Unknown. How exactly should this be understood?

Confessor. Man is not only spirit, but also matter. What is the inner connection and internal relationship of the soul and body of man with that which constitutes his corporeality is unknown to us. But we know that the grace of God must penetrate the whole person, and not only souls, but the whole person must be watered with the Holy Spirit. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 6:15). And again: "... are your bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The sacraments give the whole person Divine grace. Through the sacraments, the Holy Spirit fills not only the soul of man as something separate or his body as something separate, but the whole person as a whole. Here the significance of matter is just as necessary and just as mysterious as it is in the personality of man. And here we do not know what is the connection and what is the relationship of the external material principle in the sacrament with its soul, the spiritual essence, but we know that this connection exists and that it is indissoluble. We do not know why one sacrament needs the substance of water, another oil, a third wine and bread, we do not know why it is necessary to pronounce certain words and perform certain actions, but we infallibly comprehend by faith that this is not something unnecessary and external, but as it were the corporeality of the sacrament, which is necessary for the grace being taught to fill the whole person with the Holy Spirit: and his soul, and his body, and the incomprehensible connection between them, which is contained in a single human personality.

In the sacraments we see the greatest manifestation of Divine love, which descends upon us, despite all our corruption, both spiritual and physical, and receives us into its bosom in the fullness of our human being. This love, condescension and mercy give us grace-filled power in material, tangible, external forms that encompass the whole person, and not just his spirit. The sacraments are the grace of God, which, like the human soul, is clothed in a mysterious corporeality. In this corporeality the Lord clothed His power, condescending to fallen and redeemed man, so that he might all become, in the words of Justin the Martyr, "the son of the Most High."

Unknown. Does this mean that without this external form, the direct action of grace and the rebirth of the human soul are impossible?

Confessor. Yes. But here it is necessary to make one reservation. It has to do with all the sacraments in general. A sacrament is a necessary external sacrament for the transmission of Divine grace -- such a general and immutable law. But we must always remember that where there is grace, there are exceptions by the will of God. In some cases, when it is pleasing to God, grace can be given without established external sacraments. In principle, this possibility applies to all sacraments. I'll give you a few examples.

As a general rule, it can be asserted that the baptism of water and the Spirit is obligatory for the believer to join the Church, but in some cases the martyrs became members of the Church without this external sacred action. In ancient times, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit were given to believers through the laying on of hands. But there was no laying on of hands on the 120 men upon whom the Holy Ghost fell in Jerusalem. Centurion Cornelius, before baptism and before the laying on of hands, was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Such exceptions, the possibility of which must be admitted in principle in each sacrament, should be considered as special actions of His grace-filled power performed by the will of God, and in no way shake the general teaching on the sacraments and the immutability of the law of the necessity for the transmission of God's grace of certain external sacred actions.

Unknown. Let's assume that it is so. But why, then, is this "corporeality" of the sacraments not given by God as something definite and unchanging? How did people themselves know that such and such actions should be performed in such and such a way and that these words should be pronounced and not others? After all, all this is human inventions!

Confessor. You would be quite right if the forms of the sacraments were created outside the Church by individual people. But again, it seems, you have forgotten everything that we have said about the Church. Christ is the head of the Church, and it is the receptacle of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the action of God's power in it continues. You ask, where did people get from, how the sacraments should be performed, what actions should be performed and words should be pronounced? This was said by the Church. In the Word of God are given the basic principles of all divinely revealed truths. But their further development, being equally divine in its source, reveals these truths in their fullness. Just as a plant that has grown, blossoms, and bears fruit is all contained in the grain, but the grain and the grown plant are not one and the same thing, so are the dogmas of the Church, the whole teaching of grace, the entire internal order of church life contained in the Word of God, but the Symbol of Faith, the teaching on the sacraments, and the holy canons are not the same as their seed in the Word of God. although they are all contained in this grain. Everything that the Church has was created by the power of the Holy Spirit already in the process of her earthly life.

Unknown. I don't understand why a process is needed for revelation? Why was it not possible to reveal all this to people at once, how to immediately reveal to them the moral law of the Gospel? Wouldn't it be more convincing if all the truth were revealed to people at once?

Confessor. Again you forget that the Church is not an empty form, completely indifferent in itself, in which, as in a vessel, is contained the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church is the living Body of Christ, headed by Him and filled with the Holy Spirit, which means that people, as members of this Body, are active in it. Hence a certain definite correlation between the supernatural principle and the natural earthly process. Man's participation in the development of the Church and her earthly natural existence made inevitable the gradual development of her depending on the moral and spiritual state of people, the degree of their faith, the preparedness of their consciousness, and a whole series of external conditions. Hence the different forms of the sacraments in different centuries are also understandable. The Church lives and therefore changes. But this is not a change in this or that human imagination -- it is a living change of a seed laid in the ground and gradually growing into a perfect plant. "You are God's field, God's building," says the Apostle Paul. And until you are fully imbued with a true understanding of the teaching about the Church as the supernatural Body of Christ, living in a natural earthly environment, everything will seem to you "strange", "unreasonable", "human", because you will see only the human in everything.

Unknown. Yes. You reason quite consistently. And having accepted the basic proposition, I have to accept your conclusions, although sometimes this is very difficult for the mind. However, my "private" questions cannot be solved by your general reasoning, and I will still have to pass on to the individual sacraments.

Confessor. I'm listening to you.

Unknown. Let's start with baptism. According to your teaching, the sacrament of baptism is a sacred act where, by immersion in water three times, with the pronunciation of certain words, a person is born again, becomes a different person, joins the Church, becomes its member. Isn't it?