S1E4: The Sacraments (Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?)

For Episodes 2-10 we'll be diving into the 9 key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism in a series called Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?

In today's episode we'll be taking a quick look at each of the 7 Sacraments of the Catholic Church as well as the idea of "Re-Baptism."

Scriptures Quoted:
-John 3:5
-Matthew 28:19
-Luke 24:49
-Acts 2
-John 6:54
-Psalm 41:4
-John 20:22-23
-James 5:14-15
-Matthew 19:4-6
-Ephesians 5:32-33
-Matthew 10:1

Resources:
Scriptural Foundations for the Sacraments | Our Sunday Visitor
Discover the Sacraments in the Bible | Catechist.com
Why Can’t I be Re-Baptized as a Catholic? | Catholic Answers
Protestant Beliefs on Baptism and Communion | Pints with Aquinas
What The Early Church Believed: Confirmation | Catholic Answers
What the Early Church Believed: Confession | Catholic Answers
Anointing of the Sick | Catholic Answers

Have a question about the Faith you’d like to have answered on the Podcast? Submit it here: https://forms.gle/zorQwuUGtSdukzjc6

Transcript

 Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of Catholicism 101, Forever Learning and Living the Faith. Today, we are continuing our July series on the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism.  Really highlighting those nine key differences. And today's key difference is the sacraments, the seven sacraments of the Catholic church.

The ones that are recognized by many Protestant denominations, although many of them vary and differ. But before I even get into it, I want to remind us all again of the paragraph that I read from Lumen Gentium. in the first episode of this series on justification. And what that really boiled down to was that we are linked Christians all across the globe, whether they're Protestant, whether they're Catholic if you have been baptized in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit, then we are all linked and we are all under the same umbrella of Christian. 

Now there are some varying differences and we're getting into those, but it is prudent of us to remember. Not only these differences, but especially that we are more alike than we are different. Let's go ahead and jump right into talking about the sacraments. And naturally, when we talk about the sacraments, I always like to start in a place of why do we have the sacraments?

Why did Jesus institute them? Why did he give them to us? Why does the Catholic church have the sacraments?  I always like to take the approach of we are physical beings in a physical world. We are body, soul people, and we need tangible things around us. We communicate things tangibly.  And because love itself is not a physical object words and gestures then become signs of love. 

As I said, we're physical people. We need tangible realities of heaven. He created us with a body and soul and wants to encounter us in that very humanity. as body soul people. And so since he knows, and he created us this way, that we communicate to one another through our five senses that we love each other, he does the same for us.

He communicates his love for us, you could say, by transposing his divine love into a human key.  It's too high and too lofty for our ears to be able to understand himself and his divinity. And so he  It's, it's, it's this concept called divine accommodation, and we're not really going to get too into that.

But basically, he communicates his divine love, his unfathomable, unfathomable  love for us in a way that we can understand. And that essentially is the essence of why he gave us the sacraments.  So many Catholics will be able to Kind of rattle off the Baltimore Catechism definition of a sacrament, which is a sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give us grace. 

So in this we hear not only that Christ instituted the sacraments, but sacraments have two dimensions. There's the physical visible dimension, which is what we see. And then there's the reality of grace being conveyed, the things that are unseen. So the things we see, the words being said, the anointings, the hand gestures, whatever it is, what is in the visible dimension communicates what is really happening in the invisible dimension.

So the sign is the visible dimension it's also called the signum. And then the thing signified is the invisible dimension, the reality it's often called the red.  One of my favorite things actually about the sacraments is that they work by this Latin phrase, ex operae operato, which means that the sacraments do not depend on the holiness of the minister, the holiness of the person administering the sacraments, but rather they work on the basis of performing the ritual as Christ instituted it, and he either instituted it directly or indirectly.

But you'll be able to see what I mean by directly or indirectly when we get into the scriptural roots of each sacrament. And again, I just want to point out this ex operae operato. notion this reality as it's written in the catechism in paragraph 1128. It says the transmission of grace in the sacrament occurs independently of the personal holiness of the minister.

The fruits of the sacrament also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them. And I want to touch real quick on the fruits of the sacrament. So it says it depends on the disposition of the one who receives them. So we've recognized that The Lord is going to give you His grace, whether or not the minister is holy per se or not.

But, so you have that grace. It is given to you.  But how much you let that grace take root in your life and transform your life and make you more like Christ depends on you.  And that's the whole point of confirmation prep. A lot of people will complain that it takes too long, the sessions themselves are too long, they meet too much, there's too much required of them, whatever it may be.

The whole point of all this intensive prep for confirmation is we want to help you get to a place  where you have a malleable heart. You don't have a heart of stone, but you have a malleable heart that the Lord can then take and transform and mold into his own. And so that you truly let the grace of the sacrament.

Take root in you and transform your entire life. So that's a bit about how the sacraments  work, how the grace is conveyed and why the Lord set the sacraments up the way he did for to encounter us tangibly in our humanity. And let's go ahead and dive into each of the sacraments  and their roots in scripture. 

