The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 179: Summary of Confirmation (2024)

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

Together, with Fr. Mike, we have arrived at the conclusion and nugget day for the section on the sacrament of Confirmation. Fr. Mike reiterates the idea that, “What God has done in me cannot stop with me.” We receive God’s gifts at Confirmation, and it is now up to us to use these gifts. He also emphasizes the importance of having the desire for the sacrament of Confirmation when the sacrament is received. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1315-1321. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 179, we're reading paragraphs 1315 to 1321. Nugget day!

As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and I don't know if you know about this, you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash c i y and i don't know if you know about this you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily

updates and daily notifications unless the app you're listening to your podcast source does not have the ability to follow or subscribe in which case you'll be fine today is day 179 we're reading paragraphs 1315 to 1321 as i said it is it is nugget today. We're concluding. We have the in brief when it comes to the sacrament of confirmation. And so let's jump in. Let's dive in headfirst into this summary of all that we had just learned, all that we had just heard about this great sacrament of confirmation. Father in heaven, give you praise.

We give you glory and we ask that you please send your Holy Spirit upon us. Send your Holy Spirit and pour out your love, your grace, your truth, your wisdom, your gifts so that our lives can bear fruit. The fruits of the Holy Spirit. Lord God, we consecrate this day to you and we give it to you as an offering, we give it to you as a gift. We ask you to please simply receive

this gift of this day. The gift of this day that you have given us. We give it back to you. Help us give it back to you in a way that honors you. Help us give it back to you as your gift to us and our gift to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen as I said It's day 179. We were reading paragraphs 13 15 through 13 21 In brief Now when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God They sent to them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit

For it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8, verses 14-17. Confirmation perfects baptismal grace. It is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds.

Confirmation, like baptism, imprints a spiritual mark or indelible character on the Christian's soul. For this reason, one can receive this sacrament only once in one's life. In the East, this sacrament is administered immediately after baptism and is followed by participation in the Eucharist. This tradition highlights the unity of the three sacraments of Christian initiation. In the Latin Church, this sacrament is administered when the age of reason has been reached, and its celebration is ordinarily reserved to the bishop, thus signifying that this sacrament

strengthens the ecclesial bond. A candidate for confirmation who has attained the age of reason must profess the faith, be in a state of grace, have the intention of receiving the sacrament, and be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ, both within the ecclesial community and in temporal affairs. The essential right of confirmation is anointing the forehead of the baptized with sacred chrism. In the East, other sense organs as well. Together with the laying on of the minister's hand and the words acipe signaculum doni spiritus sancti

be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Roman Rite or signaculum doni spiritus sancti the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Byzantine Rite. When confirmation is celebrated separately from baptism its connection with baptism is expressed among other ways by the renewal of baptismal promises. The celebration of confirmation during the Eucharist helps underline the unity of the sacraments of Christian initiation.

There's our nuggets today, paragraphs 13-15 to 13-21. And I just want to highlight today, in the nuggets we talked about for the last few days the fact that okay what God has done in me can't stop with me, right? So what God has done in you can't stop with you and this is part of the sacrament of confirmation. So here's Jesus Here's the Holy Spirit poured out because here's God the Father right who wills. There's the Holy Trinity Here is God himself who has done what? In baptism, He's made you and I into His adopted children. He has brought us into the family of God. He's cleansed us of our sins. He's given us new birth and regeneration. He's made us a new creation. He's done all of these incredible things and more, of course. And He's done all those things in us.

But what God wants, what Jesus Christ wants, is he wants the whole world to experience this. That there is no person, whoever has been, is, or ever will be, for whom Christ did not shed his blood. That Jesus Christ wants the whole world to know the Gospel. That Jesus wants the whole world to be Catholic. I mean, this is the reality. Why did Jesus Christ establish his church?

