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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2009 /  ' ... sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit'

by Fr. Earl Muller, S.J. special to The Michigan Catholic
Published May 8, 2009

Fr. Earl Muller, S.J.

The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" begins its treatment of the sacrament of confirmation by noting its place with baptism and the Eucharist as together constituting the "sacraments of Christian initiation" (1285). The very next sentence speaks of confirmation as "necessary for the completion of baptismal grace" (cf. also 1288). The term used in the West for this sacrament, "confirmation," itself suggests that "this sacrament both confirms baptism and strengthens baptismal grace" (1289). The effects of the sacrament, which are named in the third section of the Catechism's treatment of confirmation, underscores this connection with baptism: it "brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace" (1303); "Like baptism which It completes, confirmation is given only once" (1304); the permanent "character" conferred by the sacrament "perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in baptism" (1305).

For several centuries in the early Church the initiation sacraments were conferred at the same time in a series of rituals culminating in the Eucharistic feast. The number and variability of those rituals (several anointings, immersion, signing, several impositions of hands) and the way in which their symbolisms overlapped together with the general lack of patristic discussion of the distinction between baptism and confirmation (originally conferred with the imposition of hands, very soon conferred with an anointing with oil) make it difficult to trace out the precise development of the sacrament of confirmation and assign it the precise sort of meaning of the sort associated with other sacraments. In addition, the close connection of confirmation with baptism and the effects of baptism has occasioned some confusion about the precise meaning and import of this sacrament throughout the centuries, a confusion that in some measure persists to this day.

Scholarly interest in confirmation was awakened in the 19th and early 20th centuries among Anglican scholars who generally took two sorts of position. The question was whether baptism was to be understood as primarily remitting sin and confirmation as conferring the gift of the Holy Spirit (in which case the meaning and importance of the sacrament of confirmation is clear) or whether baptism also involves an indwelling by the Holy Spirit (in which case the distinctiveness of the sacrament of confirmation becomes less clear). Catholic doctrine clearly requires the latter position since baptism bestows sanctifying grace which necessarily entails an indwelling by the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The question of the distinctiveness of confirmation becomes paramount for Catholic theology.

The language of completion in describing confirmation follows naturally from the place of confirmation in the initiation sacraments. The sequence of rituals in the early Church found its proximate completion (the ultimate completion is to be identified with the Eucharistic feast) in the imposition of hands or the signing or the anointing performed by the bishop after the immersion. The two ritual moments, immersion and presentation to the bishop for his action, became separated for practical reasons in the early Church - it became increasingly difficult for the bishop to be present at all the baptisms taking place in his diocese. The West solved the problem by separating the rituals; the East solved it by routinely delegating chrismation (the Eastern term for confirmation) to local pastors who continued to perform the initiation sacraments integrally.

This still leaves the question of the distinctiveness of confirmation unclear. Is it truly a sacrament distinct from baptism, with its own proper grace (and, if so, what is that grace), or is it merely the second half of what is effectively a single ritual action having a single (baptismal) effect? If the proper grace of confirmation is understood as a "perfection" or "completion" of baptism, as the Catechism indicates, then in what sense is baptism "imperfect" or "incomplete?"

Various strategies have been pursued in order to address this issue of the distinctiveness of confirmation from baptism.

Thomas Aquinas makes use of the stages of life to explain the relationship of the two sacraments: "Besides the movement of generation whereby man receives life of the body, there is the movement of growth, whereby man is brought to the perfect age. So therefore does man receive spiritual life in baptism, which is a spiritual regeneration: While in confirmation man arrives at the perfect age, as it were, of the spiritual life." The "imperfection" of baptism is relative insofar as it is the initiation of grace; the "perfection" of confirmation is the perfection of maturation. The East has a similar notion of chrismation as the sacrament of spiritual progress.

Several authors have looked to the matter of the sacrament, the chrism (or muron) which is used in the sacramental anointing. This chrism is distinguished from the oil of catechumens by the presence of balm (and aromatic herbs) which suggests that this added perfume constitutes the core of the symbol. This is the perfume or aroma of Christ which is perceived and participated in. If baptism confers life; confirmation confers a life well-lived. The theme of confirmation as perfecting baptism is supported in this approach.

Yet another approach looks to the event of Jesus' own baptism in the Jordan. It is noted that two distinct events take place: Jesus is baptized and then, after He comes up from the Jordan, He is anointed with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17; Mark 1:10-11; Luke 3:21-22). This anointing constitutes Him as the "Anointed One," the Messiah in Hebrew or Aramaic, the Christ in Greek, and marks the beginning of Christ's public ministry. On this view confirmation inserts us into the mission or anointing of Christ which is distinctive from Jesus' divine Sonship already manifest in his conception by the Holy Spirit and provides us with specific graces to accomplish that mission. A similar contrast can be made between the life of the disciples before and after the event of Pentecost. Prior to Pentecost the disciples seem closed in on themselves and focused on their own community; at Pentecost charismatic gifts are bestowed on them and the impulse to proclaim the Gospel boldly (Acts 1-2, cf. 4:31). This approach picks up on the first of the effects of confirmation mentioned by the Catechism which points to this special outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost (1302). A related understanding of confirmation is that it makes us "soldiers of Christ."

I would suggest yet another approach which looks to the coordination of all seven of the sacraments. The Eucharist is at the heart of the sacramental system; all the other sacraments flow from the real presence of Christ in His Church. The other six sacraments fall into two groups. The first are sacraments that deal specifically with sin and death - baptism, penance, the anointing of the sick. The death and resurrection of Christ, the paschal mysteries, figure prominently in their symbolism. The second group is rather focused on mission and vocation - confirmation, orders, matrimony. The Eucharistic community is nuptially ordered - Christ, the Bridegroom, is in union with His Bride, the Church. Matrimony signs this relationship forth directly. Orders consecrates a man to act "in the person of Christ," which is to say, in the person of the Bridegroom. This suggests that what confirmation accomplishes is to consecrate a person to act "in the person of the Church," which is to say, confirmation inserts the Christian into the full nuptial dignity and authority of the Bride of Christ who is the "helper fit for the man" (Genesis 2:18). If baptism conforms one to Christ, confirmation conforms one to the Church. This converges with the previous approach since the expectation would be that being conformed to the Church entails entering fully into the mission of the Church. Confirmation provides the graces to do this.

Fr. Earl Muller, S.J., is the Bishop Kevin M. Britt Chair in theology/Christology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit.