Swear to God: The Promise and Power of the Sacraments

The sacraments are the most serious, magnificent, and beautiful gifts that Jesus Christ provided to the world. He bestowed upon them unrivalled power—power to alter lives, save souls, and share God's very life. The sacraments are the ordinary means through which God directs the path of each human life as well as the course of world history.

The Church observes seven sacraments: baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, confession, and ill anointing. Jesus established each for the cause of redemption. When Jesus spoke about the sacraments, He made it plain that they were essential: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (Jn 3:5) . . . unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (Jn 6: 53).

Dr. Scott Hahn's Swear to God delves into the richness of Christ's sacraments—their teaching, history, symbols, and rituals. He demonstrates, through the Bible and Church tradition, how God's contracts with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David became driving forces in history. When Jesus arrived to fulfil all of these contracts, He established a new covenant with greater power than any previous covenant. Christians are now God's children. We can already share in the eternal life of the Trinity as a result of our baptismal union with Christ, a life we aspire to fully experience in heaven. But heaven is present with us right now, through the sacraments.