... as the sacrament not only symbolizes, in sensible species, an operation of Grace, but is also the real presence of God, which it causes to occupy a fragment of space and communicates to those who eat of the consecrated bread, provided that they are inwardly prepared, in the same way the sensible has not only a motor and vital significance, but is nothing other the than a certain way of being in the world suggested to us from some point in space, and seized and acted upon by our body, provided that it is capable of doing so, so that sensation is literally a form of communion.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception
A sacrament is a practical sign ordered to interior sanctification .... BEing something external and sensory which signifies an effect of interior sanctification to be produced, it is a conventional sign founded in fact of a certain analogy (a practical symbol) ....
The sacraments of the Old Law, for example circumcision, the eating of the Paschal Lamb, expiatory actions, the priestly anointing of Aaron, were true sacraments, and as such ordered toward internal sanctity: practical signs signifying sanctification - but not effecting it themselves.
The sacraments of the New Law effect that which they signify (if the subject does not put obstacles in their way by his contrary disposition). This comes to be by virtue of a super-abundance coming forth from Christ's passion, and because the major thing in the New Law is the grace of the Spirit operating from within. The sacramental sign is no longer merely a practical sign, it then becomes an instrumental cause of which the very Cause of being makes use to produce grace in the soul, just as an artist makes use of the violin or flute to produce beauty.
Jacques Maritain, Ransoming the Time
A sacrament is a practical sign ordered to interior sanctification .... BEing something external and sensory which signifies an effect of interior sanctification to be produced, it is a conventional sign founded in fact of a certain analogy (a practical symbol) ....
The sacraments of the Old Law, for example circumcision, the eating of the Paschal Lamb, expiatory actions, the priestly anointing of Aaron, were true sacraments, and as such ordered toward internal sanctity: practical signs signifying sanctification - but not effecting it themselves.
The sacraments of the New Law effect that which they signify (if the subject does not put obstacles in their way by his contrary disposition). This comes to be by virtue of a super-abundance coming forth from Christ's passion, and because the major thing in the New Law is the grace of the Spirit operating from within. The sacramental sign is no longer merely a practical sign, it then becomes an instrumental cause of which the very Cause of being makes use to produce grace in the soul, just as an artist makes use of the violin or flute to produce beauty.
Jacques Maritain, Ransoming the Time
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