CCC 74 God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”:1 that is, of Christ Jesus.2 Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth:
God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.3
CCC 695 Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit,4 to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called “chrismation” in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew “messiah”) means the one “anointed” by God’s Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David.5 But Jesus is God’s Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as “Christ.”6 The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord.7 The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving.8 Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.9 Now, fully established as “Christ” in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until “the saints” constitute – in their union with the humanity of the Son of God – that perfect man “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”:10 “the whole Christ,” in St. Augustine’s expression.
CCC 698 The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. “The Father has set his seal” on Christ and also seals us in him.11 Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible “character” imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments.
CCC 735 He, then, gives us the “pledge” or “first fruits” of our inheritance: the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as “God [has] loved us.”12 This love (the “charity” of 1 Cor 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible because we have received “power” from the Holy Spirit.13
CCC 1065 Jesus Christ himself is the “Amen.”14 He is the definitive “Amen” of the Father’s love for us. He takes up and completes our “Amen” to the Father: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God”:15
Through him, with him, in him,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours,
almighty Father,
God, for ever and ever.
AMEN.
CCC 1107 The Holy Spirit’s transforming power in the liturgy hastens the coming of the kingdom and the consummation of the mystery of salvation. While we wait in hope he causes us really to anticipate the fullness of communion with the Holy Trinity. Sent by the Father who hears the epiclesis of the Church, the Spirit gives life to those who accept him and is, even now, the “guarantee” of their inheritance.16
CCC 1274 The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord (“Dominicus character”) “for the day of redemption.”17 “Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life.”18 The faithful Christian who has “kept the seal” until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life “marked with the sign of faith,”19 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God – the consummation of faith – and in the hope of resurrection.
CCC 1296 Christ himself declared that he was marked with his Father’s seal.20 Christians are also marked with a seal: “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us; he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”21 This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrollment in his service for ever, as well as the promise of divine protection in the great eschatological trial.22
1 1 Tim 2:4.
2 cf. Jn 14:6.
3 DV 7; cf. 2 Cor 1:20; 3:16-4:6.
4 Cf. 1 In 2:20:27; 2 Cor 1:21.
5 Cf. Ex 30:22-32; 1 Sam 16:13.
6 Cf. Lk 418-19; Isa 61:1.
7 Cf. Lk 2:11,26-27.
8 Cf. Lk 4:1; 6:19; 8:46.
9 Cf. Rom 1:4; 8:11.
10 Eph 4:13; cf. Acts 2:36.
11 Jn 6:27; cf. 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:3.
12 1 Jn 4: 12; cf. Rom 8:23; 2 Cor 1:21.
13 Acts 1:8; cf. 1 Cor 13.
14 Rev 3:14.
15 2 Cor 1:20.
16 Cf. Eph 1:14; 2 Cor 1:22.
17 St. Augustine, Ep. 98, 5: PL 33, 362; Eph 4:30; cf. 1:13-14; 2 Cor 1:21-22.
18 St. Irenaeus, Dem ap. 3: SCh 62, 32.
19 Roman Missal, EP I (Roman Canon) 97.
20 Cf. Jn 6:27.
21 2 Cor 1:21-22; cf. Eph 1:13; 4,30.
22 Cf. Rev 7:2-3; 9:4; Ezek 9:4-6.