How to become Catholic in three steps: The faithful are born into new life by Baptism. Confirmation strengthens it, and the Eucharist nourishes it so it may blossom into eternal life.
The sacraments make us members of Christ—they make us Christian! Baptism makes us members of his body and gives us a share of his priestly office. Confirmation places us more firmly into him, and the Eucharist identifies us with his heart and gives us his pledge of eternal life.
Those sacraments of initiation all cause similar things through different signs and to different degrees. The primary occurrence, the one that is repeated in each sacrament, is our membership in Christ and incorporation in his body, which is the Church.
Baptism
ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS
Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift.… We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty [thought-provoking; the obsolete sense of grace as mercy and clemency]; Baptism because sin is buried in the water [baptism as death by violence—Flood, Egyptians]; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God’s Lordship.
Jesus suffocated on the Cross. Water is a tomb for men because it suffocates. Water and a cross take away the breath, but God sends his Spirit to return the breath of life. The bath of Baptism, therefore, is death, burial with Christ, and new life.
Baptismal grace is the forgiveness of all sin, original and personal, rebirth as sons of God, being made a member of Christ and incorporated into his Church, and becoming a temple of the Holy Spirit. Filial adoption, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Spirit, those three things are the communion with the Trinity, which is salvation itself. Together, they equal the ‘new life,’ also called the Christian life. In our communion with the Trinity, we are saved and will remain so throughout life if we stay free of sin. If we sin, we lose that communion but can enter it anew through the sacrament of Penance.
Confirmation
CONFIRMATION RITUAL BOOK
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought these your servants to new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, freeing them from sin: send upon them, O Lord, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; fill them with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. Through Christ our Lord.
Confirmation gives more of what was already given during Baptism. Confirmation perfects our communion with the Trinity by perfecting our filial adoption and membership in the Church, Christ’s body. The confirmed communicate God’s Revelation, his deeds and words, by their own true deeds and truthful words.
We receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation. The gifts allow us to live, act, and pray under the prompting and teaching of the Spirit.
The Eucharist
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.
Passover was the divine work of the salvation of Israel. Now, Passover is Christ’s work of the salvation of all. Passover is the work of salvation. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were the performance of that work. The Mass presents Christ’s Passover—his life, death, and resurrection.
“The Eucharist which nourishes the disciple with Christ’s Body and Blood for his transformation in Christ.” “Transformation, in biology, is one of several processes by which genetic material in the form of “naked” deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is transferred between microbial cells. (Britannica)” By analogy, transferring Christ’s divine life to us requires energy; the Eucharist is the energy for that transformation.
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