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5. Battesimo e confermazione, due riti diversi per due grazie diverse, ma complementari.

The texts of the New Testament we have the baptism and confirmation sacraments as two distinct and yet interconnected. We read in Acts of the Apostles: "heard all this were cut to the heart and said to Peter and other apostles:" What should we do, brothers? ". And Peter said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:37-38). And Paul wrote in his letter to Titus " We too were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves all sorts of passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and his love for men, he saved us not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but for his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal in Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, because justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life "(Titus 3.3 to 7).

Church Eastern celebrates the baptism by immersion and immediately after the confirmation for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Except for infants, even the Catholic church now conducts the same way. The official notes accompanying the new ritual of confirmation, issued August 22, 1971, said: "The catechumens adults and children who are baptized at the age of catechism are normally admitted to the Eucharist and confirmation immediately after receiving baptism "(No. 11).
These three sacraments of Christian initiation - baptism, confirmation and Eucharist - are so chained together to form a coherent whole.
In the first three centuries of the church, baptism was celebrated by the bishop during the night vigil of Easter or Pentecost. On leaving the water baptized by the bishop received the confirmation. Then he celebrated mass in which a baptized and confirmed he received his first communion. This practice continued until baptized adults and especially long lived communities gathered around their bishop.
The fourth century brought freedom for the church, the progressive disappearance of the pagans, a growing number of baptisms of children and the proliferation of rural parishes away from the city where the bishop resided ...
are left with two solutions: either to baptize the baby in place now and in the name of the bishop, and return the confirmation at a later time, when he came to the bishop, or keep connected baptism e la confermazione e dare ai semplici sacerdoti il potere di confermare. Le chiese di rito orientale hanno scelto la seconda soluzione: il sacerdote battezza e conferma subito - ma sempre con il sacro crisma consacrato dal vescovo - e, molto spesso, dà al bambino alcune gocce del vino eucaristico. Quindi: battesimo, confermazione, eucaristia.
La nostra chiesta occidentale ha scelto invece la prima soluzione: il sacerdote battezza i neonati, mentre il vescovo verrà, di tanto in tanto, a compiere i riti postbattesimali, la confermazione del battesimo.
La chiesa cattolica d’occidente dunque ha dissociato battesimo e confermazione. Niente di strano o di errato, intendiamoci. Facevano così già al tempo degli apostoli. Vi cito solo un esempio, ma non è l’unico. Leggo gli Atti degli apostoli al capitolo ottavo: " Quando cominciarono a credere a Filippo, che recava la buona novella del regno di Dio e del nome di Gesù Cristo, uomini e donne si facevano battezzare... Frattanto gli apostoli, a Gerusalemme, seppero che la Samaria aveva accolto la parola di Dio e vi inviarono Pietro e Giovanni. Essi discesero e pregarono per loro perché ricevessero lo Spirito Santo; non era infatti ancora sceso sopra nessuno di loro, ma erano stati soltanto battezzati nel nome del Signore Gesù. Allora imposero le mani e quelli ricevevano lo Spirito Santo " (At 8,12-17).
Concludiamo dicendo che battesimo e confermazione sono due distinct sacraments, through two different rites for two different but complementary. Two sides of same coin.