Sacrament of Confirmation (Week 12)

Confirmation:

A Deepening of Our Christian Identity

by Carol Luebering

My father, Leo, didn't get a middle name at Baptism. We kids teased that his parents had simply run out of names. He was the last of a very large family. (More likely, the lack had to do with the custom of their immigrant community.) The middle initial he used throughout his adult life stood for his Confirmation name, Peter. Using the initial as part of his name was very fitting, for the Sacrament of Confirmation is as much a part of our Christian identity as Baptism. It was fitting, too, that he bore the names of two popes. Confirmation, administered by the bishop or his delegate, is a personal experience of belonging to a large family of believers.

Older Catholics remember Confirmation as the moment when their identity was changed: They "received the Holy Spirit" and became "soldiers of Christ." Today Confirmation is often defined as a sacrament of mature Christian commitment. It is the occasion when young people baptized as infants put their "personal signature" on their parents' decision.

But the bishops have fixed the age for Confirmation in the United States at "between seven and 17." Can "commitment" mean the same thing to a second-grader and a high school senior? This Update will explore the rich meaning of the Sacrament of Confirmation by looking at it in terms of our Christian identity.

Acquiring Christian identity

Our earliest ancestors in faith did not distinguish Confirmation from Baptism. The apostle presiding over the little community baptized new members, anointed them with oil and offered them the Eucharist for the first time in one rite of initiation. (The same thing happens today at the Easter Vigil when catechumens are initiated.)

As the Church grew and spread throughout the world, the apostles' successors, the bishops, could no longer personally baptize every new Christian. They delegated the rite to priests. Still, the bishops made regular visits to local communities to confirm the priests' Baptisms with a second anointing. Thus a separate sacrament was born.

Confirmation is still, with Baptism and Eucharist, a sacrament of initiation. TheCatechism of the Catholic Church insists that the unity of the three sacraments "must be safeguarded" (#1255), even though children do not receive them at the same time.

The Catechism describes Confirmation as a deepening of baptismal gifts. It says that the sacrament roots us more deeply in our identity as God's children; unites us more firmly with Christ; increases in us the gifts of the Holy Spirit; binds us more closely to the Church; and gives us special strength to bear witness to our faith (see #1303).

With Baptism and Eucharist, Confirmation shapes us as Catholic Christians. Each of these sacraments focuses on a different aspect of our life as believers: birth, breath and nourishment.

Baptism is birth into the family of the Church. In the baptismal font we die and rise to new life in Christ. Parents bring an infant to the font because they want more for the child than physical life. They come to ask the fullness of life that only Christ can give. When infant baptismal symbolism is at its best, a baby is lowered beneath the water into the death of Jesus and rises again, gasping with eternal life.

Inhale, exhale: That's the essential rhythm of life; it's the first thing a newborn must do to survive. The breath of Christian life is the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God dwelling within us. First received at Baptism, the gift of the Spirit is celebrated more fully in Confirmation. It's like taking a more grown-up breath.

Besides breath, a newborn needs nourishment in order to survive. Living and breathing, once established, continue without conscious thought. But the need for food demands our attention frequently. The food we eat is the very stuff of which our bodies are made. Without it babies can't grow and grown-ups can't maintain healthy bodies. Just so, we need the nourishment of Eucharist frequently. We became members of Christ's Body when we were baptized, but the Eucharist nourishes our growth and keeps us healthy members of Christ.

Discovering Christian identity

Adults adopt many names besides those given by their parents at Baptism. We define ourselves by citing the relationships, jobs and interests that are important to us. We identify ourselves as Jeff's Dad, Mrs. Luebering, Jill's or Greg's friend. We say we are a New Yorker or an Iowan, a Republican or a Democrat, a union member, stockbroker, homemaker, pro-lifer, Big Brother, Pink Lady.

An infant, on the other hand, begins first to grow into an identity given by others. In a matter of months—about the time parents have stopped saying "the baby" and started speaking of Chris or George or Maria—a little one responds to the sound of his or her name. A family name is a greater hurdle. It takes much more than a few months for a child to learn it, much less to come to some understanding of what it means to be a Sanchez or a Shea or a Sekitei.

It takes time, too, for a youngster to grasp the realities of larger identities. A sense of racial, ethnic or national belonging comes slowly. It is absorbed over the years from celebrations and stories: Fourth of July fireworks and Thanksgiving pageants, ethnic foods and festivals, tales of immigrant struggles and the pain of discrimination.

A child born into the Church undergoes a similar learning process. Slowly the child discovers what it means to be Catholic from shared stories and customs. The Christmas creche and the crucifix on the bedroom wall, family prayer and Sunday Mass, Jesus' name on a parent's lips and attending more formal religion classes: All these things and more teach children who they are in God's sight, as members of God's family.

Preparation for Confirmation includes learning to articulate what it means to be a Catholic Christian: the faith we express in Creed and lifestyle. Confirmation has long been delayed until a baptized infant could reach some understanding of these things—at least until the age of reason (about seven) and often until the approach of adolescence.

