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  • The Effects of the Sacrament of Confirmation


    This section serves to provide parents and catechists some background information so that they may be more fully prepared to teach the sessions. There are additional resources and links to various curriculum here. 

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    If we already have grace and the Holy Spirit from Baptism, why do we need Confirmation? 

    Archbishop Fulton Sheen says, "The greatest untapped treasures are of spiritual power and to be found in the Christian laity. It is mainly through the laity that the Church enters into the world."

    One of the first examples of Confirmation in the early Church is in the book of Acts: 

    Acts 8:14- 19 "Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
    Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.   When Simon saw that the Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, 'Give me this power too, so that anyone upon whom I lay my hands may receive the holy Spirit.'" 

    Philip had baptized these people in Samaria, but he did not have the power to confirm them which necesitated that Peter and John head all the way from Jerusalem to pray for the Holy Spirit upon those who had been baptized. 

    Dr. Brant Pitre says that many Christians do not believe in the Sacrament of Confirmation because the word "Confirmation" does not appear in the Bible.  However, the reality is that Confirmation - the laying on of hands done only by the Apostles and their successors for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit - does indeed appear in Scripture. 

    Confirmation confirms the grace we have received in Baptism.  In Baptism we become children of God, but in Confirmation we become His witnesses in the world.  A simple way to say this would be, "In Baptism we are made God's family, in Confirmation we are made for mission."  Jesus baptized and gave us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He died on the cross and rose again. There were eye-witnesses to Jesus' life, miracles, and Resurrection. Jesus sent those witnesses to tell the world about Him. We are His witnesses too - we can tell how Jesus' has transformed our own lives and share the Gospel that was taught to us!  However, Jesus knew  being a witness would be difficult.  He knew that we could not face the challenges of rejection, persecution, and even death alone. We needed a helper - Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Advocate and promises we will not be alone. 

    John 4: 15-28: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, * said to him, “Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me...I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you."

     
     

    Why do we need the Holy Spirit to be witnesses? 

    The Holy Spirit is God's very presence and life within us in our daily activities. Scripture tells us that we can do nothing apart from God (John 15:5).  The Holy Spirit both initiates and draws us into a deeper relationship with the Lord. As we read in the Scripture above (John 4:15-28) without the Holy Spirit, we would be left orphans. Jesus promises He will not leave us orphans. We need the Holy Spirit to continue our relationship with the Lord that was begun in our Baptism. 

    Sometimes we may be tempted to think that God is somewhere outside of us or that we are all just trying with our own might to reach Him. This is not the case.  "The Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us.. and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27). And in John 15:8, 16 we read, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words." 

    "The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests" the risen Lord to them recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God, that they may bear much fruit." (CCC 737)

    Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit receive the gifts of God's spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord which help us to become more like Jesus, lead others to Him, and defend the faith. Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit also exhibit fruits of the Holy Spirit which are evident in our daily lives such as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). When we are filled with the Holy Spirit - it should be very obvious that there is something "different" about us - something that points others to the Lord. 

    As baptized and confirmed Christians, when people meet us it should be an introduction to the Holy Spirit.  
     
     
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