Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 79 No. 3, 2009.
Review article
The Problem of the Sequence of the Sacraments of Initiation Unity in the Diversity between Two Sacraments (Baptism and Confirmation)
Nela Gašpar
; Theology in Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
The Second Vatican Council posed the question of renewing the deteriorated unity and sequence of the sacraments of Christian initiation. This was stressed in the decision to renew the sacrament of Confirmation because its development in fact led to illogical pastoral practise (Sacrosantum Concilium, 71). As such, the first part of this article presents the historical development which led to the change in the sequence of the sacraments of Christian initiation. The article above all points out the separation of the Eucharist from the context of initiation on the whole. The Apostolic Letter about the Eucharist stresses this when it highlights this path through Christian initiation as a possibility to approach the Eucharist seeing that it leads to Christian initiation to being »the fulfilment and sets it as the centre and aim of entire sacramental life« (Sacramentum Caritatis, 17).
Seeing that the Eucharist is the climax in approaching and lasting in living, initiation is treated in the second scientific article of this periodical. The author of this article limits herself to the theological thinking of the unity and sequence of the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, starting from their mutual connections and unity to the diversity in these two divine missions in the history of salvation, the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit. Namely, any theological thinking about the gift and effects of the Holy Spirit in Christian life must start from the presence and effects of the Holy Spirit in the life and mission of Jesus Christ. »The Lord Jesus' whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world' (Jn 10:36) and his entire mystical Body creates a portion of the anointment of the Spirit with which he himself is anointed« (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2). The Second Vatican Council therefore stressed that Jesus made us a part of the anointment of the Spirit with which he himself is anointed. The expression »Christian« in the eyes of the earliest theologians does not necessarily mean »Christ's followers« as the pagans understood who were the first to be given this name in Antioch (cf. Acts 11:26), but rather »sharers of Christ's anointment. Unity in the diversity of the two missions, the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit as such requires the unity of these two sacraments; the unity of Baptism and Confirmation in which their diversity should not/must not eliminate their unity or sequence.
Keywords
sacraments of initiation; Baptism; Confirmation; Eucharist; Mystery of the anointment; participation
Hrčak ID:
41022
URI
Publication date:
2.10.2009.
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