It is great to be back writing after taking a break for Labor Day.  This coming Sunday will be our first session with our 10^th and 11^th grade candidates for Confirmation. Thus, it seems like a great opportunity to reflect on what Confirmation is. 

The first question to address is: What is Confirmation?  According to the Catechism, “By the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1285).  How do we become “more perfectly bound”?  Confirmation perfects the baptismal grace we receive.  At Baptism, we are received into the Body of Christ and become a new creation in His image.  We do receive the Holy Spirit, which guides us to grow in the faith we have just entered – whether it is as a child or an adult.  Confirmation, in perfecting the grace, moves us from growing in the faith ourselves to sharing the faith with others as apostles of Christ.  The Holy Spirit that we receive in its fullness at Confirmation shifts aiding us to grow in the faith to the active and outward living of the faith.  This is why the Apostles, upon receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, go from being afraid and hiding in a room to going out proclaiming the Gospel and eventually dying for the faith.  The Holy Spirit gave them the strength to proclaim and spread the faith they received.  The Holy Spirit does the same with us at our own Confirmation. 

With this sense in mind, Confirmation is not becoming an adult in the faith, nor the completion of the catechetical education for those about to graduate.  It is the beginning of an active living of the faith as an apostle of Christ.  It is a mission we must take seriously, for once we are confirmed we are called to carry out the mission.  Jesus trained His apostles for three years then he sent them out on mission.  Whether we received teaching in the Catholic school, a Sunday school program, or RCIA, the learning and growth in our faith during those time periods are supposed to prepare us to have the strength, through the Holy Spirit, to boldly proclaim our faith.  We do this in our daily lives – when we go to school and enter into situations of making virtuous choices and challenging our friends to do the same, when we go to work and deal with office politics or ethics of a job, when we go home to pray with our family.  In all of these, there are opportunities and callings to live out the faith we have received. Confirmation gives us the strength and wisdom to carry out the mission.  In fact, this is the most profound way to spread the Gospel.  The day-to-day carrying out of the mission. 

Let us pray for the aid of the Holy Spirit to carry out this daily mission in our lives so that we can spread the faith and help others to live that same faith in their own lives.