In plain English.....
It is incredibly sad that many students see the sacrament of Confirmation as a sort of "graduation" from catechism class. After all, they receive gowns, certificates (diplomas) get to walk across stage (along the altar rail), get dressed up, celebrate with family, get to take pictures at the end, and never have to report with their catechism books and pencils ever again. After Confirmation, the Confirmation "CLASS" never again is required to attend "mandatory" class Masses, do homework about the Sunday Scripture, write essays about their "favorite" saints who most of them have no devotion to other than they share a name with a family member, or think about going to church. After all, no one is going to go after them if they don't go to church, and if someone does, they're a "Jesus freak" that is a loser for wasting time on Sundays when they should be hanging out at the local varsity football game.
Throughout their catechism careers as students, these kids week after week (for the most part) fought their parents on going to class. Excuses being that they don't need any extra schooling, it's boring, and it's irrelevant to everyday life. However, most parents, though they themselves agree with those claims, force their kids to go to catechism for a number of different reasons. Common reasons are:
1. To get that picture of your son/daughter in a red gown that everyone else has in their living room.
2. I suffered through it; they should too.
3. What would happen if my mother (who goes to daily mass and is head of the Rosary Society) found out that I didn't send my kid to catechism.
4. Everyone else is forcing their kids to do it.
and the mother of all reasons,
5. I want my son/daughter to be able to get married in church.
Since too many parents tend to agree with the idea that catechism, God and church aren't important things in life, they let their kids treat Confirmation as a graduation and therefore an end of something rather than what it truly is, a beginning of something even greater.
Confirmation can be summed up in 3 letters: GAP.
G ifts of the Holy Spirit received- consecration to the Holy Spirit
A dulthood spiritually- take complete responsibility in conjunction with sacramental grace
P romises of Baptism renewed and made your own
All three of those points us to a new life in Christ, a spiritual adulthood if I may call it that. Confirmation gives us the tools to handle that spiritual adulthood. Those tools are the sacramental grace of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
- Wisdom
- Understanding
- Counsel
- Fortitude
- Knowledge
- Piety
- Fear of the Lord
Yes, these are VERY important for someone to have!!! Therefore, it is very important that you take your Confirmation seriously because it's your life not mine, and these tools are gifts from above to make your life and the lives of others BETTER!
It is with these very important tools, that I pray all confirmandi go out into the world and do God's will. Confirmation is the start of a new chapter of your life in which YOU have the reigns to steer your soul on the course of your choosing. Let that course be one in accordance with God's will. I pray that your life story and mine ends with heaven as our eternal epilogue.
Congratulations on your Confirmation, and may the Lord's work be ever done through your hands.
May God bless and reward you!
