Samari-
tan highlands. Before that, King
Solomon had paid Hiram of
Tyre for the services of carpen-
ters in hewing cedar for the
Temple in olive oil in lots of
20,000 quarts.

Nourishing oil was extracted
from the olives by crushing
them with heavy stones. The



18 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

oil was a staple food, taken
with coarse bread; it was stored
in stone jars, to be employed as
a medium of exchange; it was
used to make soap; it was ap-
plied as an external curative
and salve.

Because oil stood for wealth
and power and health, the anci-
ent Jews saw in it a sign of di-
vine approval. The Old Law re-
quired that tabernacle and ark,
holy tables and the appurten-
ances of sacrifice, all be anoint-
ed with especially scented and
spiced oil. “The oil used for
anointing is a thing set apart,”

says the Book of Exodus, . . .
and you must keep it holy” (Ex.
XXX, 311). •

It was not only sacred objects
which the Jews of old anointed.
Three classes of men who had
in the God-governed nation of
Israel received their designa-
tion by way of symbol: priests,
prophets, and kings.

In the Book of Exodus the
Jews were told, “sprinkle with
(ram’s blood) and with the oil
used for anointing, Aaron and
his sons. . . . By this elevation,
in the Lord’s presence, Aaron
and his sons are to be consecrat-
ed” (Ex. XXIX, 21, and 25). So
did it happen with the family
to whose charge was committed
the sacrificing priesthood.

When it came time for the
prophet Samuel to designate
Saul as the Jews’ first king, we
are told: “And now Samuel took
out his phial of oil, and poured
it out over Saul’s head; then he

kissed him, and said, Hereby
the Lord anoints thee to be the
leader of his chosen people” (I
Kgs. X, 1). Thus was the chief
man of the Jews anointed with
oil.

The order of signs establish-
es a relationship between the
outward thing done or portray-
ed and the concept represented.
When the relationship is arbi-
trary, we call that a conven-
tional sign. A striped pole bears
no essential relation to barber-
ing; the pole might as easily
have been decided upon to
stand for a butcher shop. With a
pair of glasses hung in neon
over an optician’s shop, how-
ever, it is a different matter.

That is a natural sign, just as a
cloud is a natural sign of rain,
or an extended palm, facing out,
a natural sign to halt.

A sign that bears a pair of
eyeglasses in outline is a natur-
al sign but not in itself an ef-
fective one. It indicates to the

passerby: “There is a man here
skilled in grinding lenses to the

eye-doctor’s prescription.” The
sign does not cause your eye-
sight to improve; it indicates a
means which you are free to
take toward improving it. It is
a helpful sign in that it tells

you something, but there its
efficacy ends. It does not, of

itself, effect or bring about the
improvement it signifies.

Sacramentals are like that.
Rosary beads remind the user,
“Pray with me. Raise your
thoughts to God and keep them



OLIVE AND POWER 19

tethered with my little markers.
That is what I am for.” The
plaques or medallions of the
Way of the Cross — Stations, as
they are called — convey to
the mind: “I am an excellent
means for meditating o n
Christ’s sufferings. Use me to
that end.” And so the believer
prays, and the transient helps
needed for holy living are mul-
tiplied by the loving God
through that prayer. Sacramen-
tals are outward signs which
are occasions of passing graces.

Sacraments are outward signs
which are causes of permanent
grace, or God’s abiding favor.
Water, and the words of Christ
whereby the three Persons are
invoked, just as surely cause
birth in His Kingdom as con-
ception and the nine months of
gestation bring a human to
birth in the order of nature.

The sacraments do not work
automatically, that is to say
apart from the human will. No,
for God’s grace is His love, and
for love to be perfect there
must be a return of love. We are
not sanctified despite ourselves.

Sacraments are signs which
cause human holiness only if we
have it so.

