- THE SACRAMENTS, ACTIONS 0F CHRIST IN THE CHURCH, THE PRIMORDIAL SACRAMENT

55 The mystery of Christ is continued in the Church, which always enjoys his presence and ministers 10 him. This is done in a specific way through the signs that Christ instituted, which signify the gift of grace and produce it, and are properly called sacraments (cf. Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacraments, Dz.-Sch., 1601).

The Church herself, however, is in some way to be considered the primordial sacrament, since she is not only the People of God but also in Christ a kind of "sign and instrument of the intimate union with God, and of the unity of the entire human race" (LG, 1).

Sacraments are the principal and fundamental actions whereby Jesus Christ unceasingly bestows his Spirit on the faithful, thus making them the holy people which offers itself, in him and with him, as an oblation acceptable to the Father. The sacraments are surely 10 be considered inestimable blessings of the Church. To hem, then, beings the power of administering them; and yet they are always to be referred 10 Christ, from whom they receive their efficacy. In reality, it is Christ who baptises. ibis not 50 much a man who celebrates the Eucharist as Christ himself; for he it is who offers himself in the sacrifice of the Mass by the ministry of the priests (cf. Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Dz.-Sch., 1743). The sacramental action is, in the first place, the action of Christ, and the ministers of the Church are as his instruments.