The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 177: The Celebration of Confirmation (2024)

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

We continue our examination of the sacrament of Confirmation, specifically the celebration and effects of the sacrament of Confirmation. Fr. Mike explores the different elements of the rite of Confirmation and the ways in which Confirmation increases and deepens our baptismal graces. He emphasizes, in particular, the special strength of the Holy Spirit that we receive to spread and defend the Faith by our words and actions. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1297-1305. 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 in God's families. We journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 177. We're reading paragraphs 1297 to 1305. As always, I'm using the Ascension

edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. 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 you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 177. We are reading paragraphs 1297 to 1305. We're continuing on talking about the celebration of confirmation. So yesterday we mentioned the anointing, right? And of course the anointing oil, so the sacred chrism. But we're going to talk today a little bit about the consecration of the sacred chrism.

So there's oil and there's oil, right? There's oil that you just use for whatever. We talked about all those meanings and the symbolism yesterday. There's also oil that gets consecrated, oil that gets set apart. And it's the bishop who in the course of the chrism mass on Holy Thursday or in our diocese, we do it on a Monday, we celebrate our chrism mass

on a different day of the week because we're kind of all over the place in our diocese. And so meaning geographically. And so we have that chrism mass earlier on in Holy Week, but typically chrism mass is on Holy Thursday and the bishop then consecrates the sacred chrism for the whole diocese and in the Eastern churches they do a whole other thing. It's beautiful, it's powerful and the bishop when they celebrate the rite of confirmation, he extends a particular prayer.

We're going to go through that celebration of confirmation, how that happens. Now the effects of confirmation are what we're also gonna talk about today. And I have to tell you, I am very excited about this. So we're talking both about the celebration of confirmation and the effects of confirmation. So let's dive right in right now. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We give you glory.

We thank you for the sacrament of confirmation. We thank you for the sacrament of this holy anointing where you pour out your Holy Spirit upon your children and send them forth and transform them. You increase the grace of the Holy Spirit. You increase the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit inside each and every one of them. You open us up to a special strength to spread and defend the faith by word and action. And we give you praise. We thank you so much for giving us the abundance of your grace in the right of confirmation. Help us to be open to that grace.

Help us to open our hearts to allow you to move in our lives, but help us to be courageous. Help us to be generous in how we respond to your incredible gift of confirmation. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

It is day 177, we are reading paragraphs 1297 to 1305. The celebration of confirmation. The consecration of the sacred chrism is an important action that precedes the celebration of confirmation, but is in a certain way a part of it. It is the bishop who, in the course of the chrism mass of Holy Thursday, consecrates the sacred chrism for his whole diocese.

In some eastern churches, this consecration is even reserved to the patriarch. The Liturgy of Antioch expresses the epiclesis for the consecration of the sacred chrism, Myron, in this way. Father, send your Holy Spirit on us, and on this oil which is before us, and consecrate it, so that it may be for all who are anointed and marked with it Holy Myron, Priestly Myron, Royal Myron, anointing with gladness, clothing with light, a cloak of salvation, a spiritual gift, the sanctification of souls and bodies, imperishable happiness, the indelible seal, a buckler of faith, and a fearsome helmet against all the works of the adversary. When Confirmation is celebrated separately from Baptism, as in the case in the Roman Rite, the Liturgy of Confirmation begins with the renewal of Baptismal promises and the

profession of faith by the Confirmans. This clearly shows that Confirmation follows Baptism. When adults are baptized, they immediately receive confirmation and participate in the Eucharist. In the Roman Rite, the bishop extends his hands over the whole group of the Confirmans. Since the time of the Apostles, this gesture has signified the gift of the Spirit. The bishop invokes the outpouring of the Spirit in these words, All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them, to be their helper and guide.

Give them the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of right judgment and courage, the Spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the Spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord. The essential rite of the sacrament follows. In the Latin rite, the sacrament of confirmation is conferred through the anointing with chrism on the forehead which is done by the laying on of the hand, and through the words, acipe signaculum doni spiritus sancti, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In the Eastern Churches of the Byzantine Rite, after a prayer of Epiclesis, the more significant parts of the body are anointed with Myron—forehead, eyes, nose, ears, lips, chest, back, hands, and feet. Each anointing is accompanied by the formula, the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The sign of peace that concludes the rite of the Sacrament signifies and demonstrates ecclesial communion with the bishop and with all the faithful. The Effects of Confirmation. It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the Sacrament of Confirmation is

the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. From this fact, confirmation brings an increase in deepening of baptismal grace. It roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, Abba, Father. It unites us more firmly to Christ. It increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us. It renders our bond with the Church more perfect. It 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. As St. Ambrose wrote, Recall then, that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with His sign. Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed His pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts. Like baptism which it completes, confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the

