Within a generation or two of the first Protestant revolutionaries, the Sacraments became one of the shovels that were used to widen the chasm between Christians. The debate began mostly over the number of Sacraments with Luther, Calvin and friends reducing the number to two or three. Eventually, the Protestant Sacraments became unrecognizable, more because of a flawed philosophy than flawed theology. They became mere signs, given power by the faith of the believer, rather than signs empowered by Christ to bring about the thing signified. Because the reduction of the number of Sacraments was at the heart of their error, it is worth examining why there must be seven Sacraments so that, by removing one, you necessarily set yourself down a path of rejecting all.
To grasp the reasoning for seven Sacraments, it is first necessary to take a theological diversion into the use of analogy. Analogy, in the theological sense, takes what would otherwise remain a mystery in the spiritual life and examines it “in the mirror of sensible realities”. God is the author of both the natural and supernatural and He made them both for the same reason; to reveal Himself to mankind. If they share the same purpose, then we can take the principles behind the things we can see and apply them to the things we can’t see. This follows directly from a principle articulated by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans that “His invisible nature has been clearly perceived in the things He has made” (Romans 1:20).
How Analogy Fits into Theology
This parallelism comes with a caveat however. Creation could never exhaust all that God has to say about Himself, falling short in fully revealing Him. To supplement the “Book of Nature” God gave man Divine Revelation. There are things that we can discover about God on our own, but if we are to know Him, rather than just about Him, He must reveal Himself to us. This means that while we can use the principles in nature and extrapolate them to Supernature, we cannot do so indiscriminately or univocally. There is a similarity, but there is also a difference at the same time. The analogical concept of existence is powerful in theology because it allows us to say things about God we would not otherwise be able to say.
Knowledge of this principle is important because when God reveals Himself as say Father, neophyte will tend to equate the visible fatherhood with the invisible Fatherhood. “If God is Father then how could a father watch one of his children die without doing anything?” But God as Father is an analogical concept. God is like an earthly father, but also unlike an earthly father. In fact He is the only true Father, while all fatherhood on earth is a mere reflection (c.f. Familiaris Consortio, 32).
Analogy then become a necessary tool to understand Revelation. God reveals Himself as a Tri-unity of Persons. Human reason is hardwired to never be satisfied with mere facts, even of Revelation, but instead seeks understanding. Now we could never reason to the Trinity, but the analogy of marriage that undergirds St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body helps us to better understand it. Likewise, we could never use reason to prove our supernatural destiny, but by examining our natural life, we can better understand it because both have the same purpose.
St. Thomas Aquinas and the Use of Analogy
St. Thomas Aquinas took advantage of the power of analogy better than any theologian in the history of the Church. He includes these types of arguments throughout the Summa, our topic at hand being one such example. He articulates the principle saying that the “spiritual life has a certain conformity with the life of the body: just as other corporeal things have a certain likeness to things spiritual ” (ST III, q.65, art. 1). Drawing on this analogy, he then goes on to explain why there are seven Sacraments. Keep in mind that this is not proof that there are seven Sacraments, but explains why there are seven, and how ultimately, to remove one leaves the Christian wayfarer at a loss.
Always profound in his common sense, St. Thomas says that there are two ways in which a person reaches perfection in his bodily life; personally and as a social animal, as part of a community. Personally, the man reaches perfection in the life of the body directly by being generated (i.e. birth), through growth and through nourishment. But because he also encounters hindrances and is prone to disease he needs both medicine and those things that will strengthen him against the diseases.
The corporal needs are signs of spiritual needs. A man is generated bodily by birth and spiritually by Baptism. He grows to perfect size and strength which corresponds to Confirmation where the indelible mark of Christian growth is given. This bodily life and strength is preserved through regular nourishment just as in the spiritual life there is the Eucharist. Finally, to restore health to the spirit after sin, Confession becomes the medicine of the soul. To strengthen the soul against the wages of sin, Anointing of the Sick is performed, “which removes the remainder of sin, and prepares man for final glory. Wherefore it is written (James 5:15): ‘And if he be in sins they shall be forgiven him.’” (ibid).
Man is a social animal and so he is perfected in relation to others. “First, by receiving power to rule the community and to exercise public acts: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is the sacrament of order, according to the saying of Hebrews 7:27, that priests offer sacrifices not for themselves only, but also for the people. Secondly in regard to natural propagation. This is accomplished by Matrimony both in the corporal and in the spiritual life: since it is not only a sacrament but also a function of nature.” (ST III, q.65, art.1).
It becomes obvious then why a rejection of one Sacrament ultimately leads to the rejection of all. They are a complete package meant to meet all of our spiritual needs. A deficiency in one area always leads to a poverty in another. That is why Jesus left the Sacraments to the Church in order to provide for all the spiritual needs of the members of His Mystical Body. At each stage of life, Christ bestows supernatural aid to facilitate the growth of each person into a saint. To remove one of them means that a need is left unmet and spiritual growth is stunted. The Sacraments protect Christianity from becoming a “works-based” religion because they reflect our radical need upon God to save us, not just once, but throughout our earthly pilgrimage. There are seven because God made us to need them.