The Sacrament as an "Instrument" of Christ

            Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father yet he still imparts grace through the sacraments.This sacramental reality is most perfectly understood through the philosophical principle of instrumental causality. Instrumental causation occurs when an instrument is used to produce a cause that is higher than itself through the direction of a superior cause. Take for example the work of a sculpture. To sculpt a statue the artists must make use of a chisel to carve the marble. The chisel by itself is unable to sculpt a statue; rather the chisel carves the statue under the direction of the principle cause, the artists, resulting in something greater than the chisel could ever produce by itself. Likewise it is only God who imparts grace through the sacraments. It can thus be said that the sacraments are like the chisel in the artist’s hands. The sacraments are the instrumental cause of God’s imparting of grace.
            Understanding the sacraments as instruments used by God makes it clear that the sacraments are efficacious not by the worthiness of the minister but by the desire of God. The efficacy of the sacraments comes in virtue of the fact that Christ is the principle minister who uses the sacramental sign as an instrumental cause to impart grace.
           The sacraments are said to work ex opera operato or by the work signified. The minister works as an instrumental cause used by God, the principle cause, to impart grace in a similar manner to the sculptor who uses the chisel to create a statue. Similarly a sculpture using a chisel, no matter how sharpness of the chisel, is able to sculpt through the work of the chisel likewise as long as the minister does what the Church and thus Christ intends Christ, is able to impart grace through the instrumental cause, the minister, no matter his worthiness.