character which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him with power from on high so that he may be his witness. This character perfects the common priesthood of the faithful received in baptism and the confirmed person Receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were officially quasi ex officio All right, so there we have it day 177 paragraphs 12 and 97 to 1305 you guys how incredible is this now? Of course, we have the very beginning. This just description, right? The description of that we have the sacred chrism is consecrated by the bishop

or in some Eastern churches by the patriarch. Really beautiful prayer there in paragraph 1297. It goes on to talk about the beautiful prayer of the bishop over those who are confirmed, right? So there's this moment where the bishop extends his hands over the whole group of comprimands. And then they come forward, and that sacred chrism that he has,

he anoints them on the forehead and says, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Eastern churches in the Byzantine rite, there's a lot more oil, a lot more different parts of the body. But that anointing is the key part, right? That anointing with the words, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit,

or in the Eastern Church in Greek Our English translation the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit And then then there's the sign of peace if you remember your own confirmation if you were confirmed the bishop You know He anointed your forehead said be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit And then he says peace be with you and with your spirit as you maybe shake hands or something like that And that's paragraph 1301 talking about the sign of peace that concludes the right of the sacrament. And it means something. It's not just like, hey, good job or congratulations. It signifies and demonstrates ecclesial communion with the bishop

and with all the faithful. Right? So you have that, that peace be with you and with your spirit between you and the bishop or you and the, the confirming priests as a delegate of the bishop as a sign and as a demonstration of the Bishop, as a sign, and as a demonstration of the fact that, oh, you're united with your Bishop now, which is pretty remarkable, but all of the, our talk about confirmation has been building towards this section today, not, not maybe not for you, maybe not in the catechism, but for me, because I have to tell you this, maybe I've said this before, I'm not sure if I've ever shared this

but paragraph 1303 and 1304 and oh five I they they are they were life-changing for me So this is one of those days and like wow here. We are finally paragraph 1303 So I was confirmed I believe the year before the catechism was was promulgated the year before the catechism was published in English and I remember going through confirmation and you know, the people who taught me about confirmation said, you know, you get the gift of the Holy Spirit. I'm like, great, so that's wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord, you know, courage, etc. And fortitude or courage, it's all connected, right? And yet, and yet I was like, but what is

it? What is going to happen? And then the year after I was confirmed, but what is it? What is gonna happen? And then the year after I was confirmed, here comes the Catechism. And in the Catechism are these five effects of confirmation in paragraph 1303. And I remember reading them and thinking, wow, oh my goodness, this is what confirmation does. So number one, well, overall,

it brings an increase in deepening up baptismal grace. Okay, but then here are the five effects. Number one, it roots us more deeply in the divine affiliation, which makes us cry, Abba Father. So you're, you're a son or daughter of God and it roots us even more deeply in being a son or daughter of God. Awesome. Number two, it unites us more firmly to Christ. And again, so you, you are united.

You're brought, remember you're brought into the body of Christ as in your baptism, awesome, but confirmation you have to see even more firmly to Christ. Third, it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit within us. So those gifts, wisdom understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord, all of those, you receive them in baptism. But confirmation increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us.

Number four, it renders our bond with the church more perfect. Meaning, you know, this is another sacrament of initiation, right? So I think that's one of the reasons why maybe, I could be wrong in this one, I think this is one of the reasons though why people say, oh, if you've been confirmed, you're an adult in the church now.

I think that's probably what they mean, maybe sometimes the edum teachers who said things like that, I had teachers who said things like that when I was in high school. That's when I was confirmed in high school. And I think what they were referring to is this, this fourth effect, meaning, yeah, sacrament of initiation renders your bound with the church more perfect. There's not like more initiation after this because here I am living in the

United States in the West. I was baptized then first Holy communion and then confirmation. So when there's a bomb with the church, more perfect. Okay. There, there it is. But the fifth effect, this is the one that I just, you guys, when I came across this, I thought, yes, that is what I want.

Here it is. It's broken down into a couple different parts. The fifth effect of confirmation, it says this, it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ. Remember back in Acts chapter two, what did Jesus say? He said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.

Here's what here's what confirmation does. Gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit, not not an ordinary strength of the Holy Spirit and not even a common strength of the Holy Spirit, but a special strength of the Holy Spirit to do what? To spread and defend the faith by what you say and by what you do as a true witness of Jesus Christ. And I just think this is this is just the first part of that fifth effect. How incredible is that? To spread and defend the faith by word and action. That's what that's the gift that was given to you. That's the gift that was poured out on you in the sacrament of confirmation a

Special strength to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ Secondly to confess the name of Christ boldly to confess the name of Christ boldly Imagine imagine what it would be if you and I actually did this like if if the average Catholic who was confirmed That's how we lived. We actually were able to confess the name of Jesus Christ boldly and the third part is, and never to be ashamed of the cross.

