Signs, Symbols, and Catholicism

Attending a private Jesuit school, Loyola University Chicago, my love for Jesus Christ was solidified through my beautiful education there. My favorite class was taught by a priest Father Bosco. The class was life changing. God's spirit was always inside of me, but it took my love and committment to God to a whole new level. Here is something I wrote about signs and symbols. Reading it today I love it because I feel fully connected to signs and symbols. I always think about my life and I SEE, FEEL, HEAR, TOUCH the signs. I experience and believe in the signs God is giving me everyday and especially amongst my travels and interpersonal interactions with othes. I feel his presence in me in each and evey interaction with people called to my spirit actually his spirit within me.  It is such a beautiful thing and I can't even begin to fathom a life without him.

Signs, symbols, and ontology are significant words to the sacramental theology of Catholicism.  First, signs point to what is significant.  They are epistemological involved more in the mind than presence.  A symbol is a sign that embodies what it signifies.  Symbols hold more power for Catholicism because they are ontological.  They pull together the meaning which extends beyond experience.  They do not just take place in the mind (epistemological), but they are present in a real way.  They are present in not only our conscious, but our unconscious ways as well.  Symbols signify the reality of God and his presence.  Symbols are never “just symbols” rather they embody the definition of a sacrament. 

Signs and symbols can described in an analogical way (both/and).  Sacraments are both signs and symbols, which are instituted by Christ, to give grace. Symbols lead to the true, real, and substantial ontological presence of Jesus Christ.  During sacraments such as marriage, baptism, confirmation, or the Eucharist, the presence of Christ is present through the matter and form of the sacrament in Holy Spirit.  Jesus is a sacrament of the loving reconciliation and presence of God, and Jesus is a sacrament for the whole world.  A priest is both and sign and a symbol for Jesus Christ.  Every sacrament is approached in an analogical way making comparisons through metaphors and images.  For instance, “God is both like and unlike human beings.”  God measures up to our most proud sacramental moments and our imperfect moments.  Throughout the life of a Catholic, the Catholic sacraments involved the signs and symbols that lead to the real, ontological presence of God.