And we'll start with the most foundational sacrament. Baptism. So baptism incorporates us into the church and gives us rebirth as daughters and sons of God. We believe in an indelible mark which means that there is this permanent mark imprinted on our soul when we are baptized and it cannot be removed either by ourselves or by anyone else or even by God. 

And that is why we do not believe in re baptism. Baptism.  And I'll kind of get into that towards the end of this episode, a little bit more about re baptism.  But some of the scriptural roots include John chapter 3, verse 5, when Jesus says, Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

And then again in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 19, Jesus says, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I'll  So that's a quick overview of baptism, and let's go ahead and go into confirmation. So confirmation is the continuation, ratification, and sealing of our baptism.

I like to use this imperfect analogy, but it's good enough of if there is a man with a million dollars, And he deposits 500, 000 of his money into the bank. That's still a lot of money. But he also still has a lot to give. And he hasn't given you the fullness of his deposit. So I like to think that that first deposit of like 500, 000 or half of, half of his wealth is Deposited into us at our baptism, and then the fullness of it, the remaining deposit is given to us at our confirmation.

So, that 500, 000 slash million dollar total is an analogy for the Holy Spirit. So, not to say that we necessarily receive half  the Holy Spirit at baptism we do receive a very, very large deposit of the Holy Spirit at baptism, but we don't receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit until our confirmation. 

Again, it's not a perfect analogy, but it works good enough.  But confirmation that fullness of the Holy Spirit helps us focus on the missionary dimensions of our baptismal commitment. And this sacrament also carries that indelible permanent mark. And because of that, the sacrament also cannot be repeated. 

The biggest Scriptural evidence of confirmation is Acts chapter two,  which is the story of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit comes upon them in wind and tongues of fire and allows them to speak in different languages and evangelize the world. And it says in scripture that 3, 000 were baptized that day.  And so we see that missionary dimension of our baptismal commitment. Solidified and strengthened in us in our confirmation, receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And again, we see in Luke chapter 24, verse 49, when Jesus tells the apostles to stay in the city of Jerusalem until they be endued with power from on high. There's also other passages throughout the rest of the book of Acts, and I know also in Paul's letters, where the apostles are baptizing people in the Holy Spirit, essentially is what they're calling it.

But those are the roots of confirmation and they talk about how they were baptized with water and all of this, but they also talk about needing to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And what they're referring to is confirmation and that anointing as well.  Let's go ahead and move on to the Eucharist. So I will have a whole another episode.

It'll be the last episode in the series on the last Monday of July about the Eucharist, specifically the real presence of Jesus.  But real quick the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian faith, especially of our Catholic faith. It is the sacrament from which all others have meaning.

Christ is most profoundly present in the church who gathers to hear the word of God and to share the nourishment of Christ's body with one another.  The church's basis for the teaching on the Eucharist comes from the Bread of Life discourse. In John chapter six,  he says, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life within you.

And that's like one of the three or four times that he says that just in John chapter six.  But again, I don't wanna get into it too much right now because I have a whole episode dedicated to it at the end of July.  So these three first sacraments, baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist are known as the sacraments of initiation.

And I, they are all linked and ordered to one another. And the way I like to think of it is you're adopted, you're fed and you're sent off. So you're adopted in baptism, you're fed and nourished and encouraged to grow in the Eucharist and then you're sent off on mission and confirmation.  So those three sacraments are foundational for the Christian. 

Let's go ahead and move into the two sacraments of healing. So that'd be reconciliation and anointing of the sick. So reconciliation is also known as the sacrament of confession, the sacrament of penance. It is most commonly called the sacrament of reconciliation because penance and confession are both parts of the sacrament. 

So reconciliation focuses on forgiveness in our lives. and on our acceptance of that forgiveness, which will bring us back to spiritual health and the family of God after we have turned away.  And in the scriptures we see Psalm 41 verse 4, where the psalmist prays, Heal, O Lord, my soul, for I have sinned against Thee. 

And then, this is the biggest one where we, we get scriptural roots for not only the sacrament of confession, but we also get the scriptural roots for holy orders, which is the priesthood and the diaconate in John chapter 20, verses 22 and 23. And  with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. Whose sins you retain are retained. So just real quick, there are four parts to the sacrament of reconciliation. So the first one includes this, the spirit of repentance, the spirit of sorrow for your sins, where you make an examination of conscience and you decide, you know, I am sorry for this and I want to do better.

And so then you go to confession, you go to the sacrament and you make your confession. The priest then gives you absolution,  where he wipes away your sins and forgives you in Persona Christi in the name of Jesus acting as Christ. And then he gives you a penance, which a penance is something you do to begin to make up for the wrong you've put into the world.

It's just kind of a natural law of like, if you do bad, you should probably do good to make up for it. And so having a penance is a way of beginning to right the wrongs that you have done. So there is the spirit of repentance and examination. There's confession, absolution, and penance.  Now, the next sacrament of healing, the sacrament of anointing of the sick, is when the community gathers in faith to pray over and lay hands on those who are sick.

