The Sacraments

As we discuss what aids us in our growth as Christian disciples, we must talk about the sacraments. We must talk about them because to be a disciple is to live as Christ commanded, and Christ has commanded us to be baptized and to partake of his Body and Blood.

We must talk about them because discipleship is driven by encounter with one’s teacher, and through the sacraments (particularly Communion and Confession), we come into regular contact with Jesus and invite him to guide us in our lives. We must talk about them because they are privileged avenues of grace, and growth in virtue is impossible absent Divine assistance. We must talk about them, in short, because they are essential to the life of being a disciple.

Yet far too many Christians, Catholic or otherwise, fail to prioritize the sacraments in their lives. Many fail to prioritize the sacraments because they literally do not know what they are missing: Staggering percentages of regular Mass-attending Catholics don’t believe that the Eucharist is really the Body and Blood of Jesus. (About one third of regular Mass goers and two thirds of all self-identified Catholics think of the Eucharistic elements as just symbols of Jesus’ Body and Blood.)

In our secularized culture, the idea that something literally miraculous happens at every sacrament might just seem too hard to accept. Yet, on this earth, we will never come closer to encountering Jesus than receiving him in the consecrated elements, and never come closer to hearing his voice than when we hear the priest say in the confessional:

“I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” If we can just understand how eager Jesus is for us to come into his presence, how much he burns with love for us, our lives would be radically different, because no one who earnestly seeks being a disciple of Jesus stays the same.

Challenge: If you haven’t been to confession in the last two months, go again.