The sacraments are not symbols, but encounters with God

When we comfort someone who is grieving, we might reach for their hand or offer an embrace. When we celebrate, we gather around a table and share food and drink.

When words fail us, a simple gesture can communicate something that an elaborate explanation cannot.

Human beings are profoundly physical creatures. We encounter the world, form relationships and express our deepest experiences through our bodies.

Matter meets ministry

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the Church’s sacramental life.

We pour water, anoint with oil, lay hands upon people, break bread, and eat and drink.

We encounter the mysteries of faith through things we can see, touch, taste and feel. Indeed, we cannot celebrate the sacraments without them.

This is no accident. Christianity rests upon the extraordinary claim that the Word became flesh.

In Jesus Christ, God entered fully into the material reality of human existence.

The physical world is not something to escape to in order to encounter God. Through that world, God comes to meet us.

More than symbols

In 2024, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published Gestis Verbisque, examining the essential relationship between words and actions in the celebration of the sacraments.

It emphasizes that their bodily dimension is indispensable. Water, oil, bread and wine are not simply illustrations of spiritual truths.

Through these material signs and the ritual actions associated with them, Christ continues to act in the life of the Church.

Water does not merely remind us of cleansing; through baptism we are reborn in Christ. Anointing with oil communicates the strengthening or healing grace of the Spirit.

In the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, given to us to eat and drink.

These are more than meaningful human actions; they are encounters with God’s saving grace.

Learning through the body

Contemporary research into embodied cognition offers an interesting parallel. Cognitive science increasingly recognizes that understanding is not confined to abstract thought.

Our bodily experiences, sensory perceptions and interactions with the physical world contribute to how we learn, remember and make meaning.

While this cannot explain sacramental grace, it reminds us that bodily experience is integral to human knowing.

This has implications for how we celebrate the liturgy.

A generous pouring of water, the deliberate laying on of hands and the visible breaking of bread help us perceive what is being celebrated.

The sacraments do not depend for their efficacy on the quality of their celebration, but the way we celebrate can help us enter more deeply into the mystery.

Love takes flesh

And beyond the liturgy, perhaps our sacramental tradition challenges a tendency to separate spiritual life from ordinary physical existence.

Caring for the sick, sharing food, or simply being present to another person remind us that love is not an abstraction. It takes flesh in human relationships.

Our bodies are not obstacles to spiritual experience. They are part of how we encounter God.

For a Church that believes the Word became flesh, perhaps that should not surprise us.

This column first appeared on Flashes of Insight and has been republished with permission by Global Catholic.