“Sacrament” is traditionally defined as a sign that is itself what it signifies. A sacrament is not a mere representation, therefore, but is, in some sense, itself the very thing it represents, just as, for example, a hug not only signifies affection: it is affection. Sacraments not only show God’s love: they are that love in visible and concrete form.

Every sacrament has four inseparable parts to it:

1. it is an ordinary, earthly reality
2. that points beyond itself
3. making that to which it points truly and revealingly present in itself
4. thereby transforming those who receive it

To properly understand the Church’s sacraments we must start with Christ as the “sacrament of God”, and with the Church as the “sacrament of Christ”. Christ himself is the “sacrament of God” because he is the sign (of God) that is itself what it signifies (he is God), and transforms us who receive him (we become the Body of Christ, and so one-with-God). Just as Christ points to God and makes God’s presence real, transforming those who receive him, so the Church is a sacrament that points to Christ and makes his presence real, transforming the world that receives it. In the same way the seven sacraments of the Church point to the Church’s own real nature as the Body of Christ. These seven sacraments realise the Church’s true nature as Christ’s Body.

The Church has “seven” sacraments because seven is the biblical number of completeness, or “perfection”. In the Catechism they are grouped in three categories:

A. Sacraments of Initiation:

(1) Baptism

(2) Confirmation

(3) Eucharist

B. Sacraments of Healing:

(4) Anointing of the sick

(5) Reconciliation

C. Sacraments of Commitment in the Service of Communion:

(6) Holy Matrimony

(7) Holy Orders

The seven sacraments of the Church are celebrated liturgically. The word “liturgy” means “public work”, and so refers to the actual celebration of the sacraments ritually, in a public way and for the sake of the world. The word “ritual” refers to a repeated and communally understood set of meaningful actions, which is the way in which we celebrate the Church’s sacraments liturgically.

In GNFL this understanding of sacraments is developed with these theological emphases:

• Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist are called sacraments of initiation.
• They initiate us (lead us into) the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, which reveals to us that God is the communion of love we call Trinity.
• Therefore they also lead us into the mystery of the Church, the community of all those who believe in Christ and know themselves as loved by God.
• It is through these sacraments that the Church becomes Christ’s earthly presence, his own sacrament.
• The sacraments of healing, that is, Reconciliation and Anointing, are about enabling us to remain baptised, confirmed, united.
• They heal evil done (sin), through Reconciliation, and evil suffered (sickness), through Anointing.
• Reconciliation brings us back into right relationship with God, which begins the healing process of bringing us back into right relationship with other people, the world and even our own inner self.
• Anointing unites us in our suffering with the suffering Christ (the “anointed one”), revealing the potential transformation of suffering into holiness and wholeness, into compassion and love.
• The sacraments of commitment in the service of communion, that is, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders, are there to remind us that our freedom is to grow in love in commitment and service.
• Holy Matrimony celebrates the life-giving nature of particular love, showing us that God loves us and invites us to love God with the spousal love that gives birth to life in the world.
• Holy Orders celebrates the self-giving nature of love as service to all humanity, thus revealing God’s universal love for all in order to rightly order all things towards their ultimate good: union with God and one another in God.

URL link to Theological Conversation chapter (PDF).