Water, we reminded our-
selves last week, is the sign
of cleansing, and of resurrec-
tion from death and burial.
What is the significance of oil
in the sacramental system? It is
used in conjunction with priest-
hood, which is authorized pow-
er to offer gifts to God — tech-

nically, “sacrifice”; it has to do
with teaching also, and with rul-
ing. In a word, oil signifies for
the Christian what it did in a
religious sense for the Jew of
old, except in much fuller mea-
sure. Priest, prophet or
teacher, and king was he to
be whom ancient prophecy
called Mashia — all three in
one. The word Messiah means
“anointed”; it was with oil that
the prophet was designated, the
priest consecrated, and the king
raised to his high office. Tne
title “Christ” is simply “Mes-
siah” translated into Greek,
“the Anointed.” The Expected
One, it was thought, would be
given power from on high and
fulfill the three roles admirably.

When He came, Jesus of Naz-
areth said, “Absolute authority
in heaven and on earth has been
conferred upon me.” (Mt.
XXVIII, 19). He claimed to be,
and by many was believed to
be, God’s Anointed — the
Christ.

What is it to be a Christian
but to be another Christ? It is
not possible, therefore, to be
born into the Kingdom, His
Living Church, without receiv-
ing some power to act as He
did, some active sharing in His
triple role.

Extend for a moment, if you
will, the thumb and the first
fingers of either hand, and tuck
the last two fingers in against
your palm. From thumb to in-
dex to middle finger is a pro-
gression in the normal hand.



20 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

They provide an old device to
teach the progressive sharing

in Christ’s priestly power that is
given to His members through
a series of sacramental signs. In
holy baptism, the thumb, we are
empowered to become offerers
of Christ’s sacrifice—the Mass
—as members of His living
Body, the Church. He is an in-
finite Person; He shares our
poor manhood. In union with
Him we grow capable of offer-
ing to the Father a perfect gift.
Confirmation, the index finger,
gives a second measure of
priestly power, in the sense that
he who is an offerer now has
the public responsibility of

sharing with others faith in the
mystery of the Mass. With or-
dained priesthood and with its
fullest measure, the bishop’s of-
fice, the middle finger, comes
power not simply to offer Christ
in sacrifices but also effectively
to produce Christ, by a spoken
word, as the victim for sacri-
fice. All members of the Church
have some priestly power; the
ordained have the unique power
to make Him really present
whom all the baptized will of-
fer.

Three of the seven Christian
sacraments can not be received
more than once because they
change or modify the recipient
in a way that is lasting. They
are baptism, confirmation, and
order, and the change they
bring about is nothing other
than to give a share in Christ’s
priestly power. You can not re-
ceive them again because, hav-

ing first come to life and then
been deputed to a certain task in
the kingdom, you cannot receive
that existence, or that commis-
sion again. You cannot because
you need not, just as it is im-
possible to commission an army
major as a major. A baptiszed,
or confirmed, or ordained
Christian, is such forever.

It seems, perhaps, that in a
family of three such signs, all
would have oil as their common
element, if oil is the ancient

symbol for the priest-prophet-
king. For reasons of Christ’s
mysterious choosing, it is not so.
In confirmation only is olive oil
the necessary object for sign.
There is an anointing in the
rites both of baptism and priest-
ly ordination, but in neither
case is it precisely that sacra-

ment-sign which gives the
grace. The oil is used in addi-
tional ceremony which follows
the grace-giving water in the
one case, and the laying-on of
hands in the other. In holy bap-
tism, the Christian is anointed

in the form of a cross on shoul-
ders and breast with the oil of
catechumens, that is to say can-
didates, and again on the crown
of his head with an oil called
chrism. The first is to make him,
symbolicaly, supple and strong
in the contest with man’s ad-
versary, the devil; the second
cross-sign is priestly in charac-

ter, symbolic of his new power
to have a part in Christ’s sacri-
fice and worship. He has be-
come a member of Christ Who is
the High Priest of God’s new



