Chapter II §1: The Visible Sign, or Matter and Form

Chapter II: The Three Essential Constituents of a Sacrament

The three essential constituents of a Sacrament are: (1) the visible sign, (2) invisible grace, and (3) divine institution.

§1. The Visible Sign, or Matter and Form

As a body is composed of two constituents, the one indeterminate and the other determining, so, too, a Sacrament has two elements, matter and form.¹

Thesis I: The Sacraments of the New Testament consist of two elements, the one indeterminate (res), the other determining (verbum).

This proposition is fidei proxima.

Proof. For a full explanation of the concepts involved we must refer the student to that branch of philosophy called Cosmology. Both res (the element and its application or use — technically, remote and proximate matter) and verbum (the word, in the wider sense of any sign indicating consent) are officially defined as essential constituents of a Sacrament in the statement of doctrine drawn up by Eugene IV for the Armenian delegates at the Council of Florence, where we read, inter alia: “Every Sacrament requires three constituents: things for its matter, words for its form, and the person of the minister conferring the Sacrament with the intention of doing what the Church does; if any one of these be wanting, there is no Sacrament.”²

As Pope Eugene IV did not intend to issue a dogmatic definition on the subject but merely to give an account of the common teaching and practice of the Western Church,³ some of the inferences drawn from his statement by Dominicus Soto⁴ and other theologians are manifestly strained. We are not dealing here with an article of faith, so far as philosophical terminology is concerned. However, our thesis embodies the teaching of the Church and might be raised to the dignity of a dogma at any time.

a) That a Sacrament must contain an “element” and a “word” can be stringently proved from Holy Scripture only for the Sacrament of Baptism. Eph. V, 26: “By the laver of water in the word of life.”⁵

In regard to Confirmation,⁶ the Holy Eucharist,⁷ and Extreme Unction,⁸ this is merely intimated. But Tradition abundantly supplies what is lacking in Biblical teaching. The Fathers insist that both a res and a verbum enter into the constitution of a Sacrament. St. Augustine says: “Take away the word, and what is water but water? The word is added to the element, and there is a Sacrament.”⁹ This teaching has been preserved and handed down by the churches separated from Rome¹⁰ and is confirmed by the authority of the Scholastics.¹¹

b) As regards the Sacraments of the Old Testament (circumcision, the eating of the paschal lamb, certain lustrations, etc.), theologians hold that they did not consist of res et verbum but merely of res et actio, because of St. Paul’s reference to the Old Law as “having a shadow of the good things to come, [but] not the very image of the things.”¹² The occasional employment of words in connection with these rites was either unessential or of purely human institution. St. Thomas¹³ gives three reasons why it is fit that the Sacraments of the New Testament should be superior to those of the Old, not only in interior effect but also with regard to the external rite. (1) The analogy between the Sacraments and the Incarnation. In the Sacraments, “the word is joined to the sensible sign, just as in the mystery of the Incarnation God is united to sensible flesh.” (2) The conformity of the Sacraments to their human recipients, who are composed of soul and body. (3) The superior power of signification peculiar to a definite word over indefinite symbolical acts, such as those employed under the Old Law.

Thesis II: The “sensible element” in a Sacrament corresponds, in philosophical parlance, to “matter,” the “word” to “form,” and the two are related to each other as materia and forma in the Scholastic sense of these terms.

This proposition may be technically qualified as certa.

Proof. The use of the terms “matter” and “form” in the theology of the Sacraments can be traced to William of Auxerre (d. 1223).¹⁴ It was adopted by the Church¹⁵ and received official sanction at the Council of Trent.¹⁶ To reject it, therefore, would be foolhardy.

a) The application to the theology of the Sacraments of the famous Aristotelian distinction between matter and form is most appropriate and illuminating.

As matter and form coalesce into one whole, which is separate and distinct from each of its component parts, so res and verbum constitute one complete sign, which is neither a mere element nor a mere word. Again, as matter, being undetermined, is generically determined by the form, so is the res raised to the rank of a sacramental sign by the differentiating power of the verbum.

Furthermore, as matter and form intrinsically supplement and perfect each other, so, too, do res and verbum. However, since res and verbum do not represent a physical but merely a moral totum (i.e. one depending on the free choice of Christ), the terms must be taken analogically. The union of res and verbum in a Sacrament is not, therefore, a physical but a purely moral synthesis, which does not demand that the component parts co-exist. Thus a penitent who confesses his sins may be validly absolved a day later, because the “element” or act of confession, and the “word” which determines it, despite the interval between them, constitute one moral act. The place of the “word” which is to determine the “thing” cannot be taken by some symbolic act, as, e.g., washing a person with water instead of pronouncing the formula of Baptism. There are many ablutions with diverse symbolic meanings, and the action remains indeterminate so long as there is no forma in the shape of a determining word.

In some Sacraments, notably Penance and Matrimony, it is not easy to say precisely wherein matter and form consist, but this difficulty has not deterred theologians from insisting that somewhere and somehow both must be present.

An exception is made by the Scotists and Vasquez in favor of the Holy Eucharist, which they regard as a “permanent Sacrament” and the only one not constituted by a union of matter and form. But this theory is untenable in view of the Decretum pro Armenis, quoted above. Moreover, the Holy Eucharist demonstrably has both res and verbum, matter and form.¹⁷

b) If “element” and “word” are related to each other as matter and form, it follows that every Sacrament must consist of matter and form.

Scotus and his followers admit that all the Sacraments, including the Eucharist, Penance, and Matrimony, grow out of an “element” and a “word,” but they deny that each is essentially composed of res and verbum as matter and form. And yet the latter proposition follows logically from the former. That which originates from a union of matter and form must necessarily consist of matter and form. Now, the Decretum pro Armenis says: “Omnia sacramenta perficiuntur rebus tamquam materia, verbis tamquam forma,” which is virtually the same as the teaching of the Roman Catechism that matter and form “are parts pertaining to the nature and substance of the Sacraments, and by which each Sacrament is necessarily constituted.”¹⁸ Hence we maintain with St. Thomas that, since a Sacrament is divisible into matter and form as distinct parts of its essence, every Sacrament consists of an element and a word.¹⁹

Cardinal De Lugo holds²⁰ that, as the Decretum pro Armenis mentions the intention of the minister, this enters into the intrinsic constitution of a Sacrament quite as much as matter and form. But the opinion is untenable. A Sacrament is constituted by matter and form; the intentio ministri is merely a condition of valid administration.²¹²²