To go out into the whole world, baptizing in the name of the Father and Holy Spirit and making disciples. He did this because He desires that all men be saved, that every human being be saved. And so what God has done in us cannot stop with us and He gives us this incredible sacrament of confirmation for many reasons, in many many ways. Of course to unite us more firmly to the church and to strengthen us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, to unite us more closely to God our Father as our Dad, our Heavenly Father, but also to send us out, to also more closely associate us with the mission of the Church and to help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds. This is, it's so, so incredibly important that, that we recognize this in

paragraph 13, 19, it reminds us of the fact that the person who is the candidate for confirmation should have it, who has attained the age of reason must do a couple of things. One is profess the faith. And to think about that, to pause on that for a second and remember that you were asked, you know, do you reject Satan and all his works or some formulation like that? I do. Do you, you know, basically reject the evil one? I do. Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, creator

of heaven and earth? I do. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the only center Lord? I do. The Holy Spirit? I do. The Catholic Church? I do. We said that we made that profession of faith. But here's the question. I made that profession of faith that day that I was confirmed. We remake that profession of faith when we're at the Easter vigil. But that's the profession of faith. It says here, a candidate for confirmation

who has attained the age of reason must profess the faith. Yeah, and I think what the church means here is must make a profession of faith. But let's not twist it. Let's look at another angle of this. Is it just they made a profession of faith or does it mean they must profess the faith? Meaning I identify myself as a Catholic Christian, right? Identify myself as belonging to Jesus.

I profess the faith that I believe that God from all eternity at one moment in time entered into the human race and in the incarnation the second person the Holy Trinity took on human nature and in that human nature body and soul he lived and he suffered and he loved and he died and he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven like this is the end yet the Holy Spirit Among for all of us to have eternal life Do we profess that faith on a regular basis is the big question, right? I think it should be I think there should be some gut checks

Even though here we are talking about the sacraments and and they're the ways in which we worship God There's ways in which they're the ways in which God's grace comes to us on a regular basis But God gives us his gifts to be used We worship God, there are the ways in which God's grace comes to us on a regular basis. But God gives us his gifts to be used. God gives us his gifts to be used. And the question I get to ask is, how have I used God's gifts? Does anyone around me know that I'm Catholic

other than the fact that maybe it came up once? Or did they even know I'm Catholic? Does anyone around me know that I belong to Jesus Christ? Does anyone around me know that the most important person in the world to me is God? Did anyone know that? So this is just, again, just heart check, gut check. The candidate must be, profess the faith,

must be in a state of grace. So that invitation to go to confession I mentioned yesterday, have the intention of receiving the sacrament and be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ. One of the things that I will, as I mentioned yesterday as well, that I have put on confirmation retreats

for the last 18 years for high school students. And one of the things that we even open up with at the very beginning of this confirmation retreat is we do a, we do a, like a, basically a mock wedding right away where I just, I invite and ask for a male volunteer from the congregate or the crowd, you know, from the retreat and a female volunteer.

And they usually, they shouldn't know each other. And then I run to the back room and the guy puts on a sport coat and they have a little veil for the, for the gal. And they come out and they go through the whole rite of marriage not the whole right of marriage but mostly you know most they say all the right words right and then afterwards it's like well congratulations you guys how did you know that each other were the one you know it's a big joke because they

obviously don't even know who each other are and then at the end of it like okay you go back to your seats and then we'll go through this whole thing of like so are they married now and like no they're not merely married what you? And they're like, no, they're not really married. What you guys, I can't believe you're saying they're not really married. Why would you say that? And they go through all the reasons, like, well, they don't love each other.

Like, well, I don't know, is that a condition for sacrament of matrimony? We'll talk about that more when we get to the sacrament of matrimony. They're not old enough. Well, they are actually old enough in the church. If you're older, over 16, I mean, there's there. They didn't get married, you know, but there's no marriage license.

Like, okay, well, that's, that's a legitimate thing, but you know, there's some places in the world where you don't need a marriage license in order to get married, it's not, that doesn't have much to do with the sacramental marriage. All the, all the reasons, right. And lastly, the last thing is, well, they didn't mean it. I wait a second. You guys are you, is that true? You went through all these things. You just said what I told you to say. You just did what I told you to do, but you didn't mean it. I wait a second you guys are you that true? You went through all these things. You just said what I told you to say.

You just did what I told you to do, but you didn't mean it. And I, I pretend like it shocks me. Right. But that's the real reason. And I highlight this fact that you're right. They didn't mean it. Yeah. They said the words that I asked them to say or told them to say. They, they did the things that I told them or asked them to do, but they went through all of that and they didn't have any intention of being married, which is very key. But the same thing is true for a lot of people when they get confirmed.

