Day 179: Summary of Confirmation (2025_

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As we journey together toward our heavenly home, this is day one hundred and seventy-nine. We were reading paragraphs 1315 to 1321. Nugget day. As always, I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach.

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He'll be fine. Today is day 179. We're reading paragraphs 1315 to 1321. As I said, it is nugget day. We're concluding. We have the in-brief when it comes to the sacrament of confirmation. And so let's jump in, let's dive in head first. Into this summary of all that we had just learned, all that we had just heard about this great sacrament of confirmation.

Father in heaven, we give you praise. We give you glory, and we ask that you please send your Holy Spirit upon us. Send your Holy Spirit and pour out your love, your grace, your truth, your wisdom, your gift. So that our lives can bear fruit, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Lord God, we consecrate this day to you and we give it to you as an offering, we give it to you as a gift. We ask you to please simply receive this gift of this day.

The gift of this day that you have given us, we give it back to you. Help us give it back to you in a way that honors you. Help us give it back to you as your gift to us and our gift to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day one seventy-nine. We were reading paragraphs thirteen fifteen through thirteen twenty-one. In brief.

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen on any of them. But they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Acts of the Apostles, chapter eight, verses fourteen through seventeen. 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. Confirmation, like baptism, imprints a spiritual mark or indelible character on the Christian's soul. For this reason, one can receive this sacrament only once in one's life.

In the East, this sacrament is administered immediately after baptism and is followed by participation in the Eucharist. This tradition highlights the unity of the three sacraments of Christian initiation. In the Latin Church, this sacrament is administered when the age of reason has been reached, and its celebration is ordinarily reserved to the bishop, thus signifying that this sacrament strengthens the ecclesial bond.

A candidate for confirmation who has attained the age of reason must profess the faith. Be in a state of grace, have the intention of receiving the sacrament, and be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ, both within the ecclesial community and in temporal affairs. The essential rite of confirmation is anointing the forehead of the baptized with sacred chrism.

In the East, other sense organs as well, together with the laying on of the minister's hand and the words Acipe Signaculum doni spiritus sancti, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, in the Roman Rite, or Signaculum doni spiritus sancti, the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Byzantine rite. When confirmation is celebrated separately from baptism, its connection with baptism is expressed, among other ways, by the renewal of baptismal promises.

The celebration of confirmation during the Eucharist helps underline the unity of the sacraments of Christian initiation.

All right, so there there's our nuggets today, paragraphs thirteen fifteen to thirteen twenty one. And I just want to highlight today, uh in the nuggets, we've we talked about for the last few days, the fact that, okay, what God has done in me can't stop with me. Right? So what God has done in you can't stop with you.

And this is part of the sacrament of confirmation. So here's Jesus. Here's the Holy Spirit poured out because here's God the Father, right? Who wills here's the Holy Trinity. Here is God Himself, who has done what? In baptism, he's made you and I into his adopted children.

He has brought us into the family of God. He's cleansed us of our sins. He's given us new birth and regeneration. He's made us a new creation. He's done all of these incredible things and more, of course. And he's done all those things in us. But what God wants, what Jesus Christ wants, is he wants the whole world to experience this.

That there is no person who ever has been, is, or ever will be, for whom Christ did not shed his blood. That Jesus Christ wants the whole world to know the gospel. That Jesus wants the whole world to be Catholic. I mean, this is the reality. Why did Jesus Christ establish his church? And to go out into the whole world, baptizing in the name of the Father and Holy Spirit and making disciples. He did this because he desires that all men be saved, that every human being be saved.

And so what God has done in us cannot stop with us. And he gives us this incredible sacrament of confirmation for many reasons in many, many ways. Of course, to unite us more firmly to the church and to strengthen us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to to unite us more closely to God our Father as our dad, right? Our heavenly Father. But also to send us out.

To also more closely associate us with the mission of the Church and to help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds. This is it's so so incredibly important. that that we recognize this. In paragraph thirteen nineteen, it reminds us of the fact that the person who's the candidate for confirmation should have it, who has attained the age of reason, must do a couple things. One is profess the faith.

