The Sacrament of Confirmation

In the biological order, a creature must first be born and then grow. Likewise, in the spiritual order of grace, we are born again in Baptism and then we must grow in the spiritual life and bear the fruits of the Spirit.

We also need spiritual power to struggle against the powers of darkness. The Holy Sacrament of Confirmation induces us into God’s spiritual army and the lay priesthood of believers. Our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. Confirmation is a kind of Pentecost to the baptized person.

The roots of this sacrament are found in the promises of the Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord promised the Holy Spirit again and again, and on Pentecost this promise was fulfilled. The Apostles then administered this sacrament by the laying on of hands after Baptism.

The lesson cites Acts 2:17 with Joel 2:28, Ezekiel 36:26-27, John 7:37-39, John 14:16-17, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7, Acts 1:4-5, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 19:5-6, and Hebrews 6:2 to show both the promise of the Spirit and the sacrament's distinction from baptism.

As the number of believers grew, the Apostles established chrismation in addition to the laying on of hands. This holy anointing became the sacramental means by which the gift of the Holy Spirit was given throughout the Church.

The holy oil, or Myron, has a long history in the life of the Church. The Apostles took the spices that were on our Lord's body in the tomb and the spices prepared by the women, melted them in pure olive oil, prayed over it, and decreed that this holy oil be used to anoint the baptized so that they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Their successors, the bishops, renewed it through the generations.

When St. Mark came to Alexandria, he brought some of that holy oil with him. In the beginning of the fourth century, Pope Athanasius the Apostolic, the twentieth Pope of Alexandria, renewed it with the scriptural spices of holy ointment and sent some of it to Rome, Antioch, and Constantinople together with the recipe used in preparing it. Here the church references are presented in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church language while preserving the same Oriental Orthodox sacramental teaching.

The Church confirms infants immediately after Baptism, in accordance with Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church does not delay this sacrament. Confirmation is necessary for the spiritual life, because apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit our efforts remain powerless and our life is exposed to spiritual ruin.

The lesson further reinforces this with 1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Ephesians 4:30, Luke 24:1, Exodus 30, Luke 1:15, and Psalm 51:11.