Confirmation
one
In the Liturgy and the Sacraments the Holy Spirit makes the saving events from the life of Christ Present so that what took place in Him can take place in us.
The Catechism in paragraph 1286 teaches that Confirmation makes present the DESCENT of the Holy Spirit on Jesus at his Baptism so that we might share in His Anointing by the Spirit.
In Luke chapter 3 and 4 we see that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his Baptism. Immediately He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to resist the temptations of the devil. From there he is led by the Spirit into Galilee Where he courageously proclaimed the kingdom of God in all their villages. He went on to willingly accept his share in the Cross.
This strengthening of the Holy Spirit is precisely what takes place in us at Confirmation. In Confirmation we participate in the Anointing of Jesus with the strength and power of the Holy Spirit. And by the Sacrament of Confirmation we are
i. Enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit
ii. To resist temptation
iii. To share more completely in the mission of Jesus Christ
iv. To spread and defend our faith by word and by deed
v. To take up our cross and follow him all the days of our life
two
I was Confirmed when I was 12 years old. Sadly, I can say that for many years after my Confirmation, the gift of the Spirit laid dormant in me. I did not know the Spirit was there nor how to tap into his power.
In Acts 2, the first Christian Community was committed to prayer, the teaching of the Apostles and to fellowship. If we want the power of the Spirit unleashed in our lives then we need to do three things: We need to make a greater commitment to prayer, to learning our faith and to building a small community of family and friends.
Let’s take the first one: Prayer unleashes the action of the Spirit in our lives.
Luke 3:21, After Jesus was baptized, Jesus was praying, the heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him
Acts 1:14, Before the Holy Spirit was unleashed in their lives the Apostles gathered around Mary, devoted themselves to prayer, and then the Holy Spirit came upon them powerfully.
The Catechism (1309-1310) reminds us that more intense prayer opens our soul to receive the strength and graces of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act.
Like the Apostles, we commit to gather around Mary each day in deeper prayer in the Rosary so that the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit may be unleashed in our lives.
But this must be a commitment to deeper prayer every day. How are we doing? Are we praying the Rosary 7 days a week, 4, 3, once in a while?
three
By our Confirmation we were given an increase of the Holy Spirit, the seven gifts of the Spirit and an official mandate by the Bishop to share more completely in the mission of Jesus Christ and to spread and defend our faith by word and by deed.
The problem is that we for many of us we didn’t learn our faith as we grew up. So how do we spread and defend it? So what do we do now? O.K. there are lots of ways we can go about learning our faith, but simple way is to just commit to pray this Rosary podcast with us because we will walk you through the whole Catechism each year in daily bite sized portions. And we’ll do our best to put it in simple terms.
Like prayer, the key is to make the commitment to study and learn the Catholic faith and build it into the routine of your daily lives.
This brings us back to yesterday with St. Benedict and creating a Rule of Life where we devote some time each day to growing in the most important knowledge and truth about God and what He has revealed to us.
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Another obstacle to living out our confirmation is that we were never shown how or practiced how to share our faith with others in friendship and good conversation.
Are faith is meant to be personal but it was never meant to be private. So what did Jesus do? He gathered together a small group of family and fiends with whom he shared his life and his faith in friendship and good conversation. He had Peter, James and John, the other Apostles, but he also spent time with Mary, Martha and Lazarus and others.
There was this crazy idea in a few places in the early Church to be a solitary monk. A Solitary life only worked for a select few – like St Anthony of the Desert. Solitary doesn’t go so well for most – you go crazy and you grow cold. So Saints Pachomius and St. Basil began forming the monks into a small group of friends who shared life and integrated their faith. St. Basil used to say “If you live alone, whose feet will you wash.”
Solitary monks didn’t work. Solitary Christians never works. Solitary embers grow cold. If you try to live your faith alone – you will grow cold. Like Jesus, we all need a small group of family and friends with whom we can share life and integrate our faith by good conversation and prayer.
A practical way to do this is by taking back Sundays. Invite family and friends to get together on Sunday to share a meal or some good activity. Commit to it every week and make it part of your life.
Then as it progresses invite them to pray the Rosary podcast and then talk with each other about what caught your attention.
This is how we begin to learn, in a safe environment how to share our faith through family and friendship – the way God designed it.
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Jesus was led by the Spirit
We too can be led by the Spirit if we pay attention to the Spirit.
We must desire God’s inspirations and ask for them frequently in prayer: “Ask, and it will be given you,” Jesus said. One simple prayer we should say often is this: “Inspire me in all my decisions, Lord, and never let me neglect even one of your inspirations.”
For five minutes every day let your imagination be quiet, close your eyes to everything they see, and shut your ears to all the world’s noise so that you can withdraw into your soul where God lives. If you do this your life will be peaceful even in troubles. For grace will be given to match any trial, together with the strength to bear it.