What happens to an object when it is blessed?

Most people have a gut feeling or knowledge that when an object is blessed it becomes different than other objects. By becoming blessed it becomes set apart. It becomes sacred, holy. The object is no longer ordinary, but becomes extraordinary and sacramental.
 
One of the first blessed objects that I remember receiving was a rosary. It was from my family. I must have been only 3 or 4 years of age. Even though I chewed the end of the crucifix up and would swing it around like I did my toys, there was something that stood out about this object. It could have been that my parents and older siblings asked me to treat it well and not play with it.
 
But, thinking back now I believe I learned the holiness of the object from how my family treated it. They would set everything else aside, they would all grab their rosaries and kneel in the living room and, with Dad leading, we would pray the rosary. The rosary’s use was different than other things we did. It reminded me of going to church.
 
So, what really happens to the object when it becomes holy? Does the object become changed? Is something inside it made different? I would argue yes, based on what we see in the sacraments.
 
Therefore, bear with me as I explain the sacraments a little.
 
The greatest of all blessings are the seven sacraments. When Jesus blesses the bread and wine along with the words of institution the objects are permanently changed. The substance is changed from ordinary bread and wine into Jesus’ body and blood. The substance becomes God himself Whom we are to receive so that we can be changed.
 
When a person is baptized, he or she becomes blessed by God and set apart for God. Though it’s the same person, that baptized person is permanently changed. When a baptized man and a baptized woman get married they are blessed by God in a special way and are thus set apart from all humanity until death. Their relationship becomes extraordinary, different from all other relationships.
 
In the other sacraments one, too, is blessed by God, made holy, set apart. God became man to bless us and make us like unto Himself. He gave us the sacraments for the purpose of making us into a new creation, a people set apart, so that we can enter into His life. “But you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).
 
Blessed objects are also called “sacramentals” meaning that they are like the sacraments, but not the sacraments. Sacramentals point us to God’s grace and make present God’s grace to us in some way. Though they are channels of God’s power, they are not as potent as the sacraments.
 
An image from the bible in Acts of the Apostles comes to mind: “So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them” (Acts 19:11-12).
 
These articles which had been blessed by Paul’s presence became agents and channels of God’s healing power. These sacramentals—as all sacramentals do—became signs of heaven, symbols of God’s goodness and perfect presence. Something in them makes them different than all other objects. Nevertheless, no sacramental becomes God like the Eucharist does. No sacramental is as powerful or graceful as the sacraments.
 
I remember when my oldest sister worked at a Catholic store. One day, two people came into the store innocently asking if the store sold black candles. In their conversation with my sister, she found out that they were Satanists. She asked them if they would be willing to take some blessed medals. I can’t remember if it was a St. Benedict’s medal or the Miraculous medal which she gave to one of them. Immediately the guy handed it back because it “burned” his hand. She also asked them to dip their fingers in the holy water at the entrance of the store, but immediately the other told the first not to touch it because it was “dangerous.”
 
The things that touched St. Paul became extraordinary. So, too, when objects are blessed by the apostles’ successors, they are changed into channels of grace. The works of God are quite extraordinary. He takes ordinary stuff and makes it into something which brings people closer to Him.
 
Therefore, let us often make use of sacramentals—holy water, crucifixes, images of Jesus, Mary and the saints, rosaries, scapulars and novenas. But, most of all, let us remember the Persons whom they point us to—the Most Holy Trinity who was in the beginning, is now, and will be for all ages to come.
 
Fr. Evinger is pastor of St. Joseph in Killdeer, St. Paul in Halliday and St. Joseph in Twin Buttes. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to [email protected] with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.