Confirmation, together with Baptism and Eucharist, form the
Sacraments of Initiation that are all intimately connected. In the
Sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized person is "sealed with the gift
of the Holy Spirit" and is strengthened for service to the Body of
Christ.
The prophets of the Old Testament foretold that God's Spirit
would rest upon the Messiah to sustain his mission. Their prophecy was
fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah was conceived by the Spirit and born of
the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus on the occasion of
his baptism by John.
Jesus' entire mission occurred in communion with the Spirit. Before
he died, Jesus promised that the Spirit would be given to the Apostles
and to the entire Church. After his death, he was raised by the Father
in the power of the Spirit.
Those who believed in the Apostles' preaching were baptized
and received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. The
Apostles baptized believers in water and the Spirit. Then they imparted
the special gift of the Spirit through the laying on of hands. "'The
imposition of hands is rightly recognized by the Catholic tradition as
the origin of the sacrament of Confirmation, which in a certain way
perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church'" (CCC, no. 1288,
citing Pope Paul VI, Divinae Consortium Naturae, no. 659).
By the second century, Confirmation was also conferred by anointing
with holy oil, which came to be called sacred Chrism. "This anointing
highlights the name 'Christian,' which means 'anointed' and derives from
that of Christ himself whom God 'anointed with the Holy Spirit'" (CCC,
no. 1289, citing Acts 10:38).