The Church to which parents brought an infant for Baptism is, of course, larger than anyone's personal experience. It is larger than a circle of believing friends, larger than the parish community in which a youngster has been growing up. It reaches not only to Rome, but also to the interior of Africa, the scattered Philippine Islands, the remote villages of Central America.

Modern communications have shrunk the world beyond the wildest imaginings of previous generations. All through a child's life come images of the Church from around the world: the Church's efforts to feed starving children in distant countries, papal travels, debates between bishops and government bodies.

Today's Confirmation candidates, even the youngest ones, probably have a better sense of Christian identity than any recent generation. Young people are ready to stand before a representative of the larger Church—the bishop or his delegate—and be anointed with the perfumed oil (chrism) blessed by the bishop at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday. They can say with knowledge they lacked as newly baptized infants, "Yes, this is my Church. I accept the faith of this Church as my faith. This is who I am."

"Who are you?" is a question we first answer with our name. Catholics have traditionally chosen a Confirmation name. It may be the name of a canonized saint or a hero whose life inspires a youngster. Or it may be a personal affirmation of the name given at Baptism.

Affirming Christian identity

Sooner or later, every youngster has to come to personal terms with his or her birthright identity. It's one thing to know the traditions of a family, a people or a Church. It's another to choose them, to claim that identity.

"Owning" the identity conferred at birth doesn't always come easily. For example, most young children cherish an "adoption fantasy," a conviction that they were really born to better parents. (Adopted children idealize their birth parents.) All kids at some time wish they'd been born into a different family—into the household down the street where fewer rules are imposed or to a friend's more understanding parents. And adolescence begins the new and difficult (for parents and child alike!) task of establishing an identity as a separate and independent adult.

Sometimes the heritage gets dumped. Most often, the next generation follows in the footsteps of the generations before. At the same time, few people accept their heritage without reshaping it to fit their own personality and experience, to fit the reality of the world they know. That's especially true with religious belief. The Church into which your child was baptized has undergone enormous change in the last few decades.

Vatican II may be ancient history to today's children—even to their parents—but its effects are still rippling through Catholic life and theology. The world is changing, too. Today's kids learn to use a computer as early as they wield a pencil; they cruise the information highway with enviable ease. What does it mean to affirm the baptismal commitment in a fast-changing world?

Human commitment is always a signature on a blank check. The vows made on a wedding day have to be rethought and remade many times over the years. Our faith commitment undergoes similar stress and change. Every time we brush against mystery—the wonder of birth, the pain of loss, the frustrations of everyday life—our concept of God changes a bit. We have to choose belief all over again.

Like the rest of us, today's Confirmation candidate will continue to search for a better sense of divine reality until the day when eternal light explodes on newly opened eyes on the other side of the grave. Pledging faith to God is more a lifetime effort than a one-time action. It is therefore very difficult to speak of Confirmation as a sacrament of "mature" commitment. As theCatechism warns, maturity in faith cannot be measured by age (see #1308).

Life is strewn with broken promises, a fact every child learns early and every adult acknowledges sadly. But we keep on making and receiving promises because we believe that commitment is possible. And that belief rests on our faith that one promise, at least, will never be broken: God's commitment to us. Confirmation is the "seal" of God's promise. It marks us as God's property, a people set apart.

Church law requires, when possible, Confirmation before the sacraments of commitment—Marriage and Orders—because we believe in a God who keeps promises, whose faithful promises provide the security from which we can promise fidelity.

In Catholic tradition Confirmation is indeed a sacrament of commitment, but the commitment we celebrate was God's before it was ours. It is much less a sacrament of human commitment than a sacrament of faith in God's fidelity to us.

Living Christian identity

Believers have the Spirit, our God-breath, from Baptism. But the Spirit who was a soft, life-sustaining breath in an infant is, at Confirmation, the breath behind speech. The Spirit is the power to raise our voices in witness.

Witness in the early Church often meant putting life on the line. From "witness" in Greek comes our word martyr. Believers are still dying for their faith in our world. But today witness frequently refers to vocalized faith and evangelistic fervor, in the best, most positive sense of these words. Witness implies enthusiastic testimony to what the Lord has done in each of our lives.

Witness was first (and still is) a legal term, a description of someone who testifies to what he or she knows from personal experience. And that is the reality of Christian witness in every generation. Whether expressed by a martyr's death, in enthusiastic words or in quiet, everyday concern for others' needs, Christian witness is believers' testimony to what they know: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is life and hope for all the world.

Children learn from infancy how people of faith take the stand in today's world. They hear quiet prayers and stories of Jesus; they see consolation offered for a child's skinned knee and a neighbor's loss. They watch adults give themselves in service to the community and to the needy. TV brings far-flung witness into the living room: papal visits and famine relief efforts, missionaries slain in distant lands and hometown residents putting their lives at risk to save a child from a burning building.

