“Be Sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit:

A Theological Reflection on the Sacrament of Confirmation

“Accipe signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti.” “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.”1

This formula, based on that used for centuries by Churches of the Byzantine Rite, is what every

1 Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Catechism of the Catholic Church [henceforth CCC], 2d ed., (Washington, D.C.: USCCB Publishing, 2007), #1300.

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modern Roman Catholic hears when he or she receives Confirmation.2 Accompanied with the

anointing with chrism on the forehead, which includes in this gesture the laying on of hands,

these words constitute the Sacrament of Confirmation and (theologically) open the way to the

greatest Sacrament of Initiation, the only repeating one, the greatest Sacrament of all, the

Eucharist, through which “sacramental initiation in the mystery of salvation is perfected.”3

These words, being the only words essential to the rite, thus display, in a condensed form, the

entirety of the theology of Confirmation.

The idea of giving the Holy Spirit seems to originate in Christ’s giving of the Holy Spirit

to the Apostles when He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”4 This Gift was

the fulfillment of a promise Jesus made during the Last Supper: “I will pray to the Father, and he

will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.”5 After His

death on the Cross and His Resurrection on the third day came His Gift to the Apostles, and the

Holy Spirit was poured out even more when the Apostles again received Him at Pentecost after

the Lord’s Ascension, fulfilling His other words: “If I do not go away, the Counselor will not

come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”6 The Apostles, who had received Him from

Christ, in turn gave the Holy Spirit to others, such as when Peter and John went to the faithful

Samaritans, then “laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (a passage which is

an option in the lectionary for the Sacrament of Confirmation).7 This Gift is thus from Christ

Himself, a Gift that is a result of the Paschal Mystery, given to us through the ministration of the

Apostles, which is shown in contemporary practice by the use of chrism blessed by the bishop,

the successor of the Apostles, in both the Eastern and Western Church, and in the Western

practice of the bishop’s being the ordinary minister of Confirmation.8 This Gift of the Spirit is

typically understood in terms of the seven gifts of spirit from Isaiah, “the spirit of wisdom and

2 Cf. Pope Paul VI, Divinae Consortium Naturae, in Catholic Rites Today: Abridged Texts for Students [henceforth CRT], ed. Allan Bouley (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992), 167.3 Code of Canons of Oriental Churches [henceforth CCEO], ed. Jason Gray, JGray.org (July 1, 2007), http://www.jgray.org/codes/ cceo90eng.html (accessed April 17, 2013), c. 697; cf. Paul VI, loc. cit.4 Jn 20:22 RSV.5 Jn 14:16-17 RSV.6 Jn 16:7 RSV.7 Acts 8:17 RSV; cf. Rite of Confirmation (henceforth RC), in CRT, 185.8 Cf. RC 10, 7 in CRT 172, 171; Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Edition [henceforth CIC], trans. Canon Law Society of America (Washington, D.C.: Canon Law Society of America, 1983), cc. 880, 882; CCEO c. 693.

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understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, the spirit

of holy fear, as it were seven virtues of the Spirit.”9

“Thou who art sevenfold in thy grace, / Finger of God’s right hand,” acclaims Rabanus

Maurus, echoing that sevenfold gift so praised in Catholic tradition and prayed for by the bishop

in the rite of Confirmation.10 In the original Hebrew, the text of Isaiah only mentioned six gifts,

but in the Greek Septuagint, which St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate followed, a seventh gift was

added: the first “of fear of the Lord” (ַאת יהוה Mִיְר) becomes “of piety” (εὐσεβείας, pietatis).11 Thus

the interplay of Scripture and Tradition lead to this sevenfold gift recalled in the bishop’s words

in the global laying on of hands.12 This gift, present in Baptism, is confirmed and strengthened at

Confirmation: “Perfect your work in us.”13

“For after the font it remains for the ‘perfecting’ to take place.”14 Confirmation’s

character as an intermediate step of the process of Christian Initiation, between Baptism and the

Eucharist, is something that was lost in the Western tradition for many years. With the temporal

separation of Confirmation from the rest of these Sacraments, its theological connection was lost

as well. Yet, since the Second Vatican Council and the restoration of the catechumenate, this

connection has been recovered slowly. In the current process of Christian Initiation for adults

and children of catechetical age, the original order (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist) of the

