Lesson 1 –
Why Do the Sacraments Matter?

Does God need to be worshiped with material things?

When Thomas Aquinas treats this question, he leads us directly into the topic of the nature of the human person. The human being is a spiritual animal composed of body and soul. 

Therefore, it's fitting that human beings should live out their spiritual aspirations towards God in their physical body in sensate ways using material things. 

This is why the sacraments matter.

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae II-II q. 81, a. 7 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae III q. 60, a. 4 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, pp. 39-40 | Colman O’Neill and Romanus Cessario

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae II-II q. 81, a. 7:

We pay God honor and reverence, not for His sake (because He is of Himself full of glory to which no creature can add anything), but for our own sake, because by the very fact that we revere and honor God, our mind is subjected to Him; wherein its perfection consists, since a thing is perfected by being subjected to its superior, for instance the body is perfected by being quickened by the soul, and the air by being enlightened by the sun. Now the human mind, in order to be united to God, needs to be guided by the sensible world, since "invisible things . . . are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made," as the Apostle says (Rm. 1:20). Wherefore in the Divine worship it is necessary to make use of corporeal things, that man's mind may be aroused thereby, as by signs, to the spiritual acts by means of which he is united to God.

Course Listening

The Virtue of Religion in Aquinas: What it is and Why it Matters | Prof. Reinhard Huetter

Living a Life of Divine Worship | Fr. Michael O'Connor, O.P.