THE WHAT AND THE WHY
When we read the Acts of the Apostles, a book of the Bible, we find that right from the start, the apostles would baptize those who accepted it, and then prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon the new believers. As a result the new believers were “filled with the Holy Spirit.” The evidence of this was a noticeable increase in the depth and strength of their faith, and often other signs that the Spirit was at work in them.
They took this very seriously. If they met people who had been baptized but not yet received this evident flow of the Holy Spirit into them, they took pains to pray for it and lay hands on these believers as a symbol of this new strength.
Perhaps it’s like a baby taking its first step; it is probably still wobbly; it needs this new skill to be strengthened.
These days the sacrament of Confirmation is normally given after a person has reach an age when he or she can make at least a rudimentary commitment to living the Christian Life as a member of Jesus’ Mystical Body. For those baptized as adults it can follow immediately, but for infant baptism it comes later. It is a sort of coming-of-age sacrament; it challenges the one being confirmed to take charge of his own spiritual life and to make his or her own personal commitment to the Church of Jesus.
As a help in this, persons being confirmed are asked to have a sponsor. The Christian life is never meant to be simply a “me-and-God” affair. The Church is like a body, in which all the parts are joined into one, with Jesus as head. Entering the Church and committing to it is definitely a social affair, just as is Baptism. We all need support from the community in order to be healthy; the sponsor is to be and to represent that support.
This means that being a sponsor is not simply an insignificant place of honor at the ceremony. He or she must provide at least moral support for the one being confirmed – as well as of the parents, if the one being confirmed is still young.
Confirmation is sometimes said to make a baptized person into a “Soldier of Christ.” This is because the Christian life is a constant battle. Satan is not dead, as many claim, but quite alive and active, trying to persuade us to abandon our commitment to Christ. St Paul tells us to depend on the Spirit to battle these temptations. And we also battle against our own human nature when we refuse, for example, to be lazy about our prayers or our generosity or our patience. The Holy Spirit provides the spiritual resources we need to combat this kind of thing.
The Bible often speaks of how the Holy Spirit leads people who are willing to be led by God. The New Testaments especially refers often to persons “filled with the Holy Spirit” who did things that they would never have done otherwise. This is a gift from the Holy Spirit to enable us to edge closer to God and to experience that God is love, a God who shares his good works with us, allowing us to join with Him in doing them.
When we read the Acts of the Apostles, a book of the Bible, we find that right from the start, the apostles would baptize those who accepted it, and then prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon the new believers. As a result the new believers were “filled with the Holy Spirit.” The evidence of this was a noticeable increase in the depth and strength of their faith, and often other signs that the Spirit was at work in them.
They took this very seriously. If they met people who had been baptized but not yet received this evident flow of the Holy Spirit into them, they took pains to pray for it and lay hands on these believers as a symbol of this new strength.
Perhaps it’s like a baby taking its first step; it is probably still wobbly; it needs this new skill to be strengthened.
These days the sacrament of Confirmation is normally given after a person has reach an age when he or she can make at least a rudimentary commitment to living the Christian Life as a member of Jesus’ Mystical Body. For those baptized as adults it can follow immediately, but for infant baptism it comes later. It is a sort of coming-of-age sacrament; it challenges the one being confirmed to take charge of his own spiritual life and to make his or her own personal commitment to the Church of Jesus.
As a help in this, persons being confirmed are asked to have a sponsor. The Christian life is never meant to be simply a “me-and-God” affair. The Church is like a body, in which all the parts are joined into one, with Jesus as head. Entering the Church and committing to it is definitely a social affair, just as is Baptism. We all need support from the community in order to be healthy; the sponsor is to be and to represent that support.
This means that being a sponsor is not simply an insignificant place of honor at the ceremony. He or she must provide at least moral support for the one being confirmed – as well as of the parents, if the one being confirmed is still young.
Confirmation is sometimes said to make a baptized person into a “Soldier of Christ.” This is because the Christian life is a constant battle. Satan is not dead, as many claim, but quite alive and active, trying to persuade us to abandon our commitment to Christ. St Paul tells us to depend on the Spirit to battle these temptations. And we also battle against our own human nature when we refuse, for example, to be lazy about our prayers or our generosity or our patience. The Holy Spirit provides the spiritual resources we need to combat this kind of thing.
The Bible often speaks of how the Holy Spirit leads people who are willing to be led by God. The New Testaments especially refers often to persons “filled with the Holy Spirit” who did things that they would never have done otherwise. This is a gift from the Holy Spirit to enable us to edge closer to God and to experience that God is love, a God who shares his good works with us, allowing us to join with Him in doing them.
LIVING IT
How should Confirmation affect how we live our life?
Primarily, it should emphasize for us that we have committed ourselves to something bigger than we are.
As soldiers of Christ we must be determined to be faithful to our Head, Jesus. We must be prepared to defend our faith when necessary. We must be people who refuse to give up when the battle to love, the battle to follow Jesus, becomes tough. We must accept responsibility for staying alive and active in the battle against the devil’s influence in this world. We must not be afraid to do what is right in the face of the disapproval of others. We must learn to trust in the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
These things do not sprout up overnight after we are Confirmed; we need to do spiritual training, just as a soldier does physical training. The Spirit will lead us, if we let Him, to do even better at our prayer, our Bible reading, our good works, our patience, our humility, and our generosity. He will help us to imitate Jesus more and more, whose love included a heavy sacrifice.
In other words, the Sacrament of Confirmation and the descent of the Holy Spirit into our willing souls will make us better lovers, in the true sense of the word.
How should Confirmation affect how we live our life?
Primarily, it should emphasize for us that we have committed ourselves to something bigger than we are.
As soldiers of Christ we must be determined to be faithful to our Head, Jesus. We must be prepared to defend our faith when necessary. We must be people who refuse to give up when the battle to love, the battle to follow Jesus, becomes tough. We must accept responsibility for staying alive and active in the battle against the devil’s influence in this world. We must not be afraid to do what is right in the face of the disapproval of others. We must learn to trust in the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
These things do not sprout up overnight after we are Confirmed; we need to do spiritual training, just as a soldier does physical training. The Spirit will lead us, if we let Him, to do even better at our prayer, our Bible reading, our good works, our patience, our humility, and our generosity. He will help us to imitate Jesus more and more, whose love included a heavy sacrifice.
In other words, the Sacrament of Confirmation and the descent of the Holy Spirit into our willing souls will make us better lovers, in the true sense of the word.
