111ri¥H!J~~J 39 .i,- (2016 ~ 3 Jn pp. 111-158.

Sacramental Participation-The Church's Pneumatological, Ouistological EngagementRejimon VARGHESE
I. A Brief History of Sacramental Theology

In order to place the subject of this article in perspective, even though

briefly, it is imperative to know how sacramental theology of the Roman
Catholic Omrch developed up to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Overthe course of ecclesial history, various elements of sacramental theology
emerged in the works of such luminaries as St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430),
Hugh of Saint Victor (c.1096-1141), Peter Abelard (1079-1142), and Peter
Lombard ( c.1096-1160), to mention just a few. 1 By incorporating theseelements, the Catechism of the Catholic Church presents a definition of asacrament. 'The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christand entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The
visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present
the grace proper to each sacrament" 2 When such words as "sign" (Augustine},"instituted" (Hugh of Saint Victor), "efficacious" (Abelard), and "signify"

1 Philippe Beguerie and Oaude Duchesneau, How to Understand the Sacraments, trans.

Jahn

Bowden and Margaret Lydamore (NY: CrOSMOad, 1991), 58-9.
2 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington. DC: Ubreria Editrice Vaticana,1994), no. 1131.

112(Lombard 3 ) are taken into consideration, a more precise definition ofsacrament is achieved. Thus it provides a better understanding of the way
sacraments function.
The root of the Greek word musterion (mystery) is mue, meaning "to close"or "to shut the eyes, or the mouth." Musterion was the word that the pagans
used for their rites of initiation, which were basically non-public cults. In theserites, the initiated person was forbidden to disclose the nature of this ritual,
especially to other uninitiated persons, hence there was a sense of hidden"mystery'' and "secrecy" to the rites. By not revealing these hidden secrets, thesalvation of the initiated person was guaranteed. All in all, this ritual gave theidea that some unfathomable, impenetrable, and incomprehensible reality took
place during the ritual.
The word musterion was not a foreign concept to Christianity; for it was
already present in the Old Testament, namely, in the book of Wisdom (2:22), a
book originally written in Greek In the New Testament, especially in thePauline letters (Eph 1:9-10, 2:11-3:13; Col 1:20, 26-27; 2:2; I Cor 2:1), the word

musterion denotes God's plan to save the world. By using this word as a
Christocentric term, St Paul gave it a full Christian sense.4 For St. Paul, theword specially refers to the divine oikonomia (God's plan of salvation) whichPeter Lmnbard also uses the verb "to cause" in his Sentences, written in 1150. However,the Fathers of the Council of Trent (1545-63) use the words uto signify" and "to confer."
The Canons and Decrees of the Gnmcil of Trent, trans. H.J. Schroeder (Rockford, IL: Tan
Books and Publishers, Inc., 1978), canon 6. In order not to side with any school oftheology, it is generally thought that the Council fathers preferred the verb "to confer'' tothat of "to cause."
4 Odo Casel., The Mystery of Christian Worship, ed. Burkhard Neunheuser (NY: The
Crossroad Publishing Company, 1962), 6 and passim; Louis Bouyer, The Christian Mystery:
From Pagan Myth to Christian Mysticism, trans. illtyd Trethowan (NY: T and T Clark
Iniernal:ionaL 2004), 3.

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having been decided by God from all eternity was fully revealed and realized
in the Christ-event, namely, the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, andascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Yet as a reality, theworld still awaits its full redemption.
From the first to the late second century, certain Christian rites were
known only by their names, such as Baptism and "the breaking of the bread"(Acts 2:41-42). These rites as such were not purely Christian in origin. Christ
did not originate them, indeed, they predate Christ, having their roots in thereligious practices of both late Judaism and the Greco-Roman world.5 Up tothe third century, the word "sacrament" had not yet been in use. Thus, there
was no generic term available at that time to describe these ritual experiences
because the first preoccupation of the Christians was not to classify or tocategorize their liturgical actions but to live out their relationship with the
Lord Jesus. However, in a later period there occurred a pastoral need whereby
pastors-many were bishops as well as theologians-saw the need to explain acertain number of liturgical actions in the pre- or post-baptismal catechesis.
Hence, from the late second century onward in the Greek-speaking Christianworld, the word musterion was employed to describe these Christian rites. For
the fathers stressed the making-present of the saving event brought about by
Christ and the grace of salvation that flows from this event in the individual
actions of the di.urch, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. Thus when thisinitiation rite is called musterion, it indicates that Baptism and the Eucharist arebound up with the whole work of salvation which God accomplishes in the5

Theodor Klauser, A Short History of the Western Liturgy: An Account and Some Rejlections,
2nd ed., trans. John Halliburton (NY: Oxford University Press, 1979), 5.

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world through Christ. Accordingly, these rites are seen as the privileged
realization of this work.
In the Roman culture, the word sacramentum indicated a sacred oath ofallegiance unto death that Rom.an soldiers swore to the emperor and to one
another. 6 In order to avoid any confusion with pagan thinking, Tertullian(c.155-c.240), the first theologian to write in Latin, introduced the Latin wordsacramentum (sacrament) into the ecclesial-theological vocabulary, especially to
explain Baptism. Above all, viewing this oath as a sign of commitment and the
beginning of a new life for soldiers, Tertullian interpreted the initiation into theChristian community (through Baptism and the Eucharist) as the beginning ofa new life in Christ. From this time on the rites of Christian initiation came tobe generally known as a sacrament. 7
Although Tertullian had given the meaning of a spiritual oath to Christiansacrament, he did not propose any specific theory of sacrament. 1his occurred
only afterwards. By interpreting the New Testament in light of Nee-Platonic
philosophy8 and by placing the sacrament in the genre of visible signa (signs),

In this Roman culture, the word sacramentum was also used as a legal term in court. If acertain person was found guilty, he was required to pay a fee. The money was offered tothe deity as a kind of reparation for one's offence.
7 However, not all the fathers of the Church were as intransigent as Tertullian about theuse of the term sacramentum. In addressing the newly baptized, St. Ambrose (c.340-c.397)
used the words myst:erium (Latin adaption of musterion) and samnnentum indiscriminately.
So did Paschasius Radbertus (790-865). Sancti Amlmlsii Opera, Pars Septima, in Corpus
Scriptorvm Ecclesiasticorum Iationrum, Editvm Consili.o et Impensis, Academiae
Scientianun Avstriace Vol LXXIII (Vindobonae; Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, MCMLV);
Pascasivs Radbertvs, De Corporae et Sang1'ine Domini, in Corp-vs Cltristianorvm, XVI(Ivrnholti: Typograhi Brepols Editores Pontificii, MCMLXIX). It was not before the
Scholastic period of the Western Church that the word sacramentum assumed thetechnical meaning it has today. In the F.astern Church, the word musterion is still used todescribe the seven rites of the Church.
8 J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, Sthed. (NY, New York: Continuum, 1977), 20-2.
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Augustine for the first time defined sacrament as a sacrum signum ("a sacred
sign''),9 symbolizing the presence of the holy in the world In this way, heextended the notion of sacrament to many objects beyond the official
sacraments of the Church which we know today. 10 The crux of this theory isthat a sacrament is a sign designated by God that points to a res divina (a divine
reality), hence a sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality. "A sign is athing which of itself makes some other thing come to mind, besides theimpression that it presents to the senses."11 Thus a mysterious effective unityof holy signs and the reality signified is denoted. Of all sacramental signs,
Augustine assigned the most importance to the Church's word of faith, whichitself is a sign. He believed that through this word of faith as a sign invisible
reality itself can be experienced. This presence of the divine reality gives a
deep meaningfulness to signs, hence his teaching that when the "word" comesto the elements perceptible to the senses, there occurs a sacrament. "Take away
the word and what is water except water? The word is added to the element,
and it becomes a sacrament, as it were, a visible word." 12 For Augustine thesigns perceptible to the senses were not only rites but also events andSaint Augustine, City of God, trans. Marcus Dods (London:The Folio Society, 2012), Book
X.5.
10 The fathers of the Council of Trent solemnly declared that there are seven sacraments of
the New Law. Since then, this teacllingbecame a dogma. Prior to the Council,. the same
enumeration had been reconfirmed numerous times: in the Decree for the Armenians by
the Council of Florence (1438-45); in the Profession of Faith offered to Gregory X byMichael Palael.ogus in the Council of Lyons (1274); and in the Council held at London(1237) under Otto, legate of the Holy See. According to scnne writers, it was Otto ofBamberg (1139) who first clearly adopted the ntnnber seven. But generally the honor ofenumerating the seven sacraments is attributed to Peter Lombard (Sentences, IV. d.ii, n.1).
11 Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching, trans. R. P. H. Green (NY: Oxford University
Press, 1997), 30.
12 Saint Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of Jolm, trans. Jolm W. Rettig (Washingtcm, DC:
Catholic University of America Press, 1994), lecture 80.3.

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realizations of God's grace in the world. Thus, differing from Tertullian,
Augustine believed that, especially in Baptism and the Eucharist, the Church
was not merely declaring its loyalty to God but was also taking part in anecessary demonstration of what takes place in the spiritual realm. So, both theelements and the act of taking part in a sacrament are symbolic because they
point to a deeper spiritual reality. In addition, the invisible reality present in
the sacrament was not just grace but the totus Christus (''Head and members")
constituted in the Holy Spirit. As the real and active agent, the Spirit causes
this constitution but in a manner whereby the sacraments are always actions of

the Church. Since Christ is the one who is really acting in the sacraments, they
are always effective even when administered by unworthy ministers. This was
the sacramental theological position of Augustine, in particular against the
Donatists who argued the opposite.13
This Augustinian teaching of the relationship between holy sign and thereality signified was somewhat overlooked in the early Middle Ages. 14 Yet it
continued to be maintained in High Scholasticism. 15 The word "sacrament"

Donatists believed that their Church was the true Church. ,and only in that Church
dwelt the Holy Spirit. Hence, the sacraments conferred by the ministers of that Church
are valid and efficacious. Jn other words, the sacraments belonging to the Churches ofheretics and schismatics are null and void because they do not possess the Holy Spirit.
See William C. Weinrich, "Cyprian, Donatism, Augustine, and Sugustana VIII: Remarkson the Church and the Validity of Sacraments," Concordia Theological Quarterly 55 (1991):
267-91.
14 This loosening of the bcmd between sign and reality can be partially seen in the treatiseon the Eucharist by Ratranmus of Corbie (died c.870), and clearly in the treatise of thesame subject by Berengar of Tours (c.999-1088). Berengar's drastic and dangerous way of
dichotomizing the symbol (sign) and reality might, on the other hand, be viewed as his
contribution to the further development of a theology of symbolism, for this led
theologians to a deeper investigation of the relationship between symbol and reality.
15 This is especially true of the teaching of Thomas Aquinas on the sacraments. Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Theologica 3, q. 60, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (NY:
13

