Tot heil van heel de werkelijkheid: Bijdrage aan het oecumenisch gesprek over de sacramentaliteit van de kerk

This paper advocates that the church is there to serve the world and is a sign and instrument of a better life. In the church, God gathers people to make them part of Christ’s mission of salvation for all mankind, indeed all reality. This is most succinctly expressed in the celebration of the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, symbolic acts of God that work out what they signify: all of reality is called to share in Christ’s resurrection. Speaking of the church as a sacrament implies seeing the church as a ‘sign’ and ‘instrument’ of God's grace for the whole world.
Some hesitate to speak about the church as a sacrament. Churches think differently about sacraments. Moreover, the question is whether a sinful church can be a sacrament. However, the church is a sacrament only insofar as it fulfills its calling. Speaking of the church as a sacrament does not gloss over its shortcomings, but points lastingly at its vocation. As for the former, there is a growing ecumenical consensus that the church’s secret lies in the Eucharist, which aims for the church to represent God in the world. Therefore, the Eucharist is both a gift and a task, and we may say of both the Eucharist and the church that they are ‘sacraments’.