Like, I'm, yeah, I'm going to show up at the church and I'll do what you tell me to do, like I'll walk up to the Bishop and he'll say, receive the peace, be able to give the Holy Spirit and amen. Peace with you and with your spirit. Mm hmm. I'll do all those things. I'll get dressed up. I'll stand where you want me your spirit. I'll do all those things. I'll get dressed up. I'll stand where you want me to stand.

I'll say what you want me to say, but I have no intention of being a disciple of Jesus. I have no intention to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ for the rest of my life. In that case, you'd say, is there something, you ask the question, is there something going on in that that is similar to what would be happening if we just kind of

Had a mock wedding or you're merely saying what I'm asking you to say you're really doing what I'm asking you to do How many of us would say that's the only reason I was confirmed I just I did what they told me to do. I had no intention whatsoever of living that out I would say that for all of us, there is this, again, it seems like I keep using the phrase gut check, but there is this like maybe self-check of just being

able to stop and ask the question, what is my intention as I enter into sacrament of confirmation? What is my intention as I get closer and closer to the Lord? Is it, God, I know I'm not perfect. I know that I'm going to fail. I know that I will not be the best witness and the greatest witness to you. But I desire to receive your Holy Spirit so that I can be the disciple you want me to be.

I would say, if that's the case, again, paragraph 1319, I wanna profess the faith, even if I don't do it well. I wanna be in a state of grace, even if I keep falling out of the state of grace and going back to sin. I wanna receive this document. I don't just wanna do this

because my mom told me to do it. And I might not be prepared, but I wanna be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ. If those things are present, then even if they're only present in their seminalinal form, the only present in there in like the desire for this thing, even if it's not fully realized, then that is great and good and move forward. Even if I know how broken I am, even if I know that I'm gonna fail

at this, yes keep on moving forward. But I have to pause at least or at least give people, I think we could give people a chance to pause at least or at least give people I think we could give people a chance to pause if we say if they say I do not want this and I say okay I mean how many of us would get married to someone we did not want to get married to but just because grandma wants us to you know just because grandpa says hey you know it's really important to me that you marry this person would we just do it then? Or would we allow there to be some freedom in saying,

I might not be ready for this. I might not want what you're offering. It's a risk, of course. At the same time, sacraments can never be forced on anybody. Does that make sense? I don't wanna make a big deal out of this, but I would say that most of us, having gone through confirmation,

or maybe many of us, I'm not even sure if most of us, many of us having gone through confirmation might not have been prepared in the way that we should have been. Which is, I'm not gonna blame anyone about it, other than myself. I can blame myself. And maybe some of us even went through confirmation

not wanting the sacrament of confirmation. Maybe some of us are in formation of others for confirmation and we meet people every day who don't want confirmation. Maybe we can have some more creative ways to help those along the road. Here's the last thing, here's the last thing. I know that this is like, Father, where are you going with all of this?

Well, where I'm going with this is the fact that it is incredible that we have a church right now that has classes, right? That has formation for our adolescents that help them take this next step. At the same time, everyone's journey is different. And some people are ready and in seventh grade, some people are ready in eleventh grade some people are ready in 11th grade some people already in college some people already after college And to be able to deal with people individuals and not just groups of people is a secret of I think incredible youth programs I think a lot of youth programs are overtaxed and stressed and so we're like, nope, this is the class you're getting confirmed But really really good ones say this is the class and you're planning getting confirmed and someone says I'm not sure if I'm ready

All right. Let's keep working with you Someone else says I'm not sure if I'm ready either. All right, let's keep working with you because we realize that if this is a sacrament of Christian maturity and Someone says I'm not ready Then let's help them get ready. Does that make sense? I don't know. Maybe I'm beating a dead horse Maybe if you're like father, I don't understand This is not a question I've ever asked in my entire life and maybe it's not maybe it just needs to come back to our own selves and say okay

Whether I was ready or there wasn't ready at the time. How about now? Am I now ready to say, come Holy Spirit, fill my heart, pour out those graces in my life that maybe I wasn't ready for when I was first confirmed. But now I am more ready. So fill me with your grace, fill me with your spirit and fill me with your life now. And we, any one of us can pray that prayer,

even if I was confusing you for the last 10 minutes. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Micah, can I wait to see you tomorrow? God bless.