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points to the manifestation of the action of God in symbols and the freeresponse that a person gives to the divine gift contained therein.16 Based on
the doctrine that a sacrament is a sign instituted by Christ to give the grace thatit signifies, High Scholasticism related the sacraments as sign of grace to Ouist,
the one mediator of all grace, and as activities that take place in the Oturch to
the Oturch. But in the ensuing centuries the focus of attention began to becentered on the essentials17 of the sacraments, and eventually sacraments cameto be described in terms of these essentials. As a result, minimum conditions
under which a sacrament could come about and be fulfilled-even in an
emergency rite-had to be developed. This security-minded thinking marked achange. Formerly, the sacraments were seen within a liturgical and prayer
context. Now the stress was on their legalistic and juridical elements. Suchdetailed and legalistic treatment of the sacraments by Scholasticism made themBenzinger Brothers, Inc., 1947). See a1so Kimberly Hope Belcher, Efficacious Engagement:
Saaamenbll Participation in the Trinitarian Mystery (Collegeville, MN: liturgical Press,2011), 1-3.
16 Thomas Poovathanikunnel, Saaaments: What and Why (Bandra, Mumbai: St. Paul Press,
2014), 36-7. This Latin word, sacramentum, occurs in the earliest Latin translations of the
Bible. Jn the books of Dani.el (2:18, 30, 47; 4:6) and Revelation (1:20; 17:7), the authors
symbolically witness events that will take plai:e at the end of time. The sacrament in eachof these passages is same hidden mystery that is revealed to the seer not in an obvious
sense but through signs and symbols.
17 Such as sacramental causality, qualification of the person who does the consecration, thecorrect utterani:e of the holy sacramental words given by Christ, the opus opemtum or ex
opere aperato efficacy of the sacraments, the institution of the sacraments by Christ, theintention of the minister, the sacramental character, the thirteenth century application of
the Aristotelian idea of the hylom.orphic doctrine to the sacraments, and the like. Jn the
Decree addres.sed to the Armenians, the fathers of the Council of Florence state that "[a]llthese [seven] sacraments are dispensed in three elements, namely, by things as the matter,by words as the form, and by the person of the minister conferring the sacrament with
the intention of doing as the Church does; if any of these is lacking the sacrament is not
fulfilled." Henry Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, trans. Roy J Deferrari, 13th ed.
(St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co.,1954), text no. 695.

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lose something of their openness to mystery. That is to say, Scholasticism
viewed them merely as external signs or more as a means than as an end. The
reason for this might have been partly due to the etymological meaning of theterm sacramentum itself. The term sacramentum is made up of two words: sacrare
and mentum. The former means "to sanctify." The latter-a suffix added to theverb - refers to the ways to attain a determined goal. In short, the wordsacramentum refers to the means by which something is consecrated.
Against the Reformers, the fathers of the Council of Trent (1545-63) had
to take a definite position on a number of important issues related to thesacraments. These included, among other things, the relation between theinstitution of the sacraments by Christ and the sacramental efficacy ex apere

aperato. 18 In post-Tridentine theology, sacraments were viewed as objectivemeans and instrumental causes of grace rather than as revelatory signs. The ex

opere operato efficacy of the sacraments came to be understood as "production"of grace, hence the term "created grace" came to the fore. 19 The Holy Spirit
was viewed as the source of sanctification in the life of the Omrch. But thismission of the Holy Spirit to the Church (that is, in the economy of salvation)
was not adequately attributed to the proper and personal mission of theSpirit. 20 This gave rise to an "infrapersonal" idea of the sanctifying grace
bestowed through the sacraments. 21
This is stated in the Seventh Session of the Council of Trent under "canons on thesacraments in general" The Canons and Decrees ofthe Cmmcil of Trent, canons 1 and 8.
19 Louis-Marie Cllauvet, The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mi!rcy of the Body, trans.
Madeleine Beaumont (Collegeville, MN: The liturgical Press, 2001), xiv.
20 F.dward J. Kilmartin "A Modern Approach to the Word of God and Sacraments ofOuist Perspectives and Principles," in The Sacraments: God's Love and Mi!rcy At:twzlized,
ed. Francis A. Figo (Villanova, PA: The Villanova University Press, 1979), 66. Jn thisarticle, Kilmartin argues that this lack of attributing a personal mission to the Spirit wascaused by traditional trinitarian doctrine. According to this teaching, the Trinity is
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Kenan

B.

Osborne calls this minimalist/objectivist

sacramental

celebration "epiphenomenal," 22 namely, celebration disconnected from the
lived experience of people. For this reason, he argues that for a long timesacraments were not so spiritually helpful to people. 23 Sacramental
celebrations cease to be meaningful if they do not become a source of
spirituality in order to live out what is celebrated In other words, sacramental
celebrations ought to have a direct bearing on the way Christians live as God's
witnesses in the world This might explain the reason for administeringsacraments only to living human beings, 24 hence the intrinsic relationshipbetween sacraments and life. Of this sort of sacramental theology, Herbert
Vorgrimler remarks that[t]he Scholastic contributions to sacramental theology have left adecisive mark on it to this day. The fact that they themselves were shapedby a particular philosophy has bound their fate to the fate of thatphilosophy. Obviously, the precision of their questions and the attempts atunderstood as one principle, implying the ad intra (within) and ad extra (outside)
relationship of the three divine persons. That is, within the Trinity the three divine
persons are related to each other in a dynamic circumiru:es.sion; outside the Trinity theoperations of the three divine persons are both inseparably and indistinctly common.
21 F.dward J. Kilmartin, '1heology of the Sacraments: Toward a New Understanding of theOtlef Rites of the Church of Jesus Christ," in General Introduction: Alternative Futures for
Worship I, ed. R. A. Duffy (Collegeville, MN: liturgical Press, 1987), 128-30.
22 Kenan B. Osborne, Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern World: A Theology for the Third
Millennium (NY: Paulist Press, 1999), 45; Kenan B. Osborne, Sacramental. Theology: A
General Introduction (NY: Paulist Press, 1988), 38.

Osborne, Sacramental. Theology, 38-9; Osborne, Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern World,
41,45.
24 Another important reason why sacraments are administered only to living people has to
do with the validity of the sacraments, for the recipient is a necessary element of eachsacramental celebration. So for a sacrament to be valid, the recipient must show theacceptance of that sacrament for which he/she must be a living human being. Daniel G.
Van Slyke, Liturgy 101: Sacraments and Sacramentals (MO. Llguori, 2010), 14.

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answers corresponded to a still greater legalization and clericalization,
trends that in any case were at work in the Cli.urch's development at that
period. The extraction and isolation of the sacraments from their liturgicalcontext is also expressed in the fact that the sacramental prayers (by which
the Holy Spirit is invoked) were replaced by indicative formulas. The
sacraments were transformed from symbolic liturgical actions andlife-events to extremely brief, punctual gestures. In this shortened form it
was no longer possible to accommodate any expressions of self-obligation
to service and witnessing in the world. 25
In contrast to this Scholastic approach to sacramental theology, a new

historical, biblical, patristic, and liturgical revival developed with an emphasison active liturgical participation. This revival is popularly known as the"Liturgical Movement" and is generally dated to the early part of the twentiethcentury.26 It is beyond the scope of this article to mention in any detail thescholarly contribution that this Movement made to the twentieth-century
liturgical renewal, however interesting it might be. Let it suffice to say that thehighest magisterium of the Cli.urch (the Second Vatican Council) integrated
many of the scholarly insights of this Movement into its sacramental
teaching.27

Herbert Vorgrim]er, Sacramental Thmlogy, 3rd ed. trans. Linda M. Malaney (Collegeville,
MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992), 54-5.
26 In fact, this revival was begun in the nineteenth century by the French Benedictine monk
Prosper Gueranger. See Cuthbert Johnson, Prosper Gueranger (1805-1875): A Liturgical
Theologian: An Introduction to His liturgical Writings and Work (Rome: Analecta Llturgi.ca 9,251984).
27 The text of the Second Vatican Council documents that will be referred to in this article is

Vatican Council II: The Cbnciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery, 0. P.
(Bombay: St. Paul Publications, 19'75). In order to avoid an onerous amount of footnotes,
hereafter references to the various documents of Vatican II will be made within the text inbrackets with their titles in abbreviated forms, followed by article numbers.

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The immediate goal of the Council of Trent was not to offer a systematictheology of the sacraments but to respond to the Reformers' doctrinal
accusations against the Roman Catholic Church and its sacramental teaching.
Convoked by Pope Jolm XXIII (1958-63), the goal of the Second Vatican Council
was the renewal of the Church in order to meet the new challenges of themodern world This stated goal of John XXIII is expressed in Italian as

aggiornamento, a making-up-to-date of the Church. The very first documentthat officially came out of the Council was a document entitled Constitution on
the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, December 4, 1963). 23 The
document outlines the interrelation that exists between the liturgy and the
Church. Klemens Richter writes about this in the following manner: "If the
Church must constantly reform itself (ecclesia semper reformanda), then theliturgy that celebrates the faith of the Church must also be constantly reformed(liturgia semper reformanda).'''l9
Theologically and spiritually, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council
recaptured much of what was lacking in the sacramental teaching of Trent.
While stating that "the liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the
Church" (SC 9), the fathers, nonetheless, assert that "the liturgy is the summit
toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is thefount from which all the Church's power flows" (SC 10). Thus liturgy is given
the primordial place in the life of the Church above all other activities. Of great

From a practical side, F.dward Hahnenberg reasons that, of all the drafts prepared inadvance for the Council, the draft on the liturgy was in the best shape because of the factthat the ideas expressed in Sacrosanctum Gmcilium had been circulating for decades prior
to the Council, namely, by the liturgical Movement. F.dward P. Hahnenberg, A Concise
Guide to the Documents of Vatican II (Cincinnati,. OH: Franciscan Media, 2007), 13.
29 Klemens Richter, The Meaning of the Sacramental Symbols: Answers ro Today's Questions,trans. Lln.da M Maloney (Collegeville, MN: The liturgical Press, 1990), 172.
28

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importance is the fact that the fathers situated the sacraments with the context
of liturgical celebration (SC 6, 7, 27). They taught that the nature of every
liturgical celebration is such that it is "an action of Christ the Priest and of his
Body, which is the Church" (SC 7) and that the liturgy is a sacred action bymeans of which,. particularly "in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist," the workof our redemption is made a present reality (SC 2). Because of this nature andefficacy that liturgical celebration has, the fathers declared that "the full andactive participation by all the people" is the main goal to be considered before
all else for the reform of the liturgy (SC 14). 30 The active participationespoused by the fathers is both internal and external (SC 19), namely, theexpression of the internal elements in and through the external rites.31 The
fathers understood this kind of participation as the right and duty of theliturgical assembly by virtue of Baptism and as required by the nature of theliturgy which is communal (SC 14). They taught that the sacramental life of the
Church is the work of the Holy Spirit who joins believers "in a hidden and real
way to Christ'' in the sacramental celebration (LG 7. See also SC 6). They linked
this active participation to the notion that the Church makes the sacraments by

the activity of the priestly community (LG 11, 26), and in this way thesacraments are renewed They also taught that sacraments "not only
presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, andAnscar Chupungco points out that this emphasis on active participation is the "prized
gift" or "one of the many gifts" of Vatican II to the Church in modern times. Anscar J.
Chupungro, What, Then, Is liturgy? Musings and Memoir, Foreword by Mark R. Francis
and Keith Pecl<lers (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2010), 23, 28.
31 Josef Andeas Jungmann. "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy," in Commentary on theDocuments of Vatican II, vol 1, ed Herbert Vorgrimler, trans. Lalit Adophus (NY: Herderand Herder, 1967), 35.
30

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express it," and so they are called "'sacraments of faith"' (SC 59. See also LG
21).

