How many sacraments does the Orthodox Church have? This is a question that an inquiring 16th century European might have posed. The Catholics had seven, while the Lutherans (and some other Protestants) said there were only two. “Of course,” thought the Orthodox in struggling to answer a question that had never been spoken in the Orthodox world, “We surely can’t have fewer than the Catholics.” So, “Seven.” Someone else in the Orthodox world thought, “But we’re more excellent.” So, the answer came back, “Nine.” Then, in the modern world of flourishing Orthodox thought a patriarch said, “The whole world’s a sacrament.” The counting of sacraments risks reducing them to moments of ritual, the concern of priests and churchly events: “We need to get the baby done…” I once heard as an Anglican. However, to say that “the whole world is a sacrament” runs the risk of saying nothing at all.
At its core, all of these statements beg the question: what is a sacrament? In the Orthodox world of the past, the term “sacrament” is missing from its vocabulary. Instead, Orthodoxy speaks of a “mystery.” It is well spoken, in that what is described is something hidden that is being made manifest. What we find, I think, is the very life of Christ being given to us. That is the mystery hidden from before the ages. (Eph. 3:7-13)
I have often thought about how teaching developed in the early Church. There are the gospels, three of which are quite similar, and the fourth, quite unique. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we get historical facts and teachings. But in those teachings, there is very little that goes “beneath the surface.” For example, regarding the mystery of the Eucharist, those three gospels give us the bare words of its institution. We hear those same words from St. Paul, who described them as having been “traditioned” to him: “How that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread…etc.” But those first three gospels tell us very little else.
St. John’s gospel makes no mention of that “Last Supper.” However, in the context of the feeding of the 5,000, Christ delivers a lengthy homily on the meaning of the Eucharist: “Whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.” (6:56) He has much to say in this vein – a commentary and teaching that provids the foundation for understanding the eucharistic mystery to this day.
There are also commentaries on the mystery of Holy Baptism in St. John’s gospel, though they are hidden within a series of “water stories.” In chapter 2, Christ turns water into wine. In chapter 3, He tells Nicodemus that he must be “born of water and the Spirit.” In chapter 4, Christ has a conversation with the woman at the well, and tells her:” the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” In chapter 5, Christ heals a man by the pool of Bethesda who had been paralyzed for 38 years, saying, “Take up your bed and walk.” (5:11)
These are “water stories,” each of which yields insight into the mystery of Holy Baptism. It is in chapter 6 that we hear the mystery of the Eucharist described. St. John’s is a gospel that, more than the others, reveals the mystery of the work of Christ. It is “apocalyptic” (“revelatory”) in character.
It is St. Paul who gives us clear, and perhaps greater, insight into the mystery of Baptism. He introduces it in an interesting manner:
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:3)
He presumes that the Christians in Rome know what he knows – the mystery of Baptism is a union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:4-11)
St. Paul is making no claims for a personal teaching or a special insight. Instead, throughout this teaching he says, “We know.” This is the teaching of the primitive Church (“We”). It is a foundational understanding of Baptism itself.
There is a deep similarity between the mysteries of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist – something that is present in the Scriptures. Both mysteries explicitly link us to the death and resurrection of Christ. Baptism is described as being “buried into the death and resurrection” of Christ. The Eucharist “shows forth His death until He comes.”
In this sense, rather than saying that the “whole world is a sacrament,” it is more accurate to say that there is only one sacrament – that of union with the death and resurrection of Christ. His Pascha reveals the world to be what it truly is. The whole world (and all life in it) is a participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus, the Lamb is “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). And, thus, St. Maximus can say “he who knows the mystery of the Cross and the Tomb also knows the essential principle of all things.”
But sacraments are not merely theological concepts. They reveal the very nature of reality, inviting us into communion with that which is our true existence. If we can say, “the whole world is a sacrament,” it is because the whole world and our life in it is a baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ. The whole world is a communion in the Body and Blood of Him who gathered the whole of the suffering creation into Himself and raised it into the freedom of His resurrected existence.
St. Paul wrote:
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1–3)
“Those things which are above” are not abstractions. Rather this is a reference to all things in their proper use and understanding. It is a reference to our true life, “hidden with Christ in God.” It is the very heart of the mystery: “Christ within us the hope of glory.”
Leave a Reply