Confirmation 

Confirmation season has arrived. This weekend, I will confirm four adults at the 11:15 Mass of Pentecost. Next Saturday, Bishop Caggiano will come himself and confirm 53 young members of our parish. Among the sacraments, Confirmation seems the most obscure; the other six seem much easier to understand. Baptism has to do with new birth in grace. Eucharist is the living flesh & blood of the risen Christ. Confession is a sacrament of healing, like the Anointing of the Sick. Matrimony gives us a new married couple. Holy Orders give us a new priest or deacon. But what does Confirmation do? To answer that question we must understand that Confirmation is very closely connected to Baptism. We see that in the gospel account of the Baptism of Jesus. There, when Jesus comes out of the baptismal water, “the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him” (Mt 3:16). The Spirit descends upon the one to be confirmed through the anointing with Sacred Chrism, olive oil infused with balsam essence and consecrated by the Bishop on Holy Thursday. The anointing at Confirmation perfects what we first receive in Baptism, in the sense that it brings to fruition what we first received when we were baptized – a share of life in the Holy Spirit. Bishop Erik Varden explains: “[By their Baptism] those awaiting confirmation have [already] been freed from sin’s enslavement. They have by grace received a capacity for life eternal. What is about to take place is a strengthening through the Spirit’s abundant gifts…. The confirmed are to become Christlike and Christbearing. They are called to transformation, entrusted with a task.” 

But to receive the sacrament fruitfully, one must have a heart disposed to receive and welcome the Holy Spirit. Bishop Varden explains: “Not even God can force His way into my heart if I decide to close it. Our freedom at this level is absolute. That is part of the mystery of faith. No one can force us to love. No one can force us to be loved. And love is the foundation of our relationship with God.” Varden points to Jesus’ encounter with Peter after the resurrection at the end of John’s gospel. Peter had behaved badly when Jesus was arrested, and the shame of his sin was like a deep wound in his heart, shattering his confidence, leaving him feeling unworthy and incapable of any great task. “[But] Jesus saw his sin and loved him nonetheless. Thus he let Peter discover that he was still able to love. This was the source of the courage he showed thenceforth, from the day of Pentecost right into old age, when he freely laid down his life.” By our Baptism we receive the greatest of gifts. By our Confirmation we receive the greatest of missions. Yet, the gift is often neglected and the mission unaccepted because there are few who give witness to the beauty of a life transformed by grace, who inspire others to dust off the gift and mission that are already theirs. Varden concludes: “I am tired of moans about the lapsing of the young. If the young leave the Church, it is not on account of bad will. It is because the claims of Christians seem irrelevant to the trials that await them. This calls for self-examination on the part of those of us who are adult Catholics. Do we live our Christ-conformed life in such a way that we merit the trust of the young? In this season we should not just observe their confirmation. We should confirm our own anointing, reviving graces received.” 

posted 6/7/25