Taking his cue from Pope John Paul II's remark on the subject of theinterrelationship between revelation and philosophy,32 Osborne argues thatwhile methodology is necessary for any theological discussion, no one single
methodology should be set in stone as the norm to be followed as fully capableof fulfilling that discussion.33 In particular, he states that this is very much true
with the sacraments since "sacramental reality is itself a highly complex issue
involving a number of dynamics from various dimensions of both human anddivine life." 34 Literature published on sacramental theology by Catholic
theologians since the middle of the last century witness to various sacramental
approaches orientated to make the sacramental life of the Omrch moremeaningful to the contemporary mind 35 In addition, the contemporary
The Pope states that "the Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize
any one particular philosophy in preference to others." Pope Jolm Paul II, Fides et Ratio,n. 49. Accessed on June 11, 2015 to http/:w2.vatican.va/content/jolm-paulli/en/encycli.cals/documents/hfjp_enc_14091998_fid.es..et-ratio.html.
33 Osborne, Christian Sacraments in a PostmDdern World, 33.
34 Ibid., 41.
35 A few approaches can be quicldy mentioned in passing. Based an the Christologicaldogma of the Council of Chalcedan (451), and in order to offer an adequate
understanding of the constitutive elements of sacramentality, Edward Schillebeeckx
begins with an incarnational (or revelation) approach to sacramental theology, namely,
Christ in his humanity as the primordial sacrament. For a more persanalistic approach tosacramental celebrations of the Church Schillebeeckx emphasizes the relation between
faith and sacraments. From this point of view, he considers that the response of faith
given by the participants of the sacraments to the personal offer of grace by Christ is an
integral part of the liturgical act. This understanding of grace helps to clarify themisunderstanding about the sacramental efficacy ex opere operate as something"automatic'' or "magi.cal." See Edward Schillebeeckx, 0. P., Christ the Sacrament of the
Encounter With God, trans. Paul Barrett, 0. P. (NY: Sheed and Ward, 1963), originallypublished as Christus, Sacrament van de Godsontnweting (Bilthoven; H. Neli.ssen, 1960);
Karl Rabner's point of departure is his consideration of the Church as the fundamental
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theological position of grace is that it is given and is present already, always,
and everywhere in the world36 Grace exists where God exists. God is present
in creation. Accordingly, grace is understood primarily as the uncreatedgrace, 37 namely, the Godhead Seen from this point of view, grace is notnecessarily attached to the sacraments alone.38 H this is true, then what place
do sacraments have in the life of the Church?
Edward J. Kilmartin (1923-94) deftly synthesizes various theologicaltheories about the sacraments with his own advanced ideas. The following

sacrament, namely, Church as the lasting presence of Christ in the world, hence thesource of all sacraments. Based on this understanding. Rabner contends that it is not
nec:essary to assert that every sacrament is instituted by Christ. Rather, the Church"dispenses" sacraments because they are acts that flow from the very nature of the
Church, and by these acts the Church actualizes itself as the agent of Christ for the benefit
of individual believers. See Karl Rabner, The Church and the Sacraments, trans. W. J.
aHara (London: Burns and Oates, 1974), originally published as Kirche und Sakramente,
Questimtes Disputatae, 10 (Freiburg: Herder, 1960); By using the concept of a triad in a
symbolic model-offer of the gift, its acceptani:e, and the return gift - Louis-Marie
Chauvet describes the way in which grace is mediated through the sacramental ritualacts. See Louis-Marie Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament: A Sacramental Reinterpretation of
Christian Existence, trans. Patrick Madigan, S. J., and Madeleine Beaumont (Collegeville,
MN: The Liturgical Pres.s, 1995), originally published as Symbole et sacrement: Un relecturesacramentelle de !'existence chretienne (Paris: Les &litions du Cerf, 1987), Chauvet, The
Sacraments: The Word of God at the M.ercy of the Body, originally published as Les sacrements:
Parole de Dieu au risque du corps (Paris: Les Editions de L' Atelier, 1997); Kevin W. Irwin
highly regards the principle of sacramentality together with all the implications thisprinciple involves for sacramental theology. He asserts that this principle is vital to thesacraments, so much so that without it sacraments cannot function. See Kevin W. Irwin,
What We Heme Done, What We Have Failed to Do: Assessing the Liturgical Reforms of Vatican H(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2013), 89-113. (See also 245-46 for a list of his works onsacramental theology.) In addition, see Kevin W. Irwin, Models of the Eucharist (Mahwah,
NJ: Paulist Press, 2005), 39-ii6, where he offers a good description of this principle under
the topic "Cosmic Mass."
36 vorgrimler, Sacramental Theolflgy, 86-7; Kilmartin, "Theology of the Sacraments,n 152.
37 Karl Rabner, The Trinity, trans. Joseph Doni:eel (NY: Bums and Oates, 1970).
38 Aquinas, Summa: TheolflgiCll 3, q. 64, ad 7c.

125section will examine his unique sacramental theology, especially with regard towhat makes the sacramental celebration an action of both Ouist and the
Church (the believers) and the consequences that follow from it. In otherwords, it is to enquire about the "what'' (participation), the ''how" (possibility),
and the "why'' (necessity) of such unified liturgical action. In particular, thisenquiry will be made in light of the trinitarian theology offered by Kilmartin
and how he utilized it in the liturgy. What follows will, therefore, be nothing
more than a presentation of a theology (the internal element) of active
liturgical participation. I believe Kilmartin offers a better theological explanationof active participation than any other theologian. This is all the morestrengthened by the fact that he had anticipated much of what is contained in
Sacrosanctum Councilium and Lumen Gentium in the way he approachedsacramental theology from a liturgical perspective. 39 Needless to say, a properand correct nnderstanding of sacramental participation amonnts to the way
the internal elements find their expression in the visible sacramental rites.

II. Situating the Liturgical Event within ninitarian and Ecclesiological
Dimensions

For Kilmartin, the sacraments are "essential engagements with Jesus
Christ in the Spirit within the community of believers." .o Seeing thesacraments in this way, he relates their pneumatological, Christological, andecclesiological aspects to one another more effectively than was previously

39&iward J. Kilmartin., The Sacraments: Signs ef Christ, Sanctifier, and High Priest (Glen Rock,NJ: Paulist Press, 1962); &iward J. Kilmartin, "Patristic Views of Sacramental Sanctity,n in

Proceedings ef the Clltholic College Teachers ef Sacred Doctrine B (1962), 59-82
40

Kilmartin, "Modern Approach,'' 63.

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done, especially after Trent. These three aspects -pneumatological,

Christological, and ecclesiological - Kilmartin believes, should be emphasizedin any systematic theology of the sacraments. What follows is a treatment of
the genesis and integration of these key elements in Kilmartin's construction ofactive participation.

1. Sacramental Participation and Sanctification

Two early texts of Kilmartin41 show the orientation of his sacramental
theological thought that guided his future research and shaped his thoughts.
In his book, The Sacraments: Signs of Christ, Sanctifier, and High Priest, hepresents the concept of sacramental participation in the mystery of worship,particularly in relation to Christ, the Church, and the members of the liturgicalassembly. He also includes in the book elements of Trinitarian theology, thework of the Holy Spirit, and the participation of the faithful as necessary
conditions for sacramental celebration. Exploring the nature of the sacraments
and the communication of grace as a means of sharing in the Trinitarian life,
Kilmartin asserts that God continues to communicate his divine revelation,
fulfilled in Jesus Christ once for all, in a tangible manner in the liturgicalcelebration of the Church. In Jesus Christ, God reveals that redemption
involves a personal encounter between him and humans. This encounter with
God is made manifest as Christ becomes "the called representative" 42 forhumankind The twofold aspect of this encounter, God's invitation and thehuman response, is realized in Jesus' embodiment of the new Covenant.

41
42

As mentioned in footnote 39.
Kilmartin,. Sacraments, 4.

