Abstract
Christ, the Son of God Made Flesh, reveals to the world the mystery of the Triune God, manifesting this reality in the very fact of His Incarnation, as St. Thomas Aquinas illustrates in his elaboration of the divine missions and the hypostatic union. This Trinitarian underpinning of the Incarnation applies to all parts of Christ’s life and ministry, and also characterizes the order of grace, including the sacraments. However, while the Christological foundation of the sacramental order and action is necessarily well-developed within the work of Aquinas, and the field of sacramental theology more broadly, the Trinitarian underpinning may be less so. In this paper I suggest that by supplementing St. Thomas Aquinas’ Trinitarian Christology with the theory of sacramental character as proposed by Matthias Scheeben, a truly Trinitarian understanding of the sacramental economy can be illustrated. Within the paper, I will begin by summarizing Aquinas’ explanation of the divine missions and his application of this theology to the hypostatic union of the Incarnation. In turning to the sacraments, I will suggest places where there may be gaps in the application of the theory of the divine missions, going on to lay out Scheeben’s theory of the sacramental character related to hypostatic union as a potential remedy. I will then summarize the Trinitarian elements of the sacramental system as proposed by this synthesis of Aquinas and Scheeben and address possible areas of discrepancy. I will conclude with several consequences, questions, and challenges I see arising from such a synthesis.