
The Catholic worldview is a sacramental one, whereas the secular worldview is not. But what is sacramentality or a sacramental worldview? And how does a sacramental worldview change the way in which we see even the things of this world?
In order to answer these questions, we need to know how the Church defines a sacrament. What exactly is a "sacrament"? According to the broadest sense of the word, a sacrament is an outward sign that points to something sacred and hidden. The Greek word for the Latin sacramentum is μυστεριον (mysterion), which gives us the English word mystery. The word "mystery" in this sense refers to a truth that cannot be fully known through the light of human reason alone.
Our Catholic Faith is full of mysteries. We call these The Divine Mysteries. And of all these Catholic mysteries, the greatest and highest one is the mystery of the Three Persons of the one God, the Most Holy Trinity. However, Holy Mother Church refers to another mystery as The Great Mystery. She calls it "The Mystery of Faith": Mysterium Fidei. This is the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
In the Traditional Latin Mass, the words "the Mystery of Faith" are present in the very Consecration of the Precious Blood itself. The traditional words of consecration are:
Hic est enim calix Sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testameni: MYSTERIUM FIDEI: qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum.
The English translation would be:
For this is the Chalice of My Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal testament (covenant) — THE MYSTERY OF FAITH — which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins.
These words of Consecration make it clear that the Holy Eucharist (and especially that part of the Mass that is known as the Consecration: the transformation of the bread and wine into the Precious Body and Blood of Christ) is the central Mystery of Faith. This is exactly what a sacramental worldview is all about.
A worldview that is sacramental is one in which the physical and/or material things of this world represent or signify (or, in the case of the Holy Eucharist, actually are) a spiritual, invisible reality that transcends this world. Thus, as Catholics, we know that things are not just what they appear to be on the surface, or even that they are not primarily what they appear to be. The bread and wine, once consecrated, are the Body and Blood of Christ: they are no longer bread and wine — despite the fact that they retain the physical properties of bread and wine (appearance, taste, texture, etc).
A sacramental worldview, which is properly Catholic (although the Eastern Orthodox share in this worldview with us), is one that recognizes that there are truths that transcend our senses and that cannot be fully grasped solely through the light of human reason. These transcendent truths are what the Church calls mysteries of faith in the fullest sense.
One of the dangers in the contemporary world is that it is a world that is so scientifically and technologically advanced that it tends to limit reality to the scope of what can be seen, experienced through the senses, or measured through the modern scientific method. If I don't see it, it doesn't exist. If I can't measure it or put it in a test tube and scientifically analyse it, it's not really there. This non-sacramental worldview is contrary to the Catholic truth that we profess every Sunday and on high feasts in the Creed:
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipoténtem, factórem cæli et terræ, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium.
Or in English:
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things, visible and invisible.
Believing in invisible realities along with visible ones is a sacramental worldview par excellence. And the Most Blessed Sacrament is the most tangent and powerful expression of this worldview, for in the Holy Eucharist we see what looks like bread and wine, we taste what tastes like bread and wine.... and yet we know that it is not bread and wine but the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Our God. This is why Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament helps us to enter into the sacramental worldview of the Catholic Faith more than does anything else.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament here on earth is the sacramental equivalent of adoring the real presence of Jesus Christ in Heaven. Adore Jesus frequently in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and you will learn how to "see the invisible" through the eyes of Faith.