OLIVE AND POWER 21

kingdom. Says the baptizing
priest, “May almighty God . . .
anoint you with the Chrism of
salvation in the same Christ
Jesus, our Lord unto life ever-
lasting.

n

When a priest is ordained,
one of the steps subsequent to

the laying-on of a bishop’s

hands, which is the efficacious
sign, is to anoint his hands with
the oil of catechumens in two
arcs or crescents — from one
thumb to the opposite forefing-
er tip and then the other way
about. After that the bishop an-

oints the palms all over, and for
each new priest he prays: “Be
pleased, O Lord, to consecrate
and hallow these hands by this
anointing, and our blessing.
Amen. That whatever they
bless may be blessed and what-
soever they consecrate may be
consecrated and hallowed, in
the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Then the bishop re-
moves the oil and hands over a
chalice of wine and water, and
a dish with a wafer of bread on
it: “Receive the power to offer
sacrifice to God, and to cele-
brate Mass, both for the liv-
ing and the dead, in the name
of the Lord, Amen.”

The Church of Christ must
grow, being a thing alive. This
moral body is not simply an or-
ganization, as many conceive it
to be, but an organism. Growth
is the very condition of its life. It
cannot grow by force of vio-
lence. Man must hear God’s
voice in invitation and freely

choose to be of that living Body,
members in Christ, the Head.
In ancient times, the admission
of new Christians commonly
took place on the vigil of Easter.
They would go immediately
from the baptismal font to be
confirmed, then to receive the
Paschal Eucharist. Here is a de-
scription of it from the pen of
Hippolytus in the year 215 or so.
He is describing the Church at
Rome, in a practical Handbook
called Apostolic Tradition. First

the baptizing minister submerg-
es the candidate three times,
asking him, in order, if he be-
lieves in God the Father Al-
mighty, then in the Son of God,
then in the Holy Spirit in the
Holy Church. “After this, pour-
ing the consecrated oil from his
hand and laying his hand
on his head, he shall say,
T anoint thee with holy oil in
God the Father Almighty, and
Christ Jesus and the Holy Spir-
it’ and sealing him on the fore-
head he shall give him the kiss
of peace ...” Then the candi-
dates go in to take their first
full part in Christ’s sacrifice,

the bishop saying as he gives
them their first Communion,
“The Bread of Heaven in Christ
Jesus,” to which each replies,
“Amen.”

The spread of the Church
means the spread of love —
human happiness on the in-
crease, with God’s glory leading
it on. There is such a thing as
being naturally reticent of
temperament. There is also a
spirit of delicacy which keeps



22 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

men from speaking offhandedly
about the most sacred matters.
A complete unwillingness t o
share the treasure of faith,

however, is a different case en-
tirely. Any follower of Christ
who feels no compulsion what-
ever to act as God’s instrument
in bringing others to the joys of

baptismal font and altar, needs
to examine hi? use of the graces
he received at confirmation.
This apostolic desire is worlds
apart from the crude prosely-
tism that would force faith on
the listener, or even a hearer,
whether he will it or not. Our
Lord did say, in a graphic fi-
gure of Oriental speech, that
what is sacred should not
be thrown to the dogs. Pearls
have their place in necklace and
brooch, and not in a pigsty mix-
ed with bran mash. The secrets
of the Kingdom are only for
those listeners who show a basic
willingness to hear them. There
do occur times when scoffers at
religion need to be called to
time, and their obvious bad
faith made a point of. In the
main, however, what they need
mcst is to be loved and treated
kindly even in their rudeness.
When the bitter adversaries of
religion are subtracted, there

remains that great population
of fair-minded neutrals whose
whole careers in time and eter-
nity could be altered if the Holy
Spirit of God were given freer
play in the souls of those who
are confirmed Christians.
When the sacrament of con-

firmation is discussed, the no-

tion of fortitude is often so

much to the fore that all else is
drowned out. “Soldiers,” is the
common term, “commissioned
officers in Christ’s army,” as if
the normal conditions of every-
day life were siege, attack, and
blasphemous attempt to make
the Christian apostatize.

