Christian Initiation General Introduction 1. Through the Sacraments of Christian Initiation all who have been freed from the power of darkness and have died, been buried and been raised with Christ, receive the Spirit of filial adoption and celebrate with the entire People of God the memorial of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection.1 2. For, having been incorporated into Christ through Baptism, they are formed into the People of God, and, having received the remission of all their sins and been rescued from the power of darkness, they are brought to the status of adopted sons and daughters,2 being made a new creation by water and the Holy Spirit. Hence they are called, and indeed are, children of God.3 Sealed with the gift of the same Spirit in Confirmation, they are more perfectly configured to the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit, so that bearing witness to Christ before the world, they bring the Body of Christ to its full stature without delay.4 Finally, participating in the Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), they eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man, so that they may receive eternal life5 and show forth the unity of God’s people. Offering themselves with Christ, they take part in the universal sacrifice, which is the entire city of the redeemed offered to God through the great High Priest;6 they also pray that, through a fuller outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the whole human race come into the unity of God’s family.7 Thus the three Sacraments of Christian Initiation so work together that they bring to full stature the Christian faithful, who exercise in the Church and in the world the mission of the entire Christian people.8 1 Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad gentes, no. 14. 2 Cf. Colossians 1:13; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5. Cf. also Council of Trent, sess. 6., Decr. de iustificatione, cap. 4: Denz.-Schön. 1524. 3 Cf. 1 John 3:1. 4 Cf. Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad gentes, no. 36. 5 Cf. John 6:55. 6 Cf. Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei 10, 6: PL 41, 284. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, no. 11; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum ordinis, no. 2. 7 Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, no. 28. 8 Cf. ibidem, no. 31.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzMzNzY=