The Happy Fault
The sacraments of the New law enjoy an objective efficacy based on the supreme work of Christ. The word “objective”
in this context points to the power of God at work in the sacramental action.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes Aquinas, who writes that
“the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant of
the recipient, but by the power of God.” (CCC no. 1128, quoting Summa
theologiae III.68.8) Further clarifications are required in order to
understand properly how the sacraments work, as it were, objectively.
Obviously, any suggestion of magic or superstition remains out of place.
Instead, the sacraments of the New Law figure in the work of image-restoration
and image-perfection, categories that represent God’s twofold justifying action
in the sinner.
Detachment from sin and the
sanctification of the human person, both body and soul, requires that the
Christian believer properly understand the providence of God as it pertains to
the divine permission for man’s sin. As with Adam’s sin, the sins of his progeny
always can become expressions of a felix culpa inasmuch as the sacraments
of the New Law exist to restore people to friendship with Christ that not only
exceeds, obviously, the state of sin but also exceeds whatever natural
happiness a person may discover in this world. (Romanus Cessario, The Seven
Sacraments of the Catholic Church [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic,
2023], 56)
