Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments by Timothy P. O'Malley

Abstract

Reviewed by: Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments by Timothy P. O'Malley Roland Millare Timothy P. O'Malley Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2022 121 pages. Paperback. $15.95. The Church continues to suffer from a precipitous decline in the number of people receiving each of the sacraments. There is no shortage of commentary upon the state of the current sacramental crisis that plagues the Church. One of the most common explanations has been the popular notion that many of the faithful have been sacramentalized but not evangelized. In Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments, Timothy O'Malley presents a counter thesis: the sacraments are "always evangelizing, because they make available the salvation offered by Jesus Christ to the Church and to the world" (11). O'Malley offers the personalist view of sacramental theology that contends the sacraments are encounters with Jesus Christ and His love. O'Malley draws upon an array of theologians throughout his work to weave a unity between sacraments and evangelization, [End Page 323] including Thomas Aquinas, Gregory of Nazianzus, Marc Ouellet, Gary Anderson, Joseph Ratzinger, Sara Butler, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and John Paul II. The most prominent author cited throughout is the nineteenth-century theologian Matthias Scheeben, who articulated the unity between the human and divine actions of Jesus Christ, which will have implications for our encounter with Christ in the sacraments: "The humanity of Christ is able to operate in a supernatural manner within itself, and also to perform acts which are of supernatural benefit to all creatures and to achieve much that in itself can be effected only by the infinite power of God. Thus the humanity of Christ can communicate to others the supernatural life which it possesses itself" (17). Contrary to the Pelagian tendency that would empty the sacraments of their efficacy by emphasizing the work of the individual, O'Malley highlights succinctly how each sacrament is first and foremost a work of Jesus Christ, who evangelizes and forms us. Baptism, confirmation, and holy orders (chapter two) transform our identity as priests of Christ. Once again, Scheeben posits that "the character of the members of Christ's mystical body must consist in a seal which establishes and exhibits their relationship to the Logos; their character must be analogous to the hypostatic union and grounded upon it" (36). Baptism bestows the grace of divine filiation, enabling us to become sons and daughters in the Son. confirmation strengthens and deepens this identity and "orients us toward mission" (48). Holy orders enables men to act in the person of Christ the Priest or Christ the Servant, so they may serve the common priesthood through a "total, self-giving love and service" (55). Holy orders is not about power, but service to assist the faithful to realize their own identity, given in baptism and confirmation. The reflections on the mystery of the Eucharist (chapter three) build upon the notion of identity to focus on our creation for sacrificial worship. Citing St. Thomas (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 73, a. 4), O'Malley notes that the Eucharist is a movement between the past, present, and future. Every celebration of the Eucharist is a remembering of what has been wrought for humanity in the past (salvation history), which effectively brings about the unique sacramental [End Page 324] presence of Christ here and now, to prepare us for the immediate future and for the eschaton. The heart of worship is sacrifice, which is defined by a love that transforms all of space and time. Consequently the "new worship" of the Eucharist according to Benedict XVI in Sacramentum Caritatis "cannot be relegated to something private and individual, but tends by its nature to permeate every aspect of our existence" (73). The Eucharist becomes the very form for how all believers should live their lives as a reflection of Christ's presence, sacrifice, and communion. Marriage, like the Eucharist, is instituted to transform the mundane world (chapter four). O'Malley summarizes marriage's transformation well: "The day-to-day mission of loving one's spouse, raising children, and participating in social life may become an efficacious sign of divine love...