Chrismation
In Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit through union with Christ in His death, and Resurrection. In Chrismation we have the Holy Spirit sealed in us through anointing with ointment called Chrism that is prepared by the leading bishop of an autocephalous Orthodox Church. This is the equivalent of the original laying on of hands of the apostles.
St. Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894) says the following:
Life is the strength to act. Spiritual life is the strength to act spiritually, according to the will of God. Man has lost this strength; therefore, until it is restored to him he cannot live spiritually, no matter how much he intends to. That is why the flow of grace into the soul of the believer is essential for a true Christian life. True Christian life is the life of grace [emphasis added here and elsewhere]. A man makes some religious resolution: but in order to be able to act according to it, it is necessary that grace be united with his spirit. When this union is present, moral strength, hitherto evident only temporarily in his first enthusiasm, is impressed on his spirit and remains there always. This re-establishment of the moral strength of the spirit is effected by the regenerating action of baptism, through which man is granted justification and the strength to act ‘after God in righteousness and true holiness’ (Eph. 5:24).
A mystical communion with our Lord Jesus Christ is granted to believers in the holy sacrament of baptism. At baptism and chrismation grace enters into the heart of the Christian, and thereafter remains constantly within him, helping him to live in a Christian way and to go from strength to strength in the spiritual life.
All of us who have been baptized and chrismated, have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is in all of us, but he is not active in all of us. *
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (+386) says:
"For as Christ after His baptism, and the descent of the Holy Spirit,
went forth and vanquished the adversary, so likewise, having, after
Holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism, put on the whole armour of
the Holy Spirit, do you stand against the power of the enemy, and vanquish it, saying, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."**
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is for action, for power to overcome the enemy, and to gain dominion over oneself, and then for service in the world just like the Apostle at Pentecost who received the Holy Spirit and then were able to emerge as charismatic missionaries of the Word of God each with a different gift establishing what we know today as the Orthodox Church..
* From The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo (London: Faber and Faber, 1966), p. 172
** St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Lectures on the Christian Sacraments (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press1986), pp.65-66.
Additional information on Chrismation can be found in the Saint George catechism book," Living the Orthodox Life" and the web page for the sacrament of Chrismation |