Sacraments is restored, and, in many places, the order has been restored even among children

baptized in infancy.15 Besides the disciplinary change, the Sacrament of Confirmation itself

shows its connection to Baptism through the idea of “sealing” the Gift received at Baptism. This

connection is also made readily apparent in the renewal of Baptismal promises that occurs in the

rite.16

9 Saint Ambrose, On the Sacraments in On the Sacraments and On the Mysteries, trans. T. Thompson, ed. J.H. Srawley (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1950), III.II.8; cf. Is 11:2-3.10 Qtd. in The Liturgy of the Hours [henceforth LH], (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 1976), 2:1011; RC 25.11 Is 11:2 Hebrew, LXX, Vulgate; cf. Robert Louis Wilken, Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators, trans. and ed. Robert Louis Wilken, Angela Russell Christman, and Michael J. Hollerich (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007), 140.12 RC 25, in CRT, 179.13 LH, 2:1036.14 Ambrose, III.II.8.15 Cf. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults §215, in CRT, 118; ibid., Part II, Chapter I; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Receive the Gift: The Age of Confirmation (Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004), 7-9.16 RC 23, in CRT, 178.

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In general, the indwelling of the Trinity from Baptism is “sealed” in us at Confirmation,

though the Holy Spirit is focused on in the prayers and tradition. “Spirit, come, in peace

descending / As at Jordan, heav’nly Dove, / Seal your Church as God’s anointed, / Set our hearts

on fire with love.”17 In this hymn is seen another Scriptural basis for Confirmation: the Lord’s

Baptism. Though the Holy Spirit is explicitly mentioned earlier in the Gospels, at the

Annunciation, the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove at Christ’s Baptism is seen as the

first revelation of the Spirit in His role as Gift to us and Sanctifier of us.18 For this reason,

writers such as St. Cyril of Jerusalem and Theodore of Mopsuestia mention this descent in

discussing Confirmation, a Sacrament focused heavily on the Holy Spirit, and even the

Catechism mentions it while discussing “Confirmation in the Economy of Salvation.”19 The

descent of the Holy Spirit is thus seen to be key in the theology of Confirmation, and it is this

descent that seals the confirmand “as at Jordan” His descent “sealed” the mission of Christ.20

The language of “sealing” connected with Confirmation can remind one of the words of

the Song of Songs: “Set me as a seal upon your heart, / as a seal upon your arm.”21 This verse

refers to a physical seal, and the Rite of Confirmation, being a Sacrament, uses physical matter in

its sealing. Specifically, Confirmation uses chrism (hence its name in the Eastern Church,

Chrismation) or myron (the Greek name) to seal. “It is necessary that those who are baptized be

chrismated with holy myron, that by a seal they be signed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”22

This chrism is applied in the form of the sign of the Cross.23 This sign thus shows “that you have

been stamped as a lamb of Christ and as a soldier of the heavenly King”: it signifies one’s

belonging to Christ, for the Cross is His sign.24 This sealing with the Cross is prefigured in

traditional Christian interpretations (such as those by Origen and St. Jerome) of Ezekiel, chapter

9, where the Lord’s command to mark people with a sign (ו tao) was interpreted (despite the ,ָּת[

Septuagint’s rendering it as “sign”: σημεῖον) as “with the sign of the Tau” (in the Vulgate, signa

17 Qtd. in LH, 2:1027.18 Cf. Mt 1:20; 3:16.19 Cf. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Lectures on the Christian Sacraments: The Procatechesis and the Five Mystagogical Catecheses, trans. R.W. Church, ed. F.L. Cross (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977), III.1,4; Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord’s Prayer and on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, trans. A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies VI (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Limited, 1933), 68; CCC #1286.20 LH, loc. cit.21 Sgs 8:6a RSV.22 CCEO c. 692.23 RC 27 in CRT 179.24Theodore, 46.

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thau), that is, with the Hebrew letter ת, the first letter of the Hebrew word used here and the letter

whose name sounds like the word.25 In ancient writing, this letter supposedly was shaped like a

cross, as was the Greek letter also named Tau (τ).26 St. Francis of Assisi is well-known for

shaping his order’s habit like a Tau based on this passage, and he did this because of his devotion

to Christ Crucified. This signing of those that belong to God, and specifically that belong to the

