Stuart C Bate OMI

Trends in sacramental theology and practice emerging since Vatican II include a greater sense of ritual awareness, the impact of RCIA on the meaning of becoming a Christian, the decline in the use of the sacrament of penance, the increasing importance of healing and the anointing of the sick, the increasing awareness of sacramentality in all that we do and not just in the seven traditional sacraments and finally the explosion in collaborative and lay ministries. Dialectically related to these trends are some emerging theological perspectives which are influencing sacramental theology and, indeed, many other parts of theology today.

Salvation is centred in relationship between God and human beings. Vatican II highlighted the theme of relationship in emphasising the Church as the sacrament of God=s communion with people (LG1). Protestant discourse with its emphasis on faith as the ground of Christianity has, in the rise of Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, seen a much greater focus on the experiential dimension of such faith so that the essence of Christianity is increasingly posited as personal experience of God and personal commitment to God. This theme is echoed in the Charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church. Sacrament as interpersonal encounter is an important theological trend since Vatican II.

Both Rahner and Schillebeeckx have been instrumental in providing theological discourse for this aspect of sacrament. Rahner makes use of Neo-Thomistic insights and Heidegger in his notion of Sacrament as God=s self communication. Such self communication to another is always symbolic since Athe symbol... is the self-realization of a being in the other, which is constitutive of its essence@ (Rahner 1966: 234). The essence of sacrament is the self communication of God to people: a relationship: AThe reality of the divine self-communication creates for itself its immediacy by constituting itself present in the symbol@ (:252). Rahner=s preoccupation is with God=s self revelation in the encounter between the divine and the human. For Schillebeeckx (1963), however it is the relationship itself which is the central issue. His concern is to Acorrect@ a sacramental Atheology of the manuals...[which had a] tendency towards a purely impersonal, almost mechanical approach...chiefly in terms of physical categories@ (:1). The essence for Schillebeeckx is that Athe sacraments are the properly human mode of encounter with God@ (:4).

Such a relationship demands we respond in faith filled action. Duffy (1982) suggests that A[t]his subjective dimension of faith/sacrament has never been adequately developed in the history of theology...@ (:xii). The presence of God in the sacrament calls us to presence before God. Such presence Ais self-gift and enabling love@ (:3) and it shows itself in commitment. Sacrament implies the sign of commitment to Christian praxis. AReligious symbols are God=s practical way of inviting us to assess the current position of our lives and the new commitments that may be needed@ (:3).

The relational dimension of salvation is a major theme of John Paul II. Human experience of God is rooted in the fact that Christ Aunited himself with each man@ (GS 22 in RH13 italics in original). So the AChurch wishes to serve this single end: that each person may be able to find Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each person the path of life...(RH 13). The ecclesiological (see RH 18) and sacramental (see RH 20) dimensions of this are spelled out in chapter 4 of the encyclical.

Sacraments call forth Christian commitment to morality in praxis. Segundo (1974) suggests that the sacraments are given to the community as means of grace Athat is efficacious with respect to man=s liberation in real life history@ (:55). This vision of sacramentality implies a move from an individualistic understanding of sacraments concerned with my salvation to a more communal understanding of salvation as a people of God (LG13).

But the reality is often far from these theological truths. Fuellenbach (1995:258) notes that many ask whether Athe church is really the sign of unity, love, justice and hope in the final Kingdom...@. And the South African theologian Albert Nolan (1988: 212ff) quotes Isaiah 1: 11-17 in deploring an empty ritualism in sacraments and worship which is not linked to a sense of action for justice. He warns that Aall religions face the danger of degenerating into mere rituals, formulas and formalities that are divorced from life@ (:212). The sacraments and the liturgy are always ethical imperatives. AThe sacraments belong to Christians, to the church, and it is in the behavior, life choices and lifestyles of Christians, in their relationships and ways of living in the world, that the ethic of Jesus and the sacraments of Jesus find their meaning and power@ (McKenna (1997) :21).

Before Vatican II sacramental ministry was a function confined almost entirely to ordained ministers in the Church. Since then there has been an explosion in the involvement of lay people in the rites of the Church. Though some functions remain reserved to ordained ministers many earlier traditions, which gave roles and responsibilities to others, have been recovered.

Vatican II affirms that the Church is the people of God and that in baptism all God=s people are called to share in the priesthood of Christ since A...the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood...are nonetheless interrelated. Each of them in its own special way, is the participation in the one priesthood of Christ@ (LG10). This vision promotes collaboration in ministry for the worship of the Church should be a sign of the priestly nature of all God=s people. It also recognises the importance of difference in roles in accordance with vocation and mission. On the question of collaboration in ministry we read: AIt must be noted with great satisfaction that in many Particular Churches the collaboration of the non-ordained faithful in the pastoral ministry of the clergy has developed in a very positive fashion. It has borne an abundance of good fruits...@ (Priests and Laity: 7).

The traditional shortage of ministers in mission countries meant that local catechists preached and led services in the more remote areas. These men played a major role in the implantation of the Church in Africa. Since Vatican II the Church has preferred to develop community ministries from within local communities rather than having one layman as leader. The purpose of introducing such ministries into Southern Africa was seen as broadening the field of ministry in order to deepen the Church=s mission and not merely to respond to clergy shortage (PA1:2). Another goal was to de-paternalise the role of the priest in the Church so that the Catholic Church might become less priest centred and more People of God centred (PA1:4).