Formal religious training acquaints them with the Church's heroes, the saints. This, in turn, demands from older children some form of service as a sign of readiness for Confirmation.

In a court of law, giving witness is an end, not a beginning. No one expects the observer to learn more about the facts to which he or she testifies; no one expects the witness to offer fresh testimony once the case is closed. Christian witness is different. The case of Jesus Christ is far from closed; the strength of his witness and evidence that his followers offer have been mounting for 2,000 years.

Confirmation, like the other sacraments of initiation, marks the beginning of a journey toward deeper knowledge of God. Our Confirmation candidates join us in claiming our heritage. For years to come, they will bear witness to what loving and believing people have handed on to them—all in the Spirit of God.

Sacrament of Baptism (Week 12)

The Sacrament of Baptism: Celebrating the Embrace of God

by Sandra DeGidio, O.S.M.

Wendy was 12, Rick was 9, Joel was 6 and Karleen was 2. They were all from one family whose parents had been away from the Church for several years. Now Mom and Dad were returning and the four children were being baptized at the same time.

The whole family had spent several months preparing for their return and for the celebration, which took place at the parish Sunday Eucharist. The homily which preceded the ritual emphasized the seriousness of Baptism and that it calls us to live the faith that we profess in the rite.

As the baptismal rite began, the family and their sponsors gathered around the font, and the presider addressed the children. "You and your parents and sponsors have spent a long time preparing for this day. Is it your desire to be baptized?" As the three older children responded with an affinnative answer, 2-year-old Karleen shouted, "NO!"

There was an audible community chuckle at the little one's spontaneity, followed quickly by a visible sense of seriousness.

The youngster's response carried more import than might be initially thought. Children have an uncanny way of cutting quickly to the essence of theology. Although moments later Karleen changed her response to "Yes," her "No" serves to remind us that Baptism is, after all, not to be taken lightly. In a sense Karleen was saying, "Wait a minute, this is serious business, I gotta think about it!" In so doing, she made everyone else think a second time, too.

A lifelong journey

Baptism is a serious step—a step we spend much time getting ready for. We get new clothes, we get a candle to light the way, water to help us grow, oil for strength, even companions for the journey. But that is only the beginning of a much longer journey, a lifetime journey of commitment and discipleship. Our journey begins with an invitation, a call from God through the Christian community to live the gospel as committed disciples of Christ. When we accept the invitation, that call and response are ritualized and made visual and "real" for us in the celebration of Baptism.

In the Church of the first three centuries adult Baptism was the norm. Those who were interested in Christianity were invited to join the Christian community on a journey of faith. Those who accepted the invitation became candidates for the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist). The candidates were called catechumens and entered into a step-by-step process toward full membership in the Church. This process was called the catechumenate. Joining the Church in the early centuries was no easy matter. The baptismal commitment was not to be taken lightly.

The entire Church would pray for and with the catechumens, instructing them in gospel values, sharing with them the faith life of the Church and celebrating the stages of their faith journey with special rituals of welcoming and belonging. A person's coming to faith—or conversion to Christianity—was looked upon as a community responsibility.

The final Lent before the initiation was a special time for catechumens. It was like a 40-day retreat including prayer, fasting and other forms of self-scrutiny as they prepared to accept the faith and be received in the Church. Lent started out as the Church's official preparation for Baptism which was celebrated only once a year at the Easter Vigil. That is why the Scripture readings for the liturgies of Lent and Easter are so heavily filled with baptismal allusions.

Unfortunately, this beautiful, community-supported journey to faith was short-lived. With the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 313, joining the Christian Church became fashionable, the thing to do. The standards of the catechumenate were relaxed, and people were simply baptized on request.

By the beginning of the fifth century, the catechumenate process itself had virtually disappeared. The sacraments of initiation became three separate sacraments celebrated at separate times. Soon adult Baptisms declined, infant Baptism became the norm and the process and theology of Christian initiation of adults as practiced in the early Church became a lost art.

In some instances, infant Baptism became a routine ritual bordering on magic. It is our firm Catholic belief that the Sacrament of Baptism expresses the wonderful gift of God by which we are "made holy," become "children of God" and "temples of the Holy Spirit." We must take care, however, not to restrict God's gift to one single moment (the pouring of water) or overlook that part of the sacrament that is our lifelong response to God's gift.

Broadening our view of Baptism

Baptism—and all sacraments, for that matter—are much more than the moment of celebration. They neither begin nor end with the liturgical ritual. They are celebrations of lived experiences. They exist before, during and after the celebration.

The ritual of Baptism does not bring God's love into being as if that love did not exist before the ceremony. Baptism is the Church's way of celebrating and enacting the embrace of God who first loved us from the moment of our conception. Baptism is a ritualization and manifestation of something real—of the outpouring of God's Spirit and of our acceptance of that transforming love. It remains for us to grow into what we already are: daughters and sons of God. Baptism celebrates a family's and a community's experience of that love in the baptized.

