HISTORIAL DEVELOPMENT

Throughout the Gospel narratives we see how the Holy Spirit assisted Christ in fulfilling his messianic mission. On receiving the baptism of John, Jesus saw the Spirit descending on him and remaining with him. He was led by the Spirit to undertake his public ministry as the Messiah foretold by the prophets, and relied on the constant presence and assistance of the same Spirit. While teaching the people of his own native Nazareth, he intimated that the words of Isaiah referred to himself, namely, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

He promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would help them also to bear fearless witness to their faith even before persecutors. The day before he died, he assured the apostles that he would send the Spirit of truth from his Father, who would stay with them forever. And after the Resurrection, Christ promised the coming descent of the Holy Spirit, from whom his followers would receive power to testify before the world to the mystery of salvation.

On the feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down in an extraordinary way on the apostles as they were gathered together with Mary the Mother of Jesus and the group of men and women disciples. They were so filled with the Holy Spirit that by divine inspiration they began courageously to proclaim “the mighty works of God.” Peter openly regarded the Spirit who had thus come down upon the apostles as the first gift of the messianic age. Those who believed the apostles’ teaching were then baptized, and they too received “the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

From that time on, the apostles carried out the wishes of Christ by imparting to the newly baptized the gift of the Spirit by the laying on of hands. They looked upon this as a completion of the grace of baptism. That is why the letter to the Hebrews lists among the first elements of Christian instruction the teaching about baptisms (plural) and the laying on of hands. This laying on of hands is considered by Catholic Tradition the beginning of the sacrament of confirmation, which in a certain way perpetuates the pentecostal grace in the Church.

This makes dear the special importance of confirmation for sacramental initiation by which the faithful “as members of the living Christ are incorporated into him and made like him through baptism and through confirmation and the Eucharist.” (Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, VI, 36)

From apostolic times, communicating the gift of the Holy Spirit has been carried out in the Church with a variety of ritual forms. These forms underwent many changes in the East and West, but always preserving the essential feature of conferring the Holy Spirit.

Washing with water, anointing with oil, and the laying on of hands all came to be associated with entrance into the fullness of Christian life, and the aggregate spiritual effect that flowed from these outward observances was held to include the removal of sin, admission to the Church of the redeemed, “sealing” to eternal life, and imparting of the Spirit. But practices differed. While at one place washing, anointing, and imposition of hands might be considered different parts or aspects of a single rite, elsewhere they could be regarded as connected with two, or possibly even more, stages in the Christian’s progress into the fullness of sacramental life.

Confirmation, without the precise name, appears as a rite clearly separate from baptism by the end of the second century. The same clear distinction was made by Pope Cornelius in the middle of the third century. By the fourth century, confirmation, whether conferred by anointing or laying on of hands, was everywhere a separate rite.

With the liberation of the Church after Constantine, a new factor entered the picture. Previously the bishop was able to take a personal interest in all the candidates for baptism. Now he found that he could not baptize everyone in person, and the functions of the parish priest (immersion or ablution) and bishop (anointing), which had been closely associated, gradually became distinct. What had often been scarcely distinguishable elements in the single baptism-confirmation rite were now performed by different ministers.

Before long, however, the respective customs in the East and West became settled. In the Eastern Church the primitive custom of administering confirmation in immediate relation to baptism was retained. This was done by confining the bishop’s part to the consecration of the oil used for the anointing. This was taken to the parish priest, who performed the actual rite of confirmation as occasion required. After anointing, it became a regular practice in the East to dispense Holy Communion at once, so that the infant received all three sacraments in a single service. Such has remained the Eastern custom down to the present day.

In the West, on the other hand, the bishop retained the function as regular minister of the rite, as he had also been originally of baptism. Confirmation was therefore deferred until an opportunity arose of presenting the candidate to the bishop in person. One result was that, owing to the difficulties of communication and the many duties of a bishop, confirmation became very irregular in the Middle Ages.

-- The Catholic Catechism.