127"[Christ] is not only the visible sign of God's invitation to personal love, but
the representative and perfect fulfillment of man's loving answer ... As Headof the human race, His response is our redemption. His worship is oursanctification."43
According to Kilmartin, this personal communion with God is only
possible in and through Christ, by offering the sacrifice of Christ and taking
part in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. By virtue of the baptismal
character, the basis for participation in the one priesthood of Christ, Christians
are enabled to participate in the offering of the eucharistic sacrifice. 44
Moreover, the encounter with Christ, or participation in his paschal mystery, ispossible because Christ has established the sacramental medium of the Church.
''A corporeal encounter with the glorified Christ, and in Him with the Trinity,

remains possible in the sacramental Church which is the earthly, visible,
redemptive organ of the living, invisible Kyrios (the Lord). In the word andsacraments of the Church, we encounter the salvific activity of the Kyrios in avisible form, in a corporeal way."45 Kilmartin thus underscores the encounter
with the invisible (that is, glorified) Christ and his salvific acts as mediatedthrough the visible liturgical rites (that is, through the sacramental economy ofsalvation) of the Church. Through the celebration of the word and sacraments,"the two ways by which the Church actualizes herself as medium ofsalvation," 46 Christ and his redemptive work are made present. According to
Kilmartin, the sacraments mediated through the Church are the mostIbid., 4-5.
Ibid., 26.
~ Ibid., 6.
46 Ibid.
43
44

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important means of growth in holiness and in conformity to Christ.47 His
description of sanctification thus underscores the need of the sacraments in thelife of Christians, for through the sacraments the glorified Christ continues todo the salvific work which he did in his humanity on earth. 48[The sacraments] effect a personal communion between the living
Kyrios and the recipient, and thus a participation in the grace ofredemption ... Without the sacraments our contact with Christ would be
only in faith. The human dimension of the Incarnate Lord would be lost
But God in His salvific activity remains faithful to His original plan. He
yet offers the Kingdom of God in earthly form: in the sacraments of the
Church-the place where man obtains personal communion with Christ
and,. in Him, with the Trinity.49
In their deliberation on the sacraments in general, the bishops at theCouncil of Trent defined the efficacy of the sacraments ~ opere operato.50 Thisoriginally meant that sacramental efficacy is guaranteed by the fact that thesacraments are God's abiding promise of grace within the new and eternalcovenant made in Christ, opus Christi, and by the accomplishment of thesacramental sign by the Church. 51 God has related his grace to the sacramental
signs and established the connection between the signs of grace and the grace

47 Ibid., 7.

Ibid.
Ibid.
50 The Canons and Decrees of the Cbuncil of Trent, Session 7, canon 8. Trent's use of the term ex
opere operatti was primarily intended to oppose those who denied the objective mediationof grace through the sacraments of the Church.
s1 Colman E. O'Neill, Opus Operans, Pus Operaum: A Thomistic Interpretation of a Sacramental
FmmullZ (Washington: International Pontifical Athenaeum "Angelicum," 1958);
Schillebeeckx, Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God, 82-9; Rabner, The Church andthe Sacraments, 24-74.
48
49

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signified52 "The sign is therefore a cause of what it signifies by being the way
in which what is signified effects itself [or becomes present)."53 According to
the teaching of Trent, there was no expressive disconnection establishedbetween ex opere operato and ex opere operantis in so far as a sacrament wasconsidered to be a sign-action.54 The notion of sacraments as signs of faithdemonstrates that the act of the reception of the sacraments is an act ofworship by both the subject and the minister.55 As acts of worship, sacraments
determine the relation of the subject's dispositive, visible acts to the sacraments
considered as signs or opus operatum.56 This whole concept of ex opere operato
was often overlooked by post-Tridentine Scholastic theology until thetwentieth century.
Kilmartin realized that the post-Tridentine juridical interpretation of ex

opere operato needed theological sharpening since it was insufficient to express
the way the Olurch approached the sacraments. Hence he makes adjustments
to the Tridentine definition of the efficacy of the sacraments. 'Though thesacraments are efficacious independently of the meritorious actions of theminister or subject, this does not mean that they are totally independent of thehuman activity of the one who confers or receives the sacrament."57 Kilmartin
Rabner, The Church and the Sacraments, 25.
Ibid., 38.
54 O'Neill, Opus Operans, Opus Operatum, 42; Rabner, The Church and the Sacraments, 25, 34.
55 A sacrament, when worthily administered and l'ea!i.ved, is a sign of faith of the Church
and of the subject and minister. In other words, a valid sacrament is a common act ofworship of the "whole Church." A sacrament is fruitful if it allows to certain degree apersonal act of the worship of the subject of the sacrament. 111is full notion of thesacraments is what Aquinas means when he says that sacraments pertain to divine
worship. O'Neill, Opus Operans, Opus Operatum, 4.6, 52-3. See also Aquinas, Summa
TheolDgica 3, q. 61, a. 4; q. 63, a 2.
56 O'Neill, Opus Operans, Opus Operatum, 4.6, 55.
51 Kilmartin, Sacraments, 21. See also Rabner, The Church and the Sacraments, 26.
52
53

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thus seeks to integrate the two sacramental concepts, er upere uperato and er

upere uperantis, in the sacramental action without belittling the merits of Christthat cause the sacraments to work er upere uperato. So Kilmartin underscores the
specific dispositions required of the recipients, besides the requisite intention
to receive the sacraments, as a necessary condition for the fruitful reception of
the sacraments.58 Such a disposition determines the fullness of the share in the
divine life received through the grace of the sacraments. 59 Accordingly, thesacraments require the necessary response on the part of the individual to the
bestowal of grace because sacraments are essentially katabatic-anabatic6° eventsof engagement between God and human persons.61 For the sacraments "havethe existence of interpersonal signs; they are acts by which one person
communicates with another. Involved in the sphere of personal encounter, they
demand a human response by the one to whom the sign is directed." 62
Kilmartin's insistence on this interpersonal encounter in the sacraments isstrengthened by his assertion that "because the reception of the sacraments is
The disposition required for "the sacraments of the dead" (Baptism, Penance, andAnointing of the Sick) is faith, hope and contrition of heart of the sin committed; for "thesacraments of the living" (Confirmation, the Eucharist, Orders, and Matrimony) it is thestate of grace. Kilmartin, Sacraments, 21. See also O'Neill, Opus Operans, Opus Opemtum,
4.5. Kilmartin as.serts that the absence of these necessary dispositions ru1es out thereception of sacrament as efficacious sign of grace. Sacraments are practical signs ofsanctification which signify that grace is offered here and now. Therefore, the receptionof the sacraments is, by its very nature, an acclamation of faith, hope, and love in God. In
other words, the recipient must have the attitude of Christ. Kilmartin, Sai:raments, 21-2.
59 Kilmartin, Sacraments, 21. See also O'Neill, Opus Operans, Opus Operatum, 45.
60 This expression denotes the dialogical character of the liturgical act. Katabatic means theinitiative, that is, the self-communication, of the Triune God towards the sanctification ofbelievers (the Church) through Christ in the Holy Spirit, and anabatic means the worshipoffered by the believers (the Church) through Christ the Head in the Holy Spirit to the
Father.
61 Kilmartin, Sacraments, passim. See also Rabner, The Church and the Saaaments, 33.
62 Kilmartin, Sacraments, 23.
58

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the decisive, crucial act of the Christian as Christian, there is demanded, in theordinary course of events, an acute awareness and fervent devotion on the partof the subject. ff the sacraments are not to be relegated to the shallows oflifeless formalism, they must ever bear the mark of personal engagement."63
The sacraments are acts of the glorified Christ's earthly worship of the Father
and of the liturgical assembly's worship in the Church. Christ's worshipconsists in his total self-offering to the Father's love and in sanctifying theparticipants by allowing them to participate in his life, death, and resurrection
re-presented in the sacramental celebrations. Accordingly, Christ's acceptanceof and response to the divine self-communication becomes accessible for
personal appropriation by the members of the liturgical assembly. At the sametime, the sacraments are also signs of the future glory of the definitive union ofhumankind with the Trinity in Christ and the worship offered by the redeemed
race with Christ for all eternity.64
In his early book, The Sacraments: Signs of Christ, Sanctifier, and High Priest,

it may be pointed out that Kilmartin emphasizes the significance of theparticipation of the faithful in the liturgical action of the sacraments, but hedoes not adequately articulate how this participation is made possible, otherthan referring to the common priesthood that qualifies this participation.
In another early essay, ''Patristic Views of Sacramental Sanctity," Kilmartin

continues to stress the theme of worthy participation of the faithful, while also
clarifying the role of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy. He states that for St. Paul the
sanctification of persons involves a participation in the mysterion of theredemptive plan of God, a plan which reached its height in the union of Christ~
64

Ibid., 23-4.
Ibid., 24.

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with redeemed humankind The sanctification of humankind is effected by aparticipation in the mysterion of salvation that takes place in us through thesacramental rites of the Church, especially in Baptism and Eucharist. 65 Bymeans of this participation, conformity to Christ is effected. Kilmartin reportsthat the prevalent understanding of sacramental sanctification is understoodby the Fathers of the first four centuries was essentially a confirmation of thisPauline teaching. 66
The fathers of the Cllurch not only related this participation to the visible
acts of the Cllurch but also emphasized the representative function of the
Church in making this participation available to all. This re-presentative
function of the Cllurch was operative first in the sacrament of Baptism whose
effect was, above all, spiritual-a participation in the mystery of salvation. The
fathers stressed that the life that began with Baptism is nourished by the
Eucharist. 67 Christian existence was thus characterized as sacramental andrelated to the sacramental activities of the Church-an existence continually
determined by an encounter with the redemptive work of Christ operative
here and now. In and by an encounter with the mysterion of Christ's redemptive
work, through the mediation of the visible Church, Christians are sanctified.
The life they received is a life flowing from the community in its liturgicalcelebrations. 68 In the midst of the community, Christ was understood to be

65

Kilmartin,. "Patristic Views," 59.

66

However, Kilmartin points out that this Pauline understanding of Baptism was notalways understood or emphasized by the Church fathers until the fourth century. Rather,
it was a slow process. At different periods of the first four centuries, the fathers of the
Church emphasized various aspects of Baptism such as the forgiveness of sin, thepresence of Christ in Christians, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the taking part in the Paschal
Mystery, and configuration to Christ. Ibid., passim.

67

Ibid., 60-2.
Ibid., 60-1.