Well, of course there is some
of that, and the opposition
should not be minimized, but
actually the chief effect of con-
firmation is spiritual maturity,

which means a priestly func-
tion. Holy Baptism gives life,
but it makes the candidates to
be “as newborn babes” (I Pet.
II, 2), regardless of their age.

Confirmation is adulthood in
the realm of the spirit. A child is
an individualist, essentially. He
lives, so to say, only for him-
self. The dawning of manhood
should mean his beginning to
exert his activity on others.
Manhood requires the person to
take his place as a citizen and
bear his burden as a member of
society.

Pentecost meant for the apos-
tles the shouldering of a burden.
“

. . . ‘The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and you will re-
ceive strength from Him; you
are to be my witnesses to the
ends of the earth.’ ” (Acts 1,-8).
The fire that Christ had come to
enkindle on the earth they set
about spreading, so that soon

the whole Empire was a blaze
of faith and charity.

Confirmation makes the sim-
ple baptized Christian to be



OLIVE AND POWER 23

spokesman and defender for the
message of the Master. He does
not hold the good tidings close
to himself, either in uncertainty

of their truth or in selfishness

of possession. He proclaims the
mystery of the Church ‘like a
standard set up unto the na-
tions, calling to Herself those

who have not yet believed” (DB
1794). He spreads the good odor
of Christ in all his deeds, v/hich

become as the scented balm that
adds fragrance to the chrism’s
soothing strength.

By confirmation a man is
dedicated wholeheartedly to the
Christian cause. It is the com-
pletion of what was begun in
baptism, the sacrament of initi-
ation. Marked twice with the
seal of Christ the Priest in the

deepest recesses of one’s being,

the member of Christ joins that
other at the altar who from his
priestly ordination is thrice-

sealed, and together they offer
Christ — Friend, Brother, Vic-
tim, Lover — to God.
There comes a time in every

Christian’s life when his exer-
cise of priesthood in union with
Christ the Head, whether
through confirmation or sacred
ordination, approaches a close.
There comes a call to death
with its “change of mettle . . .
its light upon light upon light.”
Now is the time for a gathering
to greatness, and the “ooze of
oil crushed” is employed by the
Church for the last time, to this
purpose.

Christ entered into His glory

through suffering and physical
death. The servant should not
expect to be any better off than
He, the Master. At death, and
sometimes in virtue of it and all
its grim preliminaries, souls
hope to be made perfect, free
from all sin and imperfection.
If oil stands for bodily strength,

and surely in all the history of
medication that is the case, then
it should serve as an excellent
sign of that preparation for the
life of glory made by the “ex-
treme unction,” life’s last an-
ointing in a sacrament-sign.

This sacrament is traditional-
ly associated with those ill in
body, ever since the apostle
James counseled calling in the
priests of the Church for anoint-
ing in oil in the name of the
Lord. “That prayer, said with
faith, will save the sick person,
and the Lord will restore him to
health. If he has committed sins,
they will be forgiven him.”
(James V. 15). And so you see,
it is a kind of complement of
the effects of penance, just as
convalescence achieves what a
successful operation cannot
quite do. Full restoration of the

spiritual health and strength
that marked baptismal inno-
cence and eucharistic perfection
is what the Church prays for in
extreme unction. If the recipi-
ent’s dispositions include perfect

faith and love and sorrow, he
can expect full remission of the
effect of his sins — namely, all
punishment and spiritual weak-
ness. He can hope to enjoy



24 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

straightaway the company of
the Blessed God.

