The Christian life is nourished by prayer and the sacraments. We celebrate in the sacraments the triumph of Christ over sin, death, and the world. This he achieved through his passion, death, and resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the ultimate triumph in which the Christian shares through his oneness with the Lord. Since the Resurrection our lives have taken on a new meaning. No sorrow is ultimate. Christ leads us through everything to final victory. We celebrate all the sacraments because we are an Easter people.
The relationship between God and us is personalized in Christ. God communicates to us through him. Conscious of being “in Christ,” the Church sees its sacramental ministry as the continuation of Christ’s ministry. As Christ laid his hands on the sick, so does the Church. As he called the Holy Spirit to be his advocate for his followers, so does the Church. As he gave thanks and shared the bread and wine, so the Church represents and calls effectively in the present his sacrifice for our salvation.
The visible signs, or rites, of the sacraments effect and help us to be aware of our personal encounter with Christ. He sanctifies every aspect of our lives, which he presents to our loving Father. Christ meets us in the sacraments at the points of our spiritual growth. The Christian life, like all life, has a beginning. This is called “initiation.” The whole process of initiation marks the beginning of our Christian pilgrimage, which finds its completion in the kingdom of heaven. There, there will be no need of the sacraments, because then we will see God face-to-face.
The sacraments of initiation are baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist. Baptism incorporates us into the body of Christ, the Church, and is the sacrament of new life. Confirmation, which gives us the fullness of the Holy Spirit, is inseparably linked to baptism and is its completion. The Eucharist, which makes the sacrifice of Christ present and active among us, is the central sacrament in the life of the Church. There are four other sacraments that help us on our Christian pilgrimage to God, our Father. Reconciliation is the sacrament that restores our relationship with God, whose love we have forsaken through personal sin.
Marriage sanctifies the daily life of husband and wife and their children. Holy orders perpetuate the special ministry of Christ in his Church. Anointing of the sick ensures Christ’s saving help for us in times of sickness. From birth to death, Christ’s resurrection is at work in us. The sacraments are the activity of Christ in our midst, offering praise to the Father and reconciling us to God and to one another.
Baptism and Confirmation: Baptism is an Easter sacrament. Through it we are made one with the risen Lord and enter into his risen life. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4). Our “new life” means that we are God’s own children in whom Christ’s Spirit dwells in a special way. We dare to call God “Abba,” Father, for that is what he is to us in this new relationship. We leave spiritual death behind us for the new life of grace.
