The Gift of Confirmation

On Saturday, February 3rd, 66 Notre Dame parishioners will receive the sacrament of Confirmation. So, lately I have been thinking about this sacrament. For me, it is always good to review and refresh my understanding of the sacraments I have received, and so I have written a few notes on Confirmation below.

Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about Confirmation:

“Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For ‘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. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed’” (1285).

When we are anointed with chrism at Confirmation, we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit: “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” With the seal, we are marked as belonging to Christ totally and we give ourselves completely in service to him. We are anointed during Confirmation, and during other sacraments, so that our “lives may give off the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2:15).

Confirmation gives us an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Think of the apostles who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In paragraph 1303 of the Catechism, we read that Confirmation:

-Roots us more deeply in the divine filiation

-Unites us more firmly to Christ

-Increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us

-Renders our bond with the Church more perfect

-Gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross

Confirmation is sometimes called the sacrament of evangelization. When it seems difficult to evangelize or defend the Catholic faith, we can call on our Baptism, as well as our Confirmation. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly.”

Lastly, I think there is a common misconception about Confirmation in our culture. Many think that Confirmation is the choosing of the Catholic religion. But Confirmation is not a choice of religion; the Catholic faith has already been chosen by our parents when we were baptized as infants (or by us if we were baptized as adults).

“Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:17).