68

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re-presenting anew the redemptive work by word and gesture in order that
Christians might be sanctified by actively taking part and cooperating in themighty work of redeeming the world 69 Sacramental sanctification thus refers
to "sanctification resulting from a participation in the redemptive work of
Christ effected through the re-presentative power of the Church." 70
The fathers recognized the unique place of the cultic rites of the Churchthat serve as means for a fruitful encounter with the Lord. Through thesacraments, the human person is understood to have received "the new life or
growth in that life."71 The fathers mentioned the role of the Holy Spirit and his
help in living this new life. 72 The gift of the Spirit makes Christians lead a newlife free from sin, whereby he/she is made spiritual.73 The possession of theSpirit is the first stage in the process of making a Christian into the image andlikeness of God The Spirit is the means of acquiring spiritual growth, the pointof departure in the process of divinization Kilmartin's study of the writings of
St. Irenaeus (c.130-c.202) revealed to him that the union of Christians with theHoly Spirit is "a union resulting in union with the Father and Son"74
Kilmartin reports that the Pauline teaching about baptismal sanctification
being a configuration to the death and resurrection of Christ and theconsequent indwelling of Christ was brought into prominence by the fourth
century. The baptismal grace was understood to be the gift of Christ himself
and his redemptive work mediated through the Holy Spirit. Thus thesignificant New Testament concept of filial adoption was developed to its
69

Ibid., 61.
Ibid., 62.
71 Ibid., 63.
72 Ibid., 65.
73 Ibid., 65-6.
74 Ibid., 67.
711

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fullness: configuration to Christ and a life of love in the Spirit. 75 The
conformity to Christ effected by Baptism introduced Christians into the historyof salvation, an action related to future growth in Christum who is alreadypresent in the soul. In this context, the function of the other sacraments,
especially the Eucharist, would be to expand this growth in the sense ofrealizing in Christians further aspects of the personal life of Christ.76
According to Kilmartin, sacraments are the means by which Christians,
configured more perfectly to Christ, are intimately brought into the process ofChrist. 77 This configuration to Christ, enacted in the initiation rites, takes place
primarily because of the work of the Holy Spirit in giving the participants the"Spirit of Christ." Kilmartin asserts that "having been incorporated into Christ,
the Christian, sharing the same Spirit, shares also the same drive of the Spirit
which urges the Christ with him to save the world about hirn." 78 Sacramental
participation, then, becomes the earthly means whereby, motivated by the
Spirit, the faithful enter into the same ministry of Christ as active agents of thegospel, acting and living in a world graced by the Spirit. He concludes that"sacramental grace is a special participation in the life of Christ, an elevation of
the whole being, whereby the Christian according to his grade, is enabled toshare actively in the very redemptive work of Christ .... " 79
The fathers of the Church considered redemption as a continuing work ofGod, accomplished through the operation of the Holy Spirit. While thissalvation is realized through the whole life of the individual Christian, it isIbid., 79-80.
Ibid, 65, 79-81.
77 Ibid.
78 Ibid.
711 Ibid.
75

76

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accomplished especially through sacramental celebrations. 80 Kilmartin thusemphasized the Fathers' teaching about the activity of the Holy Spirit as
having a personal role in the sanctification/participation of the human person.
In his later works, Kilmartin further pursues the concept of sacramental

participation with respect to the proper and personal mission of the Holy Spirit.
Thus he not only clarifies and characterizes his sacramental theology but also
makes it distinct and relevant.

2. Content and Function of the Early Eucharistic Prayers

Kilmartin notes that in the first century the Lord's Supper began to takethe form of a ritual sacrifice with the development of the combined rites ofbread and cup, resulting in a unified prayer, as well as a replacement of theJewish Passover meal. In the second century, furthermore, a distinction
emerged in the Eucharistic Prayers said between the offering of the sacrifice ofpraise and the communion of the consecrated elements. Kilmartin writes that"an investigation of these prayers shows the gradual growth in the Church's
recognition that its 'sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that
acknowledge His name' (Heb 10:15) was primarily accomplished in the
Eucharistic Prayer."81
According to Kilmartin, the writings of Justin Martyr (the First Apology
and the Dialogue with Trypho) stress that the eucharistic celebration involves the

80

Ibid.

81

&iward J. Kilmartin, "Sacrifi.cium Laudis: Content and Function of Early Eucharistic
Prayers," Theological Studies 35 (1974): 275.

136

prayer of praise and thanksgiving offered for creation and redemption. 82 This
prayer is directed to the Father "through the name of the Son and the Holy
Spirit"ll.3 and entails the aspects of benediction and thanksgiving. It is bymeans of praising Christ in the memorial of the Lord's Supper that God is
glorified, which Christi.ans do by recalling in praise and thanksgiving theredemptive work of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist.84
Kilmartin reports that the Eucharistic Prayers of the third century

generally contain elements of sacrificial language and petitions made for thefaithful. In his analysis of the third-century Apostolic 'ITadition of Hippolytus,85
Kilmartin notes that "the oblation of the holy Church"86 as expressed in theCommunion petition entails a unified action of the faithful's presentation ofbread and wine, the deacon's presentation of these gifts to the bishop, and the&!ward J. Kilmartin,. "The Eucharistic Prayer: Content and Function of Some Early
Eucharistic Prayers," in R. J. Oifford and G. W. MacRae, eds. The Word in the World:
Studies in Hmzor of F.f. MDriarty (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 19'73), 120-21; Kilmartin,.
"Sacrificium Laudis," '177.
M Kilmartin,. "Eucharistic Prayer," 121-123. See also Jasper and Cuming, eds., Prayers of the
Eucharist, 28-29. Original Greek text reads "bill wii 6v6µa_"rat; wii ui.oU !Cal mu
rrvroµa.m; mu aylou avanE.µauL'' and its Latin translation reads "per rumen Filii et
Spiritus sancti." Anton Hanggi and Irmgard Pahl, eds., Prex eucharistica: Textus e variis
liturgiis antioquiorbus selecti (Fribourg.. 1968), 68-9.
M Kilmartin,. "Eucharistic Prayer," 124.
85 Traditionally, Hippolytus has been regarded as the one who authored the Apostolic
Traditiort. However, recent scholarship has cast doubt an this claim. See Paul F. Bradshaw,
The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and M£thrids for the Study of Early
Liturgy, 2nd ed., (NY: Oxford University Press, 2002), 80-83; R.C. D. Jasper and G.J.
Cuming, eds., Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed (Collegeville, MN: The liturgical
Press, 1990), 31. Since Hippolytus was a Roman anti-pope, it seems that the Apostolic
Traditiort's authentication might be suspect. But the fact is that, in his struggle with Pope
Callistus (d. c. 223), Hippolytus was pre-eminently the one who defended tradition in
Rome. And the use of this treatise of Hippolytus for several centuries in the Church(West and East) are proofs that it was considered a fully orthodox collection of liturgicalregulations. See Klauser, A Short History ofthe Western Liturgy, 11.
86 Hanggi and Pahl, eds., Prex eucharistiai, 81.
82

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bishop's offering of these gifts. 87 The Institution Narrative occupies a central
place in this Eucharistic Prayer because the Church's offering of bread andwine with thanksgiving and the reception of these transformed elements, as
the body and blood of Christ, are viewed as the fulfillment of the command of
Christ contained in the Institution Narrative. "It [the Institution Narrative]
serves as both object of thanks and authority for what the Church does. The
thanksgiving which precedes the narrative leads up to it, and the sacrificial
prayer and petition which follow depend on it."88 The Institution Narrative is
not considered as an isolated form when the elements are consecrated. Rather,
the proclamation of the history of salvation in the thanksgiving section of the
Eucharistic Prayer incorporates the Institution Narrative, and the act of Christat the Last Supper is mentioned as an important part of the history of salvation
for which the people give thanks. Thus what is praised as an act of Christ,
relating to the whole economy of salvation, is understood to become asacramental reality in the celebration by the liturgical presentation of thecommunity of believers under the leadership of the bishop through thecooperation of the Spirit who is invoked. The liturgical act of the community
by which the memorial of the Last Supper becomes a sacramental reality andthe indispensable role of the Spirit are expressed in the anamnesis (memorial)
and the epiclesis (invocation of the Holy Spirit) prayers. 89 The anamnesis that
follows the thanksgiving states, "Remembering therefore his death andresurrection, we offer to you the bread and the cup . . . .1190 The final

a1so Edward J. Kilmartin, "Pastoral Office andthe Eucharist," Emmanuel 82 (1976): 314.
M K:iJmartin, "Sacrificium Laudis," 279.
89 K:i1martin, "Pastoral Office," 314-15.
90 Jasper and Cuming, eds., Prayers ef the Eucharist, 35.
87 K:i1martin, "Sacrificium Laudis," X/9. See

138Communion petition asks the Spirit to come upon the offering of the Church
for the sanctification of the faithful. Kilmartin asserts that the Communion
petition serves as an explanation of what the prayer as a whole ultimately
intends, namely, the sanctification of the faithful through their communicationin the spiritual food and drink. 91
In his study of an Alexandrian prayer (the Strassburg Papyrus), Kilmartin

notes that the prayer itself is called a sacrifice. 92 Moreover, the emphasis of theprayer is on the activity of the Church. The mediation of Christ is necessary forthe enactment of the liturgy of the Church and for the prayers of the Church to
be made acceptable to the Father. However, the offering of the Church is notoverly stressed Thus the mediatory role of Christ is not diminished. 93
According to Kilmartin, while a third-century East Syrian prayer theAnaphora of Addai and Mari shares many aspects with the Apostolic 1Tadition of
Hippolytus, "the basic difference lies in the fact that the narrative of institution
does not provide the hinge which unifies the prayer."94 Instead, the weight ofthe prayer falls on the action of the Holy Spirit.95 This makes the epiclesis,
which evokes the coming of the Spirit, the high point of the prayer.

Kilmartin,. "Sacrifi.citm\ Laudis," 279.
Ibid.," 280.
93 Ibid., 280-81.
94 Kilmartin,. "Sacrifi.citm\ Laudis," 282.
91

92

95

The epiclesis reads, "May your Holy Spirit, Lord, come and rest on this offering of yourservants, and bless and sanctify it, that it may be to us, Lord, for remission of debts,
forgiveness of sins, and the great hope of resurrection from the dead, and new life in the
kingdom of heaven, with all who have been pleasing in your sight" Jasper and Cuming,eds., Prayers ofthe Eucharist, 43.

139

Kilmartin notes that the characteristics of theDer B'ilyzeh Papyrus(500-700)96 and the Anaphora of Serapion (c. 359) as representative of theEgyptian type anaphora. Their amplified sacrificial tone and the developmentof two epicleses create a sundering between the consecration of the gifts andthe sanctification of the communicants.97 The first epiclesis of the Der Balyuh

Papyrus petitions for the sending of the Holy Spirit to transform the bread andwine into the body and blood of Christ. Kilmartin claims that "the grounds for
I epiclesis is the account of institution."93 This petition "puts the thanksgivingin the background and so changes the orientation of the whole prayer." 99 In its
fragmentary form, 100 the second epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit for the
sanctification of the faithful in the eucharistic celebration. In the case of theAnaphora of Serapion, "the grounds for I epiclesis which asks for theconsecration of the gifts the Church offers, is enclosed within a sacrificial
prayer."101 According to Kilmartin, the enclosing of the Institution Narrative ina sacrificial prayer refers to the reason for the representation of the sacrificial

96

While it is true that the Der Balyzeh Papyrus is usually as.signed to the sixth to eighth
centuries for its composition, the anaphora itself may be dated to the late fourth century
which makes it contemporary with the Anaphora of Serapion.Japser and Cuming, eds.,
Prayers of the Eucharist, 79.

