Christian Sacraments: Concept and Celebration

By Nihal Abeyasingha

CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTS focuses on three areas in regard to the sacraments. First, it traces the history of the concept of a sacrament. Second, it tries to insert this history into the context of theological reflection in the second part of the 20th century and after the Second Vatican Council. The writer is influenced by Pope Francis who states, "

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956896763

Nihal Abeyasingha

NIHAL ABEYASINGHA is the first doctorate in the specialization in sacramental theology at San Anselmo, Rome. Besides he has degrees in civil law, philosophy and Buddhism. He has many years of pastoral experience and has taught for many years in seminaries and in the Department of Christian Culture at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

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PREFACE

All life is sacramental and symbolic. Pope Francis in Laudato si (2015) has placed the care of the environment within this perspective. The present work is an attempt to present the history of the development of the concept of a sacrament and more importantly, to situate it in the context of its celebration in life, not merely as the sacramental rites of the Christian community, but all the world joining in the cosmic liturgy.

This work has been a long time in production. Successive drafts were made and then, left unpublished. But from time to time, friends have assisted by reading the drafts and encouraging publication. Among these, I must note in particular Professor Shirley Wijesinghe of University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and Fr. William Evans, who was Professor of Sacramental Theology at the National Seminary, Ampitiya, Sri Lanka. Fr. Roshan Fernando, presently Senior Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya, obtained for me several books from the library of the University of Leuwen, Belgium, when he was studying there. To these and to many others who have helped me along the way, I say Thank you. Now in publishing this work, I hope that it may profit those in the ministry of the sacraments and those who receive the sacraments.

27 February 2020Nihal Abeyasingha

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1: Symbols in Human Usage

Chapter 2: Sacrament: The Development of the Concept

Chapter 3: From Trent into the 20th Century

Chapter 4: Vatican II and After

Chapter 5: Supplementary Questions

Chapter 6: From the History of a Concept to the Celebration of a Sacrament

Selected Bibliography

Appendix: Symbols and Society

Chapter 1

SYMBOLS IN HUMAN USAGE

There are various kinds of activities in which humans engage. There are the activities which he shares with animals e.g. eating, reproducing. There is rational activity e.g. studying. In interaction with other human beings, there is what can be called ritual behaviour e.g. Good Morning. How are you today? Reply. Good morning. I am fine. Thank you. And how are you? (No one expects a run down on your latest health situation at this point). Such ritual behavior sets up an interaction between persons.

Susanne Langer (1895-1985) has suggested that the human person is essentially a symbol-making being. In arguing for her position, Langer based her thought on a long philosophical tradition reaching back as least as far as the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). She said Ritual is a symbolic translation of experiences that no other medium can adequately express. Because it springs from a primary human need, it is a spontaneous activity, that is to say, it arises without intention, without adaptation to a conscious purpose; its growth is undersigned, its pattern purely natural, however intricate it may be. Worgul comments What the ritual yields is not in the first place, conformity or social unity, but anchorage, orientation, meaningfulness, a sense of order. Anchorage means that we know today how to perform the ritual tomorrow. It can be said to programme experience.

From where do we have experience? From life. Where do we experience anchorage, orientation, meaningfulness, a sense of order? Again in life, but looking beyond life to the transcendent, however you name it. In the sacramental context, we call it mystery. Besides, all of us experience life and there are some things which we can express in words and language (narrative) about life. But there are many things which we cannot, because we do not know how or what to say (e.g. the smell of a rose, what it is to love someone). We need to respect the unutterable, the mystery (before which we are silent).

MYSTERY-ACTION-LIFE and SIGN-FAITH-RITE

Thus, we can say that the MYSTERY is celebrated in an ACTION which derives from and overflows into LIFE.

