Doru Costache - Chrismation

[Published in The Greek Australian Vema, October 2008, 8]

CHRISMATION: THE MYSTERY OF PERSONAL PENTECOST Revd Dr Doru Costache In a previous article (see ‘Coming into Orthodoxy: Aspects Related to Conversion, Initiation and Integration’ Vema, June 2008), I had emphasised the importance of catechetical instruction leading to the reception of adult converts in the Orthodox Church. By the end of the article I mentioned in passing the role played by the three mysteries/sacraments of initiation (baptism – chrismation – holy communion), for the final stage of the reception process. In the following, I will try to point out several main aspects pertaining to the mystery of chrismation, a sacrament whose significance is not always fully comprehended. The mystery of chrismation (from the Greek, meaning ‘anointing’ or ‘unction’) is the second of the three sacraments of initiation and part of the service of illumination/baptism. It is performed by either the bishop or the priest, who, after calling the power of the Holy Spirit upon the newly illumined/baptised (“do you yourself, Sovereign Master, compassionate King of all, bestow upon him/her also the Seal of your almighty and adorable Holy Spirit”), anoints them with the holy and great myrrh, saying: the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the life of the newly illumined, chrismation corresponds to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ at the river Jordan (cf. Luke 3:21-22), and as such constitutes the sign of a renewed humanity, open to, and indwelled by, the Holy Spirit. Also, it corresponds to the very nature of God’s people, the Church, that journey from the day of Pentecost and throughout history under the dew of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:1-4). Through chrismation, the newly baptised become truly pneumatophores – Gr. “bearers of the Holy Spirit” – experiencing in grace the existential conformity with Christ and his Church. Perceptively, in his Letter to the Ephesians 9 St Ignatius Theophoros (“the God-bearer”) calls Christians “Godbearers, Spirit-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness”. The newly illumined are now inundated by the energies (according to St Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ 3.4), gifts or charismata of the Holy Spirit (cf. Isaiah 11:2), together with being acknowledged ecclesially as members of the priestly people of God (cf. 1 Peter 2:9). Both aspects, namely the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit and the ecclesial acknowledgment, appear as the common denominator of the two main ways of administering chrismation: the laying on of hands, which was the initial fashion as performed by the apostles, and the anointing. The visible sign (i.e. either the laying of hands or the unction) signifies the ecclesial acknowledgment whilst the charismata bestowed upon the newly baptised point out the active presence of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, the two aspects concur with the realisation of a theandric, or divine-human, life (cf. St Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ 3:2) of the newly illumined, within God’s people. And in fact, by further walking – consciously and strenuously – the spiritual path of virtuous life, the newly chrismated opens up progressively to the horizon of divine participation, in the Holy Spirit, through Christ, with the Father (see St Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ 3:5-6). As already stated, chrismation was performed originally by the apostles through the laying on of hands (cf. Acts 8:14-17). Very soon, however, the practice of anointing had become generalised (as suggested in 1 John 2:20), either because the apostles were unable to attend all the baptised or in order to distinguish chrismation from cheirotonia, the sacrament of ordination. Giving expression to the ecclesial teaching, St Nicholas Cabasilas (The Life in Christ 3:1) considers both ways as efficient:

Scripture says that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid hands upon those who had been initiated. Now too the Paraclete comes upon those who are being chrismated. The Orthodox Church administers the three sacraments of initiation in connection with the baptismal regeneration (for infants and adults alike), given their existential value, of fully regenerating the inner being of the human persons. In turn, the Roman Church separates them for catechetical, non-existential, reasons. Thus, in the Roman rite, confirmation, the equivalent of chrismation, is administered at the end of the catechetical instruction (when children are about 12 years of age). In line with the Roman practice, some Protestant Churches perform the ceremony of confirmation only for adults and teenagers; however, they do not consider it a sacrament.