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Sacraments of Initiation

1. BAPTISM

✓ Baptism is the first sacrament we received.

✓ It marks the beginning of our Christian life. Without baptism, one cannot receive any of the
other sacraments.
✓ Through it, we entered into a relationship with God --- Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with
the Church.

Grounding: CCC, 1213

Through Baptism,
✓ we are freed from sin
✓ reborn as sons and daughters of God
✓ become members of Christ
✓ incorporated into the Church
✓ made sharers of her mission

Original Sin and Baptism:

Original sin refers not to the personal sin committed by Adam and Eve

Original sin refers to the sinful condition into which all human beings as descendants of Adam
and Eve are born (except Jesus and Mary most Holy)

“sinful condition or state” consists essentially in the privation of sanctifying grace

EFFECTS OF BAPTISM:

1. New Life in union with CHRIST

2. Incorporation into the CHURCH
3. Sharing the Divine Life of the TRINITY

2. CONFIRMATION
Scriptural Grounding: OT anointing signified healing, purification and strengthening, but most
of all empowerment Aaron was anointed high priest Saul and David were anointed as king
Isaiah was anointed prophet

NT: Christ is the “Anointed One” perfectly fulfilling the triple role of Prophet, Priest and
Servant-King

CHURCH TEACHING: Vatican II

Sacrament of Confirmation is described in terms of its two essential characteristics:

1.closer union with the Church, and
2. strengthening and empowerment by the Holy Spirit to actively spread the Faith

Meaning of Sacrament of Confirmation

Through the laying on of hands: the baptized is claimed by Christ as his own and
empowered by the Spirit to spread the Gospel by word and deed, and thus build up Christ’s
Body, the Church.

The sacrament of Confirmation is conferred:

⚫ by “anointing with holy Chrism on the forehead, done while imposing the hands, and
⚫ by these words: “N …, be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.”

SEAL OF THE LORD

Signed with the OIL by the Bishop’s hand, the baptized person received:
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the indelible character, the “seal of the Lord”, together with the gift of the Spirit, which confirms
him more closely to Christ and gives him the grace of spreading the Lord’s presence among
men and women.

Effect of Confirmation: to strengthen and to confirm the grace of Baptism.

This means: a more intense sharing in the mission of Christ and of the Church empowering
the confirmed to be public witness of the Faith

Confirmation is:
➢ a sacrament of initiation
➢ received only once
➢ completes Baptism
➢ by a post-baptismal reception of the Holy Spirit

Minister of Confirmation
Bishop - the ordinary minister of Confirmation
- who is successor of the apostles
- with the fullness of the sacrament
of Holy Orders
His administering demonstrates the effect of Confirmation:
unite the confirmed more closely to the Church:
- to her apostolic origins
- to her mission of bearing witness to Christ

3. HOLY EUCHARIST

Grounding: Luke 22: 7-8, 19-20

Then taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying: “This is my
body which will be given up for you.” He did the same with the cup after eating, saying as he did
so: “This is the cup of my blood , the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed
for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me”

According to the Last Supper account, Jesus instituted the Eucharist in this Passover meal in
four solemn actions:
1. he took the bread and wine
2. he gave thanks to the Father (blessed)
3. he broke the bread
4. and gave it to his disciples

A. THE EUCHARIST AS THANKSGIVING WORSHIP

Eucharist is the Greek word for thanksgiving.The Eucharist is the source and summit of the
whole Christian life (LG 11)

1. TRINITARIAN
To whom is our thanksgiving offered? The worship is directed towards God the Father through
Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
The Eucharist is essentially:
an act of thanksgiving (Eucharistein) to the Father
a memorial (Anamnesis) of Christ’s Pasch
an invocation (Epiclesis) of the Holy Spirit

2. CHRISTOCENTRIC
The center of the Eucharist as Thanksgiving Worship is Christ, the SUPREME
WORSHIPPER of the Father
The Eucharist encompasses Christ’s whole life of total self-giving to the Father and to us.

