The Byzantine sacraments of initiation.
In the Christian Church Baptism is the first of the sacraments. Only a baptized person can fully participate in the life of the Church. It is the beginning of a new life, the emergence of our life in Christ, freed from sin. In fact, valid Baptism is recognized as a basic requirement by which Catholics determine who is recognized as a Christian among the thousands of groups that have emerged since the Reformation.In the Christian East, Baptism is traditionally done by triple immersion. The current service of Baptism in the Byzantine Rite contains several services generally combined together; these include the churching of the child, the naming of the child, and the exorcisms. The priest also performs a blessing of the baptismal waters and the oil to be used for Baptism. Some of these services historically would have been performed on different days. Tonsuring hair at Baptism, a later development in Byzantine liturgy, is proscribed in the service books of some Byzantine Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox. This is a symbolic cutting of the hair to show servitude to Christ. While many infants are baptized at an age of a few months in the Catholic churches of the East, in many Orthodox churches it is common to delay Baptism until the child is a year or two old, a sufficient age that they can answer the priest's questions with their own "yes" or "no." This also follows from a radically different understanding of original sin and its hereditary nature in the Greek East as compared to the Latin West.
In the Byzantine Tradition, and in the Christian East in general, Baptism forms one integrated rite of initiation that is celebrated together with Chrismation (what the west calls Confirmation) and Eucharist. This is the order of the sacraments as traditionally held in the Church where the Eucharist is the culmination and the fullness of initiation into life with Christ (see CCC 1233). Chrismation, occurring at Baptism, calls the Holy Spirit down upon the child. The children are "sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit" with holy Chrism, a mixture of olive oil and spices prepared by the bishop or patriarch and distributed to priests. This chrism is applied by the priest to the forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, breasts, hands, and feet. Since Baptism and chrismation form a single rite, deacons are not ministers of Baptism in the Christian East.
Finally, all who are newly baptized, and not just adults, receive Communion. This is the undisputed tradition of the early Church, both East and West. The Churches of the Christian East have preserved this discipline to this day. In fact, infant Communion continued even in the Latin Church in remote areas into the seventeenth century. While it is true that the practice of infant Communion fell into disuse during different periods of Church history, since the Second Vatican Council infant Communion in the Eastern Catholic Churches has re-emerged, and the current Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches is clear that Communion is to occur as soon as possible after Baptism, that is, at that service or the very next Divine Liturgy, such as when the Baptism does not occur during the Divine Liturgy or there is no Eucharist reserved (c. 697). Children are able to continue receiving the Eucharist with their parents or other adults, until they begin to confess their sins, and approach the chalice on their own. This follows the understanding that just as children are baptized on the faith of their parents and sponsors, so they too receive the Eucharist on the faith of their parents and sponsors.
PRAYER AT THE BLESSING OF THE WATER AT BAPTISM
"And give to this water the Grace of Redemption, the Blessing of Jordan. Make it a fountain of incorruption, a gift of sanctification, a loosing of sins, a healing of sicknesses, a destruction of demons, unapproachable by hostile powers, filled with angelic might; and let them that take counsel together against Your creature flee therefrom, for I have called upon Your Name, O Lord, which is wonderful, and glorious, and terrible unto adversaries."
BY FR. ALEXANDER M. LASCHUK
Fr. Alexander Laschuk is a priest of the Ukranian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada.
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| Author: | Laschuk, Alexander M. |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Catholic Insight |
| Article Type: | Column |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Nov 1, 2014 |
| Words: | 706 |
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