But all that we can have of the mystery is a SIGN/S of it. We celebrate this sign in ACTION/S. Why? Because we have FAITH in the mystery. In Jer 19:1-15, the prophet is asked to buy a clay pot and break it to pieces in front of the people (action) and then give an explanation (Thus says the Lord…). People will accept it or otherwise in the presence or absence of faith. Thus we have a second set of terms: Sign-Faith-Rite.

MYSTERY what we know of mystery is SIGN/S

Celebrated in ACTION/S repeated and performed in RITE/S

Actions derived from LIFE whose meaning is grasped through FAITH

You can start with any of these elements, but they take on holistic meaning when they go the full round. In studying the theology of the sacraments, we are trying to do is a study of the action-rite. But this cannot be studied properly without a connection with life and mystery.

Christian faith is based on the life, mission, death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus. It makes a claim about the person and action of Jesus that goes beyond the events of his life. The claim is that Jesus is the embodiment of God. Therefore, his actions have a significance beyond the events of human lives. They are signs that God who intervened in the history of the Jewish people continues to intervene in the world of today.

But first, let us clarify our terminology:

SIGN: You see smoke. From your knowledge of what happens in life, you know that there is no smoke without fire. So, smoke is a sign of fire.

SIGNAL: You are driving the car. The traffic policeman makes a gesture. You stop the car. You do it almost without thinking. It is an instinctive reaction. It has become instinctive because you have been trained and now you do it without thinking. (It is the same when you see a red light at a traffic crossing).

SYMBOL: You hear a piece of music or you see a painting. You instinctively feel that there is a message; but it is not always that you can put the message into words. You are saddened by some music? Why? How? You cannot say. It conveys a message; but you cannot always say exactly what that message is. You may sometimes be able to say what it is. Two people viewing the same painting or listen to the same music do not necessarily receive the same message. That would depend on what is referred to by Hirsch as cultural literacy – the ability to participate and interact fluently in the signs and symbols of a given culture, including its language, particular dialectic, stories. For the follower of Christ, there is rootedness in two cultures – one’s own by birth and the Christian culture with its long tradition into which one enters by baptism.

Now you can see that in regard to signs and signals, we can have two people knowing the same thing (e.g. no smoke without fire - in the case of sign) or reacting in the same way (e.g. stopping at a traffic signal). Both this happens – not naturally – but because of the way in which they have both learned from the society into which they were born; they have acquired a certain technique from that society. When it comes to symbols, there is a difference. Society never trains us fully to understand its message.

WHAT KIND OF SYMBOLS?

We can name a whole range of symbols that are used in the sacraments. I do not mean here only what have come to be regarded as the essential actions (e.g. washing with water in baptism, anointing with oil in confirmation etc.); but the entire rite as it is celebrated. So, we can speak of words, speech, gesture, music etc. I would like to list here a range of possible symbols, even a little wider than would come under sacramental signs; but which would certainly come into preaching and especially, into the preparation for the celebration of these rites. My purpose in doing this is to make you a little more conscious of what you are or will be doing.

We give below two broad categories of symbols: Discursive and non-discursive (the latter also called presentational). Each of these symbols has its own dimensions and "illusions’ which it creates.

HOW ARE SYMBOLS FORMED?

We can say that a symbol starts when a person is confronted with an object. And we can present the following order. The numbers indicate the sequence in the process.

OBJECT

The PHYSICAL SENSATION

PERSON who perceives at successive levels of interior senses

CORE INSIGHT

Different Modes of symbolizing activity

This symbolizing activity in some concrete form is conveyed to another person.

In speaking of the Object(1) we are talking of something in the physical world - a thing (e.g. tree) or a person (another human being). The physical sensation(2) spoken of here is the manner in which something is perceived by the senses e.g. the light rays coming to the eyes; the taste buds tickled by what is eaten etc. This is physical - real, actual, measurable. The person who perceives(3) is a human being. But I would like to point out that sometimes this person can be first animal and then rational (contrary to the view that man is rational and this is what distinguishes him from animal).

Successive levels of interior senses(4). By interior senses, we mean here e.g. imagination, memory etc.