3. OUR SPIRITUAL WORSHIP

The Eucharist is our “spiritual worship, holy and pleasing to God” (Rom 12: 1)
the mighty act of God is Jesus Christ in his Paschal Mystery
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only in Christ can we offer fitting worship to the Father

this is dramatically expressed in the Great Doxology when the priest raises the gifts and
proclaims: “Through him (Christ), with him (Christ), and in him (Christ), in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, all glory and honor is yours Almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen!”

4. Immersed in Daily Life

Worship is not something separated or removed from daily life.
Vatican II insists on the unity of our daily acts with the Eucharist.
As we receive CHRIST, the Bread of Life, we become Eucharist to others.

B. John Paul II’s triple description of the Eucharist (RH 20)

1. Sacrifice-Sacrament
The key to this UNITY of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Sacrifice of the Cross is Christ
himself.
Christ’s bloody sacrificial death on the Cross is made present in an unbloody manner in
the ritual Sacrificial Meal, the Eucharist, instituted by Christ Himself at the Last Supper.
Through the Eucharist, Christ’s sacrifice of the Cross is made present, and its saving power
exerted for the forgiveness of sins.
Christ as Priest and Victim, dying for the salvation of all, is the same in the Mass as on the
Cross, only the manner of offering is different.

The Eucharist is at once both sacrifice and sacred meal.

It is the Memorial instituted by Christ so that the saving benefits of his Death and Resurrection
can be shared by the People of God through generations.
“Memorial” does not only mean recalling a past event. It also means making present that past
event through a ritual celebration in order to continually receive the benefits of that event.

“Do this in memory of me.” The command of Jesus is to repeat his actions and words “until he
comes.”

The Eucharist is a memorial of Christ’s Death and Resurrection.

2. Communion-Sacrament
Grounding: SS & Church Teaching
“The Eucharist is the sacrament of love, a bond of charity, a Paschal Banquet.” (SC 47)

The Eucharist was commonly known among the early Christian communities as
“the breaking of the Bread.” (Acts 2: 42)

In the “breaking of the Bread”, it meant that all who ate the one blessed, broken Bread that is
Christ, were drawn into communion with him and with one another, to form one single body with
him.

“Is not the cup of blessing that we bless, a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that
we break, a sharing in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, many though we are, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:
16ff.)

Effects of receiving Communion

✓ unites us with Christ
✓ separates us from sin
✓ reconciles us with one another
✓ builds up the Christian community, the Church

3. Presence-Sacrament
“Under the appearance of bread and wine, the Risen Christ is personally present to us.”

Christ’s presence is:

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1. Sacramental: the presence of Christ, through the signs of bread and wine, seen through
the eyes of Faith
2. Personal: The Real Presence of Christ
3. in his Glorified Body: not in his earthly condition, but in his RISEN glorified body

Christ’s presence is not: in bodily form, visibly and audibly perceivable, but only in faith,
prompting us to pray “Come Lord Jesus!”

Christ’s Multiple Presences

Within the Eucharistic celebration itself: “Christ is really present
✓ in the assembly itself,
✓ in the person of the minister,
✓ in his Word (since He speaks when the Holy Scriptures are read),
✓ substantially under the Eucharistic species of the bread and wine (SC 7)

The Eucharistic Change: Transubstantiation simply means that by the power of the Holy
Spirit, the earthly substance of bread and wine is changed into a reality of a different level:
the glorified Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, making present the
WHOLE PERSON OF CHRIST. (Trent, ND 1519, 1527)

Grounding: Effects of Sacramental rites

Purification - Ephesians 5: 26
Forgiveness of sins - John 20: 23; James 5:15
Communication of the Holy Spirit - Acts 8: 17
Conferring of eternal life - John 6: 55

The Eucharist is:

Christ’s Presence
Christ’s Sacrifice
Christ’s call to Communion