Confirmation: A Lump Sum and an Annuity

Following the Catechism’s treatment of the Sacraments, which itself mirrors the ancient order of receiving them, I speak now of Confirmation. The Western Church by and large has reversed the order of the Sacraments of Initiation for historical reasons, postponing Confirmation to a time when children are “more ready”—more ready to stop going to Mass, that is, if ever they did go with any regularity.

I spot a condemnatory sarcasm in my words and tone, through which I nevertheless shall proceed in writing. At least I am conscious of it; the Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom and counsel are prompting a gentle self-policing with the virtue of prudence. But exercising prudence doesn’t mean excusing the obligation to speak the truth in Jesus’ Name, whether it is the truths of Christ and the Church teaching, or the reasoned reflection on my own feelings and experience.

Through the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Holy Spirit completes and perfects the baptized Christian’s identification with Jesus and His Church. Whereas Baptism makes the down payment of the Spirit’s sevenfold gifts, Confirmation instills those gifts in fullness.

If a child profits from the care and direction of baptismal sponsors (Godparents) in the earliest years—even if "care and direction" are entrusted more concretely to the parents—all the more can a Confirmation sponsor’s efforts help the neophyte to live Jesus. Without necessarily hovering, the sponsor should initiate some degree of regular, Christ-centered communication. How the sponsor lives Jesus as a Catholic, publicly and “privately,” is just as important. 

I use quotation marks with "privately" because (1) nothing seems fully private in this technological time except for the seal of Confession and (2) Jesus ominously declared, “Whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Lk 12:3).

In that section of Luke 12 Jesus is exhorting courage in the face of persecution from the Enemy of Salvation. Jesus reminds His followers that He “has our back,” we used to say fifteen minutes ago. “Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (12:7). 

Now that's an understatement, because the human person is on a different plane from birds and puppies and every other creature. That difference entrusts to us a certain stewardship (care and direction) over the other creatures, but also invests a certain humble pride: “Wow: God thought enough of me to create me as a human person, for whose salvation God the Son Himself became man.” 

Now God thought no less of the sparrow to create it a sparrow (for each creation has its contributions to the Kingdom), but “to which of the sparrows did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you?” (Heb 1:5, except the original text reads “angels” in place of “sparrows”).

I just wish these thoughts might seize the heart of a person, sufficient to enflame him with love for the fullness of truth, goodness, and beauty found in the Catholic Church, so that the Confirmation administered sooner or later might “take.” It doesn’t have to happen according to my personal expectations, preoccupied with outcomes as I am; it just has to happen before the person dies.

Treasure Amid The Trash

Recently I got to talk to one of our PREP ("CCD") classes about the Scrutinies. The Scrutinies are minor rites in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Candidates for Baptism ("the Elect") are invited to examine themselves more deeply with regard to their readiness to be initiated.

The verb scrutari means "to examine, search," specifically through trash (scruta). I told the children to think of a necklace or something else of value that might have fallen into the waste can. Having exhausted other possibilities, they would head to the trash in hopes of finding the lost article. In the same way, the Elect sort through their sinful past to discover and affirm the gift of faith that will lead them to the Easter Sacraments. Those of us who have already been initiated join them in a deeper self-searching and renewal of faith.

The Gospel readings for the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent are the texts in which the faithful of all stages encounter Christ, the Valuable Article, amid the rubbish of sin, sickness, and death.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well (Jn 4:5-42) meets the man who "told me everything I have done," and finds Him to be more than an insightful and intriguing figure. She is moved by the meeting to share her story with her fellows.

The Man Born Blind (Jn 9:1-41) is treated to a Messianic mudpie that opens his eyes and increases his faith. The fact that Jesus heals him on a Sabbath incites the Pharisees to conspire against Jesus from that point onward, thereby revealing their own stubborn blindness.

Jesus raises Lazarus (Jn 11:1-45) from the sleep of death in order to reveal Himself as "the Resurrection and the Life," and He pointedly asks Lazarus' sisters, "Do you believe this?" The Lord  conquers these enemies in us because He has made us His friends.

I hope these fourth graders attend Mass and pay more attention to these stories. The whole point of PREP, I reminded them, was to encounter the Lord Jesus, to rise in knowledge and fall in love with Him within His Church. If they are courageous enough to keep seeking Him amid the refuse of their own lives, they will unearth, and want to share, the boon of a relationship with God.

Confirmation Conversation

In HGA Parish news, Bishop Emeritus Cullen will be administering the Sacrament of Confirmation upon over fifty of our youth this Wednesday. Please pray that these young people will remain open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit throughout their lives.

Some time ago I spoke with a parent of one of our confirmandi. I asked whether Pat (gender-neutral pseudonym, à la the Saturday Night Live character) was looking forward to Confirmation. Affirmative, but only after a period of uncertainty that providentially prompted the parent to make this move:

I started praying about Pat, for Pat's heart to crack open and instead of trying to force Pat I gave it over to God to fix. Around the same time I started looking for more natural opportunities to bring up Pat's relationship (and mine) to God. It all flowed really well and I, with the help of the Holy Spirit, had the right words. Pat was touched and over the past few months has really matured. Pat has strong values that we never really talked about.

This parental testimony immediately brought to mind a line from a poem: "The child is father of the man." Hopkins penned a comic verse on this saying, but Wordsworth's words were worth more:

My heart leaps up when I behold 

A rainbow in the sky: 

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

Wordsworth idolizes the spontaneity of his youth, and wants to preserve the best of it as he ages. When it comes to my faith and to other practices and attitudes I've held, I'd prefer to keep growing; but then again, perhaps some of my current good qualities had their start in those tumultuous days.

O Divine Husbandman, I'll let You decide what to prune and what to retain!

What a parent we have in the one quoted above, who took the occasion of the child's Confirmation as a reason to engage in conversation, a reason to engage one's own relationship with the Lord so as to be a holier, human-er person! How can "taking the journey within" not fail to have some effect on those around us?

This parent took time to get to know the child, which helped the child to consider and articulate what is within. That conversation helped the parent, in turn, to do the necessary work of spirituality and religion. After all, these two (spirituality and religion) are meant to stay intact in this life as soul and body are. One dimension can nourish and strengthen the other, and make for a more integrated person.

Parents can't force their children to take their sacramental preparations seriously, but when they join them in that sacramental preparation (even if their own first Penance or Holy Communion, or their Confirmation, was years ago), untold blessings unfold. Children stay out of jail this way. They may not altogether stay out of trouble (who does?), but they are more grounded in Who and What matters.