And to think about that, to pause on that for a second and re remember that You were asked. You know, do you reject Satan and all his works or some formulation like that? I do. Do you, you know, basically reject the evil one? I do. Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth? I do. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son, our Lord? I do. The Holy Spirit, I do. The Catholic Church, I do. We said that we have made that profession of faith.

But here's the question. I made that profession of faith that day that I was confirmed. And we remake that profession of faith when we're at the Easter vigil. That's the profession of faith. It says here, a candidate for confirmation who has attained the age of reason must profess the faith. Yeah, and I think what the church means here is must make a profession of faith. But let's let's let's not twist it. Let's look at another angle of this.

Is it just they made a profession of faith, or does it mean they must profess the faith?

Meaning, I identify myself as a Catholic Christian, right? I identify myself as belonging to Jesus. I profess. the faith that I believe that God from all eternity, at one moment in time, entered into the human race and in the incarnation, the second person, the Holy Trinity, took on human nature, and in that human nature, body and soul,

He lived and he suffered and he loved and he died and he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Like this is the and he sent the Holy Spirit for all of us to have eternal life. Do we profess that faith on a regular basis is the big question, right?

I think it should be, I think there should be some gut checks, even though here we are talking about the sacraments and and they're the ways in which we worship God, there's ways in which there are the ways in which God's grace comes to us on a regular basis. But God gives us his gifts to be used. God gives us his gifts to be used. And the question I get to ask is how have I used God's gifts? Does anyone around me know that I'm Catholic other than the fact that then maybe it came up once?

Or did they even know I'm Catholic? Does any does anyone around me know that I belong to Jesus Christ? Does anyone around me know that the most important person in the world to me is God? They don't know that. So this is just again just heart check, gut check. The candidate must be profess the faith, must be in a state of grace. So that invitation to go to confession I mentioned yesterday.

Have the intention of receiving the sacrament and be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ. One of the things that I will as I mentioned yesterday as well that I have put on confirmation retreats for the last 18 years for high school students. And one of the things that we even open up with at the very beginning of this.

confirmation retreat is we do a we do a like a basically a mock wedding right away where I just I invite and ask for a male volunteer from the congregate or the crowd, you know, from the retreat and a female volunteer. And they usually they n they shouldn't know each other.

And then I run into the back room and the guy puts on a a sport coat and they have a little veil for the for the gal and they come out and we they they go through the whole rite of marriage. Well not the whole rite of marriage, but most of it, you know, most they say all the right words, right?

And then afterwards it's like, Well, congratulations, you guys. How did you know that each other were the one? You know, it's it's a big joke because they obviously don't even know who each other are. And then at the end of it, like, okay, you go back to your seats and then We'll go through this whole thing of like, so are they married now?

And they're like, No, they're not merely married. What you guys I can't believe you're saying they're not really married. Why would you say that? And they go through all the reasons. Like, well, they don't love each other. Like, well, I don't know. That's is that a condition for Sacramento matrimony?

Uh we'll talk about that more when we get to the sacrament of matrimony. Um, they're not old enough. Well, they are actually old enough in the church. Um, if you're older f over sixteen, I mean you're that's there's there. They didn't get married, you know, but they there's no marriage license. Like, okay, well, that's that's a legitimate thing, but you know

There are some places in the world where you don't need a marriage license in order to get married. It's not that doesn't have much to do with the sacramental marriage. All the reasons, right? And lastly, the last thing is, well, they didn't mean it.

I'm like, wait a second, you guys, are you is that true? You went through all these things. You just said what I told you to say, you just did what I told you to do, but you didn't mean it. And it I pretend like it shocks me, right? But that's the real reason. And I highlight this fact. Now you're right, they didn't mean it.

Yeah, they said the words that I asked them to say or told them to say. They they did the things that I told them or asked them to do, but they went through all of that and they didn't have any intention of being married, which is is very key. But the same thing is true for a lot of people when they get confirmed.

Like I'm yeah, I'm gonna show up at the church and I'll I'll do what you tell me to do. Like I'll walk up to the bishop and he'll say receive the be still with the gift of the Holy Spirit and amen. Peace be with you and with your spirit. Mm-hmm. I'll do all those things. I'll get dressed up, I'll stand where you want me to stand, I'll say what you want me to say.