Lamb, is also found in Revelation, chapter 7, where the servants of God are sealed upon the

forehead with “the seal of the living God.”27 Thus that signing with a cross (or something shaped

like a cross) found in Ezekiel and the sealing of God’s servants in Revelation are reflected in the

signing with the Cross in Confirmation: “Because thou wast signed with the image of the cross

itself unto his passion, thou receivedst a seal unto his likeness, that thou mayest rise unto his

image, and live after his pattern.”28

To return to the element of chrism with which the confirmands are anointed: this chrism

is a mix of olive oil and balsam.29 This chrism must be blessed by the bishop (or patriarch).30

The sealing with chrism then connects the confirmed to the Church: Confirmation, through this

seal, brings the confirmed into deeper communion with the entire Church.31 The successors of

the apostles, the bishops, are the ones who consecrate the chrism, and they are also the ordinary

ministers of Confirmation in the Western Church. The bishop is he who continues the line of

“rulers and priests” established by God from the beginning of time, and it is he who prays and

works that his flock “become the eternal joy of the shepherds.”32 Through the bishop, that local

leader of God’s people, present either in person and chrism or in chrism alone, the confirmed are

thus connected more deeply into the whole Church, the whole Mystical Body of Christ. “Send

your Spirit into your church to be its life and vigor, that it may bring new life to the whole

world.”33

This last quote connects the aspect of integration into Church community that the seal of

the Spirit gives to the obligation and drive to witness the Spirit’s seal also gives, for the Church

25 Ez 9:4 Hebrew, LXX, Vulgate.26 Cf. G.A. Cooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel, The International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1967), 106-107.27 Rev 7:2-3 RSV.28 Ambrose, VI.II.7.29 Cf. CIC c. 847 §1.30 Cf. CIC c. 880; CCEO c. 693.31 Cf. CCC #1303.32 Ordination of Deacons, Priests and Bishops §§V.26,39, in CRT 480, 483.33 LH, 2:1016.

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is called to “bring new life to the whole world.” She does this through her witness, and all those

who are confirmed are tasked with joining in this witnessing, because Confirmation “obliges

them more firmly to be witnesses to Christ by word and deed and to spread and defend the

faith.”34 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” Jesus commanded His Apostles, and

such they did at Pentecost, when they preached to “devout men from every nation under

heaven,” and as they and their disciples have done in the ages since.35 The confirmand “is

confirmed upon the brow, the seat of shame, that he may never blush to confess the name of

Christ and especially his cross.”36 “You are stamped at that place so that you may be seen to

possess great confidence...and display before Him the stamp by which we are seen to be

members of the household and soldiers of Christ our Lord.”37 With this confidence, with this

Spirit of strength, the confirmed are sent out to preach the Cross of Christ and Its saving power

in all their words and deeds.

It cannot be forgotten, though, that one must already be strong in the faith to be able to

witness to others. That is why the prayer the bishop prays when he lays hands on all the

confirmands asks that God the Father “pour out the Holy Spirit to strengthen his sons and

daughters with his gifts and anoint them to be more like Christ the Son of God.”38 The sealing

and signing is first and foremost about strengthening the confirmands and conforming them to

Christ so that they may—echoing St. Paul’s words, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who

lives in me”—be as Christ and act as his “ambassadors” to the world.39 First comes the

strengthening, and then the witnessing: first comes personal holiness, and then comes assisting

others to holiness. “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take

the speck out of our brother’s eye.”40 Thus the order of the quote above: first the Spirit becomes

the Church’s “life and vigor,” and then she can “bring new life to the whole world.”41 The

General Intercessions attest to this: they occur after the laying on of hands and the anointing (that

is, the essential rite of the Sacrament), they first mention that the confirmed are so (“confirmed

34 CIC c. 879.35 Mt 28:19 RSV; Acts 2:5 RSV.36 Pope Eugenius IV, Exsultate Domine, in Paul Halsall, “Medieval Sourcebook: The Seven Sacraments: Catholic Doctrinal Documents,” in Internet Medieval Source Book (New York: Fordham University, 1998), http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/1438sacraments.asp#armen (accessed April 15, 2013).37 Theodore, 46-7.38 RC 24 in CRT 178.39 Gal 2:20 RSV; 2 Cor 5:20 RSV.40 Mt 7:5 RSV.41 LH, 2:1016.

