• God took human nature into account when determining how to communicate grace to us. "He had created man as a permanent unity of soul and body, and a being who would advance towards the invisible mysteries through the mediation of visible things." (p 10) In Philosophy, we have learned that our knowledge comes through the senses. This is how God created us. And this is also how God saves and sanctifies us--with the mediation of the senses. The Christmas Preface says, "Through the God made visible we are drawn into the love of invisible things."
• Thus, the Second Person took on human flesh. That way we could see, hear, feel God in the Person of Jesus Christ; we could see, hear, feel God's Word.
• And thus, too, the "Church is visible and invisible, her foundations are material signs that transmit the mystery of redemption." (p 10) Religion needs external rituals and this need arises from the fact that man is both body and soul.
• For this reason, it is important to study the sign that God employs to communicate His grace to us.

I. A WORLD OF SIGNS

1. The Religion of Christ is Embedded in Ritual Worship

   Was there anyone who said that religion should be purely spiritual, that it should not have any outward worship? Yes, there were such groups--the liberal Protestants, who insisted that religion was something purely spiritual. The Modernists followed them, asserting that Jesus was not interested in rituals. Hence, they say that the external actions that Jesus instituted were mere symbols, not signs of real things. And yet this was the very opposite of what Jesus Christ wanted. He even taught that everyone "who heard him were called to be come signs [themselves]: salt of the earth, light of the world (Mt 5:13-16)"

2. Christ, the Sacrament of God

   In fact we could claim that Jesus Christ himself was a visible sign of God: in his Person he was the sacrament of God. Moreover, he was also a sacrament in his actions.

3. The Church, the Sacrament of Christ

   The Church continuous the saving mission of the Redeemer Jesus Christ. "With the Church, the sign remains, for it is the visible presence of Christ on earth." (p 22)

4. In a World of Signs

   "The Church began in a world of signs." (p 24) Note when they speak of the "breaking of bread" (Acts 20:7), baptism by water (Acts 2:14-36), the laying on of hands (Acts 8:15-17; 19:6). Witnesses in the centuries that follow include: the Didache; Tertullian (ca AD 200); Apostolic Tradition written by Hippolytus (3rd century); mystagogic catechesis (a theological and spiritual explanation of the rite; it started in the 4th century)

5. Conclusion

   Christianity "is a religion of ritual worship because man needs signs in order to express himself and to enter into communication with others." (p 27) Hence, these signs are not mere external rites but an expression of faith. Mystagogic catechesis aims at more than instructing: it aims to convert. "A 'mystery' is thus an invitation to a meeting with Christ. It commits us to the paths of faith and love." (p 28)

II. SIGNS AND MEN

Here are three reasons which St Thomas Aquinas gives on why the sacraments (i.e. as signs) are needed by man. These three are drawn from man's bodily characteristics and his social nature.

1. Man in His Natural Condition

   "The divine wisdom is acting harmoniously when it bestows on man the assistance of salvation in the form of corporeal and material signs that are called sacraments." (S Th III q61 a1) This point overturns two errors: pantheism and dualism. The first confuses spirit and matter; in this system signs are superfluous. The second puts spirit and matter in opposition. It appeared in 2nd century Gnosticism, 4th century Manicheism, 17th century Jansenism; 17th century Cartesian dualism. (Gnosticism says matter comes from an evil principle and therefore wars against the spirit. Manicheism teaches that all material things lead to sin. Jansenism says that love of the world blocks love of God.) What we say is that they are distinct but united.

2. Man Conditioned By Sin

   "It was fitting that God should make use of corporeal signs in order to provide man with a spiritual remedy which, offered purely in its spirituality, would be inaccessible to minds enslaved by corporeal things." (S Th III q61 a1)

3. Man the Craftsman

   "In the sacraments, [man] is offered bodily activities which provide him with a sound alternative to superstitious practices...and, in general, to sinful and altogether hamrful deeds." (S Th III q61 a1)