91 Kilmartin,. "Sacrificitun Laudis," 284.

Ibid.
Ibid.
100 At least fifteen lines of the texts are missing after the proclamation of the mystery offaith until the second epiclesis. Jasper and Cuming.. eds., Prayers of the Eucharist, 80.
101 Kilmartin,. "5acrificitun Laudis," 284. One might question Kilmartin:'s presentation of
the consecratory value of the I epiclesis in the Anaphora of Serapinn. Jn fact, the Anaphora ofSerapion has a pre-narrative epi.clectic post-sanctus which does not explicitly speak of theconsecration. On the other hand, this prayer has a post-institution epiclesis which seeksboth the consecration and comnumion graces through the operation of the Logos. Jasper
and Cuming, eds., Prayers of the Eucharist, 77-8.

98
99

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action of Christ in the Church's sacrificial action. 102 Thus the Church reenacts
what Jesus did at the Last Supper. The second epiclesis also petitions God's
holy Word, rather than the Spirit,1113 to make the bread and wine his body andblood, orientated to the sanctification of the communicants.
At the end of his analysis of the content and function of these early
Eucharistic Prayers, Kilmartin draws certain relevant conclusions. First, hestates, "The original thanksgiving prayer, which expressed the Church's desire
for participation in the covenant relation of Jesus with the Father, wasgradually overrun with sacrificial prayers and petitions which emphasized the
Church's activity and the Church's confidence in the efficacy of its prayer."104
Second, he observes that despite the emphasis on one or the other aspects ofthe eucharistic mystery, "the relational structure of the accounts of institution
remains: thanksgiving to God for His mighty works in Christ is the sacrificium

Iautiis of the Church undertaken with a view to obtaining deeper communionwith the Father, especially through the sacrament of the humanity of Christ."105
Third, he asserts that the sacrificial prayer and the epiclesis of consecration
gradually became the ground for "the thanksgiving prayer, spiritual sacrifice,and petition for the sacramental incarnation." 106 Moreover, the sacrificial
prayer and the epiclesis of consecration were given authority by the Institution
Narrative. Finally, he asserts that the attribution of a consecratory value either
to the Institution Narrative or to the epiclesis of the Spirit caused the"sundering of the unity of the sacrificium laudis [which] had the negative effect
102 Kilmartin,. "Sacrificium Laudis," 284-85.

This mention of the Logos is an Athanasian influence, since he consi.dered Logos andPneuma as inseparable. Ibid., 75.
104 Kilmartin,. "Sacrificium Laudis," 2137.
105 Ibid.
106 Ibid.
1M

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of placing the thanksgiving on the margin of Eucharistic theology andconsequently making the laity spectators at the rite, in which the priest does allthat is really important.''107 Kilmartin maintains that the literary structure of
the classical Eucharistic Prayers

mirrors the dynamic relation of the partners of the new covenant in
the history of salvation realized fully through the redemptive work of
Christ in the power of the Spirit. The thankful recognition of the Father'saction in Christ (anamnesis) is followed by the petition (epiclesis) that thecontinuing fidelity of the Father to his people be expressed and realized
through the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit by which thecommunicants are brought to Quist (epiclesis for sanctification ofcommunicants) and by which Christ is brought to the communicants(epiclesis for sanctification of the bread and wine).108
The Eucharistic Prayer expresses the transitus of the liturgical community
to the Father through its participation in the single transitus of Jesus from
suffering to glory re-presented sacramentally in the liturgical medium of theeucharistic celebration and in the power of the Holy Spirit. 109

Ibid.
F.dward J. Kilmartin, "The Catholic Tradition of Eucharistic Theology: Towards theThird Millennium,." Thrological Studies 55 (1994): 444.
109 Ibid.; F.dward J. Kilmartin,. The Eucharist in the West: Hist.my and ThrolJJgy, ed., Robert J.
Daly (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998), 355-56.

!07
108

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3. Participation in the Faith of Christ

In his study of Hans Urs von Balthasar's work, no Kilmartin came toembrace the elements of the faith and sacrificial attitude of Christ to describe
sacramental participation. From the biblical concept of faith, Balthasar
considers faith as the adequate expression of faithfulness in which the chosen
people and the God of the covenant relate to each other, this being thedefinitive, dialogic nature of faith between God's fidelity and humankind's
fidelity. 111 The faithfulness of God is to be imitated, and the Christian attitudeof faith is still present in heaven.112 Although they see God, the blessed do notgrasp him exhaustively. In this sense, the blessed believe something about God
even though they do not know everything. The same is true of Christ himself
who in his glorified humanity cannot comprehend the totality of God. Even as
his humanity is fixed in the beatific vision, like the blessed in heaven, Christ,
too, exercises faith, believing something that is not seen. 113 Therefore,
Balthasar argues, Jesus must have had this faith which he perfectly fulfilled
and lived out in his humanity, and this faith of Christ is what the Father
demands of all human beings. 114 Jesus' faith as the perfection of the covenantal
relationship between the Father and the chosen people is explained by his
nature as the Incarnate Word which manifests

110 Hans Urs von Balthasar, "'Fides Christi': An Essay on the Consciousness ofCluist," inExplmations in Theology. Vol. 2,. Spouse ef the Word, trans., Edward T. Oates, 5.J. (SanFrancisco: Ignatius, 1991): 43-79. See also Kilmartin, Eucharist in the West, 301-02.
111

Balthasar, "'Fides Christi,'" 64-5.

112 Ibid., 43.
113 Ibid., 69.
114 Ibid., 43.

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the fidelity of the Son of Man toward the Father, a trust that is placedin God once and for all and yet is realized anew in each moment in time.
In the Son of Man we find the unconditional preference for the Father, for
his essence, his love, his will and command in relation to all of his own
wishes and inclinations. We see the unflinching perseverance in this will,
come what may.115
Thus, in Jesus' faith is found the perfect trust in God's faithfulness and thefree choice of God as the fulfillment of his life. The way Jesus referred toeverything that he was, did, and said was in relation to the absolute trust in the
Father the source of his power (Mt 19:17; Lk 18:19). This is the power that Jesus
sought to inculcate in his disciples and wanted them to impart to others. So thefaith that Jesus demands of his followers first and foremost refers to the Father.
But Jesus is the one who possesses this attitude of faith in fullness and iscapable of imparting it to those who belong to him. Jesus lived by faith with an
unconditional devotion to the Father and shared this faith with his disciples.
The disciples' faith, then, is a participation in Jesus' own faith, making themable to receive the love of God through him and, at the same time, to give backthis love through Jesus' love of the Father. In the resurrection, this faith of Jesus
is made accessible to the Clmrch. In this way, Balthasar argues, one canunderstand ''Jesus [as] the pioneer and perfector of our faith," as described in
Hebrews 12:2. Jesus gave the love of God its concrete, unique realization insalvation history through his death on the cross, and in his glorification hemakes his followers participate in his own faith. 116 According to Balthasar,
Christi.an faith is within the reality of what Christ did, a faith in God and an
unconditional trust in Him. In Christ, Christi.ans experience the Father's
115

Ibid., 52-3.

116 Ibid.,

54-6.

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faithfulness and respond with the same trust with which Christ responded 117
So Christ is the point of the faithfulness of God and the human response toGod's loving faithfulness-the sacrament of God's faithfulness and continuous
offering of self-commwlication to humankind and the sacrament of the perfecthuman response to God's love.us
In its scriptural and liturgical sense, faith is the eternal attitude of Christ.

The faith of Christ, God's faithfulness and human response, is celebrated inboth the earthly and heavenly liturgies.119 In his resurrection, Christ sent theHoly Spirit to draw Christians into his faith, which has become the faith of the
Church. The Church, then, exists and lives in the faith of Christ. The Church
must, therefore, celebrate this faith for her existence. Accordingly, the Church
is a praying Church. Of all her prayers, the Eucharistic Prayer is the most
explicit form of this faith. 120 The Eucharistic Prayer and the liturgical action are
the visible expressions of the spiritual self-offering of the Church.
Consequently, this self-offering is a palpable expression of the participation of
the Church in the response of faith made by Christ in his humanity to the
Mystery that the Father has accomplished in him for the salvation of the world.
The faith of Christ belongs to the Mystery of the Father in Christ. Hence the
Church's spiritual self-offering is the expression of participation in the Mysteryof God in Christ. The spiritual self-offering of the Church is also a participationin the response of the faith of Christ (to the Father's fidelity to his covenant). It
is an acceptable response made in Christo (in the power of Christ), cum Christo(a participation in Christ's faith response to the Father), and per Christum

Ibid., 58.
Ibid., 59-60.
119 Ibid., 74.
120 Ibid., 78-9. See also Kilmartin, Eucharist in the West, 301.
117
118

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(through the sharing in the one Passover of Christ to the Father which is the
only way to salvation). 121 In this way, Kilmartin points out that Balthasar
speaks of an ontic participation which makes possible the conformity of
believers to the meritorious response of Ouist in view of what the Father has
done in him for the salvation of the world 122 By means of this faith and the
Eucharistic Prayer, the faithful are enabled to express and realize their
participation in the response of Ouist's self-offering to the Father, which ismade possible by the divine action effecting the transmission of the sacrificial
attitude of Quist.
Kilmartin

generally

found

Balthasar's

descriptionofbelievers'

participation in the ftdes Christi useful to explain the Church's sacramental
participation. Yet he insisted that participation in the Christologically qualified
faith required modification because by definition the unique nature of Ouist's
faith is personal and incommunicable. Consequently, Kilmartin argues that a
direct participation is not only possible but requires a medium which willbring about a mediated immediacy to Ouist's faith for participation.

III. Kilmartin's Adaptation of the Bestowal Model of the Trinity for
Spirit-worked Participation

In order to firm-up his sound theological basis with regard to the role ofthe Holy Spirit in the sacramental economy of salvation discovered in thepatristic writings and early Eucharistic Prayers and to nuance Balthasar's
description of participation in the faith of Ouist, Kilmartin came to incorporate

121

Kilmartin,. Eucharist in the West, 301-02.

122

Ibid., 301.