Core Insight(5) really does not mean something that can be expressed in concepts or in words. It is simply the falling into place of several things.

Different modes of symbolizing(6) means the various ways in which the core insight is expressed e.g. music, gesture, lyric etc.

When what is the result of the above process is communicated to another person(7), that person undergoes a process which starts from (1). And what core insight(5) he gets will depend on how he shares in the techniques communicated to him by that society.

We tend to give great importance to thoughts and concepts. There is even a temptation to think that thought is the most important dimension of life. But in actual fact we know that it is not so. Even those who may never have been to school (and therefore, have no formal education) may have great insights. We need to give some importance to the way in which our interior senses operate (No 4 above).

Suppose a person sees for the first time in his life a train arriving at a station. He gets a general impression of noise, human confusion etc. Very probably, he has not noticed several things e.g. wheels going round, the colour of the train etc. The second time he watches the train pulling in, part is familiar through his memory of the previous event. He sees more things, which he had missed on the first occasion. The third time he sees more and so on. Now, how will he express this? It depends on what predominates in his core insight (No 5 above). This core insight need not be a concept which he can express in words. It is a perception, a grasp. So, he may express this insight (No 6 above) in a variety of ways: He may describe it in words (what happened); he may write a poem about it and in this poem he may link the arrival of the train with some fear of danger that the arrival of the train evoked in him. These are discursive symbols. But he may also write a piece of music or make a painting about the arrival of the train. These are non-discursive, presentational symbols. In the case of both discursive and non-discursive symbols, we may identify stages in the process. But actually, the person involved goes through it without realizing what is happening. There is an almost instinctive give and take, action and reaction. But all this has its roots in life. That is the point.

DISCURSIVE SYMBOLS:

The basic point of a symbol is to translate (we can also say project reality in another form.) At first glance, if you look at a sentence on paper, you may ask: How does this represent reality? Take the sentence: A killed B. You have here two persons represented by A and B. Then, you have the way in which the two are linked: killed. The fact is what is set out in the sentence: A killed B took place together in one act. But in setting it out in the sentence, you have one word placed after another (A first, followed by the verb killed and then B) according to rules of what we call grammar or syntax. So, in discursive symbols, we have two things: WORDS as vocabulary and RULES (syntax, grammar) for the combination of the words. Now the question in discursive symbols is what we do with words and rules. So, we have ORDINARY (spoken) language in which words (vocal sounds) are used to express and communicate concepts. We are all familiar with this. In WRITTEN language words (in the form of visible marks which correspond to vocal sounds) are used to communicate concepts.

In POETRY, the resources of vocal sound (of words) are exploited. What is primarily used is the evocative power of these sounds. Take the example of Thomas Gray (1716-1771), Elegy written in a Country Church Yard. The opening lines read:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd winds slowly o’er the lea,

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Here you can see that the sound is all important. There are many other ways in which this could have said. But the sound is used to present an illusion of life in the scene that he is looking at. One notices that the author has an experience of history, he is close to life. As one reads it, it is not a past image that is recalled, but one which is present. The author’s experience is now experienced by the reader/ listener.

In PROSE, again we have words. But these words are meant to be read. As you read a work of prose, you are reading something of the past. And that is how it is. See for example the following passage from The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1912-1870). (The setting of the novel is the French Revolution of 1789 and the reign of terror that followed it). In the black prison of the Conciergerie, the doomed of the day awaited their fate. They were in number as the weeks of the year. Fifty two were to roll that afternoon on the life-tide of the city to the boundless everlasting sea. Before their cells were quit of them, new occupants were appointed; before their blood ran into the blood spilled yesterday, the blood that was to mingle with theirs tomorrow was already set apart.

In DRAMA, again words are used (often, in combination with other materials). Again, it is the use of sound; but sounds meant to be spoken before others. The direction is towards the future.

Read this version (abbreviated by me) of a passage from William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As you like it.

