Aquinas, Summa Theologica

III.60-90: Sacraments

objections: not a sign -- signs are open, not hidden or mysterious; sacraments can be oaths, and oaths are not signs -- but a cause: from sacro, to cause to be holy, to consecrate

• yet it's the outward showing of an inner sanctity; in this way it's a "sacred secret"

"Signs are given to men, to whom it is proper to discover the unknown by means of the known. Consequently a sacrament properly so called is that which is the sign of some sacred thing pertaining to man; so that properly speaking a sacrament, as considered by us now, is defined as being the "sign of a holy thing so far as it makes men holy.""

sacrament is "that which is ordained to signify our sanctification"; consider the cause, form and end of our sanctification

both a reminder of the past and a foretelling of future glory

sensible objects used to signify the spiritual, just as Divine Scriptures present divine wisdom in the sensible object of a book

words used to signify concepts within the sacraments, turning sensible objects into spiritual instruments; words can be changed by intentions of person saying them; slight alterations do not destroy the sense or intentions of the words

Augustine: impossible to keep men together in one religion without sacraments; necessary that men be united in one true religion; therefore, sacraments are necessary for man's salvation

• man must be lead to things spiritual through things corporeal/sensible; God, knowing man's nature, provides sacraments to lead man to the spiritual

sacraments are spiritual remedies to wounds of sin; weren't necessary when man lived without sin

some sacraments before Christ's coming -- men were saved by faith in his coming before he came

are sacraments mere signs of grace of signs that cause grace?

• related causally by form, like fire by its own heat causing heat in other things
• related causally by instrument, through God

sacraments confer more than the grace of the virtues on the gifts, because even those who have the virtues and the gifts can/should take sacraments

character printed on man's rational soul