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elements of David Coffey's bestowal model of the Trinity for describing a
Spirit-worked participation.123
In the traditional procession model of the Trinity,124 there is a problem
with the way in which the sanctification of the humanity of Christ and that of
the believers are explained In the case of Christ, the Word assumes andsanctifies the humanity of Christ in the hypostatic union and, then, anoints thathumanity with the grace of the Spirit. In the case of believers, sanctification is
the work of the Spirit sent by Christ. This model is applicable only to adescending order of Christology and pneumatology, namely, from theGodhead to Christ and, then, to grace that reaches the believers. This model
views the Incarnation (communication of the Son to the humanity of Jesus) andgrace (the communication of the Spirit to believers) not in feri (in its process ofof the Holy Spirit (Manly, NSW: Australia, 1978). Coffey
later rero.ined this model as "a return model" and give the theological reason as follows.
"[This] latter name brings out the desired contrast with the traditional model (whether in
its Western or Eastern form), in which the Son (together with the Spirit) proceeds fromthe Father, a formulation determined by descending, Joharmine Cluistology and which I
call the 'proces.si.on' model. It also encompasses the entire process by which Jesus, having
been sent forth from the Father, returns to him through his life and death in the power ofthe Holy Spirit. By this statement I have already indicated a further important feature of
the model, its comprehensive aspect: in its developed form it includes the sending forth[of the Spirit] in the sweep of the larger movement of return [to the Father]." This larger
return might be said to be the return of the whole creation in the Spirit with Christ to the
Father. See David Coffey, Deus Trinitas: The Doctrine of the Triune God (NY: Oxford
University Press, 1999), 5. Coffey constructed the bestowal model of the Trinity withregard to an ecumenical goal in mind. That is, he offered this model as a possible solution
to the problem concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit, known as the Filioque. This
problem caused the division of the one Church into two: the East and the West. David
Coffey, "A Proper Mission of the Holy Spirit," TheolDgical Studies 47 (1986): 249; David
Coffey, "Did You ReceiTJe the Holy Spirit When You Believed?": Some Basic Questions for
PneumatolDgy (WI: Marquette University Press, 2005), 50-1, 113. Kilmartin,. on the other
hand, makes use of this bestowal model of the Trinity for liturgical theology.
124 In this model,. the Son is generated from the Father and the Spirit proceeds from theFather and the Son (the West) or from the Father through the Son (the East).

123 David Coffey, Grace: The Gift

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realization) but as an already constituted factor (in facto esse).123 Consequently,
when the sanctification of humanity is considered-an essential aspect of thesacramental saving event126 -this model presents "the highest possibility of theactualization of a humanity [that] results in [the hypostatic] union with theWord,. while lesser actualizations [in grace] result in the union of fully
constituted human persons with the Holy Spirit."127 In other words, the Spirit's
act of anointing the humanity of Jesus, a humanity already assumed andsanctified by the Word,. is described in such a way as to correspond to the
sanctification of believers. This account of the sanctification of the humanity of
Christ and that of the believers causes a problem. The problem is the reversalof the order in the Trinitarian processions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thatis, sanctification occurs at the level of the economic Trinity (the work of the
Triune God ad extra). And the economic Trinity is seen to be acting in adifferent order in the sanctification of Ouist's humanity than it does in that ofbelievers. Kilmartin found this difference of economic Trinity's acting
problematic if the Incarnation reveals the self-communication of God by which
believers are saved. 123 In the case of believer, the order is changed into the
bestowal of the Spirit by which they are brought into union with the Son andthen with the Father. Hence, believers are first united with the Holy Spirit, thento the Son, and finally to the Father. But this order, in the procession model, is
not applied to Jesus, even though the Incarnation is viewed as a paradigm forJ. Kilmartin, '1he Active Ro1e of Ouist and the Holy Spirit in the Sanctificationof the Eucharistic Elements," Theological Studies 45 (1984): 248.
126 F.dward J. Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy: Theology and Practice: I. Systematic Theology of
Liturgy (Kansas Gty: Sheed and Ward, 1988), 325; Edward J. Kilmartin,. "Sacraments asliturgy of the Church," Theological Studies 50 (1989): 529.
121 Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 153-54.
128 Ibid., 111-12.
125 F.dward

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the sanctification of believers. Moreover, this description of sanctification in theeconomy of grace requires a theological basis in the immanent Trinity in orderto make it intelligible. But it is not possible to find this basis in the procession
model and in its descending order of Christology. Kilmartin comments that[w]hen the process of sanctification of human realities is explained ina way that corresponds to an inversion of the procession model thequestion is posed: What accounts for this inversion? The statement of thefact (that) the salvation history manifestation of the immanent Trinity is aninversion of the inner-Trinitarian processions does not represent a solution
but rather is the formulation of a problem.129
If Jesus' own life was graced in a different manner than that of believers,

then what is the relation of the "grace of Christ'' to those who are saved by thisvery grace? Or how is it possible for believers to participate in the grace ofChrist's faith because Christ's faith is based on the hypostatic union in which
they have no share? 130 Kilmartin argues that while it is true that in the
believers' union with God, the divine persons are encountered in the order ofthe Holy Spirit-+the Son-+the Father, as stated in Galatians 4:6 and Ephesians
2:18,131 it also has to be the same with Jesus since the Incarnation reveals theself-communication of God by which Christians are saved. Hence Kilmartin
contends that this reversal of order in the procession model of the economic
Trinity cannot simply be accepted as a fact without demonstrating thecorrespondence it has at the level of the immanent Trinity. A theology
129

Edward J. Kilmartin., "Outline of Lectures at Creighton University: June 1992,"(Kilmartin Archives: Jesuit Community at Boston College), 21.
130 Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 154.
131 Kilian McDonn.elL The Other Hand of God: The Holy Spirit as the Universal Touch and Goal
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 102; Coffey, Grace, 112.

149

grounded in the Trinitarian revelation which the liturgy celebrates should
relate its conception of the inner-Trinitarian life to the return of the Son, theSpirit, and the sanctified believers to the Father. But Kilmartin claims that thisis not clarified by the fact of the processions of the Son and the Spirit in theprocession model. 132 Kilmartin, therefore, distanced himself from thisinversion of the procession model as having no theological ground in the
inner-Trinitarian life to explain the way believers can have communion with
the Father. But he found this communion of believers to the Father expressedin the epicletic movement of the classical Eucharistic Prayers. His solution tothis problem is to rely on an ascending form of Christology orSpirit-Christology. He believed that in this Spirit-Ouistology he could identify
the grace by which the humanity of Christ is united to the person of the Word
to be the same grace by which believers are also sanctified This identification
calls attention to the understanding of the traditional teaching that believers
can share in the "grace of Christ'' which he possesses in fullness and shareswith them, and which results in their sanctification.
Reintegration of the lex orandi (the law of prayer) and the lex credendi (thelaw of belief), Kilmartin insists, must respect the teaching of the classicalEucharistic Prayers about the Trinitarian self-communication. This Trinitarianself-communication proclaims that the Holy Spirit unites believers to Christand brings them into communion with the Father through their union with
Christ. Kilmartin understood that this action of the Holy Spirit is the proper
action of the Spirit in the life of Christ and in the Church. His attempt tointegrate the lex orandi and lex credendi stresses the interrelationship of Christ
and the Spirit in the economy of sanctification. He came to consider the132 Kilmartin,. Christian

Liturgy, 135-57.

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Spirit-Christology of the Synoptics, recovered by Denis Petau, Matthias J.
Scheeben, and Heribert Miihlen, as offering a comprehensible relationshipbetween Christ and the Church.
The recovery of the bestowal model of the immanent Trinity is derived
from a reflection on the consequences of an ascending model of Ouistology.
This Christology, too, like the descending model of Christology, views thehumanity of Jesus as the unique and highest possible realization of thesupernatural potency of humanity for union with the divine. But in the processof the assumption of humanity of Jesus by the Word,. the Spirit is understoodas the one who sanctifies Jesus' humanity in such a way as to elevate it to aunion with the Word who assumes it. This same Spirit, sent by the risen Lordfrom the Father, unites believers with the Son and thus makes them children of
the Father in the Son. Here the grace of Ouist, which he shares with thejustified,. is understood as the Holy Spirit.133
The bestowal model thus distinguishes the fact of the procession from themanner of the procession. The fact is that the Son and the Spirit proceed fromthe Father. But the manner of the procession is that the Father bestows theSpirit on the Son as the object of the Father's love. In tum, the Son bestows theSpirit on the Father as the object of his responsive love. It may be noted that
this "responsive love" suggests a certain priority in which the Father precedes

the Son. So, the Father's love for the Son will precede and evoke the Son's lovefor Him. The Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and the Son.
Differing from the procession model, in the bestowal model, the procession of
the Spirit has a termination point in the loved one, first the Son and then the
Father.

m Ibid., 161-ii2.

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Since the Spirit is not an immanent term in this model, it is not necessarythat He be distinguished from the act of mutual love.134 As an act of mutual
love, the Spirit serves as the bond of communication between the Father andthe Son. The theology of the Incarnation that emerges from the bestowal modelis that within the inner-Trinitarian life the proper object of the Father's love isthe Son. In the execution of the divine plan of salvation, this love is directedbeyond the inner-Trinitarian life into the world to bring about the Incarnation.
As an act of assimilation, the Incarnation is the work of the Holy Spirit, or of

the Father acting through and by means of the Spirit. The outgoing aspect of
divine act is subordinated to its assimilative aspect. Thus the true nature of
divine power is revealed as love.
According to Kilmartin, "the most telling argument for the claim that the
bestowal model pertains to the primary level of Trinitarian doctrine is derived
from the reflection on the nature of Jesus' love of the Father."135 He presents
this reflection as a movement from Jesus' basic knowledge to his basic love. 136

134 Itwas also the opinion of the young Aquinas who understood love as opposed toknowledge. So he held the view that the Spirit is a processio operatii:mis. The Spirit isdistinct frmn the Word as the subsistent operation of love and is not an immanent term of
the divine act of love. See Coffey, Grace, 12-5; Coffey, "The 'Incarnation' of the Holy
Spirit," 471. n.10. For the historical development of the Spirit as subsistent operation and
the Son as subsistent term,. see John Cowburn, Love and the Person (NY: Alba House, 1967),258-72.
135 Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 166-67.
136 Ibid., 166-70; Kilmartin, "Sacraments as liturgy of the Church/ 541-42. For thisargument Kilmartin. is heavily dependent on Coffey, "The 'Incarnation' of the Holy Spirit
in Christ," and appreciates Coffey's orientation and conclusion concerning the nature ofJesus' love of the Father described frmn the New Testament witness of Trinitarian
doctrine.

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He begins with the Chalcedonian affirmation of Jesus Christ as "truly man" 137and contends that it is an assertion of his self-consciousness, as experienced by
all conscious human beings. But based on philosophical grounds he claims that
because Jesus is unique, "the same truly God and truly man,." 138 his
self-consciousness is not the same as that of humans. "It is metaphysicallyinconceivable that the one who, in his humanity, is the highest ontologicaldetermination of created being, exists at a lower level of self-consciousness
than lower ontological determinations, namely, ordinary human persons."139

With his subjective knowledge of self-consciousness, Kilmartin asserts, Jesus
knew the mystery of his being.Ho
Scripturally speaking, Jesus lived by faith, not by vision, however, theunique characteristic of Jesus was his total conscious orientation to the Father.
The Synoptic Gospels present a Jesus who speaks about the Kingdom and theChristian Liturgy, 167. See also J. Neuner and J. Dupuis, eds., The ChristianFaith: In the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church (St. Peter's Seminary, BangaJore:

131 Kilmartin,

Theological Publications in India, 1992), 165.
138 Ibid.