Primarily the change effected
by oil and prayer is a spiritual
one, for a religion without suf-
fering and death as necessary
has no claim to be called Chris-
tianity. Far be it from God’s
Church, however, to keep Him
from healing in body when He
chooses, and so the prayers of
this sacrament petition restora-
tion to health, if such be God’s
will. Frequently enough the
soul, new in grace, will have
a short-term or even a long-
term vivifying effect on a
weakened body, and often the
“last anointing” proves not to
be last at all, but a turning
point on the way back to health.
Gerard Hopkins tells the

• course of things in the life of a

blacksmith he had anointed:

Sickness broke him. Impatient
he cursed a first, but mended

Being anointed and all, through
a heavenlier heart began
some

Months earlier, since I had our
sweet reprieve and ransom

Tendered to him. Ah well, God
rest him all rood ever he of-
fend!

Life in Christ is a life of signs,

Water brings first holiness; oil
second in confirmation, for a
few third in priesthood. In
many lives, it is the last sign of
God’s love. But the chief sign
of Christian life is that visible,

edible object which not only ac-
complishes our sanctification
but is its very Author. That
sign, of course, is Christ Jesus,

the living Bread, heart and cen-
ter of the sacramental system.
But of that, next week.



LIFE IN WHEAT AND WINE
Address Delivered on June 27, 1954

Anyone who describes Jesus
of Nazareth as an itinerant
moralist who had a total un-
concern for forms of worship
or refinements of dogmatic
teaching betrays himself imme-
diately as unfamiliar with the
sources on His life and work.
These documents, historic in
character, are cast in the form
of memoirs. They number
four, two being the work of
close acquaintances of Christ,

Matthew and John, and two
written by intimate friends of
the twin giants of the primitive
Church, that is to say, by Mark
and Luke, who were the travel-
ling companions, respectively,
of Peter and Paul. The four to-
gether make clear that the Man
of Nazareth was keenly insist-
ent that men hear from His lips
a single, clear message from
heaven, and act on it in certain
specified ways. In general:
they must believe strongly all
that the Father reveals through
His Son and His Holy Spirit,
match that faith with the qual-
ity of their hope and their love,
and receive an increase of
the Father’s love continually

through contact with a series
of sacred signs which give life.

Consider, if you will, the re-
vealing conversation that Jesus
had at Jacob’s well in Samaria
with a woman of rather leisure-
ly domestic habits. John tells
the story in the fourth chapter

of his gospel. He is alone in it,
probably remembering to old
age the jar he got when he
came out with the rest from
buying food in the town of
Sichar, to discover the Master
talking alone to a strange wo-
man, and a despised Samaritan
at that!

Christ had gambled every-
thing on the significative power
of a dipper-full of well water
at midday. All the hot and
dusty routine of daily chores
and casual loves, He promised,
could be replaced by a “foun-
tain of water welling up (with-
in her) into eternal life’’ (Jn.

IV, 14). It was no good. She
was too literal-minded for Him,
or else by long habit too guard-
ed to be drawn into any conver-
sation on things beyond what
met the eye. In either case —
dull or provocatively brazen —
she said she would welcome the
water He spoke of if it would
save her these daily trips to the
well. With that Jesus changed
His tack. He told her to sum-
mon her husband, and used her
denial that there was any such
person to indicate that He knew
well that of six tentative candi-

dates for that honor, none, in-

cluding the present sharer of
her domicile, had been troubled
with scruples of legality. She
grew rattled at Christ’s evident
detailed knowledge of her
career and like many whose



26 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

moral lives are disordered, im-
mediately found it convenient
to raise the dogmatic question
of which was the true religion.

Probably pointing to nearby
Mt. Garizim, she acknowledged
Him to be a prophet, and then
proceeded, with a womanly non
sequitur, to say, “Well, it was
our fathers’ way to worship on
this mountain, although you
tell us that the place where
men ought to worship is Jeru-
salem.”

“Believe me, woman,” Jesus
said to her, ‘‘the time is coming
when you will not go to this
mountain, nor yet to Jerusalem,
to worship the Father. You
worship you cannot tell what,
we worship knowing what it is
we worship; salvation, after all,
is to come from the Jews; but
the time is coming, nay, has al-
ready come, when true worship-
pers will worship the Father in
spirit and in truth. . . (Jn. IV,
20-23 ).

