“The Sacrament of Confirmation“
By Fr. Isaiah Schick
This weekend, youth from our parishes are receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Powers. But what is the Sacrament of Confirmation? Why is it important? Well, a good place to start would be to ask why is it even called “Confirmation” in the first place! The name comes from the Latin word “confirmare”, which means to strengthen. I think that is important because there are many things that Confirmation is NOT. It is not a chance when “I get to choose my own faith”. We get to choose our faith every day! But regardless of whether I live out my faith in a way that is fully alive, only lukewarm, or not at all, I have already been committed and promised to Jesus Christ as his disciple and to the Father as his beloved son or daughter by my baptismal promises. Confirmation is not a graduation from faith formation, either. In fact, after Confirmation, our responsibility to continue to be formed in our faith becomes greater, not lesser!
I think the mistake that it is a “graduation” happens because we are used to that happening with normal schooling only a year or so later – but it is not called the Sacrament of “Graduation” for a reason! That is not what it is! No, Confirmation is actually more about God’s work in us than our “choice” or “learning” at all! Our choice for faithfulness is important, and so is our growth in knowledge and understanding.
But more important than that is the power of the Holy Spirit and his working of grace in our soul – Confirmation is God strengthening us! To do what? To go on mission, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to the whole world! To live according to the law of love of God above all things, of our neighbor as ourselves, and of our enemies!
And those things are hard – we cannot do them on our own without the strength of the Holy Spirit and the power of his anointing. We need his gifts and the manifestation of his fruits in our lives. We need the consolation of knowing that we have not only been born again by our baptism into Christ but that we have also been strengthened by our Father to fight the spiritual battle that is the Christian life in a fallen world! We have not been turned loose as helpless infants in the Lord stranded on a battlefield, but rather we take to heart the words of St. Paul: “Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-17)
We have been anointed as soldiers entering into the battle between good and evil, life and death, love and nothingness. So take your charge and anointing seriously and live according to the gifts you have been given, rather than throwing it all away because you believe you are done growing in faith and are at the end of your Christian journey. We have only just begun – so let us run the race so as to win!