Lesson 6 –
Only God Can Establish Sacraments

God is always the ultimate cause of grace, and God has bound himself to the sacraments so that they cause grace. So, while God is the principal cause of grace, the sacraments are instrumental causes.

Since the sacraments make us partakers of the divine nature, and since only God has the power to make someone a partaker of the divine nature, the power of a sacrament is from God alone.

Understanding this is key to seeing why it is that only God can institute a sacrament.

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae III q. 64, a. 2 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae III q. 64, a. 3 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae III q. 64, a. 2:

The institutor of anything is he who gives it strength and power: as in the case of those who institute laws. But the power of a sacrament is from God alone… Therefore God alone can institute a sacrament.

Course Listening

The Sacraments in General: Character and Institution/Causation | Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P.

Why Did God Become Man? The Motives of the Incarnation | Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P.