Christian Liturgy, 167. Despite presenting Jesus' creaturely relation to the
Father, Rabner employs this principle to demonstrate the nature of Jesus'
self-consciousness in order to refute a mutual I-Thou relation in the immanent andeconomic Trinity. According to Rabner, the source of Jesus' self-consciousness is in the
direct vision of God enjoyed by his humanity from the outset of conception. Rabner
claims that the man-Jesus can worship and worshipped the Logos, and in the union of
the Logos with the humanity of Jesus the Logos stands above Jesus (understood as man).
Based on this claim, Rabner asserts that through this vision the man-Jesus' orientation isto the Word, along with his orientation to the Father. Karl Rabner, "Dogmatic Reflections
on the Knowledge and Self-Consciousness of Christ," TheoltJgical In11estigatirin 5 (London:
Darton, Longman and Todd, 1966): 206; Karl Rabner, jesus Christ," Encyclopedia of
Theology: The Cbncise Sacramentum Mundi (NY: Seabury, 1975), 769.
140 Kilmartin, Christian Liturgy, 167; Kilmartin, "Sacraments as liturgy of Church;' 541.
139 Kilmartin,

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Fatherhood of God rather than his divine sonship. 141 From this scriptural
teaching, Kilmartin argues, ''It is this total attentiveness to the Father and theFather's will, the psychological relationship of unity with the Father, thatmediates Jesus' subjective knowledge of self-consciousness." 142 Based on therevelation of the mystery of Jesus, Kilmartin concludes that "the ontologicalground of [Jesus'] psychological relation of unity with the Father is thehypostatic union. It is grounded on the communication of that subsistencefrom the Father to the humanity of Jesus, which constitutes Jesus of Nazareth
the Son of God in his humanity."143The communion of being and life between the Father and the Word in theimmanent Trinity is now experienced by God-Jesus. This is the content of his
subjective knowledge of self-consciousness corresponding to what the Wordknows in the immanent Trinity. But now the Word in Jesus knows thiscommunion of being and life through the human experience of his
psychological relationship to the Father. This relationship also makes the
Father the unique object of his love. This is so because love follows
knowledge.144 Hence, Kilmartin asserts that "this love necessarily corresponds
to his subjective consciousness and, like his consciousness, is a psychologicaldimension of the hypostatic union." 145 Thus Jesus' love, like his humanknowledge, also has its correspondence in the immanent Trinity as the love of
the Word for the Father.

141

Coffey, "The 'Jn.carnation' of the Holy Spirit in Christ," 473; Wolfhart Pannenberg,

Jesus-God and Man (London: SCM, 1968), 334.
142 Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 167.
I~ Ibid., 167-68.

liturgy of the Church/ 541. See also Coffey, ''The'Jn.carnation' of the Holy Spirit in Christ," 474; Pannenberg, Jesus-God and Man, 331.
1~ Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 168.

144 Ibid., 168; Kilmartin,. "Sacraments as154

Kilmartin here makes an important distinction with regard to Jesus' basic
love of the Father. Jesus' dedication and obedience to God's will and his lovefor Him marked the motive force of his life and ministry. Yet Kilmartin insiststhat this love of Jesus for the Father, "grounded on the hypostatic union,. is not
simply identifiable with his categorial acts of love of God, or the habit of love
built up by these acts" 146 because such acts are capable of increase with thepassing of time (Lk 2:52) and are finite. 147 Rather, because Jesus is the unique
Son of God, his response to and love of the Father should also be unique.
Kilmartin argues that Jesus' infinite divine sonship was realized to thefullest limits of human nature during his earthly life. The agent of this"changement" was Jesus himself in his human freedom. 148 Likewise, althoughinfinite in itself, the love of the Son for the Father was not beyond theobediential potency (capacity) of human nature. The Holy Spirit is theidentifiable source which elicits and sustains the acceptable response of love ofbelievers to the Father. Similarly, the divine Son in his humanity receives andIbid. Kilmartin conceived the notion of the "incarnation'' of the Holy Spirit from Coffey.
Coffey explains that the love of Jesus for the Father "is not categorial but transcendental,
and hence is neither a habit nor an act. Therefore, it cannot be identified withsupernatural charity, though it will be the ground also of this in Jesus." Coffey, "The'Jn.carnation' of the Holy Spirit in Christ," 475. In Christian Liturgy Kihnartin
interchangeably uses "categorial acts" and "categorical love" without making a dear
distinction between these two terminologies. See Kilmartin, Christian Liturgy, 168-69. Nordoes he provide an explanation of what exactly these terminologies mean. From thecontext one might assume these terminologies to mean Spirit-enabled hurnan
acts/response directed to the love of God, as is the case with human beings. In Jesus' case,the content of his love for the Father is the Holy Spirit. Yet this love is expressed in hishuman acts unto death. However, by the end of Kihnartin's career, he uses "categorialacts." Kilmartin,. "Outline of Lectures," 18.
141 Coffey, "The 'Incarnation' of the Holy Spirit in Christ," 475-76.
148 Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 169.
146

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returns the Spirit in a human way. 149 Accordingly, "the uniqueness of Jesus'
love is the fact that it is the Holy Spirit himself who is returned to the
Father.''150 In Jesus' case this basic, transcendental love of the Son is incarnatedin his categorial acts of human love, a consequence of the hypostatic union,rather than the identification of the Spirit simply with the source of thesupernatural love by which the acceptable human response is made to the
Father.151 In other words, the realization of the divine sonship of Jesus came toexpression in his "categorical love, built up through repeated human acts ...
[through which] the divine Son obtained the concrete character of the humanpersonality of Jesus of Nazareth." 152 This progressive actualization of thedivine sonship of Jesus included equally the progressive realization of histranscendental love of the Father, attaining in his death its absolute limits ofpossibility in his human love of the Father. This same Holy Spirit is also thesource of the elicited acts of love of the Father that are accomplished bybelievers.m With his glorification, Jesus is completely filled with the Holy
Spirit and is admitted to the beatific vision where he apprehends with full
intellectual clarity and love the direct presence of the Father which heexperienced throughout his earthly life. 154 This beatific vision of the Father andthe love which flows out as a consequence envelops all the creatures known
and loved by the Father. Knowing the Father's children with the knowledge
with which the risen Lord knows the Father, he loves them with the same love

Ibid.
Ibid.
151 Ibid., 168; Coffey, "The 'Incarnation' of the Holy Spirit in Christ," 476.
152 Kilmartin,. Christian Liturgy, 169.
153 Ibid.
154 Ibid. Also see Jolm H. Mcl<enna, "Eucharistic Epiclesis: Myopia or Microcosm?,"
Theological Studies 36 (1975), 275.
149
150

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with which he loves the Father, the Holy Spirit.155 The Spirit incarnate in Jesus'
human love is then twofold: the love of the Father and of His children. Hence,
it is this love which grounds his divine-human (theandric) act of sending theHoly Spirit to draw humanity into union with the Son so that they may love
the Father in the one Son.

IV. Conclusion: Participation in the Spirit of the Faith of Christ

The faith of Ouist is the faith of the Omrch. The content of this faith is
Ouist's total obedience to and worship of the Father fulfilled in all aspects of
his life in the power of the Spirit. The relation of the faith of the Clmrch to thatof Ouist is twofold: (1) a participation in Ouist's response of faith to the
Father because the risen Lord is actually present in the Church realizing his
relationality as the "man for others" to the faith of the Church; and (2) apneumatological ground for the immediacy of the faith of the Church to Ouist
as a mediated immediacy, namely, the Holy Spirit whom Ouist possesses infullness and which is shared with the Church. The Spirit is the mediation of
personal intimacy between Ouist and believers. Only in the Spirit do Jesus andbelievers become personally present to each other. The pneumatologicaldimension of the mystery of the Church (one Spirit in Christ and believers)
thus furnishes the proper relationship of the ecclesiological and Christologicaldimensions of sacramental celebrations.

ChristUm Liturgy, 169. For the profound unity that exists between love of God
and love of neighbor, see Karl Rabner, "Reflections on the Unity of the Love of
Neighbour and the Love of God," trans. Karl-H. Kruger and Boniface Kruger, Theologiazl
Investigations 6 (London: Dalton, Longman and Todd, 1969), 231-49.

155 Kilmartin,.

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The formal structure and official prayers of the liturgy of the sacraments
express the faith of the Church which is the faith of Christ. By participating in
the faith of Christ expressed in the sacramental celebration, believers
appropriate that faith as their own Thereby the liturgical assembly is enabled
to enact its worship in, with, and through Jesus Christ. This accounts for theacceptability of its worship and the response of the Father to the assembly's
intercession for the sanctification of the participants. "In Christ" means that theworship takes place in personal communion with Christ. This is grounded on
the participation in the one Spirit of Christ. This is the depth dimension
signified by membership in the ecclesial community of which Christ is thehead "With Christ" means that the worship of the liturgical assembly relates
to that of Christ. "Through Christ'' means the dependency of the worship of
this assembly on Christ who, as risen Lord, is the theandric source of themission of the Holy Spirit.
It can also be said that Christ worships in, with, and through the Church(liturgical assembly), that is, Christ associates the Church with his worshipmade possible by the Holy Spirit. This is the same Spirit that is in Christ and in
the assembly of believers. ''In the Church'' means that Christ is actively present
in the worship of the Church. "With the Church" means that Christ's activity isrelated to (but really distinguished from) that of the Church through the Holy
Spirit. "Through the Church'' means that Christ's eternal sacrificial attitude
acquires in the liturgical action of the Church a representative visible form.
Thus in Kilmartin's sacramental theology, an intimate organic unity
between the liturgical act of Christ and that of the Church conditioned by therole of the Holy Spirit finds a theological (trinitarian) basis. In sacramental
celebrations the members of the Church can thus be united with the activity of158

Christ in space and time. Accordingly, the participants are drawn into
communion with the historical saving work of Christ really present as agentsof the work of the Spirit while being united to Christ in his worship of the
Father. This explains the necessity of the liturgical assembly's active
participation,. this becoming the medium by which the glorified Christ acts forthe world. Hence sacramental celebrations are special grace events in space
and time.