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Theology of sacrament

 

To join more deeply: Confirmation's hidden power

BY PETER FEUERHERD
CONTRIBUTOR Imagine confirmation as a boat streaming through Catholic sacramental history. Then it is easy to see the barnacles that have attached to its underside, obscuring its essential meaning as a rite of initiation. 

Confirmation began in the persecuted early Church, a time when Christians were in danger from the powers of the mighty Roman Empire. In that atmosphere, initiation was a long and delicate process, and confirmation took its place along with baptism and Eucharist, sealing the deal for new Christians who had ample reason to be wary of the costs imposed by their newfound faith.

But then the Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity in 313. The persecutions ended. As the Church emerged from the catacombs, at least in the West, confirmation deviated from its early place and it was separated from its roots.

Confirmation, in the West a sacrament administered by the local bishop, gradually severed itself from the other initiation sacraments as the number of new converts increased. (The Eastern Church retained the overt baptism-confirmation link). 

The result: "What we were left with is a sacrament of initiation that we haven't fully appreciated," noted Joyce Solimini, associate director of adult catechesis for the diocesan Office of Evangelization, Catechesis and Family Life.

What not
Severed in the popular imagination from its role in initiation, popular Catholic imagination has filled in the gaps. Perhaps one way to look at the Church perspective on confirmation is to look at what confirmation is not, as a means to differentiate popular image from Church doctrine.

Mrs. Solimini noted that confirmation, in its full Catholic understanding, is not:

• a Catholic bar mitzvah or a coming-of-age ceremony for adolescent believers;

• an opportunity to have the bishop slap young candidates to toughen them up against attacks on their faith (that part of the ceremony, which emerged from the Council of Trent's defensive stance against the Protestant Reformation, is no longer part of the rite);

• making "soldiers of Christ" (that term, said Mrs. Solimini, originally referred to an early church abbot, who likened the preparation for baptism among the early Christians to the demanding initiation of the Roman Emperor's legions);

• a graduation ceremony for young people who have completed their formal religious instruction; or

• the culmination of service projects in which young people are drafted to serve the wider community.

These aspects - service, coming-of-age recognition, toughening up young believers - may be good in themselves, but have little to do with the historic roots of confirmation, noted Mrs. Solimini. 

Induction holy
So what is confirmation?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that the sacrament is a means for the baptized to be "more perfectly bound with the Church," "enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit."

By virtue of receiving the sacrament, those who are confirmed, notes the Catechism, are "true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed."

Some dioceses have overtly reconnected the sacrament as a rite of initiation, making it true to the early order of the Church: baptism, confirmation, and then Eucharist. In practice, that usually means that in those dioceses confirmation is received at around the age of seven, before First Communion.

The U.S. bishops allow the sacrament to be routinely administered between the ages of 7 and 16. However, adult converts who enter the Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults at the Easter Vigil Mass receive all three initiating sacraments - baptism, confirmation and Eucharist - at one time, mirroring the practice of the early Church.

In the Albany Diocese, the usual age for confirmation is 15. The new rite encourages candidates to receive the sacrament in their baptismal names, keeping the link to the original sacrament. Candidates are also encouraged to make their baptismal godparents take on the role of sponsor, again maintaining the link to baptism.

Faithful retention
Instruction for confirmation is supposed to be kept separate and distinct from regular religious instruction, a way, said Mrs. Solimini, to discourage the idea that the sacrament is a kind of graduation ceremony for religious education. 

Special service projects for those preparing for the sacrament, a practice once encouraged, is now discouraged. According to Mrs. Solimini, service should be seen as the obligation of all Christians throughout their lives. Preparation for the sacrament, she said, should include reflection about the meaning of service to the wider community.

In the Albany Diocese, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard usually administers the sacrament, which includes an invoking of baptismal promises, maintaining the link among the three sacraments of initiation. That is followed by an anointing, a biblical sign of initiation, followed by a Mass.

The presence of the Bishop is an important symbol in itself, said Mrs. Solimini, a sign of bonding the candidates to the wider Church.

(10/08/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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