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by the gift of the Spirit”), and then they pray “that they give witness to Christ by lives built on

faith and love.”42 The prayers of the rite do not even mention witnessing until after the actual

Confirmation, the strengthening (though the homily might).43 Thus, through Confirmation, “the

Holy Spirit is given for growth and strength,” and from this comes the confirmed’s ability to

witness.44

One of the beauties of this Sacrament is how both of these functions, the strengthening

and the witnessing, are performed through that one essential rite of the Sacrament. “The

sacrament of confirmation is conferred through the anointing with chrism on the forehead, which

is done by the laying on of the hand, and through the words: BE SEALED WITH THE GIFT OF THE

HOLY SPIRIT.”45 The chrism, that “oil of gladness,” the mixture of oil and balsam consecrated by

a bishop, was discussed above.46 The global laying on of hands by the bishop that calls down the

Holy Spirit and His sevenfold gift has also been discussed, but that laying on of hands is not the

same as this essential one.47 That laying on of hands, while still very important, “does not

pertain to the valid giving of the sacrament.”48 Instead, the essential laying on of hands is

included in the anointing itself: the anointing with the thumb “sufficiently manifests the

imposition of the hand,” as a Pontifical Commission declared.49 Even if this laying on of hands

may seem to be lacking in a visible aspect, it still conveys the truth of the imposition. This direct

laying on of hands, involving physical contact, unlike the global imposition, reflects all the

tradition involved in this sign: the blessing given by father to Son (e.g. Jacob to Ephraim and

Manasseh), the authority given by a leader to his successor (e.g. Moses to Aaron), the healing

bestowed by Christ, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and a special gift of grace for authority (e.g.

that received by Timothy).50 These different meanings are the backing for the different uses of

this gesture throughout the Sacraments. Among the most well-known uses of this gesture is the

imposition of hands at ordination. The use of this same gesture in both these Sacraments, Holy

Orders and Confirmation, suggests the common priesthood of the baptized that the confirmed is

42 RC 30 in CRT 180.43 Cf. RC 22 in CRT 176-7.44 Pope Innocent III, Cum venisset, qtd. in Paul VI, in CRT, 166.45 RC 9, in CRT, 172.46 Cf. Ps 45:7.47 Cf. Paul VI, in CRT, 168.48 RC 9, in CRT, 172.49 Gerard Austin, Anointing with the Spirit: The Rite of Confirmation: The Use of Oil and Chrism, Studies in the Reformed Rites of the Catholic Church III (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1985), 45.50 Cf. Gen 48; Num 27:18-23; Mt 9:18; Acts 8:17; 2 Tim 1:6.

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strengthened in through this Sacrament.51 (Another connection to this common priesthood is the

character given through Confirmation: just as the character received at Baptism joins one to this

common priesthood through the Church, the character of Confirmation “perfects the common

priesthood of the faithful.”52) “For we are all anointed with spiritual grace unto the kingdom of

God and the priesthood.”53

In conclusion, the essential rite of Confirmation, the anointing with chrism (which

includes the imposition of hands) with the words “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit,”

contains implicitly the entire theology of Confirmation. The “Gift of the Holy Spirit” reveals the

origins of the Sacrament, and the chrism links to the original and ordinary minister, the bishop.

The effects of Confirmation are seen: the sign of the Cross by which the anointing is performed

shows the link with Christ and the mark of a witness, the consecrated chrism shows the bond

with the bishop and thus the whole Church, the imposition of hands helps bestow the perfection

of baptismal priesthood, the sealing shows the increase and perfection of baptismal grace and

character and the deeper rooting in divine filiation, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit shows the

Pentecostal outpouring, the increase of the Spirit’s seven Gifts, and the special strength of the

Spirit for strengthening and witnessing.54 Among all this, the links to the Paschal Mystery are

seen in the Gift of the Spirit itself: this Gift was promised during the Last Supper, it was first

given during the time after the Resurrection, and it was given in its fullness and spread among

others after the Ascension, for the Spirit could only be fully given after Christ departed. The Gift

of the Spirit, the root of the Sacrament, that which gives all of the effects and out of which all the

theology of the Sacrament flows, is thus firmly rooted in the Paschal Mystery of Christ. To

conclude, St. Ambrose will give the last word on this great Sacrament and on our responsibility

from it: “God the Father hath sealed thee, Christ the Lord hath confirmed thee, and hath given

the earnest of the Spirit in thy heart”; therefore, “preserve what thou hast received.”55

51 Cf. CCC #1268.52 CCC #1304; cf. CCC #1273.53 Ambrose, On the Mysteries in On the Sacraments and On the Mysteries, VI.30.54 Cf. CCC #1302-1305.55 Ambrose, On the Mysteries, VII.42.

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Austin, Gerard. Anointing with the Spirit: The Rite of Confirmation: The Use of Oil and Chrism.

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