Get that clear distinction of
His between Judaism, the true
revealed religion, and Samari-
tanism, the seven-century old
heresy from it. Notice, too, the
firm tone in which He prophe-
sied—He who within moments
was to identify Himself to her
clearly: “I Who speak to you,
am the Christ”—prophesied an
end to religion that was essenti-
ally local and national. He first
distinguished carefully between
divinely authorized worship
and unauthorized, and spoke of
both as shortly to be succeeded

by more perfect forms. What is
this if not a dogmatic mind dis-
criminating clearly among man-
ifestations of human reverence
for the divine, as more and less
pleasing to the loving Father
who is honored?

Worship, after all, is “worth-
ship,” a fair evaluation of an-
other’s dignity, and when that
other is the Creator and Lord of
all, why a creature’s only reas-
onable response is fitting ac-
knowledgment. He must pay
homage, which in this case does
not mean a cringing vassalage,
but simply playing a man’s
part. When an employer de-
mands acquiescence or boot-
licking as the price of an em-
ployee’s job, we call that a dis-
tinguishing performance be-
cause the human importance of
the one is falsely magnified,
while the human dignity of the
other is disregarded. It is a
vastly different matter when
the Boundless and the Timeless,
whose love has resulted in a
creation, expects that some rea-
sonable response be made by
rational creatures to the fact of

the difference between them.

Left to themselves, men have
always engaged in a kind of
worship behavior called sacri-
fice. They know instinctively
that rectitude of moral behavior
is the essential thing, however
twisted a moral code they may
have devised, but they have
never been quite satisfied with
that. It seems so colorless; also,
it is very hard. Some basic



LIFE IN WHEAT AND WINE 27

human needs go unsatisfied, it
seems, unless there is an out-
ward acknowledgement of
God’s dominion over human
destinies and everything that
men possess. What form does
the acknowledgment take?
Well, you give to the gods what
you think will please them most
according to the best informa-
tion you have on who directs
the forces of nature you stand
daily in awe of. But if you have
been told, as the ancient Jews
were told, that their Lord was
the only God interested in jus-
tice and mercy and uprightness
of life, then you slaughter and
offer to God the best of your
animals, and burn grain and
fruits, and send up clouds of
incense, as a token of your per-
fect obedience. In early desert

days, the sacrifice of the Jews
was a pretty crude performance
but it was from the heart. Twice
they were crushed by conquer-
ors and carried off in exile, but
each time they returned to re-
establish their blood sacrifice.
They knew the terms well
enough, but it was so easy to
forget.

Religion always tends to re-
vert to mere ritualism; it is na-
ture’s tendency. Temple and
altar were daily occupied. The
levitical priesthood fattened on
the rich revenues. But the nat-
ural language of signs came to
be betrayed, because the re-
quired destruction of the richest
and best was not taking place
and when something like it

with poor substitute beasts did
transpire, there was little genu-
ine spirit of obedience and love
being acted out.

“What do I care, the Lord
says, how you multiply those
victims of yours? I have had
enough, and to spare. Burnt of-
ferings of rams, and the fat of
stall-fed beasts, and the blood
of calves and lambs and goats
are nothing to me. Think you it
is a welcome sound, the tramp
of your feet in my courts,
bringing worship such as yours?
. . . Wash yourselves clean,
spare Me the sight of your busy
wickedness; keep holily from
wrong-doing. Learn, rather,
how to do good, setting
your hearts on justice . . . then
come back, says the Lord, and
make trial of Me.” (Is. I, 11-
18)

Sacrifice is sign language. It
is a particular case of gift-giv-
ing to furnish the receiver with
proof of affection. When the
gift is given but the heart not
along with it, we have a sham.
It is like Judas’ kiss in the gar-
den, or the kiss of a lover who
loves only himself and the
pleasurable sensations he can
garner.

