Summary of Mysterion: The Revelatory Power of the Sacramental Worldview by Fr. Harrison Ayre

Here are some great quotes from Fr. Harrison’s book to help us understand the revelatory power of having a sacramental worldview:

1: SIGNS: “The sacramental worldview means seeing everything created and physical as pointing us to God and lifting us into his life” (4).

To have a sacramental worldview is to see all of creation as Jesus sees it – namely, as pointing to the Creator: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:2).

Yes, God is always at work through His creation – through particular people, times, places, and things – making His saving action effective in our lives & leading us back to Him.

“The whole point of the sacramental worldview is that God uses signs and symbols to make present heavenly realities, and these are some of the essential ways that can happen in liturgy” (163).

2. BEAUTY: “Beauty is at the heart of the sacramental worldview because it draws us to perceive our participation in the life of Christ in a deeper way. Beauty draws us to see the “something more” of the world. The sacramental worldview is, at its heart, the recognition of the power of the beautiful to open us up to God’s grace” (13).

Beauty, true beauty, always gives us the experience of awe and wonder. There must be “something more” – something we can “feel” or “see” but cannot grasp.

To continue to develop our sacramental worldview, we need to grow in awe and wonder. We can do this by recognizing that all of creation is a gift from God – a gift with meaning and purpose from our Creator.

3. CHARITY: “To live sacramentality means that Christian charity effuses out of us, often without our quite noticing it. Living Christian charity is one of the preeminent ways in which the sacramental worldview is lived, because it is nothing other than making the love of God visible” (155).

Living a life of Christian charity makes the love of God visible in this world and that is the fastest way to evangelize others & the most direct way to make Christ visible sacramentally in our bodies.

4. FAITH: “Every time we go to Mass anywhere in the world, the priest proclaims these words after the consecration of the Eucharist: “The mystery of faith.” Basically, he’s saying, “The secrets of God’s heart, that are made known to us and save us in Jesus Christ, have been sacramentally represented on the altar.” By proclaiming this to the faithful at Mass, the priest reminds everyone that God is here, that he is saving his people, and that he is showing himself—not only two thousand years ago but now” (19).

We are called to see the world through the eyes of faith – that is, with a sacramental lens in which all of creation points to its Creator.

5. PARTICIPATION: “The sacramental worldview is centered around participation. Mystery is the way we describe God’s activity of drawing us into his life, our attempts to understand his activity in the world, and our response through the liturgical life of the Church” (30).

To be a Christian is to participate “in Christ” – to conform my whole life – body, mind, soul, intellect, will, the whole of my person – to Christ through Baptism. “All that Jesus spoke, did, and accomplished in his life is now lived out in his body, the Church. This is the sacramental vision of Christianity” (24).

We participate “in Christ” most fully in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which salvation is made present through the sacrament of the Eucharist.

6. MARY: “To develop a Marian stance is to develop the attitude necessary for the sacramental worldview. Mary is a concrete person: she is alive in heaven, body and soul. In her we perceive what the Church and disciple should be like. Through and in her, we see Christ more perfectly. Because she is full of grace, Mary is also a channel of the saving grace we need for eternal life. She is a sign, someone through whom we participate in Christ and experience his saving grace. This is sacramentality. If we want to embrace the sacramental worldview, we must embrace Mary: without her, we will continue in our activism and close our hearts to God” (93).

To have a sacramental worldview, Mary’s attitudes of receptivity, humility, and contemplation are essential. We need to slow down, prayer more, listen better, and respond attentively when God calls us to act.

7. THE CHURCH: “The Church is the place of the sacramental worldview. It is where Christ works out his salvation in us through the sacramental life, through our communion, so that we can be a sacrament of Christ to the world” (8).

“Sacramentality refers to something perceptible that is a sign of a particular reality and makes that reality present. Sacramentality, then, effects what it signifies and gives persons who partake of these various sacramental realities the ability to be lifted to Christ and participate in Christ. So, if the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, she makes visible and perceptible the salvation of humanity” (72).

“If the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, if she makes the redemptive mystery of Christ visible to the world, then when her members—lay and clergy alike—are sinful, this creates a sort of anti-sacrament that hinders people outside the Church from recognizing their savior. Jesus is all holy, but none of the members of the Church are sinless: this is the very reason we’re in the Church! We need Jesus to draw us to participate in his cross so that we can die to sin and share in his resurrection” (73).