Sacramental Character: The State of the Question

SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER: THE STATE OF THE QUESTION T HE PRINCIPAL TASK assigned to Vatican Church Council II was to enable the Church to come to an awareness of herself and her mission. The Council made its fundamental theological statements on the Church in terms of sacramentality and community. In doing so, it reached back beyond the twelfth century to revive the broad sense attached to the term " sacrament " before it was applied exclusively to the seven principal liturgical rites and defined the Church as a " kind of sacrament " in Christ. For the Church is a sign, the visible manifestation in the world of men's union with God and of their consequent union among themselves. At the same time the Church is an instrument, the means through which God achieves this communion. The Mystery of the Church, the sacramental community of the People of God, discloses the great depth and beauty of our life in Christ. " It is now no longer I that lives, but Christ lives in me." (Gal. 2: 20) The liturgy, an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ, is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed. The special sacrament-community orientation of Vatican II theology invites renewed attention to the doctrine of the sacramental character. For in the traditional sacramental synthesis this instrumental participation in Christ's priestly power and mission is vitally involved in both the existential liturgical action and in its continuing influence on the Christian soul. The character is essential to every phase of the Church's sacramentality ; it is a dynamic influence in whatever contributes to the unity of all who believe and worship in Christ. In spite of its high priority, especially for Thomistic sacramental theology , the role of the sacramental characters has yet to be given its full evaluation in relation to the theological developments of Vatican II. 445 446 JOHN M. DONAHUE The present article proposes merely to survey the state of the question: it treats the development of the doctrine of the sacramental character, both as to the fact and as to the theological interpretation of the fact. What is immediately at stake is the relevance of the Thomistic doctrine of the sacramental character. But the problem ha.s wider dimensions. The character doctrine is integral to the Thomistic teaching on the causality of the sacraments, on membership in the Church, and on the distinction of powers and functions of the hierarchical structure. It is not immediately clear how this thesis fits into the biblical-pastoral theology of Vatican II, or how it can be explained in terms of personalism and modem phenomenological studies. I Sources for the study of the sacramental character A most complete bibliography on the sacramental character is given by Pere Jean Galot.1 This covers not only the primary medieval sources but also modern studies to the year 1955. Since Galot's work is readily available, it does not seem necessary to include an extended bibliography for the period which he covers. In the time since Galot's publication, an extended study of M.-J. Scheeben's notion of the character has been done under the direction of Louis Bouyer.2 This thesis finds the essence of the Church in the unity of Christians with Christ and in the union existing among themselves through the sacramental characters. In more recent times theologians have been treating the character as part of their more general sacramental studies as., for example, the works by Schillebeeckx and Rahner.8 An essay by Father Thomas Marsh in a. publication 1 Jean Galot, S. J., La Nature du caractere sacramentel (Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 1955), 242 pp., bibliography p. 1-18. • B. Fraigneau-Julien, L'Eglise et le caractere sacramentel selon M.-J. Scheeben (Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 1958), 29~ pp. Cf. also F. S. Pancheri, ll Pensiero Teologico di M. J. Scheeben et S. Tommaso (Padua, 1956); Louis Bouyer, " OU en est Ia theologie du Corps mystique? " Recherche de Science Religieuse, (1948); N. Oehmen, "L'ecclesiologie dans la crise," Questions sur l'Eglise et son unite," lrenikon (war edition), pp. 1-11; C. Lialine, " Une etape en ecclesiologie, Beflexions sur l'encyclique Mystici...