The Effects of the Sacraments

A character is a lasting mark, set as a seal and a distinctive sign upon a person. Now, a sacrament is capable ofimprinting a character upon the Christian soul, marking it permanently as dedicated to the worship of God. In a somewhat similar way, the uniform and insignia of a soldier is an abidingmark and indication of his allegiance, his rank, and his special duty.

But the character imprinted or impressed by a sacrament must be a spiritual thing, for it is a mark or seal set on the soul. It must, therefore, be one of the three things which a spiritual soul can have; that is, passion, habit, or power. It isnot a passion, for a passion is not lasting; it passes quickly,whereas a character has permanence. Nor is the character a habit.It is a spiritual power.

The sacramental character is the character or mark of Christ. It is, in some way, a participation in Christ’s eternalpriesthood. It comes to the soul from Christ himself.

A character impressed by a sacrament of the New Law marks the Christian soul as the receiver or the bestower of things belonging to the worship of God. Now, the worship of God involves actions which come from the powers of the soul. Hence, thesacramental character has as its subject (that is, its seat,location) the powers of the soul, not the essence of the soul as such.

Every sanctification wrought by the priesthood of Christ is perpetual. Therefore, a character impressed by a sacrament (a character which is, in some sense, a participation in Christ’s priesthood), is everlasting. It cannot be obliterated from the soul. It is an indelible mark and seal.

Not every sacrament of the New Law imprints anindelible character on the soul. Such a character is impressed by those sacraments which are ordained for divine worship and which give a person power to receive or confer other sacraments.Baptism empowers a person to receive other sacraments.Confirmation (as we shall see later) has something of this same purpose. Holy order empowers the receiver to confer sacramentson others. Therefore, these three sacraments (baptism,confirmation, holy order), imprint, respectively, a character onthe soul. A property of these sacraments is that they can be received only once by the same person. Their respective characters never fade or admit of renewal.