Some
years ago two women were touring a desert region of our southwest.
They wandered off from their party and were lost. For two full days
they tramped and tramped in search of a road or dwelling. They found
none. Completely exhausted, aching with thirst and hunger, they could
not walk another step. One of them, in true womanly fashion, took
out her compact to repair the damage done by sun and dust. The sun
flashed off the mirror. She got an idea. Someone might see the reflected
light. They flashed the mirror in all directions. Rescuers saw the
flashes, hurried to the source, and saved the two ladies.
Who
would have thought that such a simple thing as a mirror could save
human lives? This essential piece of female equipment did not directly
save their lives, but it was the means, the instrument for attracting
attention and bringing help.
The
sacramentals are something like that. Of themselves they do not save
souls, but they are the means for securing heavenly help for those
who use them properly. A sacramental is a sacred object or religious
action which the Catholic Church, in imitation of the sacraments,
uses for the purpose of obtaining spiritual favors especially through
her prayer. A sacramental is anything set apart or blessed by the
Church to excite good thoughts and to help devotion, and thus secure
grace and take away venial sin or the temporal punishment due to sin.
Let
us compare and contrast the sacraments and the sacramentals:
1.
The sacraments were instituted by Christ Himself; the sacramentals
were founded by Christ's Church.
2.
The sacraments are limited to the seven instituted by Christ, namely,
Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction,
Holy Orders and Matrimony; the sacramentals are numerous and varied,
according to the directions of Mother Church.
3.
The sacraments produce grace directly in the soul, if there is no
obstacle on the part of the recipient; the sacramentals do not produce
grace directly and of themselves--they produce grace indirectly by
disposing and preparing the soul for this divine gift.
4.
The words used in the sacraments, except in Extreme Unction, positively
declare that God is producing certain effects in the soul; the prayers
used in the sacramentals merely ask God to produce certain effects
and to grant certain graces.
5.
The sacraments give or increase sanctifying grace; and the sacramentals
are the means to actual graces.
We
might divide the sacramentals into prayers, pious objects, sacred
signs, and religious ceremonies. Some sacramentals are a combination--they
fall into two or more classes. The Rosary, for example, is a pious
object and a prayer. The sign of the cross is a prayer and a sign.
The crucifix, pictures and statues are pious objects. The ceremonies
performed in the various sacraments are also sacramentals, like the
extending of the hands in Confirmation.
How
can mere material things help us on the way to heaven? How can water,
metal, or a piece of cloth help save our souls? You must ever remember
that these objects in themselves have no power to save or help us.
It would be superstitious to say they had any such power. But things
like a crucifix, a holy picture, a statue, a candle, do excite spiritual
thoughts and feelings in those who use them correctly. They excite
the fear and love of God; they arouse trust and hope in His mercy;
they awaken sorrow and joy in the Lord. Their value lies in the fact
that they have been set aside by the Church for sacred purposes, by
the power of the Church's official prayer, and by the merits of Christ,
preserved and distributed by His Church.
That
Church not only sets things aside for a sacred use, she also attaches
definite benefits and blessings to certain objects and good works.
Many sacramentals have indulgences attached. An indulgence is the
taking away, outside of confession, in whole or in part, of the temporal
punishment due to sin which is already forgiven.
The
sacramentals also try to express the supreme beauty and goodness of
Almighty God. The words and language of the blessings are beautiful;
the form and art of statues and pictures is of the best very often;
the ceremonies of the sacraments are adapted to express the graces
given.
Do
we have to use sacramentals? Does a Catholic have to wear a scapular,
or use holy water, or pray the Rosary? Strictly speaking, no. The
sacraments are necessary for salvation; the sacramentals are not necessary.
Nevertheless, the prayers, pious objects, sacred signs and ceremonies
of Mother Church are means to salvation.
If
you were lost in a desert, as were the two women of our story, you
don't have to have a mirror to be saved. But that lifeless, senseless
object was the means of saving their lives.
In
a similar way the sacramentals, lifeless, helpless in themselves,
are helps to winning life-giving graces. They must never take the
place of the sacraments. You will find Catholics who place more confidence
and trust in these material objects than they do in the reality of
the sacraments.
For
example, you may see a Catholic enter Church and go directly to the
vigil light stand without seeming to pay any attention to our Lord
in the Blessed Sacrament. That Catholic does not appreciate the difference
between a sacrament and a sacramental.
It
is with a desire and holy ambition to make you appreciate these aids
to spiritual life, the sacramentals, that we propose to explain some
of them on succeeding Sundays.
In
the desert of daily life they are mirrors that will lead us to the
fountains of spiritual help and spiritual life. Amen.
