(36) Growing in Grace through the Sacraments (BC 33)

A husband and wife once met with a counselor. The wife explained that while the husband said he loved her, he never touched her. He never held her hand or hugged or kissed her. She believed that her husband loved her. But she couldn't sense it. And that troubled her.
We are sensory people. Our senses contribute to our knowledge. You might believe that the cake on a restaurant menu tastes good. You could probably even prove it by reading the ingredients and understanding the preparation procedures. But that's not the same as eating it.
The relationship between what we know and what we sense also applies to spiritual things. This is crucial for understanding Scripture's teaching on the sacraments. God "has added [sacraments] to the Word of the gospel to represent better to our external senses both what he enables us to understand by his Word and what he does inwardly in our hearts" (BC 33). The Sacraments are vital to our spiritual growth because, like the preached word, they communicate the gospel free grace and can cultivate a richer sense of God's love for us.