Christ As The Primordial Sacrament

[John Ryan]

I have been reading this book Sacramental Theology: A General Introduction by the Franciscan Father Kenan Osborne. His thesis is that Jesus Christ in his humanity is the primordial sacrament which allows the Roman Catholic Church to be the sacrament of the world, which in consequence provides the foundation for the seven traditional sacraments. Christ's humanity is the sacramentum and the sign of the reality of His Divinity as the res sacramenti. The seven sacraments only have meaning in relation to their signification of Christ's perfect humanity. 

 

I am curious what others think of this understanding of sacramental theology. Is this mainstream theology, or do I merely find it attractive because I am a progressive Roman Catholic?

[Nihil Obstat]

I would have to read the book to have a well-informed opinion, but in my opinion essentially everything in traditional Catholic theology, and by extension philosophy as well, is rooted in the utterly unique moment of the Incarnation. In really basic terms, I sort of treat the Incarnation as this absolutely game changing event which allows everything else to flow from it. 

When I say moment though I cannot really mean it in a merely temporal sense. It is an eternal moment because of Christ's divine nature eternally begotten by the Father, but this eternal moment intrudes on humanity's temporal nature, precisely because of Christ taking on human nature. It sort of bridges the gap, so to speak, between eternity and temporality, and more specifically, between God's eternal nature and mankind's inheritance of death.

 

So, I guess what I am saying is that it is entirely possible that the book you read treated the Incarnation in an orthodox manner.

[LouisvilleFan]

I'm not familiar with the book or the author either. If I have properly translated the Latin into English, he is saying that the humanity of Christ is the sacrament, and the Divinity of Christ is the effect of the sacrament. I don't know if that's kosher or not. My thinking would say Christ is the sacrament, and the Church is the effect.

 

I've certainly heard of the Church being a sacrament of salvation to the world, and the Eucharist being the Great Sacrament, so the thesis of Jesus being a sacrament in his humanity seems to fit. After all, we can properly refer to the Blessed Sacrament by the name of "Jesus." The one possible error I see is he might put some division between Christ's humanity and divinity, and that too much importance is placed on his perfect humanity. It's not his perfection that saves us, but rather that He unites our humanity with God's divinity.

 

Of course, without reading the book I won't pass judgment. It definitely sounds like something a Franciscan would write, and coming from Evangelical Land myself, I see how accepting the sacraments opens the door into a sacramental worldview that's as much raw and earthy as it is transcendent and theological. That's part of the reason Catholicism appeals to people from all sorts of perspectives.