There are other life experiences—birth, death, washing, growing and so forth—that are celebrated in Baptism. The sacrament is multifaceted, as is revealed in the Scripture references and the symbols of Baptism. Let's look at these symbols and the Scripture passages from which they originate.

Water and spirit

Water is the obvious symbol that we associate with Baptism, representing life, death, cleansing and growth.

It is interesting that our initiation process begins with water just as the beginning of time portrayed in the very first pages of Scripture also begins with water—chaotic waters that are put into order by the Spirit hovering over them. That life-death meaning of water continues through the pages of Scripture. Consider, for example, the flood waters of Noah's day and the saving waters of the Red Sea parted by Moses. Those waters of the Red Sea, even if they killed the Egyptians, opened the way for the Israelites to pass from slavery to freedom, and later crossing one more body of water (the river Jordan) to pass into the Promised Land.

In the New Testament, then, it is appropriate that John the Baptizer baptized in the Jordan River, symbolizing that the baptized were also to leave the slavery of sin for the freedom of a new Promised Land. Nor is it without significance that Jesus began his ministerial journey by being baptized in the Jordan, and that the Spirit was present.

Then there are the references to fruitful, life-giving waters offered by the prophets. For example, speaking for Yahweh, Ezekiel announces: "I will sprinkle clean water on you and...give you a new heart" (see 36:24 ff), and Isaiah promises, "I will pour out my spirit on your children" (44:3). In the Acts of the Apostles, we see how the Spirit of Jesus, poured out on the new Church at Pentecost, brings order and strength (Acts 1 and 2).

Water and Spirit are strong and important symbols of Baptism. To be baptized is to be plunged into the waters and to open oneself to the Spirit of Jesus. To be baptized is to have the Spirit help us make order out of the chaos of the sinful world into which we are born. To be baptized is to be welcomed into the Church (the new promised land) and to be nourished there as we journey with each other and with Jesus in his ministry.

New life, new birth, new light

To be baptized is to be given new birth and new life (John 3:5). It is interesting to note that some of the early baptismal fonts had the shape of "a womb," to emphasize the new birth/new life aspect of the sacrament.

This image is related to the darkness-light theme that is also associated with Baptism (Hebrews 6:4). In birth we emerge from the darkness of the womb to the bright light of a new world. Some early initiation liturgies had the baptismal candidates first turn to the west—where the sun sinks into darkness—to renounce Satan, and then turn to the east—the direction of dawning light—to accept Christ.

The new life motif of Baptism is intimately associated with Christ's passion, death and resurrection. In discourses with his disciples regarding his approaching death, Jesus said, "I have a baptism to receive. What anguish I feel till it is over!" (Luke 12:50). When asking James and John if they really knew what they were requesting by wanting to sit at his side, he asked if they were ready to share in his death. "Have you the strength...to be baptized with the baptism I am to be baptized with?" (Mark 10:38). Paul reiterates Jesus' questions when he asks: "Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?...we were buried with him so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead...we too might live a new life" (Romans 6:3).

It is not an accident that the baptismal liturgy of the year is the Easter Vigil, the grand celebration of Christ's Resurrection. Through Baptism we become an "easter people." The giving of a candle lighted from the paschal candle helps spell out this reality. It is also the way that the Church, through baptismal sponsors who represent the total community, "passes the torch" of Christian commitment to those being baptized.

Off with the old, on with the new

Baptism ushers us into a new era. We no longer need be slaves to sin. We put our allegiance with God and good (Romans 6 and Colossians 3:9). To symbolize this old/new theme, the newly baptized is dressed in a white garment during the ritual of Baptism.

In the early Church, the newly initiated were expected to wear the white garment and keep it unsoiled for the 50 days of Easter. Today, in most cases, it has become a symbol that is present only for the duration of the ritual and then is packed away with other family memorabilia. Among other things, the white garment symbolizes the Church's belief that Baptism sets us free from Original Sin.

But just what is Original Sin? The Church continues to insist on this doctrine and upon the reality of evil in the world—a point clearly echoed in our daily newspapers. The killings, violence, greed and dishonesty we see mirrored in the media are reminders that all human beings inherit the sinful tendencies and structures passed on to us by previous generations, beginning with our first parents.

Part of the beauty of Baptism is its assurance that through this sacrament we share in Christ's victory over the power of darkness in the world. Yet, the doctrine of Original Sin does not eclipse the good news that God's mercy and saving love are stronger than the power of sin—even before the baptismal waters are poured. In other words, we must be careful not to look upon unbaptized infants and adults as outside the scope of God's saving power.

