Jenae Long

LIB 130

Lorenz

5/21/2014

Final Essay

McBrien's three principles, sacramentality, mediation, and communion function as

foundations for Catholicism. We can find examples of sacramentality in Graham Greenes novel,

The Power and the Glory. We can find examples of mediation in Morris Wests novel, The

Devils Advocate. Finally, we can find examples of communion in William OMalleys novel,

The Place Called Skull.

Sacramentality is the notion that God is everywhere and in everything. You really just

have to look for God and appreciate all that has been created. They are often signs from or of

God. We see sacramentality in Graham Greenes novel, The Power and the Glory. In this novel,

the Whiskey Priest was on the lam because it was illegal to be a priest at the time. He gets caught

by a lieutenant, who ends up feeling bad for the whiskey priest and tries to get Padre Jose come

to hear his confession before he is to be executed, but Padre Jose refuses. The lieutenant still

wanted to do something for the whiskey priest, I should like to do something for you, the

lieutenant said. Ive brought you some brandy. Against the law? Yes, (Greene 206). The

actions of the lieutenant show sacramentality because he was showing the whiskey priest

kindness before he was to be executed. It was so uncharacteristic for someone in law

enforcement to show any kindness for a religious figure in this novel, especially the lieutenant

that caught the whiskey priest because he hated the church.

 Mediation is when you use someone, or something else to talk to or pray to God.

Catholics often use mediation as an extra effort in talking to God. Of the novels that we have

read in class, mediation can be found in Morris Wests The Devils Advocate. In The Devils

Advocate, Blaise Meredith was working to see if Giacomo Nerone was a saint. There was

evidence being explored, One is the cure of an elderly woman certified as suffering from

multiple sclerosis, the second is that of the mayor of Gemello Maggiore, who claims to have

been cured of a spinal injury incurred during the war, and the third is that of a child in the last

stages of meningitis who recovered after an application of a relic of Giacomo Nerone, (West

140). Because of Nerone, people are claiming to have been healed of whatever was ailing them.

Nerone was providing mediation to those people, which is why he was being looked at as a

candidate for sainthood.

Communion is participating with a group of people to have a relationship with God and

helping each other understand the message of God. There are many examples of communion in

each of the novels that we have read, but I think that the most important example comes from

William OMalleys The Place Called Skull. In a time of complete despair and pain, the men

interned at Dachau all worked together so that Paul Reiser could be ordained as a priest. This

took a lot of careful planning as well as gathering the materials that were needed for the

ordination. This made all of the men in the camp work together to be closer to God and it paid

off, A great stillness fell over the room as the priest of the Muenster diocese stepped forward

and, one by one, laid their hands on Pauls head and returned to their places, hands upraised.

Slowly, around the room, the other priests raised their hands in witness, and Piguet intoned, Tu

es sacerdos, in aeternum- You are a priest unto eternity. And a thousand voices responded,
Amen, (OMalley 223). From this excerpt, we see that the other priests that were present at

the time of Pauls ordination were a part of it. Many were working to get Paul closer to God.

McBrien's three principles, sacramentality, mediation, and communion function as

foundations for Catholicism. We can find examples of sacramentality in Graham Greenes novel,

The Power and the Glory with the lieutenant. We can find examples of mediation in Morris

Wests novel, The Devils Advocate with Giacomo Nerone. Finally, we can find examples of

communion in William OMalleys novel, The Place Called Skull with Paul Reiser and the other

priests interned at Dachau.