Sacrament

This post will be the first of many in which the word sacrament is used. I like this word, which is closely related to sacred, a word that I do use regularly in various contexts. I will try to illuminate the ideas behind sacraments in general, and thus the relationship between the sacred and the Church, the sacred and the world, and so the church and the world.

Sacraments connect people to each other in ways I have described before - a superficial, temporary connection between acquaintances that helps affirm everyone's humanity. Live music and sporting events do the same. But sacraments go further by using ritual. Ritual deserves its very own post, but basically is the use of aesthetic elements like architecture, clothing, choreography, and scents to separate a gathering and action from present reality to connect it (or suggest its connection with) another reality. For Christian rituals, and most religious rituals, that other reality includes the imagined divine world far away, or the narrative fiction that is the reduction of a paradoxical spirit.

That element may come and go depending on one's spiritual...resonance. But the indisputable, foundational element to sacraments is the connection they provide between generations. Sacraments help us cheat death by directly impacting future generations by ourselves experiencing the impact of our forefathers. No matter one's relation to or belief in God, that alone is sacred. That is the definition of transcendence.

I want to bring back the word sacrament. I think that its association with the rote memorization of the seven established sacraments of the Catholic Church has done the word great harm. Regardless of what Sr. Mary Angelica made you believe, there is no limit to what could be considered sacramental. Any action or occasion that promotes transcendence is sacramental. It just so happens that the Church, as the cornerstone of its existence and the reason for its founding, is a sacrament machine. Seven occasions have risen to the top after 2000 years of natural selection, as universally significant. But here in New Orleans we have sacraments (Mardi Gras and Jazz Funerals), and the US has a few all over (like the Red Mass). I have personal sacraments - writing every day has become one. I share some with friends, like Wednesdays with Melanie, Izzie, and Connor. And I want to do more, like Vespers, which is blatantly and apologetically ritualized community singing in a 1600 year old tradition.

These are all rather religious examples, but they set the template for our experience of transcendence in the West. But trees are also sacraments, as is water, and (increasingly, and arguably,) television. I cannot speak to a river's experience of the sacred, but our experience of the sacred, our being made aware of our interconnectedness, is prompted by any number of things. I say 'our' and I mean the plural, because sacraments benefit from a plurality of persons. You can pray (metaphorically) alone, certainly, but its by praying together that we heighten our awareness of the past and future and, thus, divinity.