Tad Guzie comments on similar issues in The Book of Sacramental Basics(New York: Paulist Press, 1981): "The doctrine of Original Sin as we have inherited it developed only gradually. No one will deny the truth about the reality of evil that it affirms. We are certainly born into an ambiguous world where the force of sin impinges on us as quickly as the force of love. And we are certainly born with inner tendencies which, once they become conscious, show a propensity for selfishness as much as for self-giving. But in addition to this dimension of life which the doctrine of Original Sin has rightly recognized, we also need to be attentive to what it has left unsaid. God loves us from the first moment of our conception."

Baptism as future-oriented

It has already been said that Baptism is initiation into the mission and ministry of Christ (1 Peter 2). Like Christ, baptismal candidates are anointed for this purpose. They are anointed with the oil of catechumens and the chrism of Christ's salvation. As such they are strengthened for the lifetime journey of commitment to discipleship with Christ.

To be a disciple is to be a learner, a journeyer with others who learn together along the way. Discipleship is built on the concept of Church as a community of followers who support one another in sharing the Spirit and mission of Christ as found in the New Testament. It suggests that life is not a static condition, but a continual movement toward making real the actions of Jesus in today's world.

That's what we agree to when we say "Yes" to Baptism. We publicly acknowledge that we have been chosen, marked and set on our way. Most of the real business of Baptism comes after the ceremony.

Baptism and babies

All of this is pretty heady stuff, especially when considered in light of baptizing babies. The largest percentage of Baptisms in our Church are still infant Baptisms, even though the process of faith and conversion is essentially an adult experience and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is now the norm in the Catholic Church. So what does all of this mean for those infants?

Obviously, infants cannot respond immediately to the call/response aspect of the sacrament. Nor can an infant understand the change of allegiance, the putting off of the old and putting on of the new, the dying and rising, the new life, or the sharing in the life of Christ. However, the parents of those infants can understand and live those values and pass them on to their children. They can also experience the support of the community in living those ideals, and that is extremely important.

Infant Baptism only makes sense if parents are true Christian disciples. If they are not, then it makes little sense to initiate their children into a Church which calls for a commitment to living the mission of Christ.

The Rite of Baptism for Children emphasizes the importance of faithfulness on the part of parents when it says to parents: In asking to have your children baptized, "you are accepting the responsibility of training them in the practice of the faith." That word practice is crucial; it calls for Christian modeling on the part of parents.

Considering the future orientation of Baptism and the fact that we are marked for a lifelong journey of discipleship, it is important that parents be strong role models and lead the way. It is equally important that the children's sponsors (godparents) do the same. They are significant supporters of parents and the ones who can first begin to reveal to their godchildren the value of the Christian community.

Children learn to be Christian by osmosis, by experiencing Christianity at home. The "domestic church" prepares children for the local and world Church. It is in the home, in the domestic church, that children first learn basic trust which is the foundation of faith. Without the experience of faith, hope and commitment in the home, children will not be able to know and understand the larger Church.

Vatican II's Declaration on Christian Education points this out quite emphatically: "Since parents have given children life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied when it is lacking....It is particularly in the Christian family...that children should be taught from their early years to have a knowledge of God according to the faith received in Baptism, to worship him and to love their neighbor."

Baptism and the Christian community

Sacraments can only be spoken of in relational terms. The new sacramental rites repeatedly speak of how the sacraments effect a deeper "relationship" or greater "conformity" with Christ and with the Church.

Baptism happens not only to the individual, but also to Christ's body, the Church. That's why the rite insists that we celebrate Baptism in the Christian assembly, with the community present and actively participating. It is the community, after all, who is welcoming the new members, journeying with them, providing models for them, supporting and nourishing them.

Baptism begins with God's love and care revealed to us through Christ. It continues with us, the Church, living and enacting God's love and care through Christ to the world. That's a serious commitment.

Karleen reminded us of this when she shouted "No" to the idea of taking the Sacrament of Baptism too lightly. Perhaps her "No" can lead us to a fuller "Yes" in responding to the challenges of this sacrament.

Celebrating the Paschal Mystery of Christ (Week 11)

During his earthly ministry, Jesus preached and taught with authority and performed powerful healings and miracles through which he forgave sins and healed the wounds of sin.  In the Sacraments of the Church, Christ now continues the saving works he performed during his earthly life.  In the Sacraments, the Church offers to each of us the saving power of God in Jesus Christ for the healing of our whole person – spirit, soul, mind, and body – as we daily journey on faith with the community of believers.

1)    A sacrament may be defined as an “efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.  The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament.  They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions” (CCC 1131).

2)    Jesus Christ now lives and acts in the Church through the sacraments, by which we are invited to participate in the mystery of his life, death, and resurrection (CCC 1076).  We say the sacraments are efficacious because it is Christ himself at work in them: it is he who baptizes, he who forgives sins, he who acts in the sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each offers (CCC 1127-1129).

3)    The seven sacraments of the Church are the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist), the Sacraments of Healing (Confession/Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick), and the Sacraments of Service (Holy Orders, Matrimony).  We believe that Christ Jesus instituted the seven sacraments.

