The sacraments were around at the beginning
of the Church, although they may not have been neatly "packaged" as the
"Seven Sacraments" at the time. Each sacrament, according to some, finds
its counterpart in Scripture:
While Scripture does not categorize
these as "sacraments," it is clear that the needs that each of the sacraments
addresses has its counterpart in the ministry and mission of Our Lord.
Of course, the Orthodox picked up
the number seven from the West at a later date, and there are many other
needs addressed by Our Lord which also serve to bring us into the presence
and grace and holiness of God.
"How the Holy
Mysteries represent the Church" by St Nicholas
Cabasilas, Commemorated 20 June "The Church is represented in the
holy mysteries (Sacraments), not in figure only, but as the limbs are represented
in the heart, and the branches in the root, and, as our Lord has said,
the shoots in the vine. For here is no mere sharing of a name, or analogy
by resemblance, but an identity of actuality. For the holy mysteries are
the Body and Blood of Christ, which are to the Church true food and drink.
When she partakes of them, she does not transform them into the human body,
as we do with ordinary food, but she is changed into them, for the higher
and divine element overcomes the earthly one.
When iron is placed in the fire,
it becomes fire; it does not, however, give the fire the properties of
iron; and just as when we see white-hot iron it seems to be fire and not
metal, since all the characteristics of the iron have been destroyed by
the action of the fire, so, if one could see the Church of Christ, insofar
as she is united to Him and shares in His sacred Body, one would see nothing
other than the Body of the Lord. Because of this, St Paul wrote:
"Ye are the body of Christ,
and members in particular." (I Corinth
12:27)
If he called Christ the head and
us the members, it was not that he might express his loving care for us,
his teaching and admonition, or our complete subjection to him, as we,
in exaggeration, sometimes describe ourselves as members of our relatives
or friends, but to demonstrate a fact -- to wit, that from henceforth the
faithful, through the blood of Christ, would live in Christ, truly dependent
on that Head and clothed with that Body. That is why it is not unreasonable
to say that the Holy Mysteries represent the Church."
HISTORY
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