Jojimar Kenneth M. Gonowon July 4, 2009 Second Year Theology Sacraments of Initiation

What is it to be a church? In this question, it was very ubiquitous concerning how it came into being. Looking back how the church came into this time, it would make sense that in every time that the church had passed into a series of situations and epoch, it manifested how the church, how the scheme and mission of the church had developed. We cannot rally round but envisage how the church survived the following circumstances of maltreatment and even the suppressions. Suppressions which involve murder transformed into martyrdom, pagans converted to Christianity and diversity and plurality transform into unity. In these aspects of the church, we now look how the community of believers had been guided by the norms or the customs which comprises every community. But we must take a look from time to time how it affects and how it influences the society. We must re-think, reflect and re-visit our guiding principles in order for us to envision the goodness that Jesus had presented to us because of his loving mercy.

From this statement also, it speaks about what the church is trying to give prominence on the liturgy itself. It is a very strong invitation for us Christians to look at the liturgy and reflect on what is to be a person, as Christians participating on the Sacraments that Jesus himself had instituted. In the Sacraments of Initiation, we saw how the church had continued to develop her rich tradition of reflection on many different spheres of human life particularly in the ritual.

The “New” is old. (Early Church during the first to third centuries): Persons wanting to become Christian live with a small Christian community to learn their way of life. The structured "apprenticeship" of the Christian in training becomes known as the catechumenate. The

catechumenate begins to dissolve because Christianity had been legalized in 315 A.D. and now large numbers of people are becoming Christians. Infant Baptism becomes the norm. The liturgy and theology of initiation, as they evolved during the first five centuries of the church's existence, were influenced by the themes and images of initiation found in the New Testament. But East and West did not always emphasize the same themes. For example, the Western postbaptismal rite that is today called confirmation, with its focus on handlaying with prayer for the sevenfold Spirit (and subsequent consignation of the forehead with chrism), seems to be modeled upon the Lukan description of baptism that is found in Acts. The Eastern rites do not seem to have paid that much attention to the Lukan practice. The contemporary church is the recipient of all these past developments. Since Vatican II and with the recovery of the full process of initiation, the meaning of baptism for Christian life, founded upon the many scriptural theologies of baptism and Spirit, is once more revealed in its richness.

All sacraments are a gift from our Heavenly Father, who desires to give us His very life, which we call grace. Sacraments are not earned or merited. For this reason, Confirmation should not be perceived as the sacrament of adult commitment to the Church. In fact, the Church even requires priests to confirm infants and children younger than the age of reason when they are in danger of death so that they may receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. An authentic mature commitment to Christ and the Church is expressed in full participation in the Eucharist and apostolic life of the Church. It is not achieved at a single moment but throughout the life-long deepening of our relationship with Christ. This begins in childhood and continues until death.

The sacraments of initiation conclude the catechumenal journey to full membership in the body of Christ. They inaugurate the journey of the Christian, within the community called church, to the Father who calls

each man and woman to salvation through Jesus Christ. The journey to God is lived in the power of baptism, the womb of the church and the tomb of Christ: "May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with him to newness of life."1

1 The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults 215, R 97