4)    The sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are called the “Sacraments of Initiation” because they are steps toward union with Christ and the Church.  The sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick are called “Sacraments of Healing,” as they heal soul, mind, and body.  The “Sacraments of Service” are Holy Orders and Matrimony, given for the service of the Church and the world.

5)    In every sacramental celebration, we are led to deeper communion with God the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Each of the sacraments was instituted by Christ so that we may continue to participate in the divine life of grace and forgiveness he brings.  Christ himself works in and through the visible rites and symbols of bread, wine, oil, and water taken from the world of creation.  Christ is the guarantee of the sacramental graces that transform us into children of God.

6)    In the sacraments, the Church “celebrates above all the Paschal Mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.  The mysteries of Christ’s life are the foundations of what he would offer in the sacraments, through the ministers of the Church, for what was visible in our Savior has past over into the sacraments” (CCC 1114-1116).

7)    The sacraments are “by the Church” and “for the Church.”  The Church is the primary sacrament, or sign, of Christ’s saving actions.  The sacraments are “for the Church” in that they “make” the Church, since they manifest the mystery of our communion with God (CCC 1117-1121).

8)    “The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify us, to build up the Body of Christ, and finally, to give worship to God.  They not only presuppose faith but they also nourish, strengthen, and express it.  That is why they are called ‘sacraments of faith’” (CCC 1122-1126).

9)    Sacraments express and signify the unity of faith within the Church.  For that reason, they may only be received by Catholics.

10) We celebrate the sacraments with signs and symbols (CCC 1145-1152), with words and actions (CCC 1153-1155), with singing and music (CCC 1156-1158), and – in liturgical time – Sundays and throughout the Liturgical Year (CCC 1163-1171).

  

For Personal Prayer

What is a sacrament?  A sign perceptible by the senses, more exactly, a symbolic action, made up of words and gestures, that effects what it symbolizes (CCC 1084).  For example, baptism consists essentially of pouring the blessed water three times, together with the words of the baptismal formula: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  What is performed in the outward rite has an inward effect: baptism effects what the baptismal liturgy signifies – purification from sin and rebirth to new life in Christ.

The sacraments have their roots in the life of Christ.  In his earthly life, Jesus often used signs and performed symbolic actions that illustrated his preaching (CCC 1151).  In his healings and miracles, in particular, we find a kind of “prototype” of his sacraments (CCC 547).  The Catechism highlights one example: the healing of the woman with the flow of blood.  The Gospels tell us that she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was immediately healed.  Our Lord for his part noticed that “power had gone forth from him” (Mk 5:30).  The sacraments continue now what Jesus did then (CCC 1115).  Through them and in them he “touches” us in order to heal us and give us his life.  The sacraments are the “powers that come forth” from the Body of Christ (CCC 1116).  In each sacrament we encounter Christ, as men once met him on earth.  He instituted the sacraments so that now, as the risen Lord, he might be with us in the lowly signs that are his sacraments.

Just as Christ then seemed insignificant to many people, as merely the carpenter’s son (CCC 423), so now his sacraments often make an impression of something unprepossessing to those who do not look on them with eyes of faith.  For the divinity of Christ was hidden then, just as now the divine power in the sacraments remains invisible.  We see water in Baptism, bread and wine on the altar, and yet in these visible signs the divine power of Christ invisibly efficacious.

In fact, we touch the invisible reality of the grace bestowed in the sacraments only when we have faith in Christ himself, who is in a certain way the primordial Sacrament (CCC 774): in his human words and deeds his divinity is invisibly present.  Our appreciation and feeling for the sacraments grow with our faith in Christ.

The Council says that the Church, too, is “like a sacrament” (CCC 775).  She, too, is “essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities” (CCC 771).  If we are to perceive in the often wretched outward form of the Church the divine life that pulses through her, we have to discover her as “Christ’s instrument”, as his “sacrament of salvation” (CCC 776), through which here and now he bestows healing and hallowing.  In all the situations in life, the individual sacraments unfold the one sacrament that is the Church.

Our Eternal Destiny (Week 10)

God desires that “all be saved and come to the knowledge of truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).  God’s desire for the salvation of every human person is the basis of our reflections on death, judgment, heaven, purgatory, hell, and eternal life with God.  Only in light of God’s unfailing offer of friendship and covenant love do we best understand Catholic beliefs about the “Last Things.”  In light of Jesus’ victory over death in His resurrection we have the certain hope of our eternal union with God.

Created by God, each one of us was made with the capacity to be in relationship with God, in communion with God and with one another.  Heaven is our ultimate destiny.  During our earthly existence, we grow in our relationship with God through prayer, reflection on God’s Word, the sacraments, and through our imitation of Jesus’ example of love and service.  Our ultimate destiny is eternal communion with God and with those united in Christ before God.

1)    The mystery of our future eternal communion with God is beyond human understanding or description in human language.  The contemplation of God in His heavenly glory in the company of the saints and angels, called the “beatific vision,” is the ultimate destiny of each one of us.

