Swear to God: The Promise and
Power of the Sacraments by Scott
Hahn
Inspiring, Informative, Intelligent And Very Enjoyable To Read
The most solemn, majestic, and beautiful gifts that Jesus Christ gave to
the world are His sacraments. He endowed them with unprecedented and
unparalleled power—power to change lives, save souls, and share God’s
very life. The sacraments are the ordinary means by which God directs the
course of each human life and all of world history.
The Church celebrates seven sacraments: baptism, Eucharist,
confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, confession, and anointing of the sick.
Each was established by Jesus for the sake of salvation. When Jesus
spoke of the sacraments, He made clear 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).
In Swear to God, Dr. Scott Hahn explores the richness of Christ’s
sacraments—their doctrine, history, symbols, and rituals. Drawing upon
the Bible and the Church’s tradition, he shows how God’s covenants—with
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David—became the driving forces in
history. When Jesus came to fulfill all these covenants, He established a
new covenant, with greater power than ever before. Christians are God’s
children now. Joined to Christ by baptism, we can already share in the
eternal life of the Trinity, a life we hope to know fully in heaven. But heaven
is with us, even now, in the sacraments.
Personal Review: Swear to God: The Promise and Power of the
Sacraments by Scott Hahn
Swear To God will not fail to disappoint, with the author's refreshingly
orthodox approach to the Catholic faith and Scripture scholarship. The
book focuses on the concept of the seven sacraments of the Catholic
Church instituted by Jesus Christ: Baptism, Penance, Holy Communion,
Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Extreme Unction. Hahn likens
each of the sacraments to an agreement or a covenant, similar to those
between God and His chosen people in Biblical times, between God and
the members of His Church.
Being a member of a Calvinist-Christian denomination that only recognised
two of the seven sacraments, Hahn admits he initially did not view the
sacraments as an integral part of salvation. He investigated further, only to
find he was being absorbed in a consuming appreciation and eventual love
for the sacraments. As his search led him to the writings of St Paul and the
Fathers of the early Church, Hahn found he was increasingly drawn to all
seven sacraments.
Hahn believes many Catholics today have forgotten, or in many cases
have simply never been taught, the awesome power of the sacraments as
"actions with ultimate consequences ... matters of life and death". He
seeks to remedy this situation by showing the amazing privilege that God
has given to Christians worldwide through the sacraments since the
beginning of history.
He defines the idea of a sacrament in terms of a covenant with God, which
akin to any other agreement has direct consequences. He then
demonstrates the continuity of covenants [sacraments] throughout Biblical
times. Hahn offers an overall insight into each sacrament in the early
chapters, then develops them individually and examines their various
aspects more fully in later chapters. But it is only through full and active

participation in the sacraments that their true meaning and sacredness as
a direct communication with God can come to fruition. He writes, "in
baptism, in the Mass, at our marriage, and in every sacrament we
celebrate, we invoke the name of the Lord, and we bind ourselves by
covenant oath. We swear not by our name, but by God's [name] ... we
pledge ourselves to obey the Word of God, as revealed in Scripture and
Tradition. We have bound ourselves to a covenant, and every covenant
implies a law."
Swear To God is a dynamic book which fully achieves its purpose of
showing Catholics and other Christians the unique and rich tradition of the
seven sacraments. It engages the reader with amusing and, at times, sad
anecdotes and memories all infused with a fervour for God and the
Catholic Church realised over the course of time and a remarkable
conversion journey.
Anyone seeking answers about the sacraments, or who, as Hahn himself
formerly was, is simply "bored" with the sacraments, will find this book hard
to resist.
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