Necessity of Sacraments

To save his soul, man needs sacraments, for: (a) human nature needs to be led by bodily and sensible things to what is spiritual; (b) man needs corporeal signs, for sin has subjected him to material things, and he is unable to apply his mind directly to what is spiritual; (c) man actively tends to material performance and outer expression; if this tendency be not directed aright, it ends in superstitious and even demoniacal practices. Sacraments,therefore, are means of instructing man in things spiritual,teaching and preserving him in essential truths and seemlypractice. Hence, because of their essential service to man, we say that sacraments are necessary for man’s salvation.

And sacraments are spiritual remedies for the wounds inflicted on the soul by sin. Indeed, while man was in the state of innocence, and was sinless, he did not need sacraments.

Sacred signs or sacraments were in use, by divine command, under the Old Law, before the coming of Christ. No man canbe saved but through Christ. Therefore, before Christ came, people needed visible signs to testify their faith in his coming. Such signs were sacraments.

When Christ came and founded his Church, he established seven sacraments; these are the sacraments of the New Law; the establishing of these Christian sacraments abolishes the sacramentsof the Old Law, which were ancient and holy signs prophetic of the coming of Christ and of the Christian sacraments.