These are the three of the, you know, obviously five effects of confirmation, that fifth effect has these three parts to it. The first one, special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ. Secondly, to confess the name of Christ boldly. Thirdly, to never be ashamed of the cross. What if? What if that was common? I mean, what if that's actually what we said yes to? I just

think there's something about this that just, they light a fire. Hopefully as you're listening to this, it lights a fire in you as well. Because, because paragraph 1305 says this, this character, right, this indelible spiritual mark, we talked about that, perfects the common priesthood of the faithful. So here you are, you're baptized, brought into the priesthood of the faithful, you share in Christ priesthood in this way, you're a kingdom priest. But this character in confirmation perfects that common priesthood. And the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were Officially or in Latin quasi ex officio Do you realize that because you've been confirmed you actually are an official representative of the church you in some ways

He says you you you've been given the power to profess faith in Christ publicly Officially as an official representative of the Catholic Church, as a representative of Jesus Christ, in this unique, completely unique way, as a lay Catholic who is simply baptized and confirmed, you are now officially a representative of the Church who must, must, you have received the power to profess Christ publicly? So here's the question, do I, do I profess faith in Christ publicly? Or is my faith something, well it's private. I mean those close to me, they know that God's important to me.

I mean those who like, you know, in my home, you know, I don't feel so weird about it there. Like I pray there, which is great, which is, which is great, which is right. It's that's wonderful. But you and I weren't merely given the sacrament of confirmation. We weren't the Holy spirit was not poured out on to us and into our hearts so that we could practice our faith quietly in our own homes. We have the freedom to do that, God willing, but we were not given sacrament of confirmation to keep our faith private. You were given the

sacrament of confirmation so that you could be someone who spreads and defends the faith. Spreads and defends the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Jesus. That you have the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were, officially. You have been given the gift to never be ashamed of the cross. You have been given the gift to confess the name of Jesus Christ boldly. And so the question that you have to ask yourself, and have to ask myself is when was the last time, when was the last time I confessed the name of Jesus Christ boldly? When was the last time that

I was like if you really push me on it I am ashamed of the cross. I mean I kind of downplay the fact that I am a Christian. I downplay the fact that I'm a Catholic. When was the last time I just said, well, that's someone else's job. So it's someone else's job to, I mean, you know, I, listen, I go to church, I pray. Someone else's job is to spread the faith. You in paragraph 1305, have received the power to profess faith in Christ publicly

and as it were officially you are for all intents and purposes an official representative of the Catholic Church and So there are so many consequences of this one of them is this one of them is okay. Well the church needs to do X You know more more Catholics need to do why? Okay, well remember you're an official representative of the Catholic Church. So who needs to do X? Which Catholics need to do more Y? We all do.

That right, that makes sense? And hopefully I'm not coming across like grumpy old man. I don't mean it grumpy mold man at all. I mean this in the most positive, the most excited, the most joyful way that this is what's been poured out. This is the thing as I'm saying you guys, this is what after I was confirmed I realized, oh my goodness this is what was given to me and I didn't know. And this was what was given to you if you were confirmed and maybe you

didn't know. But we have to take this deeply. We have to we have to we have to take this deeply into our hearts and then we have to take this deeply. We have to take this deeply into our hearts and then we have to say, okay God, how do you want me to do this? Because maybe it's standing on a street corner. Right, sure, maybe it's getting that upside down box and standing on top of that and saying, here, you believe in Jesus. Maybe that means that. But maybe it just means in your everyday life to say, well, my job is to spread and defend the faith by what I say and what I do as a true witness of Jesus. My job, what Jesus has done is he's given me the strength

to confess the name of Christ boldly. What Jesus has done is given me the grace to never be ashamed of the cross. How does he want me to exercise those gifts? How does he want me to live that out now in my life? It is not someone else's job. It is my job. It's not someone else's job. It is your job Does that make sense? But what a gift but but the kind of gift that we have to say Oh my goodness Lord, if I don't use this gift, whoa is me this last word today

If I don't use this gift, what was me? If I don't use this gift the gifts that have been poured out into my heart, into my life, woe is me. And woe are all of us if we do not proclaim the gospel. Jesus didn't die for us so that we could simply keep it to ourselves. The love of God has not been poured out into our hearts so that we could not tell anybody, but just keep our faith private. The love of God has been poured out into our hearts so we can cry out Abba Father and tell the world, tell the world about the goodness of God. So we have to pray. That's why we have to pray for each other.

That's why we have to pray for ourselves. Because how often do we want, are we tempted to shrink back? How often are we tempted to sell out our Lord and simply sell him out by being quiet? How many of us are Peter? I don't know him. I don't know the man. How many of us at work on a daily basis are Peter? I don't know what you're talking about.

So we gotta pray. I don't wanna be Peter. I mean, I wanna be Peter after he falls and comes back. Of course, we want to be Peter who's strong. We want to be Peter who's bold. But too often we are the Peter who's afraid. Afraid to be identified as someone who's a friend of Jesus. So let's pray. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.