Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Christian maturity

I AM now in the process of talking with parents of the
students who will receive the sacrament of confirmation in October.
The idea is to explain and remind them of the nature and purpose of
the sacrament, and the many implications, both theoretical and
practical, that it brings about.

            By some twist of circumstances, this sacrament happens to
be one of the less known and appreciated sacraments. Even in my case,
I received it when I was already about 20 because it was not felt to
be that necessary in the province where I grew up and had my early
education.

            But it’s actually a very important sacrament, for it gives
us the gift of spiritual strength and perfection that go into what we
may call our Christian maturity or the fullness of Christian life.

            Let’s remember what St. Paul once said about Christ
providing us with apostles, prophets, evangelists, and obviously many
other gifts too so that we can be “a perfect man, unto the measure of
the age of the fullness of Christ, that henceforth we be no more
children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine…” (Eph 4,13-14)

            God is never sparing in sharing what he has with us who
are his image and likeness and his adopted children. The sacrament of
confirmation is a gift that together with the other sacraments
perfects us and brings us to the possibility of living the fullness of
Christian life while still here on earth.

            It gives us nothing less than the Holy Spirit, the very
love of God. The Holy Spirit is now our sanctifier, who nourishes our
faith, hope and charity. He gives us his 7-fold gifts of wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the
Lord.

            Besides, the Holy Spirit gives us his perfections or the
fruits of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and
chastity.

            With these, the Holy Spirit who is given to us in
confirmation just like in Pentecost, roots us more deeply in divine
sonship, and binds us more firmly to Christ and to the Church. He
gives us strength to witness to the Christian faith, (cfr Catechism
268) It imprints an indelible character that resembles us more closely
to Christ.

            We need to be aware that this sacrament is a supernatural
gift. As such we need to receive it with profound gratitude and to try
to make use of it as best as we could. That is why we need to know
more and more about it and to live by its law and purpose.

            Just like the many sophisticated gadgets that may be
gifted to us, whose manual and instructions we need to study to make
them useful, we also need to study well the nature and purpose of the
sacrament of confirmation to make it effective in our lives.

            As a supernatural gift, it transcends without rejecting
our human conditions. Usually administered when we reach the age of
discretion or at 12 years of age, it can be given to us even when we
have not yet achieved our full human maturity in terms of our
emotional or intellectual development.

            The grace of God and our correspondence to it through
faith and piety can somehow make the effects of the sacrament
manifested in our life. One psalm beautifully expresses this truth
when it says, “I have had understanding above the aged, because I have
sought your commandments.” (Ps 119,100)

            It is simply by following the commandments of God that
would lead us to love God and others, that we can attain our Christian
maturity. Christian maturity does not depend so much on our temporal
age or on earthly erudition. It’s a matter of grace which God actually
gives us in abundance.

            We need to see to it therefore that we are trying our best
to live by the grace of God. In practical terms this means we need to
study and assimilate his teaching and commandments, develop the
virtues, have recourse to the sacraments, learn to pray and offer
sacrifices.

            We need to learn to think in terms of our faith, and not
just in terms of our sheer reasoning, feelings and other means of
human estimations of things. Our attitude and outlook should be
supernatural, based on our faith and love of God.

            This is how the greatness of God himself can sit well in
the midst of our human limitations and errors. Given our increasingly
challenging times, we need to spread more widely the good news about
the sacrament of confirmation.




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