2)    The mystery of our eternal destiny with God and those united in Christ is beyond human understanding and description.  Scripture describes heaven in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise (CCC 1027).

3)    Each person receives a “particular judgment” at the moment of death.  Based on our love of God and neighbor, we are granted entrance to heaven into communion with God, to a period of purification, or to eternal separation from God (CCC 1021-1022).

4)    Those who die in God’s grace and friendship enter into “heaven,” which is the ultimate end and fulfillment of our deepest human longings for happiness.  In heaven, we enter into perfect communion with our Creator – what we were created for in the first place.  Heaven is perfect existence with the Most Holy Trinity; it is communion of life and love with Christ and all those who believe in Him and remained faithful to Him (CCC 1023-1029).

5)    All who die in God’s friendship but are still imperfect in their love for God are assured of eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to be prepared to enter God’s presence in the joy and light of heaven (CCC 1030).

6)    The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification or cleansing of sins based on certain texts of Scripture that speak of a cleansing fire – 1 Cor. 3:15; 1 Pet. 1:7 (CCC 1031).

7)    The Catholic practice of praying for our deceased loved ones, particularly for those undergoing the purification of purgatory, is drawn from Scripture (2 Mac. 12:36).  From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers so that our departed loved ones through purification may attain the joy of heaven (CCC 1032).

8)    Through our own free choices, we can refuse to accept God’s love and forgiveness.  If we reject God’s love by remaining in mortal sin (willful turning away from God), we separate ourselves from God forever.  The state of “definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the community if the blessed” is referred to as “hell” (CCC 1033).  By choosing against God during our earthly life, we exclude ourselves from His eternal presence in heaven.  “God predestines no one to go to hell” (CCC 1037).

9)    It is our responsibility to make use of our freedom and to pursue the path of daily conversion in view of our eternal life.  Our profession of faith in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection if the dead on the last day and in life everlasting (CCC 988).

10) At the end of time, God’s kingdom will come in fullness.  “The ‘Last Judgment,’ or general judgment, will come when Christ returns in glory…we shall know the ultimate meaning of creation…and that God’s love is stronger than death” (CCC 1038-1041). 

  

For Personal Prayer

“For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6).  Believing in God – this also implies assuming that what we do, or fail to do, has significance for Him.  Our acts have effects, perceptible and imperceptible, just as do our failures to act.  Sometimes we are able to sense them immediately; often we do not notice them at all, and yet they are there.  The priest and the Levite, who saw the robbery victim lying wounded on the roadside and continued on their way (Lk. 10:30-37), possibly did not even notice that they had offended against the principle of charity.  They pass by and forget.  But their sin of omission remains in existence.

One day, in the presence of God, everything will be revealed: our deeds and our omissions, and all the limitless effects that followed from them and continued to exert their influence throughout the remainder of man’s history.

Belief in a Last Judgment by God (CCC 1038-1041) is an acknowledgment of man’s freedom.  Because God created us as free beings, we also bear responsibility for our actions and their consequences (CCC 1731; 1734).When we are unfree through no fault of our own, nothing that we do can be imputed to us.  It occurs involuntarily and will not be punished (CCC 1735).

God’s actions deserve the recognition and gratitude of the community (CCC 2006).  Much that is good, however, occurs in concealment and goes unnoticed by men.  Who will reward that?  Rewards and punishments by men cannot be the final word.  They are often unjust.  God alone knows of even the most hidden thoughts and deeds.  One day they will be revealed and rewarded.

When?  Christ says: “The Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done” (Mt. 16:27).  And St. Paul: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Cor. 5:10).

On the “Last Day”, when Christ comes again, the “Last Judgment” will take place.  In the presence of Christ, that will be revealed which is now often hidden beneath lies and appearances: who is really exalted in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Then “the last will be first” (Mt. 20:16).

For each individual, this “hour of truth” arrives already at the moment of his own death (CCC 1022): “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love” (St. John of the Cross).

Even today, I can come to hear Christ’s judgment of my actions: through the voice of the conscience (CCC 1777).  By recognizing myself as a sinner before him (for instance, in the sacrament of Penance) and subjecting myself to His merciful judgment, I anticipate “in a certain way the judgment” that will come at the end of earthly life (CCC 1470).  And when we begin, with rising alarm, to gain a sense of our unworthiness, when our own heart condemns us, then faith in the judgment of God’s infinite love tells us: “God is greater than out hearts” (1 Jn. 3:20).

Rite of Acceptance: Becoming Catholic

Christian Initiation of Adults
Rite of Acceptance
Becoming Catholic

by Diana Macalintal
© 2006, Diana Macalintal.
All rights reserved.

Responding to God’s Call

God works in many different ways. Most of the time, God works through ordinary people and events—a parent, a friend, a beautiful sunset, a song, an inspiring story. Other times, we hear God’s call during crisis moments or major life-changes—a birth, an engagement, a sickness, a death. Sometimes, we just have a feeling that something is missing.

