The sacraments do not merely stand alone, but are interconnected channels of God’s grace. Each Sacrament itself marking a point in the spiritual life. Being initiated by Baptism and Confirmation, sustained by the Eucharist, and healed by Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick. “The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.”1 The understanding of the sacraments as a unified whole, building upon one another, is essential to our understanding of the spiritual life.
“Sacraments are ‘powers that comes forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are ‘the masterworks of God’ in the new and everlasting covenant.”2 These powers nourish and feed us along our spiritual journey, and are all working in tandem to bring us closer to Jesus Christ himself. “The whole liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments.”3
Thus the sacraments must not be separated from one another, or viewed as unequal, for they are all essential parts of our gradual growth towards Jesus Christ himself. ‘Adhering to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consensus . . . of the Fathers,’ we profess that ‘the sacraments of the new law were . . . all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord.'”4 For this reason he gave us his Church and instituted these sacraments, so that we may, as a community be guided by our Lord to Heaven.
1The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1131.
2The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1116.
3The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1113.
4The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1114.