REVIVISCENCE OF THE SACRAMENTS. — In modern theology, a Sacrament which, although validly received, has not produced Grace because of a moral indisposition (the lack of the state of Grace or of attrition), and which subsequently, once the moral impediment has been removed, confers Grace by virtue of the rite previously administered, is said to revive.
From this principle it follows that, for r., various conditions must be verified: 1) on the part of the subject, the removal of the obice or moral indisposition; 2) on the part of the Sacrament: a) that it be valid and unfruitful (validum et informe), that is, without the supernatural effect which is Grace, because if the Sacrament is invalid, it does not exist, and what does not exist cannot act; if it is fruitful, this is no longer a case of r., but of the immediate conferral of Grace; b) that the external rite (the matter and form of the Sacrament) have ended, because if the sacramental sign still remains (e.g., if someone repents of mortal sins before the rite of Confirmation has ended), there is not r., but the ordinary conferral of Grace; c) that the external rite, once completed, leave some effect in the soul, because r. implies a true efficacy of the external rite, which would be inconceivable if, at the moment when it was administered, it did not leave some ontological imprint or vestige: only an existing reality can produce an effect; 3) on the part of God, it is required that he will to confer Grace also by this extraordinary means.
Therefore r. occurs only with those Sacraments in which the foregoing conditions are realized; since three of them are verified in all the Sacraments (with the exception of Penance)—the removal of the moral impediment, the validity of the unfruitful Sacrament, and the cessation of the external rite—it is necessary to determine whether the other two (the persistence of some effect and God’s will to give Grace by an extraordinary means) are also realized. The persistence of a real effect (the character) is verified in Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders; likewise, the positive will of God to confer Grace by an exceptional means is inferred from the fact that otherwise original sin could not be remitted in one who receives Baptism unworthily (in this sense s. Agostino and s. Fulgenzio already expressed themselves: cf. Rouet de Journel, Enchiridion Patristicum, nn. 1621, 2269; s. Gregorio Magno: cf. Denz-U. 249), and that in Confirmation and Orders the faithful would remain deprived of those Graces which are morally necessary for the fulfillment of the duties of their state.
As regards Extreme Unction and Matrimony, on the one hand the persistence of an « interior unctio » and of a « vinculum coniugale », which make an impression upon the soul, is noted (indeed, in every voluntarily performed act a modification of the soul takes place); on the other hand, the divine will is inferred, since, if there were no r., the faithful would remain deprived of necessary helps at the moment of death and in married life.
Only Penance and the Eucharist probably cannot revive; the former because, according to the more probable opinion, it cannot be a « valid and unfruitful » sacrament, and the latter because this would derogate from the norm of divine action. Indeed, on the hypothesis of the r. of the Eucharist, a member of the faithful who throughout his life received Communion sacrilegiously would at the end, through a simple act of attrition expressed in the Sacrament of Penance, receive as many increases of Grace as there had been sacrileges committed: the repugnance of this conclusion is evident.
The Sacraments that revive produce Grace « ex opere operato » (v. SACRAMENTI). It is debated whether this production occurs through physical or moral causality; the Thomistic doctrine of physical efficacy seems more probable, all the more so because in the five Sacraments that revive there is an ontological element (the character or a real modification of the soul), which can become a physical instrument of God, the principal cause of Grace.
In 1925 Marin-Sola gave a more elaborate theological explanation of r., starting from the Thomistic principle of the baptismal character as a « receptive power » in relation to the other Sacraments. Every validly performed sacramental administration, according to the principle established, implies an actualization of the « potentia receptiva », which consequently remains ontologically modified. This modification follows the nature of the Sacrament received: perpetual in the non-repeatable Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Orders), temporary in Extreme Unction and Matrimony, momentary in Penance and the Eucharist. This would explain why the three Sacraments of the character always revive; Extreme Unction and Matrimony only during the same illness or while the same marital bond continues; and the final two never. Although this theory presents weak points, it has been accepted by distinguished theologians.