Each month the team working on this catechism presents you with two texts, and we hope that with your help and cooperation they will improve. Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome, as would ideas on subject matter.
We look forward to hearing from you.
SACRAMENTS
When Jesus is announcing the Good News to the poor, healing the lepers, opening the eyes of the blind, washing the feet of his disciples, he says some thing about God. He is bearing testimony to the presence of God in every day life of the people.
By His words and His action, He is unveiling the face of God. His humanity is a sign which is disclosing God.
- " Who sees me sees the Father, said Jesus.
- John the apostle similarly echoes these words:
- "What we have seen
- What we have heard
- What we have contemplated
- What we have been in touch with the Verb of Life...
- We declare it to you....
- John the apostle similarly echoes these words:
Jesus is the sacrament of God. The sacrament lets us see what it cannot be seen. It is a sign. From what we see, one can, with confidence, see what we don't see. We go from a visible reality to an invisible reality. Beyond signs, we have access to another world of depth that we call the mystery.
Today depending on what the Church (the Churches) says or does not say, what it does or does not , makes up the way the Church looks like to the rest of the world. The Church is giving an image of itself. It is becoming a sign. It is the sacrament of Christ for the world.
When the Church is giving the sacraments, the Church is unveiling its face by expressing what the Church is. The various sacraments build the shape of its face. Sacraments build the Church. When the Church is baptizing, marrying, ordaining a priest, celebrating Eucharist, what does it says about the mystery the Church is carrying? What Good News is the Church proclaiming to men and women of today?
- According how they live and commit themselves, Christians make the
Church visible. Being present to the world, they can be heard and they
can lead towards Christ.
- Did not Jesus say: love one another as I loved you. From this, all will recognize that you are my disciples. Christian life has the dimension of a sacrament.
The different sacraments are the actions of the Resurrected among important aspects of our human life: such as birth (we have to be born again said Jesus), human love, forgiveness, solidarity, experience of illness.....They are a source for and a meaning of life. The goal of sacraments is always to transform our life through the grace of Christ and not only when the sacrament is administered but during all our life.
- Then we understand better that a sacrament is more to make you start
than to put you in order, more a genuine humanity than a question of a
solemn ceremony .
- They reveal the hidden magnificence of our existence's and the deep meaning of what we are living every day.
- They reveal the hidden magnificence of our existence's and the deep meaning of what we are living every day.