Seven Sacraments
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"The Real Magnificent Seven"!
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"If God Owned A Beauty Shop The Sacraments Are How He Would Make Us Beautiful!"
WHERE ARE THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS FOUND IN THE BIBLE?
DID THE CATHOLIC CHURCH MAKE UP THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS?
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John 3:5 "Jesus answered: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
I used the Douay Rheims here because the translation brings out the full meaning of the text by clarifying "born again" "of water and the Holy Ghost".
The phrase that I am looking for here is "born again". Some may say that God was merely talking about the amniotic fluid from birth and then being infused at a later time in life with the Holy Spirit. This text makes it abundantly clear that:
a) Jesus is talking about another birth or re-birth after our own birth and
but) we need to be Baptized to get into heaven!
St. Peter makes it abundantly clear that we need the Sacrament of Baptism to be "Saved" or to reach heaven. In his First Letter he is comparing Noah and his family being saved by God through the Flood, when he said; 1 Peter 3:21 "This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ," (NAB)
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(CE) Does Scripture bear witness to a second gift of the Spirit after Baptism, a gift conferred by a new rite, distinct from that of the Baptism of water? Yes.
It is certain that Christian Baptism is a Baptism of "water and the Spirit" (Jn. 3:5, cf. 1:33; Mk. 1:8). [...] the gift of the Spirit is linked to Baptism, which is a "bath of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
The Acts of the Apostles, however, have preserved two very significant episodes.
Once Philip the deacon had preached in Samaria, had made conversions, and had conferred Baptism, The Apostles sent Peter and John to the converts.
Acts 8:14 "Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,
15 who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit,
16 for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit."
When St. Paul came to Ephesus, in Acts 19, he found "disciples. . . [who had] not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.'' They had received only John's Baptism. Upon hearing of the Redeemer, "they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; and when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy" (Acts 19:1-6).
These texts point out that after Baptism of water was a second rite - the imposition of hands - by which the newly baptized received the Holy Spirit. This second rite was reserved to the Apostles; in Samaria, Peter and John imposed hands on the new believers who had been baptized by a deacon; at Ephesus, it was Paul who imposed hands. Thus the initiation begun with Baptism was completed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift that might be accompanied by manifestations (speaking in tongues, prophecy).
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(The first three are the Sacraments of Initiation)
We have the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper in Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25 & Luke 22:19-20. We also have a clear teaching of Our Lord in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, that says we cannot get into heaven unless we receive His Flesh and Blood; 53 "Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you."
To make it even more clear: 54 "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."
A large percentage of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians is devoted to the New Covenant Liturgy. In 1 Corinthians 10:14 through 14:40, Paul starts out his pastoral teaching on the New Liturgy with, 1 Cor. 10:16 "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?". Which is a progression of the Old Covenant Passover Liturgy: 1 Corinthians 5:7b-8, "For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival,".
Which, in turn, will be perfected in heaven!
Chapters 12, 13 and 14 are an explanation of the use of the "spiritual gifts". But this section doesn't stand alone, the context is the New Covenant Liturgy.
The only Liturgical action in the New Testament is the Eucharistic Liturgy!
There is no mention of a glorified bible study without the Eucharistic Banquet, as St. Paul says, the "participation in the [body &] blood of Christ".
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John 20:21 "(Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit.
23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."
Christ told the apostles to follow his example: "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you" (Jn 20:21). What he did, they were to do. Just as the apostles were to carry Christ's message to the whole world, so they were to carry his forgiveness: "I promise you, all that you bound on earth "shall be bound in heaven, and all that you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt. 18:18).
We see St. Paul actually forgiving someone in the person of Christ in his Second Letter to the Corinthians 2:10; 2 Cor. 2:10 "And to whom you have pardoned any thing, I also. For, what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ:" (DR, KJV) In "persona Christi" in the Latin. The priest forgives the repentant believer acting on Christ's behalf, "in the person of Christ", as the Bible says.
Orders
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John 17:19 "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth."
We have Jesus consecrating the Apostles to serve as priests under the New Covenant.
2 Timothy 2:2; "what you heard from me entrust to others"
The Navarre Commentary points out, that Paul and Barnabas appoint elders and put them in charge of the Churches they found during their first missionary journey. In the epistles to Timothy 5:17-19 and Titus 1:5 those entrusted with an established ministry in each community are described as elders.
THE TERM "ELDER"
(TR), 'June '96, P. 12, "The term "priest" (Greek hierus) was not often used at first for the Christian presbyter which comes from the Greek (presbyteros), meaning "elder". This is explained by the need to distinguish the Christian priests from the Jewish priests who were still functioning up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in the year 70 A. D. Thereafter the use of the word "priest" for those ordained in Christ became more and more common.
Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time.
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Marriage is the one Sacrament that no one seems to challenge, yet is not easily seen in the New Testament. Heb 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous.
St. Paul stresses God's blessing on a marriage by demanding that it be contracted "in the Lord". 1Cor. 7:39 "A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord."
He goes on to stress that marriage is indissoluble; 1Cor. 7:10 "To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband"
He speaks of the dignity and sanctity of Christian marriage when he compares the Sacrament to the relationship that Christ has with His spouse the Catholic Church; Eph 5:32 "This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church." (DR)
Anointing of the Sick
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James 5:14 "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." (DR)
Bibliography
(DR) Douay Rheims is an English translation of St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate which is the official bible translation of the Catholic Church (CE). The Douay Rheims had a great influence on the King James Bible and so we have another reason to use it. The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition published by Ignatius Press is a modern translation of the Douay Rheims.
(CE) Catholic Encyclopedia.
(TR) "This Rock" a Catholic Apologetics magazine, published by Catholic Answers in San Diego, California.
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