Whether There Was Need for Any Sacraments After Christ Came?
Objection 1: It seems that there was no need for any sacraments after
Christ came. For the figure should cease with the advent of the
truth. But "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Since,
therefore, the sacraments are signs or figures of the truth, it seems
that there was no need for any sacraments after Christ's Passion.
Obj. 2: Further, the sacraments consist in certain elements, as
stated above (Q. 60, A. 4). But the Apostle says (Gal. 4:3, 4) that
"when we were children we were serving under the elements of the
world": but that now "when the fulness of time" has "come," we are no
longer children. Therefore it seems that we should not serve God
under the elements of this world, by making use of corporeal
sacraments.
Obj. 3: Further, according to James 1:17 with God "there is no
change, nor shadow of alteration." But it seems to argue some change
in the Divine will that God should give man certain sacraments for
his sanctification now during the time of grace, and other sacraments
before Christ's coming. Therefore it seems that other sacraments
should not have been instituted after Christ.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix) that the
sacraments of the Old Law "were abolished because they were
fulfilled; and others were instituted, fewer in number, but more
efficacious, more profitable, and of easier accomplishment."
_I answer that,_ As the ancient Fathers were saved through faith in
Christ's future coming, so are we saved through faith in Christ's
past birth and Passion. Now the sacraments are signs in protestation
of the faith whereby man is justified; and signs should vary
according as they signify the future, the past, or the present; for
as Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix), "the same thing is variously
pronounced as to be done and as having been done: for instance the
word _passurus_ (going to suffer) differs from _passus_ (having
suffered)." Therefore the sacraments of the New Law, that signify
Christ in relation to the past, must needs differ from those of the
Old Law, that foreshadowed the future.
Reply Obj. 1: As Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. v), the state of the New
Law. is between the state of the Old Law, whose figures are fulfilled
in the New, and the state of glory, in which all truth will be openly
and perfectly revealed. Wherefore then there will be no sacraments.
But now, so long as we know "through a glass in a dark manner," (1
Cor. 13:12) we need sensible signs in order to reach spiritual
things: and this is the province of the sacraments.
Reply Obj. 2: The Apostle calls the sacraments of the Old Law "weak
and needy elements" (Gal. 4:9) because they neither contained nor
caused grace. Hence the Apostle says that those who used these
sacraments served God "under the elements of this world": for the
very reason that these sacraments were nothing else than the elements
of this world. But our sacraments both contain and cause grace:
consequently the comparison does not hold.
Reply Obj. 3: Just as the head of the house is not proved to have a
changeable mind, through issuing various commands to his household at
various seasons, ordering things differently in winter and summer; so
it does not follow that there is any change in God, because He
instituted sacraments of one kind after Christ's coming, and of
another kind at the time of the Law. Because the latter were suitable
as foreshadowing grace; the former as signifying the presence of
grace.
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