Creating a Catholic Culture

Who are your superheros? I have a slight partiality to Robin, myself. On the other hand, Sarah Daszczuk is rather fond of Batman. And this weekend the tenth graders are spending a weekend looking into and meditating on how to be a superhero in our faith. The answer to that question is Confirmation! Confirmation is one of the most misunderstood Sacraments in the Church. Confirmation is the Sacrament that completes what has begun in Baptism. It is not simply when a person chooses to be Catholic. It strengthens and fortifies you in the Holy Spirit with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and awe and wonder; a.k.a. fear of the Lord). With these gifts we are given the “stuff” to become spiritual superheros or saints. The saints are really even better than the superheros because they really lived and had lives just like you and me. They really and struggled – many of them more than you or I can fully understand. Furthermore, nobody really keeps pictures up of the superheros from 400 years ago – but there are many a house where you can find images of our spiritual superheros – the saints – from 400 years ago (and even longer).