Confirmation
Two weeks from today, October 20, Bishop Boyea will celebrate our annual Jackson Region Confirmation Mass at Our Lady of Fatima. Included in this Mass are candidates from all of the Jackson area parishes and this year we anticipate more than 100 young people, 17 of them from St. John the Evangelist, will receive this beautiful sacrament! As we approach this Mass each year, it brings to mind thoughts of my Confirmation and what the Church teaches that Confirmation truly means.
I barely remember my own Confirmation, which I received in the 7th grade. My family had no faith life whatsoever and never went to Mass, although I attended Catholic school, so it meant very little to me at the time. I remember what I was wearing, a very uncomfortable purplish-burgundy skirt and vest set. I remember the red felt stole that we had made in Religion class with white felt letters spelling our chosen Confirmation name down the length of it. The only thing I remember about the Mass was that it was hot in the church and seemed to take forever.
That’s it. No great feeling of being closer to Jesus. No overpowering sense of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Nothing at all, not even the smell of the oil, nothing except it was hot and long. That is not the memory we desire for the youth of our parish today. We want for them what the Church, in all of Her wisdom, wants for them and teaches that the sacrament is intended for:
Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds. (CCC1316)
Oftentimes today we hear that Confirmation is about “being an adult in the faith”. That statement is found nowhere in the Catechism’s explanation of the sacrament. It also doesn’t say that the sacrament is our “adult decision” to follow up on the Baptism that our parents chose for us. Confirmation is one of the Sacraments of Initiation. It, in conjunction with Baptism and the Eucharist, initiates our Christian life – it begins it, not completes it. This sacrament is supposed to help us to be stronger in our faith, desire more of what God wants to give us, and bring us deeper into the Church. Yet, so often it is lived as a pseudo-graduation, celebrated by a lukewarm assembly – myself included at the time of mine.
I ask you to join me in praying for this year’s candidates from St. John the Evangelist. May they be filled with the Holy Spirit in an overpowering way. May they be open to receiving all that He longs to pour out on them. May their faith be deepened and their love for the Church grow strong. We ask all of this, and whatever else You desire for Your people, oh Lord, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
