Video Transcript
Are Catholics superstitious? When people see things like statues and rosaries and these things over here, this stuff here… some people could be tempted to think that all these things are just superstitious. Let’s talk about it.
You see, superstition really is an unfounded belief and a connection between some action or event and a particular outcome. You know, we think things like walking under a ladder. Oh wait, no, no, no. Or spilling salt. Oops. Or stepping on a crack. Daddy. Don’t step on a crack. Seeing a black cat. This isn’t gonna be funny. Do you look like a black cat? Do I look like a black cat? No. These are things that for some reason we have this kind of sense of superstition that is going to create some bad event.
And then there are positive superstitions like wearing a certain jersey or not shaving your beard before the end of the season. It’s gonna have some type of positive outcome if we do this action. We believe in superstition or are being superstitious when we believe we have some type of control over an outcome by doing certain activities.
These things like statues and icons, rosaries, these are things that supplement our life as Catholics. And they’re called sacramentals. And they’re not superstition. Sacramentals are different than superstition, and so is faith. I’m grunting, grunting like my dad.
The catechism reminds us, paragraphs 1667, “Holy Mother Church has moreover instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.”
Sacramentals are different than superstition. We don’t have these things around us because we feel like they’ll make us lucky or that they affect some outcome. And also importantly, we don’t have sacramentals in our life because we’re trying to control things. Sacramentals ultimately bring us closer to Jesus, and this is because they dispose us they open us up to receiving sacramental grace through the sacraments.
Filling our lives and our homes with sacramentals remind us of Jesus, remind us of the grace of the sacraments, and they draw us closer to that life. In Christ, sacramentals open us up to receiving grace from Jesus through the sacraments, and they help us orient our lives towards Christ.
Think of Sacramentals as these guideposts that point us back to Jesus and the Church and the sacraments. They aid us on our journey in this life of Christ, and that’s why we can embrace sacramentals. Because God showers us with grace and prepares us to receive the sacraments through sacramentals.
