Christ, the Love of my Life

Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation

Sixth Sunday of Easter - 26 May 2019

English Language Community - Basel

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29

Rv 21:10-14, 22-23

Jn 14:23-29

Praised be Jesus Christ!

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

        This explanation for the sending of the Holy Spirit fits very nicely with our understanding of what happens in the life of somebody at Confirmation. The logical question then would be, “What is this “everything” which Jesus in the Gospel of St. John promises that the Holy Spirit will teach us?” What is this “all that I have told you” of which Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will remind us? What is the miracle, if you will, of Pentecost that we see repeated in the Sacrament of Confirmation? Obviously here, we are not talking about the appearance of tongues of fire over the heads of those in the room. We are concentrating on that “everything” and what Jesus meant by that. We are talking about the sufficiency or fullness, that the word “everything” implies. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is about completion or fulfillment, but the question is how, or in what sense fulfillment?

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

        On Pentecost Day, there is definitely a radical change that came over the Apostles with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Reading the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul’s Epistles and knowing a bit of the background stories about those very common folk, the first disciples, we understand that the miracle of Pentecost is a miracle of empowerment by God’s grace. Confirmation for us, like Pentecost for them, is a strengthening for life and for mission. The old catechism taught that Baptism makes us children of God and heirs of Heaven and Confirmation brings that grace to completion. In Confirmation, we receive the Holy Spirit to make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. Maybe more to the point, we should ask what the condition is for Confirmation achieving its effect of unchaining the grace of our Baptism.

Let me say straight out that the parallels to this empowering grace are not to be found in the stories of superheroes. Confirmation is no radioactive spider bite, no transforming surgery or electroshock. There is nothing extraterrestrial going on here, at least not in the science fiction sense of the word. No, we are talking about God taking us as we are and our becoming all that we can be in God and by His power at work in us. When we encounter a person who lives the grace of Confirmation, even though he or she does not land or take off before us like a superhero, we still have reason to be impressed. As for ourselves, well, what more could you want from life than to be, with God’s help, cooperators in God’s plan for the life of the world?

        Our second reading today was from the Book of Revelation. The Apocalypse is not so much about predicting some future and final time as it is about helping us understand how things should be in our lives here, now, and of course, forever. Therefore, when we heard today about “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” we are talking about something that is not only a prophecy about how things will be at the end of time, when God is all in all. In a hidden or veiled sense, we live the Apocalypse and its message already now or can hasten its realization through our cooperation with God’s grace.

“I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb.”

        Dear Confirmands, that something miraculous, which I would like to see worked in your lives today through the administration of the sacrament of Confirmation, could also come to pass in the lives of all of us already confirmed. It matters not how short or long a time ago we received the Sacrament, if we properly renew the promises of our Baptism, to renounce sin and Satan, to believe in the Most Holy Trinity and Christ’s Holy Catholic Church. As sacramental people, thoroughly Catholic in our vision of the world, that means giving evidence of our conversion unto the Lord. That means Sunday Mass, regular and worthy individual celebration of the sacrament of Penance. That means being prayerful people who cultivate an awareness of God’s presence in our lives and that means allowing the lives of the saints, especially the Blessed Mother, to inspire our way of living. Cooperating with God’s grace means committing ourselves to the fight.

        In today’s Gospel we read:

“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.”

It seems as though we are always putting down conditions to delimit our share in the mission of the Church, setting up obstacles to how or how much we follow Christ day in and day out. Love of the Lord demands a different type of obedience and commitment. Our response must be whole-hearted, with all our mind, soul and strength. The requirements for a generous heart are not determined by age or life experience; we are never too young or too old to open our hearts to God’s empowering grace.

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

Come Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love!

Praised be Jesus Christ!