As many of you may know, I have the opportunity to teach CCD here in St. Henry. I am teaching the young men and women who are preparing to receive the sacrament of Confirmation. This sacrament is the last of the sacraments of initiation that we receive as Roman Catholics. Meaning that after receiving it, we receive the completion of our Baptismal graces. In Confirmation, each confirmandi is brought into a more perfect bond with the Church as well as given the gift of courage and strength from the Holy Spirit. This will give them the strength to take our Catholic Faith out into the world. It will give the grace, to live the Faith, to know the Catholic Faith, to defend the Faith, and to preach the Faith by word and example. The graces of this sacrament will give each of them the strength that they need to spread the Catholic Faith as missionaries for Christ bringing the light of Christ’s saving graces to the world. I remind the students that Confirmation is not graduation. It is the beginning of living out the Faith, not the end. The students who receive Confirmation will be considered adult members of the Church and as adults, they need to take up living the Faith on their own initiative.
For those of us Catholics who have received the sacrament of Confirmation, we have received these gifts as well. With the great gift of God’s grace, we are also given the responsibility of using them to the fullest. When God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation we have the power to be soldiers of Christ. We are given the grace to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. This comes with the obligation and responsibility to work with all their might to live out the Faith, to know the Faith, to spread the Faith, to grow in our Faith, and become more and more like Christ each day. At the end of each of our lives, we will be held accountable for how well we have put into action the gift of His graces. We will not be able to lay blame on anyone else if we failed to use these graces in living out the Faith. As Jesus tells His disciple in the parable of the vigilant and faithful servant, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still, more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”(Lk 12:48) Because of God’s overwhelming love for us we have been given the wonderful gifts of His many graces. Each of us who has received the sacrament of Confirmation has been given the strength to go to the world and be a witness to Jesus Christ. It is up to us to use the gift of God's grace to its fullest.
I offer this not as a word of criticism but as a word of encouragement. Because if you think about it, how exciting it is, how uplifting it is, how energizing it is to realize the empowering gift of His grace that we have all been given and how exciting is the mission that we now have to go out spread the Faith to all those around us. How wonderful it is that we get to go out and spread the gospel message. We get to spread the message that He gave us the seven sacraments as rivers of grace that flow from the Sacrifice of the Cross down to us. We get to spread the message that He gives us the gift of His graces and with these graces, He gives us the way to eternal life where there is all love, peace, and joy in the presence of the living God. How wonderful is the responsibility and obligation to spread the news about this wonderful gift, the gift of our Faith.
Fr. Jacquemin
