Pastor's Pen - May 7, 2017

This Saturday our high school juniors will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. We first receive the life of God in baptism, when the Holy Trinity comes to us with sanctifying grace and infused virtues. These gifts purify us and bring us into God’s own life. That sharing in divine life is “confirmed” or sealed when the Holy Spirit comes again in the laying on of hands and the anointing during the ceremony of confirmation.

The Holy Spirit transforms our lives in the Church and in the world. Without the sending of the Holy Spirit by the risen Christ, the Church would be a museum of memories about Jesus or a costume party in her ceremonies. That the memories form a living faith and the celebrations make the risen Christ present to us is because the Holy Spirit is the soul, the life-giving and unifying source of the Church’s life. Love cannot be directly seen, but its effects are evident in happy lives. The Holy Spirit is invisible, but his presence is known in the fruits of his action: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.

A Spirit-filled person is never hardhearted; but a Spirit-filled person is strong in witnessing to the world that Jesus is risen from the dead. A Spirit-filled person knows how to speak the truth in love. After being confirmed, a Catholic can find in the Holy Spirit the courage necessary to make the hard decisions that keep one strong in the faith. Public witness to Christ is not easy in a society that believes religion should be a purely private affair, but the Holy Spirit is always at work in the world and goes ahead of our own efforts to make Jesus truly known and loved. We should count on the Spirit’s strength when we need it.

All the sacraments are social, in the sense that no one becomes holy alone; but confirmation is social also in the sense that it gives the help needed to the disciple of Jesus trying to find his or her sanctification among the trials of daily life. Confirmation is the missionary sacrament, the sacrament of Catholic Action, the sacrament of evangelization, the sacrament of active worship and apostolic life.

We must always be proud of those who come forward and ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to live the faith well. Confirmation is the time when a young man or woman should pray especially hard to know what God desires for them in life.

Let us all congratulate our Confirmants as well as the 2nd graders who made their First Communions this weekend and last.

Fr. Dan