DOMINICAN VOCATIONS
PROVINCE OF THE ASSUMPTION
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DOMINICAN VOCATIONS PROVINCE OF THE ASSUMPTION |
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Relish what is Right: Talk to Young
Adults' Group (24 September 2006) |
Br Paul Rowse, O.P. |
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Talk on the
Sacrament of Confirmation to Our Lady of Victories'
Parish Young Adults' Group Sunday 24th September 2006 Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love. V./ Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. R./ And you shall renew the face of the earth. Let us pray: O God, Who did instruct the hearts of your faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, Grant that, in the same Spirit, we may be truly wise and relish what is right. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. May we relish what is right. The prayer we've just said isn't part of the Rite or ceremony of Confirmation, but it's part of the treasury of prayers the Church offers us. The gifts which the Holy Spirit brings are wisdom and knowledge about the things of God. So, tonight with the focus of the talk being the often-misunderstood Sacrament of Confirmation in which we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, I thought we'd have a look first at what the Sacrament does for the recipient, and discuss a few of the problems that we come up against when looking at it. Memories of our own Confirmation often, if not exclusively, entail the externals of the Sacrament: our Confirmation name, our sponsor, the bishop's impressive hat that made him a good 30cm taller. Few of us would remember why we were there. Sister Bernadette told me we were confirmed to receive the Holy Spirit. She was right – we were there to receive the Gift of God the Holy Spirit, but once I'd received the Sacrament, it didn't really do much back in 1990, or so it would seem. After all, I could still dip my finger in the Holy Water stoop when going into a church to remind me of my Baptism, I could still pray to God and know that he'd hear me, I could still be called a child of God. But the reason for being confirmed is more subtle than just “to receive the Holy Spirit”. Why Confirm? Confirmation is one of three sacraments which we group together under the title: Sacraments of Inititation (Baptism and Eucharist being the other two). The Sacraments of Inititation make us part of Christ's mystical Body, the Church. Each Sacrament contributes something different for the building up of the Church. The Rite of Baptism shows us what that Sacrament does: the pouring of or immersion in water symbolises the washing from sin, the clothing in the white garment is the external sign of the new life in Christ Baptism brings about, receiving a Baptismal candle tells us that Christ the true light has dawned in our lives. The Eucharist is spiritual food, the nourishment our souls sorely need, and which is given by receiving the fruit of Jesus' personal sacrifice, his Body and Blood. Part of my formation as a Dominican friar is to help prepare children for the Sacraments. Time after time, the children ask the curly question that runs like this: “Why do we need to be confirmed when we're already children of God by Baptism?” Of course, I paraphrase, but the point they're making behind the question is clear enough: It doesn't seem that Confirmation adds anything to the Baptised person. In fact, given that Baptism makes us a child of God and the Eucharist feeds that spiritual aspect of ourselves, Confirmation would seem to be superfluous, a mere discipline of the Church that can be dispensed with. But to ignore Confirmation would be to discount the witness of the faith that both Scripture and our Tradition has made for many centuries. Catholic Tradition and Practice To begin with the Tradition, we could have a little look at what some of the early bishops said about the Sacraments of Initiation. The Church Fathers, as we call them, would have celebrated Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the same ceremony, and at least at first, at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. By far, our best source among the Western Fathers for understanding what went on back in the early centuries is St Ambrose. While he's famous for baptising St Augustine, Ambrose should also be remembered as the reluctant bishop who wasn't even Christian when he was chosen by the people of Milan in 374. This bishop of Milan is the author of the earliest catechetical works in the Church in the West. He used Latin, and would have known Greek. Ambrose doesn't go into great detail about the significance of Confirmation, and doesn't even use the word to describe what's going on at his Easter Vigil. Describing the significance of the event for the newly-initiated, he said that after the washing in water, they went up to the priest and: the ointment
flows down ... that we too may become a chosen race, priestly and
precious, for we are all anointed with spiritual grace for a share in
the kingdom of God and in the priesthood. (De Mysteriis,
6.30)