But I have no intention of being a disciple of Jesus. I have no intention to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ for the rest of my life. In that case, you'd say, hmm, is there something? You ask the question, is there something going on in that?

that is similar to what would be happening if we just kinda mo had a mock wedding where you're merely saying what I'm asking you to say, you're merely doing what I'm asking you to do. How many of us would say, that's the only reason I was confirmed, I just I did what they told me to do. I had no intention whatsoever of living that out. I would say that. For all of us. There's this again, it seems like I keep using the phrase gut check.

But there is this like maybe self check of just being able to stop and ask the question. What is my intention as I as I enter into sacrament of confirmation? What is my intention as I get closer and closer to the Lord? Is it? God, I know I'm I'm not perfect. I know that I'm going to fail. I know that I will not be the best witness and the greatest witness to you. But I desire to receive your Holy Spirit so that I can be the disciple you want me to be.

I would say, if that's the case, again, paragraph 13, 19, I want to I want to profess the faith, even if I don't do it well. I want to be in a state of grace, even if I keep falling out of the state of grace and going back to sin. I want I want to receive this accommodation. I don't just want to do this because my mom told me to do it. And I and I I might not be prepared, but I want to be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ.

If if those things are present, then even if they're only present in their like seminal form, right? If they're only present in their in like the the the desire for this thing, even if it's not. And that fully realized, then that is great and good and move forward. Even if I know how broken I am, even if I know that I'm gonna fail at this, yes, keep on moving forward.

But I have to pause at least, or at least give people. I I think we could give people a chance to pause if we say, if they say, I do not want this.

And I'd say, okay. I mean, how many of us would get married to someone we did not want to get married to, but just because grandma wants us to? You know, just because grandpa says, Hey, you know, it's really important to me that you marry this person, would we just do it then? Or would we allow there to be some freedom in saying, I may I know I might not be ready for this. I might not want what you're offering.

Um, it's a risk, of course. At the same time, sacraments can never be forced on anybody. Does that make sense? I don't know how to make a big deal out of this, but I would say that most of us having gone through confirmation, or maybe many of us, I'm not even sure if most of us, many of us having gone through confirmation, might not have been prepared in the way that we should have been.

Which isn't I'm not gonna blame anyone about it other than myself. I can blame myself, and maybe some of us even went through confirmation not wanting the sacrament of confirmation. Maybe some of us are in formation of others for confirmation and we meet people every day who don't want confirmation.

Maybe we can have some more creative ways to help those along the road. Here's the last thing. Here's the last thing. I know that this is like, father, where are you going with all of this? Well, where I'm going with this is the fact that It is incredible that we have a church right now that has classes, right? That has formation for our adolescents that help them take this next step. At the same time, everyone's journey is different.

And some people are ready and in seventh grade. Some people are ready in 11th grade. Some people are already in college. Some people are already after college. And to be able to deal with people, individuals, and not just groups of people, is a secret of, I think, incredible youth programs. I think a lot of youth programs are are over taxed and stressed. And so we're like, nope, this is the class. You're getting confirmed.

But really, really good ones say this is the class and you're planning on getting confirmed and someone says, I'm not sure if I'm ready. All right, let's keep working with you. Someone else says, I'm not sure if I'm ready either. All right, let's keep working with you. Because we realize that if this is a sacrament of Christian maturity and someone says, I'm not ready.

Then let's help them get ready. Does that make sense? I don't know. Maybe I'm beating a dead horse. Maybe uh maybe you're like, Father, I don't understand. This is not a question I've ever asked in my entire life. And maybe it's not. Maybe it just needs to come back to our own selves and say, okay.

Whether I was ready or whether I wasn't ready at the time, how about now? Am I now ready to say, Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart. Pour out those graces in my life that maybe I wasn't ready for when I was first confirmed. But now now I am more ready. So fill me with your grace, fill me with your spirit, and fill me with your life now. And we any but any one of us.

Can pray that prayer, even if I was confusing you for the last 10 minutes. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.