Common Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Baptism - National ...

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Sacramentality consists of the coalescence of divine and human elements in the life of the
Church whereby God acts through the visible organs of the Church especially the sacraments.
Catholics, therefore, speak of the Church analogously as a sacrament, in that the ―Church, then,
both contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies‖ (CCC 774). In Christ the
Church is ―a sign and instrument both of a closely knit union with God and of the unity of the
whole human race‖ (Lumen Gentium 1).
Sacramentality is consistent with the doctrine of creation whereby God speaks through
the visible creation making it possible for human intelligence to read traces of the Creator in the
material cosmos (CCC 1147). A solid theological anthropology needs underscore the social
being of humanity and how signs and symbols are intrinsic to communication through language,
gestures, and actions (CCC 1146). They are the means for ―expressing the action of God who
sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God‖ (CCC 1148). Consistent with
God‘s covenant with Israel, wherein both cosmic and social symbols are taken up in Israel‘s
liturgical life, Jesus himself often illustrated his preaching with physical signs and symbolic
gestures, e.g., the use of spittle to heal the blind man (Jn 9: 6). So too, since Pentecost, ―the Holy
Spirit carries on the work of sanctification‖ through the sacramental signs of the Church (CCC
1152), what has been called its ―sacramental economy‖ or ―dispensation‖ (CCC 1076).
ii. A Reformed View
From within the long-standing Western tradition where sacrament referred both to the
church, which is the body of Christ, and to the sacraments constituting the church, the Reformed
tradition asserts that the true church, invisible to human eyes but visible to God‘s eyes, is
comprised of God‘s faithful people gathered as the body of Christ. So The Westminster
Confession (IX.4) says, ―By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit all believers being vitally united to
Christ, who is the Head, are thus united one to another in the Church, which is his body (cf.,
Larger Catechism, Qq. 64-66; Scots Confession XVI; Second Helvetic Confession XVII).
Reformed theology calls neither the visible nor the invisible church a sacrament.
Reformed theology applies the word ―sacrament‖ to the two divinely instituted signs,
baptism and Lord‘s Supper, to which God attaches the promise of grace (e.g., Scots Confession
XXI; Heidelberg Catechism Q. 68; Second Helvetic Confession XIX; Belgic Confession, art. 34;
Westminster Confession XXVII). In a loose sense, the true visible church might be called
―sacramental‖ because its two marks, the preaching of the gospel and the right administration of
the sacraments, both communicate God‘s real self-giving in Jesus Christ, but such language
would be historically foreign to the Reformed tradition. Likewise, although some church rites,
such as ordination, penance, and marriage are God-given and useful (Second Helvetic Confession
XIX); and although some simple church rites that are not contrary to the Word of God might be
useful ceremonies (Second Helvetic Confession XXVII); the Reformed tradition has never
considered such rituals to be ―sacramentals,‖ in the way that the sign of the cross, palms, ashes,
incense, or candles were a means of grace within the medieval church.
By contrast, the Reformed tradition has considered the created order to be ―sacramental,‖
insofar as the word connotes God‘s self-communication, even if Reformed theology typically has
refrained from such language. For example, Calvin believed that God accommodates God‘s self
in order that we might know who God is. God desires to span the distance between Creator and
creation and meets us where we are, communicating to us as we so need, because we otherwise
are incapable of knowing God (e.g., Com. Ex. 3:2; Com. Rom. 1:19; Com. 1 Cor. 2:7). The
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