The Precepts of the Church on the Sacraments: Personal Obligation and Social Bonds

Abstract

The obligation of annual Confession and Holy Communion safeguards the devotion of the faithful and the dignity of the sacraments. The origin and historical praxis of the two precepts manifests the social and communal character of the connected prescriptions. The obligation’s legal title responds to the logic of the economy of salvation: the law concretizes a pre-existing fundamental obligation. The establishment of a guaranteed minimum is of intersubjective importance insofar as it contributes to the recognition and the building-up of the community. The peculiarity of the system of sacramental precepts arises from a respect for and a conformity to the lex gratiae: the fulfillent thereof requires the right interior dispositions of the subject. The recovery of the paschal mystery’s centrality can help in overcoming the current negligence towards the precepts, rediscovering the fullness of their meaning, their intimate connection, and the responsibility thereunto borne by different ecclesial agents.