Confirmation Mass April 27th, 2023
Introduction:
My dear Friends, we have gathered here this evening to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. Two parishes are represented, St Luke’s and St Joseph’ along with their pastors, priests, and Deacons. Indeed, tonight is a very special night for everyone here. My intention is to keep the homily short and to the point so we can enjoy the richness of the ceremony that has been celebrated just like this for centuries.
I’ll start by giving some thoughts on how the Church sees this moment:
The sacrament of Confirmation is one of the three sacraments that are called the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Like all of the seven sacraments that constitute the Church’s “economy of salvation,” the sacrament of Confirmation confers upon the candidate an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with his sevenfold gifts and impresses upon the soul of the candidate “an indelible character.”
By the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed. (LG, 11)
You will soon hear Msgr Ingham say these words to each one of you: Be sealed with the Holy Spirit…
From that moment forward you are different. Different in a good way and it will take time to get used to it. The same happens to us when we are ordained priests. It’s such a difference that you feel the next day after your ordination. So, yes, we can relate.
I would like to offer you three different moments in your life when you should tap into this sacrament:
- When you go off to university. My experience with helping Fr John and Fr Joshua at NCS - it’s clear the students who live out their confirmation are given extraordinary gifts to help those around them. Your news friends at college are going to want what you have. And you can say to them, ‘Have you received the Holy Spirit?’
- When you find yourself in a bind. Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you find your way out. He will never let you down.
- When it comes time to decide your path in life, lean heavily on the Holy Spirit. Allow me to share with you how that worked out for me. The thought of the priesthood crossed my mind when I was 17. After finishing high school and found myself in the middle of the wilderness in NZ, surrounded by mountains and tending sheep. I didn’t know what to do. I prayed about it and the quiet voice came to me that said, ‘try it, that’s all I am asking.’ So, I did and here I am. 35yrs later.
Peace be with you…
There is another very significant gift that will come to you from this moment forward. A deep sense of peace. Peace is what our world is lacking right now. There are many reasons for this that we don’t have time to go into but be assured of this, ‘you have been chosen’ to give the world this peace it so desperately needs. I believe it was CS Lewis that said, ‘In your will our peace’. It’s the only lasting peace you’ll find, ‘his will’. Jesus has shown us this his life, death, and resurrection and St John said in the Gospel tonight…
The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”
I’ll finish with a story of a poor man we met at the Raleigh Bus Station on Blount St two weeks ago on a Sunday morning. We were giving out coffee! We saw this man sitting in the crowd and asked him was there anything we could pray, his response: ‘Pray my hunger for God grows.’ He also said, ‘I have a great respect for the Catholic Church.’
May that be our desire as we witness you receiving the sacrament to tonight, ‘may our hunger for God grow.’