The idea of blood sacrifice
was not unworthy of God. He
had specified it, legislated for
it in detail in the inspired Books
of Moses. It takes courage for
a man to separate himself from
costly heads of stock and see
their carcasses go up in smoke,
especially if they represent a



28 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

good part of his earthly for-
tune. Something of himself is
given in the gift. The chief
troubles with the destruction of
symbolic victims under the Mo-
saic Law, however were these:

a) The sacrificing priesthood,
being human, was itself
sinful, so that the gifts to

God would always be
slightly tainted in the

very transmission.

b) Human sins occur daily
which means that there
would forever be need of
daily sacrifice, just to

keep even with things.

c) Splendid as was Solo-
mon’s Temple and that of
Herod the Great after it,
it was all a pretty puny
business contrasted with
the majesty of the Infinite
God.

d) There was that old, un-
fulfilled promise of God
about a priest who would
continue forever, in the
line of Melchisedech. Now,
Melchisedech was outside
the blood lines of the
hereditary priestly famil-
ies, and his symbolic gift
had been bread and wine.

e) The Lord of Israel was
over the Gentiles as well.
Like it or not, the Jews
had received from Him a
progressive multiplication

of prophecy that their na-
tional mission would come
to a close when the Mes-
siah came to rule over all
the nations. Geographic

universality was to mark
his reign, his priesthood

and his sacrifice.
When Jesus of Nazareth

came, He said, “I, who speak to
you am the Christ.” He said it
too often and to the wrong peo-
ple, not in so many words, but
by miracles, courageous indict-
ment of evil, and by shattering,
superhuman goodness. As the
poet puts it, “The devil didn’t
like Him, and He died.”
Now here are His qualifica-

tions as a sacrificer, or gift of-

ferer in worship:

a) He is a high priest suited
to our need, “holy, and
guiltless and undefiled. .

.

one who has no need. .

.

to offer sacrifice day by
day, first for his own sins
...” (Heb. VII, 26f).

b) ‘‘Of those other priests

there was a succession,
since death denied them
permanence; whereas
Jesus continues forever,

and his priestly office is
unchanging.” (23f).

c) Jesus is neither an angel
of God nor a servant, like
Moses, but a Son—“the
radiance of His Father’s

splendor, and the full ex-
pression of his being; all

creation depends, for its

support, on his enabling
word.” (Heb. I, 3)

d) The Law had nothing in
it of final achievement. It

was admirable for out-
ward observers, but Jesus
arose, a fresh priest to



LIFE IN WHEAT AND WINE 29

fulfill the type of Mel-
chisedech, and in the pow-
er of His unending life
brought a fuller hope.
When the priesthood was
altered, the Law necessar-
ily was altered with it,
Heb. VII, 12-19)

e) He was the giver, and He
was the gift. God receiv-
ed a perfect sacrifice of
praise in the perfect obe-
dience of His son, Jesus.
The token of it, the sign,
was “his own blood, not
the blood of goats and
calves . . . the ransom He
has won lasts forever.”
(Heb. IX, 12, 13)

The night before He gave His
life in sacrifice, Jesus took in
His hands v/heaten bread —
yeastless because of the Jewish
feast—and grape wine, and de-
clared them to be His body as
offered, His blood, as shed. In
His public career He had been
a master Teacher. He had used
common, everyday objects to
make His points: weeds, fish-
nets, coins, children’s games. He
Who was the unseen God in
tangible human flesh could sac-
ramentalize anything, making
visible objects bear invisible
burdens much weightier than
themselves. This was His mas-
ter stroke. His whole message
had been: “I am life.” He chose
to remain behind in the form of
staples without which there is
no life. He taught unity in love,
the crushing of self for the good
of all. Here was He in His own

hands, a moment before wheat
ground to powder, grapes
crushed to a fiery consistency
of oneness. He said the Son of
Man had come to give His life
as a ransom for the lives of
many (Mt. XX, 28); here in an
unforgettable symbol of the ex-
change was the Ransomer and
the ransom, the Giver and the
gift, the sacrificing Priest and
the victim. It seemed to be
table fare, but in fact, “It is the
Lord.”