No matter what a person’s reasons are for becoming Catholic, the Church’s hope and prayer is that when God calls them, they will respond.

One part of the Catholic Church’s mission is to help people respond to God as best they can. For Christians, initiation and on-going participation in the life of the Church are the primary responses to God’s call. Through the process of becoming Catholic, we try to help people learn how to respond to that call not just for the moment of baptism but for everyday of their lives. The way we learn how to become Catholic is by actually doing what Catholics do. So the process of being initiated into the Church is not so much about learning things as in a classroom but learning a way of life as an apprentice learns a discipline from a master and that master’s community.

For thought: Do you remember when you first heard God’s call? Was it through a person or a significant event? What were you being called to do? How did you feel about what you were being called to do? Who helped you take the next step?

Being Accepted
Becoming Catholic is a process. The Catholic Church has recently recovered and developed a process that some of the earliest Christians had used when people came to them asking to be baptized. The first part of this process is called “Evangelization and Precatechumenate.” In this initial phase, an unbaptized adult or child over seven is moved by some experience to inquire about the Catholic Church. Through some informal contact with a member of the Church, he or she begins to explore issues of faith, questions they’ve always had about the Church, or anything that has moved them to seek some kind of relationship with the Church. This part of the process can happen anytime for as long as needed.

When the inquiring person and the Church community believe that the person is starting to show some signs of a Christian faith and is ready to commit to becoming Catholic, the person is invited to celebrate a ritual called a “Rite of Acceptance into the Order of the Catechumenate.” By celebrating this rite, the person is officially and publicly declaring his or her intention to enter into a formal relationship with the Church, learning its ways and participating in its lifestyle. The Church, in turn, accepts their commitment and pledges its support throughout the person’s journey of faith.

This rite makes the person an official member of the Church as one who is preparing to be baptized. Therefore, the person is given an official title and role to play in the Church, that of “catechumen” which means “one in whom the Word of God echoes.” In preparation for this rite, the Church also gives the inquiring person a gift—one of its own baptized
members to be a sponsor or companion of the person through the next part of the process of becoming Catholic called the “Period of the Catechumenate.”

For thought: What important commitments have you made? How did you symbolize making that commitment? Who supported you in making it?

The Threshold
The door or threshold of the Church is an important symbol in many Catholic rites. Doors symbolize transitions and new ways of life. For Christians, Christ, the Good Shepherd and the gate for the sheep, is the most important door, because “whoever enters through [Christ] will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:9). But doors are also liminal spaces, in-between places that are neither here nor there. Even though Christ has died and risen to save us from death, we still live in the in-between time until Christ comes again to welcome all of creation through the doors of the kingdom of God.

In the Rite of Acceptance, those wishing to answer God’s call are met at the threshold of the Church by the baptized and are ritually welcomed to enter into the Church’s doors.

The Cross
To enter into Christ also means entering into his dying and rising, for he said, “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Those who answer God’s call will need to learn how to let go and die to their old ways of life, and this will often be painful and difficult. But the cross is also the sign of our salvation. So in the Rite of Acceptance, the Church consecrates—sets apart and makes holy—those who are committing themselves to following Christ by signing their bodies with the cross.

For thought: Think of all the ways the cross touches you—in the sign of the cross, in crosses you wear. What does the cross mean to you?

The Word and the Assembly
In order to learn how to take up the cross of Christ each day of their lives, these catechumens will need to be nourished by the Word of God, for “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). In the Scriptures that they will hear every Sunday in the Mass, God speaks, and in the Gospels, Christ proclaims to all those assembled that God’s promises last forever. No matter what things the catechumens will encounter—suffering, pain, obstacles, doubt, fear, sin, death—God will never leave them. God’s love through Christ never fails.

Where we encounter Christ and his love most clearly is in the assembly. When God’s people gather on Sunday to proclaim the Scriptures, offer prayers for the world, and remember Christ in the sharing of a meal—the Eucharist—Christ is truly present. It will be through the assembly that the catechumens learn how to live as Christ. The assembly models for them how to die to selfishness, how to forgive others, how to preach the Good News, and how to live in hope through the Holy Spirit. The catechumens will depend on the Spirit of God found in the assembly to apprentice them into a life of discipleship.

Because they are not yet baptized, the catechumens cannot yet participate in the prayers of the faithful. These prayers are the Creed, the General Intercessions, and the Eucharistic Prayer which climaxes in Communion. Therefore, after the homily, the catechumens, accompanied by a member of the baptized, are sent to feast on the Word of God, to reflect on how God is continuing to call them in this part of their faith journey, and to discern how they are to respond.

For thought: What are your favorite Scripture passages? How have these words nourished you? How do you see these words lived out in the assembly? What do these words call you to do?

Do This in Memory of Me (Week 9)

History of the Mass (Week 9)