Friday, July 6, 2012
266. Why is this sacrament called Chrismation or Confirmation?
(Comp
266) It is called Chrismation (in the Eastern Churches: Anointing with holy
myron or chrism) because the essential rite of the sacrament is anointing with
chrism. It is called Confirmation because it confirms and strengthens baptismal
grace.
“In
brief”
(CCC 1316)
Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy
Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us
more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more
closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in
words accompanied by deeds.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC
1289) Very early, the
better to signify the gift of the Holy Spirit, an anointing with perfumed oil (chrism) was added to the laying on of
hands. This anointing highlights the name "Christian," which means
"anointed" and derives from that of Christ himself whom God
"anointed with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 10:38). This rite of anointing
has continued ever since, in both East and West. For this reason the Eastern
Churches call this sacrament Chrismation,
anointing with chrism, or myron which
means "chrism." In the West, the term Confirmation suggests that this sacrament both confirms baptism,
and strengthens baptismal grace.
On
reflection
(CCC 695) Anointing. The symbolism of anointing
with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit (Cf. 1 Jn 2:20:27; 2 Cor 1:21), to the
point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation,
anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called
"chrismation" in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be
grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy
Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit.
There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently
King David (Cf. Ex 30:22-32; 1 Sam 16:13). But Jesus is God's Anointed in a
unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ" (Cf. Lk 4: 18-19; Isa
61:1). The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the
angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to
the temple to see the Christ of the Lord (Cf. Lk 2:11, 26-27). The Spirit
filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of
healing and of saving (Cf. Lk 4:1; 6:19; 8:46). Finally, it was the Spirit who
raised Jesus from the dead (Cf. Rom 1:4; 8:11). Now, fully established as
"Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the
Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute - in their union
with the humanity of the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13; cf. Acts 2:36):
"the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's expression.
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