Sacraments are effective signs
which give the grace they sig-
nify. Ail seven of them be-
speak, in some measure, life of
a kind above and beyond the
existence proper to man. One
of the seven is the very Author
of that life, Jesus Christ, the
living Bread Who has come
down from heaven. A thousand
years of discipleship went by
before anyone questioned that
He was truly and substantially
present at the priest’s word, as
He had said He would be, and
the foodstuffs present no more.
Thirteen centuries elapsed be-
fore it occurred to anyone to
deny that the Lord’s Supper,
that is to say, the Mass, was one
Sacrifice with Calvary, that
supreme example of worshipful
gift-offering which could never
be repeated nor ever improved.
“As often as the commemora-
tion of this oifering is celebrat-

ed, the work of our redemption
is renewed.”

‘‘The time is coming, nay,
has already come when true



30 THE SACRAMENT IDEA

worshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and in truth.”
Christianity is not meant to di-
vide men but to unite them, to
make all men brothers of that
elder Brother Who is their spot-
less high priest. It hopes to
draw them away from the
mountain of this national spirit
or that sectarian aloofness, up
to the summit of perfect gift-
offering. Calvary was a place,
made sacred in a distant time.
By God’s loving design its ful-
lest effects are available to men
of every nation, even to the
world’s end, in the realm of

sign. Says a prayer of the
Mass at Christmas: “Through
Him Whom we recognize as
God made visible we are car-
ried away in love of things in-
visible.”

Through water, and oil, and
bread and wine, through impo-
sition of hands, and promise,
and prayer, God’s love becomes
real to us. Our highest achieve-
ment, God’s greatest gift, comes
when we offer to Him His Son
in sacrifice. Christian life has
always been and forever will
be, this loving exchange known
by sign.



THE PURPOSE OF THE CATHOLIC HOUR

(Extract from the address of the late Patrick Cardinal Hayes at the in-
augural program of the Catholic Hour in the studio of the National
Broadcasting Company, New York City, March 2, 1930.)

Our congratulations and our gratitude are extended to the National
Council of Catholic Men and its officials, and to all who, by their financial
support, have made it possible to use this offer of the National Broad-
casting Company. The heavy expense of managing and financing a
weekly program, its musical numbers, its speakers, the subsequent an-

swering of inquiries, must be met . . .

This radio hour is for all the people of the United States. To our
fellow-citizens, in this word of dedication, we wish to express a cordial
greeting and, indeed, congratulations. For this radio hour is one of
service to America, which certainly will listen in interestedly, and even
sympathetically, I am sure, to the voice of the ancient Church with its
historic background of all the centuries of the Christian era, and with
its own notable contribution to the discovery, exploration, foundation
and growth of our glorious country . . .

Thus to voice before a vast public the Catholic Church is no light
task. Our prayers will be with those who have that task in hand. We
feel certain that it will have both the good will and the good wishes of
the great majority of our countrymen. Surely, there is no true lover
of our Country who does not eagerly hope for a less worldly, a less
material, and a more spiritual standard among our people.

With good will, with kindness and with Christ-like sympathy for
all, this work is inaugurated. So may it continue. So may it be ful-
filled. This word of dedication voices, therefore, the hope that this radio
hour may serve to make known, to explain with the charity of Christ,
our faith, which we love even as we love Christ Himself. May it serve
to make better understood that faith as it really is—a light revealing
the pathway to heaven; a strength, and a power divine through Christ;
pardoning our sins, elevating, consecrating our common every-day duties
and joys, bringing not only justice but gladness and peace to our search-
ing and questioning hearts.



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