God's election or choice of his people is characterised not only by water (Baptism), but also by anointing (Confirmation). These two Sacraments are to be appreciated together. One necessarily leads to the other. In other words, we were confirmed because we were baptised. These two form the basis for admission to the Eucharist, which completes the sequence of initiation into the Christian community. Some of you might be wondering at this point why you received the Eucharist before Confirmation, or others might be thinking about the separation of the Sacraments of Initiation into three separate rites. Pastors and theologians and liturgists and parish priests and Dominican friars have all been pondering the same things for many years now. As Ambrose testifies, the three sacraments were celebrated together at the Easter Vigil with the bishop as celebrant. As the number of those to be initiated grew and the bishop could not receive all of them personally into the Church, the anointing with oil was delayed. The newly-baptised from the early Middle Ages right up to tonight rarely receive Confirmation and Eucharist together. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) has restored the practice of one ceremony for all three sacraments but, as the name suggests, only for adults. Children in our parishes up to adulthood are more often baptised as infants, confirmed by the bishop at the age of reason (a concept we'll return to a little later) and admitted to the Eucharist for the first time shortly afterwards. There are some in the Church who favour the practice of the Church in the East, which includes our Orthodox brethren, of celebrating all three sacraments each time someone is to be initiated, whether infant or adult. But, the Church's practice in the West remains that a child being initiated may be baptised as an infant, but would then be confirmed at the age of reason. The age of reason is around the age of seven. At that age, children are starting to know, for example, that a particular action is bad not because it makes mum or dad angry, but because it is a bad thing to do. They are starting to come to terms with what it is to be a member of the community, Christian or otherwise. So there is some appreciation they can make for the gift of God they received at Baptism by allowing themselves to be confirmed. It's a common mis-conception that Confirmation is the sacrament of Christian adulthood. Some have argued in the past for Confirmation to be received towards the end of high school. The idea behind such a practice would be so that they can make a positive choice for the faith and have this confirmed in the Sacrament. This, and other proposals like it, discount two important aspects of the theology of Confirmation. First, it discounts the fact that Confirmation is a Sacrament of Initiation, and its ordinary and proper context is entry into the Christian community. Second, infant Baptism followed by adult Confirmation can de-emphasise understanding that the faith is a gift. The Sacraments instill and strengthen the faith which is always God's gift to us. The faith is never taken, but rather only ever accepted. The Baptism of the Lord There are many passages of the Bible which are worthy of mention at this point, but I just want to focus on one of them, and it's not the Pentecost one(!): the Baptism of the Lord, which the Gospel according to St Luke places before Jesus begins his public ministry. When all the people were being
baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was
opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a
dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I
love; with you I am well pleased." (Lk 3:21-22).
The first thing we should notice is that Jesus did not receive the Holy Spirit while he was being baptised, but rather he received the Holy Spirit after his Baptism and while he was praying. Jesus' Baptism, I grant you, is a unique case to say the least. But his Baptism, which concluded with the Father's affirmation of him as the divine Son, speaks of what the Church does in initiating people through Baptism and Confirmation. Baptism pre-disposes us to acknowledging and doing the work of God in our lives, which includes prayer. Confirmation strengthens and fortifies the work of God which was begun in Baptism. It's interesting to note that during the ordination of a new priest, the bishop says to him: “May God who has begun this good work in you, bring it to completion.” Baptism in itself is only the beginning of the new life in Christ, it opens the door to the life of grace, just as Confirmation is not its conclusion. Secondly, we should take notice that, at his Baptism, Jesus received the Holy Spirit and was given affirmation of his place as the divine Son of the eternal Father. The sense that the Evangelist is giving us is that the Holy Spirit and that affirmation by the Father happen together. It is one event. The impression we should be getting from the scene of the Baptism of the Lord is that, at that one moment, the whole of the Trinity is involved. The Son, having been baptised by the last of the prophets, receives the Holy Spirit which enabled his conception in the Virgin's womb and is simultaneously manifested as the Son of God, the beloved. So too with us, at our initiation into the life of grace, the whole of the Trinity is involved: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father adopts