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Year A
Readings: Acts 8:5-8,14-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John
14:15-21
Author: Fr. Eamonn O´Higgins, LC
THEME OF THE READINGS
Today’s Readings refer
to the missionary age of the Christians and the presence
and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit to be given to
them. In his letter to the scattered Christian communities, St.
Peter urges them to be ready to engage others in
order to explain Christian expectations. It is an attitude of
openness and the capacity to communicate what we believe and
why we believe, a presentation of the Christian faith done
with gentleness and reverence. St. Peter implies that suffering is
a likely consequence of preaching. It is interesting that St.
Peter characterizes Christianity by its hope, its expectations of what
is to happen because of Christ.
Both St. John’s Gospel and
the Acts of the Apostles refer to God’s Holy Spirit,
who is to come to Christians. Jesus calls him the
Advocate, the Spirit of truth who will live in the
hearts of Christians to console and to guide them. While
the presence of the Holy Spirit is a free gift
of God’s love, it is only received by those who
want and prepare themselves for it. Jesus also promises his
own spiritual presence in Christians, reminding us that genuine love
of God is shown by living a Christian life.
The Acts
of the Apostles shows Peter and John imparting the Holy
Spirit to Samaritans (known for their eclectic religion and only
partial acceptance of the Old Testament) through the sacramental imposition
of hands.
The praises of Psalm 66 may sound strange to
our secular ears. The psalm reminds us of the greatness
of the Lord’s works, that the whole world bows down
before the awesome power of God.
DOCTRINAL MESSAGE
The presence of
the Holy Spirit: Christianity is a life within us, a
permanent, real experience of God that we receive in Baptism
and, in the Latin rite, is completed at the age
of presumed physical maturity in Confirmation. The presence of God’s
Holy Spirit strengthens and enlightens the Christian to fulfill his
Christ-like life and mission on earth. We possess the Holy
Spirit and we are thus moved and enlightened without being
dispossessed of ourselves. We still determine our lives freely. The
Holy Spirit helps us discern the relative value of all
things in relation to God’s wisdom, and to act accordingly.
The Spirit strengthens us to acknowledge God as Lord and
Creator. We are strengthened to fulfill the mission of Christian
evangelization, with gentleness and reverence, in spite of obstacles and
persecution. Catechism references: paragraphs 683-690 refer to the Holy Spirit;
paragraphs 731-741 refer to the Spirit and the Church in
the last days; paragraphs 1285-1321 deal with the sacrament of
confirmation.
The explanation of the faith: St. Peter asks us to
be able to explain the hope in us. This requires
a clear understanding of the essential realities that sustain Christian
experience, and how they are compatible with what we know
of other realities. This is not an easy thing to
do, but it offers a great promise and respect for
human knowledge. Christians are not to be afraid of the
advances of human knowledge, nor are we to run away
from things that are difficult or impossible to explain. The
Christian does not have an explanation or an answer for
everything. There is no inherent contradiction between knowledge and faith.
Knowledge is enhanced by the experience of Christian faith; faith
can guide the search for human knowledge. We know that
life and reality is complex. Christianity does not simplify or
bend the facts; it keeps us open, and hopeful, in
a broadening search for meaning and salvation. Catechism references: paragraphs
904-907 refer to the participation in Christ’s prophetic office; paragraphs
2471-2474 deal with the Christian duty to bear witness to
the truth.
PASTORAL APPLICATIONS
Many pastors have had the experience of witnessing
the confirmation of a group of eighth-graders and, perhaps, have
the sensation that, in spite of the hard work, the
sacrament has not always been received in the most conscious
manner. It is certainly true that, though a sacrament may
be validly administered and received, its subjective effects depend a
lot on the dispositions of its recipient. Do kids consider
themselves as preparing for Christian warfare, for the struggle for
self-mastery and the mission ad gentes?
Probably not. What is
to be done? Give them confirmation and hope that later
on in life they will come to realize the effects?
Wait until later in life to administer the sacrament and
risk sending them on unanointed, spiritually unfortified and unenlightened? At
times we do not even have the opportunity to ask
ourselves these questions as “confirmation time is coming around again”
and it cannot really be put off.
We know what confirmation
means and implies: a radical choice to live the integral,
counter-cultural Christian life. We know it goes contrary to what
is considered a normal way of life. If confirmation is
not to be merged into some sort of pre-graduation social
event, then we need to start to do things differently.
It is the pastor, the priest, who sets the standard.
Parents
need to learn the radicality of a Christian calling and
be actively involved in the Christian formation of their children,
even if they have to acknowledge their own failings. From
the first days of school the Christian faith and its
practical consequences must be presented, and not just in religion
class and not only in words. Christian standards on media
use, dress, social events, apostolate, prayer and sacraments, vocation work,
the witness of Christian youth and adults, a sense of
the Christian community…Too much? Idealistic? Impractical?
Let us have the
courage to see things as they are, and as they
should be, and the grace to start, or to continue.
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