Since 1974 the Lumko Missiological Institute of South Africa has published a large number of training programmes for community ministers which have had an impact throughout the world. Most parishes in the rural areas of South Africa now have teams of ministers who minister to the sick, conduct funerals and lead communion services. In some ways this makes the Church a more effective sign of the people of God. But the role of the Priest becomes even more important in such a situation. Whilst vocations continue to grow, the ongoing shortage of ordained ministers means that much still remains to be done.

A people=s culture can be understood as the sacrament of their humanity. It is the way in which their humanity is manifest in the world. Studies in the Humanities have experienced a shift, of late, from rationalist and objective scientific approaches whether expressed in Marxist, positivist or structuralist hermeneutic models, to an awareness of the role of culture and emotion in human motivation. This has been referred to as the Acultural turn@ (Ray & Sayer 1999: 1ff). We find this trend in theology too especially in sacramental theology. One of the major themes of the writings of John Paul II has been the role of culture in the life of people and the Church. Cardinal George (1990:17) notes that Awhen Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected pope he soon brought culture to the center of the Church=s agenda in an original way@. Inculturation has appeared as a major theological key in systematic and pastoral theology. The term is first encountered in Catechesi tradendae (53) but is given its main theological exposition in Slavorum Apostoli where it is defined as Athe incarnation of the gospel into native cultures@ (SA 21). This process should not be accompanied by an attitude of cultural exclusiveness for in order to be a true sacrament, the Church must manifest unity between all cultures. This provides two important criteria of Inculturation: compatibility with the Gospel and communion with the Universal Church (EA 62).

AInculturation argues that faith can find a home in an African culture and indeed open up its new home to new challenges@ (Tlhagale 1995b:170). Recent studies in Southern Africa related to sacramental theology include those on ancestors (Tlhagale 1995a), on Marriage (Hlatshwayo 1996) and on African and Christian notions of Sacrifice and the Eucharist (Sipuka 2001). Informed theological reflection is essential to avoid hastily constructed practices which can be prone to exaggeration and excess. In this way a local Church becomes a true sacrament of Christ for its people.

Many new issues emerging in a relatively short period of time suggests a Church and society in flux. AIn the years immediately after the Second Vatican Council we saw some particularly virulent forms of >now religion=@ (Cunningham 1985:200). The danger in such times is that present circumstances and concerns may be over exaggerated causing the local community to lose the wider picture. Many past ecclesial divisions have emerged from such situations. An emerging trend responding to this danger is the growing recovery of the value of Catholicism as an important sign of the time. Cunningham trusts the ACatholic Tradition@ as Abroad enough to absorb these enthusiasms and sort out what is worthwhile in the long run@ (:200). But Catholicism in this sense must also be understood as an insistence on the importance of the theological and magisterial tradition together with the recognition of the importance of ecclesial unity in a world of diversity. O=Malley (1983: 406) warns that at a time of radical renewal it is important that the Church not lose sight of its continuity with the past. The Apersistent Catholic impulse to reconcile >nature and grace= is, when raised to the level of social institutions, an impulse to reconcile the church with human culture in all its positive dimensions....The Church is fully incorporated into human history, and changes that take place there deeply affect it@. Such changes are essential if the Church is to remain faithful to its mission to be an effective sign of salvation.

For this reason, the Magisterium must exercise the role of maintaining the centre in a time of theological and practical pluralism. This role has been increasingly evident in the final quarter of the twentieth century when a number of teachings and instructions have been issued providing dogmatic guidelines and regulating and clarifying sacramental practice in the Church. In this the magisterium fulfils its role in maintaining the integrity of the Church as sacrament of unity (LG1) and a living organ of salvation (LG8). These instructions have sought to affirm many initiatives resulting from the trends we have outlined here. But at the same time such instructions seek to avoid excesses which militate against the reflected tradition by introducing new practices which confuse the efficacy of the sign.

An increasing pluralism of interpretation and practice has been met with an assertion of the need for unity and relatedness in order to truly express what Catholic stands for. For Power (1999:2) the term Aconflict of interpretations expresses quite well the different ways in which the sacramental tradition is being appropriated by different communities@. Such conflict demands a response which can promote understanding between interpretations. Only in this way can union be served. Power suggests that a postmodern approach to sacrament helps since it allows the integration of apparently or superficially diverse metanarratives within a greater whole. What is required in sacramental theology is a more complex and inclusive approach which affirms an Aattention to the other...a new awareness of those who have been excluded or marginalized even in Church life....a new search for the holy and a quest for what joins the human with other beings....greater regard for the world around...an ethic rooted in the wisdom of how we live day by day in faith in God=s presence@(:16). The emergence of new trends should not dismay us but challenge us to greater theological reflection in uniting what is of value into a greater Catholic whole.

Cunningham, L 1985. The Catholic experience. NY: Crossroad.

Duffy, R 1982. Real presence. San Francisco: Harper and Row.

EA Ecclesia in Africa. Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul II, September 14 1995.

LG Lumen Gentium. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Vatican II.

McKenna, M 1997. Rites of Justice. NY: Orbis.

Nolan, A 1988. God in South Africa: The Challenge of the Gospel. London: CIIR

Power, D 1999. Sacrament: The language of God=s giving. NY: Crossroad.

Rahner, K 1966. Theological investigations Vol IV. London: Darton, Longman & Todd.

Ray, L & Sayer, A 1999. Culture and Economy after the cultural turn. London: SAGE.

Schillebeeckx, E 1963. Christ the Sacrament. London: Sheed and Ward.

Segundo. J 1974. The Sacraments Today. NY: Orbis.