us as his children through the death and Resurrection of his Son by the work of the Holy Spirit. We need to be careful to avoid saying that the Father is the active agent in Baptism, the Son in the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. This is to distort the work of the Trinity as one God. Confirmation gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit who remains the giver of those gifts in union with the Father and the Son. The Church and the Holy Spirit At this point, it's a good idea to consider the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We believe that seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are born in us which are characteristic of Christians. So, the gifts we receive at Confirmation aren't going to make us good cooks or able to catch a football without breaking the middle phalanx of the little finger of the right hand! Nor will they make us the best people or Christians the world has ever seen. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us in such a way that means we need to make them grow by using them well. The gifts are given to us at Confirmation as a sower spreads seed on the field. With proper nourishment and placing ourselves in the right environment, the gifts bear the fruit of a good Christian life. It's not all God's work, though well might we say that God gets the ball rolling through the Sacraments. Diligence in our work or study, love and charity towards all whom we meet (including those at home) and frequent participation in the liturgical life of the Church all put us in the zone, as it were, to grow in the life of holiness into which we have been brought through the Sacraments of Initiation. So there's a little cooperation between grace and human effort for us to succeed, as it were, in Christianity. The gifts of the Holy Spirit in action are the sign that the Messiah is present. The prophet Isaiah lists the gifts of the Holy Spirit as testimony to the reign of God in and through his chosen one, who as such is the one who has been anointed (Is 11:2). We too are anointed at Confirmation, not to make us messiahs, but to make us ready for the reign of God. And there are helps too which come from the members of the Church – I'm referring to our Confirmation saints and sponsors. We believe in the communion of saints. Put simply, the Church is not divided by the death of its members. From their place in heaven, the saints guide us still on our pilgrim way. They have now what we seek, and what we are now they once were. They are true spiritual guides because they now share in the victory of Christ over death. It's interesting to note that the custom of taking a Confirmation saint is only found in English- and German-speaking countries. It's quite foreign to French-, Italian- and Spanish-speaking countries. However, there's something to be said for maintaining the custom. On the most basic of levels, the custom of taking a Confirmation saint introduces children to some of the saints whom they do not already know. For me, it was St Michael the Archangel who expelled Satan from Heaven. Now, he's a great saint, but half of the boys in our Year 4 Confirmation class chose him because Mr Walker did a great one-man show of what that celestial eviction was like, complete with sound effects! We choose a Confirmation saint to ask their intercession throughout our lives. We can forget all about them, but at the start of our Christian life, the intention is there to ask the saint to join their prayers to ours for our own welfare; so too with Confirmation sponsors. Now, it's easy to be cynical at this point and say many kids being confirmed choose a relative or family friend for no other reason than that they are a relative or family friend. With me, that was exactly the case. Bernie's a good man, a good family man, but I asked him to sponsor me simply because I knew him well and he's a good friend of Dad. So, this might be one aspect of the present-day practice of the Sacrament of Confirmation needing renewal. Saints and sponors remind us that we're not alone in our efforts to live as faithful Christians. Conclusion Confirmation won't necessarily make all of us feel different afterwards. Remember first of all its relationship to Baptism and Eucharist as a Sacrament of Initiation. It can give some people a spiritual awakening and really deepen their faith in a tangible way. One person I've come across said they wanted to pray and go to Mass much more after Confirmation, but this is not guaranteed. We who have received Confirmation can make the most of it, even if it was sixteen years ago! By turning the pages of the Bible to discover the work of the Holy Spirit, or by reading the works of the Church Fathers who have great insight into the things of God, or by seeking the company of wise and holy members of the Church, we can all draw great fruit from our Confirmation. Taking time each day, even just a few minutes, can make a great difference to the kind of Christian we grow into. It's never too late to start. The strengthening of faith and the possibility of growth by God's grace in the Sacrament of Confirmation will help us to relish what is right, through Christ our Lord. Amen. |
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