THE GOOD NEWS
ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN

June 24, 2007

The Good News

...Confirmation

“Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit!”

Each year I repeat this sacramental form more than 1,000 times during the so-called Confirmation season. Actually, Confirmation can and is administered throughout the year. However, the vast majority of our Confirmation celebrations take place during the Easter season, thus I am just completing them.

This year, I will have confirmed more than 1,000 young adults (high school students) at 52 different churches throughout our Archdiocese. The “classes” or groups ranged from two candidates at Sacred Heart Mangum to 108 at Saint John in Edmond. The majority of the classes are between 20 and 30.

An hour before the Confirmation ceremony I meet with the candidates. During that time I emphasize how very important Confirmation is in their lives, not because of what they are doing, nor what I do, although both their response and my action are important. The most important reality in Confirmation is what God does. It is God who marks us as His chosen persons. It is God who seals us with the gift of His Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s accompanying spiritual gifts for life.

During this preparatory time immediately before the ceremony, I focus the candidate’s attention on the fact that this is a special time of prayer. What a great joy it is then to see so many high school students, young men and women so responsive to this action of God in their lives. In fact, most candidates display a great deal of zeal and enthusiasm. They are indeed, young people of great faith as they are sealed and marked by God with an outpouring of the gifts of His Spirit.

The essential rite of this sacrament consists in the imposition of hands over all candidates at once. Then there is the anointing of each one with the sacred Chrism on the forehead which is done by the laying on of my hand and through the words “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

In this year’s Confirmation ceremonies I have tried to impress upon the young people a sense of responsibility. Thus in my homily I tell them: “Unlike little children who cannot yet think logically or judge critically, you are beginning to recognize that when you make good choices, you get good results. Likewise, when you make bad choices you get bad results!

When you listen to Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, you always make a good choice. When you disobey Jesus, it is always a bad choice. This is exactly what sin is. Sin is disobedience to Jesus. It is turning away from Him. It is a rejection of God’s plan. Sin is always evil and always affects us negatively. Sin brings us misery and unhappiness. God, on the other hand, offers us peace and joy and love and life everlasting.”

I end my homily by reminding the candidates that the anointing I will do with the Sacred Chrism is done in the form of a cross traced over each one’s forehead. The cross is made as a visible expression of the everlasting sign of our salvation.

Jesus came to save us from sin. Jesus came to bring us new life. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. I then urge the candidates that they will never, never forget the sign of the cross I make over them. Through the cross we are all able to make our perpetual commitment to the Lord because the cross is Jesus’ sign of His perpetual love for us.

I tell the young people to always remember the cross on which Jesus died for us. To help them do this, I hold up a crucifix before them and inform them that after the Communion of the Mass, I will bless enough crucifixes so that each of them will receive a blessed crucifix to take home with them. I urge them to take that blessed crucifix with them wherever they go in life. I tell them to look at that crucifix gratefully and to learn to live by the cross as Jesus invites us: “Take up the Cross and follow Me.”

My experience in the 52 churches where I will have confirmed more than 1,000 young people this year has been most inspiring and assuring. I know now that the next generation of Catholic leaders will be faithful and loyal because they are discerning God’s Will. With the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit they will discover that God offers us many gifts, graces and blessings through the Holy Catholic Church which He established for our salvation.

I wish also to express a word of sincere gratitude on behalf of all the young people who have been confirmed and have been presented with a blessed crucifix. All these crucifixes have been donated by the good women of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women (ACCW). Thank you and God bless you.