Because, like Christ, the church desires the health of the whole human person. Body and soul  and we get some scriptural evidence from this or for this in the book of James in chapter 5  verses 14 and 15 It says is any man sick among you let him bring in the priests of the church and let them pray over him Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man And the Lord shall raise him up. 

And if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him. So the sacrament of anointing of the sick is really cool. Reconciliation and anointing of the sick, both being sacraments of healing, you can receive them multiple times. I should have said that for the Eucharist too. You're encouraged to receive the Eucharist as often as you can, like daily if you can.

That's awesome. But before the second Vatican council around that time frame is When the sacrament of anointing of the sick was referred to as extreme unction, which meant it was reserved for those on their deathbed, those who are dying, and they would receive viaticum as part of that, which is your final Eucharist.

So Anointing of the Sick since the time of the Second Vatican Council has kind of loosened a little bit its requirements. You do not have to wait until you are on your deathbed to receive Anointing of the Sick. You can receive Anointing of the Sick in times before surgery. That's a really great time to receive it.

If, if you're just really, really sick.  battling a severe mental illness, that's a really good time to receive it as well. But since Vatican II, we have more opportunity to receive anointing of the sick, and it should be acted upon because it still gives us grace. We may not always receive the physical healing that we expect from the sacrament or that we may desire from the sacrament, but there always will be some sort of healing, whether or not we recognize it. 

But, Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick, those are both Sacraments of Healing.  Next, let's move into the final category of Sacraments, which is Sacraments of Service. I was raised to call them Sacraments at the Service of Communion.  And so, those are Matrimony and Holy Orders. So, let's talk about Matrimony real quick. 

Matrimony celebrates and witnesses the Covenant of Love between two people, and it symbolizes, in that union, Christ's Covenant of Love for the Church.  And we see marriage all throughout the scriptures. I could talk all day about this. But, we will probably talk about this in other episodes because this is one of my favorite things ever.

How marriage is a foreshadowing and  it's like a transposition, again, of marriage. How the Lord loves us, obviously, Adam and Eve were married. We have the song of the bridegroom and the bride, the song of songs in the center of the Bible, and then the scriptures and in Revelation with The marriage of the, the marriage of the lamb, the marriage of Christ in the church.

And there are two scriptures I really want to point out here. So the first one comes from Matthew chapter 19 verses 4 through 6. And it says, haven't you read, he replied, that at the beginning, the creator made them male and female. And said,  for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother. And he will be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.  And St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 5 also recalls this. And in chapter 5 verses 31 and 32, St. Paul says, For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.  And lastly, the last sacrament, definitely not the least though, is Holy Orders. Which Holy Orders is the ordination of men who are called by God through the church to be spiritual leaders in persona Christi, which means in the person of Christ.

This sacrament also has an indelible permanent mark, which meaning it cannot be repeated. And I'll actually have a whole another episode on the priesthood coming out on Wednesday. So,  A couple scriptures I want to point out for Holy Orders, the, the scriptural roots, again, that verse, those verses from John chapter 20 verses 22 and 23, where he says, and that with that he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.  Also in Matthew chapter 10 verse one, Jesus called his 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits. 

So, Matrimony and Holy Orders are the two sacraments of service, sacraments at the service of communion, sacraments of service. to the service of the greater church.  And I mentioned earlier when I was talking about baptism that I was going to touch on re baptism real quick. And that's, that's the last thing I want to do here.

So,  a lot of Protestants believe that baptism does indeed give the recipient a rebirth.  But it's not at the time of administration of the sacrament. Instead, the rebirth occurs when they have faith. And so that's why we see a lot of Protestants getting re baptized upon a deepening of their faith. 

You'll hear that they're getting baptized on the right side of their salvation or something along those lines. But, as I said, Catholics believe in the indelible mark imprinted on the soul at baptism. It cannot be taken away by anyone or anything. But we return to the graces of our baptism by making a good confession in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

And actually, in the Catholic Church, re baptism is actually a sacrilege. because it is an act of distrust in the Lord and the sacrament as he has instituted it.  So that's just a quick  tidbit on re baptism. I have a ton of resources for scriptural foundations for the sacraments.  Why can't I be rebaptized as a Catholics?

The differences in the Protestant beliefs on baptism and communion, what the early church believed about confirmation and confession, and a bit about anointing of the sick. So I have all of those resources listed in the description below the show notes, again, whatever you want to call them.  But I hope you have learned something new.

Maybe learned how to,  a lot, a lot of my Protestant friends will ask, you know, where Where is confirmation in the Bible and whatever it may be. So that's, that's part of what I wanted to give you all is some scriptural roots for each of these sacraments.  And I have two more links that have even more scriptural roots for the sacraments.

I just wanted to give you a few. So if you'll check those out in the show notes, I hope they are of great help to you. As always,  I have a great time and I hope you all have a great time listening. I hope you have a blessed day and I'll see you in the next one.