The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
218 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life however, a question arises at the beginning of his answer to Januarius: Why is Eastertide a sacrament while the festival of Christmas is not? Augustine's answer is illuminating.
The Pasch (Augustine's term for the time from Easter to Pentecost or Eastertide) is a sacrament because it renews humanity by both recalling the descent of the Holy Spirit as well as effecting that presence in the lives of the church today. Christmas, on the other hand, simply recalls the historical truth of Christ's birth but there is, say, not another birth taking place on that very day. Devotion fittingly marks the annual anniversary of the savior's birth but it is not as if the Christ child is physically born again; during the Pasch, on the contrary, the Holy Spirit descends and continually confirms the Christian faith on earth:
Here you must first realize that the birthday of the Lord is not celebrated as a sacrament, but we only recall to memory that he was born, and for this reason there was no need to do anything else but mark with the festive devotion the day of the year on which the event occurred. But there is a sacrament in a celebration when the commemoration of the event is carried out in such a way that it is understood also to signify something that must be received in a holy manner. In that way, therefore, we celebrate Pasch. . . .77
Entailing both a visible and plain celebration inaugurated by the Lord as well as a hidden holiness to be received continually by his faithful, Pentecost fulfils Augustine's requirements for a sacrament.
But what do the sacraments achieve? Augustine knew that any religious community, Christian or not, must be held together by visible signs and sacraments.78 The sacraments of Christ's church, however, have been given so as to enable unity between nations and between humanity and God. This
77. inq. Jan. 2.1.2; Teske, Letters (II/1), 216; cf. s. 272B. 78. c. Faust. 19.11: ". . . coagulari homines possunt, nisi aliquo signaculorum uel sacramentorum uisibilium consortio colligentur."; CSEL 25.510.