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The Sacrament of Chrismation |
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Written by Dr. Andrew Cuneo
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Stepping
into the Orthodox world is akin to leaving a world of black and white and
entering into a world of full color. One splash of color is simply a deepened
awareness of anointing-the custom, unusual in our day, of placing oil on the
body. By stepping back from the title "Christian," one may then see how
genuinely odd a title it is. The chief adjective in a Christian's name
emphasizes that he or she is an anointed one, a little Christ, who is given the
Holy Spirit precisely as Jesus was given the Holy Spirit in a public way during
Theophany. If one may invent a verb about the sacrament, the catechumen in this
sacrament is Christified. To my knowledge, only within Orthodoxy does
chrismation receive such attention; it is not a lesser sacrament than baptism
or communion, and it has its own paramount credentials.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
explains one reason for this in his own catechesis: "But beware of supposing
this [chrism] to be plain ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist, after
the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread no longer, but the Body of
Christ, so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say)
common, after the invocation, but the gift of Christ; and by the presence of
His Godhead, it causes in us the Holy Ghost."
The analogy between the Eucharist and the chrism is startling: the powerful
transformation undergone in the bread and wine of the Eucharist is parallel to
the transformation undergone in the oil of chrismation. Both are no longer what
they once were. Both grant us participation in the divine life. Chrismation,
furthermore, endows the believer with something markedly different from the
other main sacraments, even as it imparts the very same Triune God.
As a sideline, the making of the chrism itself indicates its analogous relationship
to the Eucharist; tradition has it that the monks prepare the chrism in a
fashion both painstaking and prayerful. The chrism is composed, stirred, and
prayed over continually for about a month before it is ready to be used. As
with the prosphora, so with the chrism: both are set apart for preparation
according to sacred guidelines.
This detail harmonizes with so much of Orthodoxy. In something as apparently
inconsequential as chrism oil there is intense preparation. How regularly the
need for preparation suffuses Orthodox practice. One prepares for Pascha via
Lent, for the Nativity through Advent, and for Holy Communion each Liturgy
through fasting. Nothing, it seems, should happen instantaneously. . . .
Chrismation assists us as spiritual athletes in our war against the devil.
"Indeed," writes St. Neilos the Ascetic in the Philokalia, "we must be not only naked but anointed with oil. Stripping
prevents our opponent from getting a grasp on us, while oil enables us to slip
away should he in fact seize hold of us. That is why a wrestler tries to cover
his opponent's body with dust; this will counteract the slipperiness of the oil
and make it easier for him to get a hold." St. Neilos goes on to mention how
the devil tries to use the dust of material possessions to grip the new monastic.
But the anointing is also balm for a Christian's wounds obtained while
wrestling. The chrism is a healing chrism. It was amusing to read in the news recently
how doctors have just discovered that, yes, in fact, olive oil can act as a
mild antibiotic for wounds. Anyone who has read the story of the Good Samaritan
is unlikely to find this surprising.
To add to the dimension of healing, but still maintaining the others
concurrently, chrism anoints the believer for kingship just as Zadok and Nathan
anointed Solomon (1 Kings 1:38-39). Jesus the "Anointed One" carries this
meaning strongly. It is thus all too pleasant to think of ourselves as kings
paramount in wisdom, co-heirs with Christ, eternal rulers.
Nevertheless, another function of chrism provides the check of sobriety, for
chrism anoints us in the end for death. We are little Christs, anointed from a
jar of alabaster by a disciple who prepares us for burial. Behind every descent
of the Holy Spirit lies the victim's cross; behind every outrageously
supernatural gift of the Spirit-soul-reading or sun-stopping, it matters not-lies
martyrdom and a tomb. So be it. God be praised, for something lies beyond that
as well
Dr. Andrew P. Cuneo is an Assistant
Professor of English at Hillsdale
College. He, his wife
Erika, and his three children were chrismated into the Orthodox Church in 2005.
This article is excerpted from "The
Fruits of Chrismation," originally published in AGAIN Vol. 28 No. 3, Fall 2006.
It is reproduced here courtesy of www.conciliarpress.com.
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