Clarifying Baptism and Confirmation

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cont’d with @rightness
I’m pretty sure it’s not the case where Baptism is “incomplete” without confirmation, but then what does confirmation do?
In Apostolic times, we see the laying on of hands producing manifestations of the Spirit. Most frequently, speaking in tongues. A clear illustration of this is in Acts 19:

Paul in Ephesus. 1 [a]While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came [down] to Ephesus where he found some disciples. 2 He said to them, “Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.” 3 He said, “How were you baptized?” They replied, “With the baptism of John.” 4 Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul laid [his] hands on them, the holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 Altogether there were about twelve men.

This substantiates the Catholic Teaching and actually, the name of the Sacrament. Confirmation does what it says. It confirms or cements the believer in the faith. This is done by the Holy Spirit infusing the soul with more grace in order to produce “gifts” which will manifest themselves in the person’s Christian life.
In the Catechism, it says to perfect our Baptism, so does that imply that our initial baptisms are imperfect until Confirmation?
Incomplete.

If it is imperfect, that’s not because of the Sacraments. That’s because of us.

Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned. 4 For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ[c] and individually parts of one another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them:[d] if prophecy, in proportion to the faith;

If our Baptism is imperfect, it is because our faith is imperfect.

1253 Baptism is the sacrament of faith.54 But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe. The faith required for Baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning that is called to develop. The catechumen or the godparent is asked: “What do you ask of God’s Church?” The response is: “Faith!”

But the Catechism does say that Confirmation completes Baptism.

1304 Like Baptism which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the “character,” which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him with power from on high so that he may be his witness.

I hope that helps.
 
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Thanks everyone. I’ve been doing a lot more reading on this.

Yeah, I think Baptism is complete as a Sacrament for salvation, but our maturity and knowledge in our faith is what is Confirmation. Infants definitely don’t know enough to know about God and the work of His Son, so giving the Grace for a matured Catholic with full knowledge about the faith is appropriate.

I don’t think we have to go to exact scripture quotes. We already saw how imperfect Baptisms were before God bestowed the Holy Spirit on the followers. They were afraid, sinful, unsure of what to do, and even Peter denied Jesus three times. The faith and knowledge weren’t enough for the Apostles, only the Grace of God was able to give them the strength to spread the news. I like how it is said that Baptism gave us the Sanctifying Grace, then Confirmation multiplies it.

In logical terms, infants won’t have that knowledge until they learned enough until Confirmation. It’s only appropriate that they are given additional Grace after having full knowledge.
 
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