Scene: Before Oliver’s house. (Enter Orlando and Adam, meeting).

Orlando: Who’s there?

Adam: What, my young master?…why, what make you here? why are you virtuous?

Orlando: Why what is the matter?

Adam: O unhappy youth! Come not within these doors: beneath this roof the enemy of all your graces lives. Your brother hath heard your praises, and this night he means to burn the lodging where you used to live, and you within it. If he fail of that, he will have other means to cut you off; I overheard him and his practices…

In all these (poetry, prose, drama), there is a simplification of events. Some things are left out and others emphasized. You use all these forms in communication (e.g. preaching, making a speech/ presentation), but possibly you have not been aware of the illusions of the past, present and future that you evoke through the use of words in the different situations where you use prose, poetry, drama.

NON-DISCURSIVE SYMBOLS:

If we say that discursive symbolism is the only bearer of ideas, then, without words and grammar (the two components of discursive symbols) we cannot have intellectual activity. But this is not really true. And it would seem to me that especially in the East, this needs to be stressed. The abstractions made by the ear and eye are the most primitive symbolic materials, media of understanding. But the symbolism furnished is non-discursive (that is to say words and grammar are not used).

When man expresses himself in some visible way through his body we have GESTURE. Such a gesture can be of two types (a) A gesture can express some form of emotion or desire e.g. when a child clutches a toy or when a beggar stretches out his open palm. Such a gesture is self-expressive. On the contrary, (b) there may be some bodily form of expression, which merely denotes the feeling. It merely brings the feeling to mind e.g. when one points to an object instead of actually clutching it to denote possession. Here we have the gesture not as self-expressive, but as logically expressive. It expresses the feeling as conceived in the mind of the one who makes the gesture. Such logically expressive gestures convey an idea of the feelings that begot the self-expressive gesture. (In ritual, we find more the logically expressive type of gesture (e.g. the sign of the cross over bread and chalice) rather than the fully self-expressive gesture. The object of such gestures is not the expression of simple emotion; they are meant to signify a permanent attitude, which should accompany the worshipper’s response to the insight mediated through the rite. We will come back to this later).

Secondly, there is a range of ARTISTIC symbols. What is common to all these is that they express the artist’s insight into human feeling. Such symbols are meant for the eyes. They give the illusion of sheer image - that is to say, it is the image that predominates and other aspects are much less prominent. Such artistic symbols are different from discursive symbols (a) because they cannot be broken up into distinct elements. If you look at a painting, you must look at the whole of it; similarly a building. In discursive symbols, you can look at the individual words.

(b) Artistic symbols present an individual object (the painting, building) without any other reference point to compare it to. In this sense, they are objects on which the imagination has to work in order to understand it. (c) In artistic symbols many elements are inter-related (condensed) and they must be grasped as one (therefore, simultaneously grasped). Finally, (d) they are metaphorical. What we mean by this is that in some way we find what the artist wants to express by his artistic symbol is more than he can actually express by the symbol. Many possibilities crowd on the mind and come together in the artist’s insight that he finds that his artistic symbol actually needs to say more than it does in fact say. (E.g. Michelangelo after finishing his statue of Moses, struck the sculpture and said: Speak, Moses!). It is in this sense that I say that the statue is only a metaphor of what the artist wants to convey. So, there can be different artistic symbols. Each of them has the qualities listed above, and each creates a different illusion:

In the pictorial, we are dealing with something that exists above all for the eye. What we have here is the creation of an illusion of space. (e.g. if you look at Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper as it is found in the refectory (dining hall) of the of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, you almost imagine that you are within that same space where Jesus was. This is what I mean by virtual space.

t is different in architecture. Here we have actual space, which is organized (treated). It creates the image of a culture, a sphere of influence of various functions. For example, the earliest churches were built in the style of the basilica. Why? The basilica was a large space (and this large space was needed to accommodate the large numbers of people who came together); what was predominant in the building was the cathedra (=seat