Why Be Confirmed? A Personal Reflection

Confirmation is quick: Say your name, get anointed, be blessed. The effects, however, are lasting. As a teen, I appreciated the opportunity to wade in Catholic waters during preparation for the Sacrament, but I lacked the foresight to realize the impact of that special moment until a few years later.

In some small but tangible ways church life does change for the newly Confirmed. I became a Eucharistic Minister. I accepted a sacrament for the first time of my own accord, certainly a step toward adulthood. Particularly because my parents had fallen away from the Church, I became the link between my family and the grace of this divine institution. Yet for most of my peers and for me, Confirmation didn’t offer any different feelings. When I was anointed, I didn’t have my eyes immediately opened to the gifts of the Spirit within me. I didn’t make dramatic lifestyle changes. I didn’t sense any new vocational calling.

But it mattered. Confirmation mattered. It was (and is) part of my journey, and that is all we have as created people – the journey, the experiences, the growth, the choices we make every day. Like all the Sacraments, Confirmation marks an important moment in our lives.

There are plenty of other ways to celebrate the passage from adolescent to young adult. So why be Confirmed? In the Sacraments, we encounter the very God who created, redeemed, and now lives in us. The Latin word Sacramentum means "a sign of the sacred." Jesus instituted the Sacraments, and in each Sacrament, God offers us grace. Grace gives us a taste of heaven, of the sacred, of the strength we need to make daily decisions that reflect our love for those around us and in turn, our love for Jesus.

When someone gives me two gifts, I don't ask why one gift wasn't enough. Baptism is enough for salvation, but Confirmation is an additional gift that tells us more about God, ourselves, and about Baptism itself. It's not a burden, but an opportunity to grow, understand some of the hard things about our world and our faith, and begin a lifelong journey of seeking God through the Sacraments, the Bible, and living in community.

Now as a youth minister myself, I see the process from the opposite side. Many teens enter Confirmation with skepticism, weariness, lack of understanding. Others begin with anticipation that God’s grace will shower upon them. Every teen whom the Bishop greets with sacred oil, however, becomes the soil upon which God plants the mustard seed.

Teens may venture far from the Church – young adult years tend to be formative but trying times – but the Holy Spirit grows in us through our sorrows and screw-ups. Like many young men, I struggled throughout high school and college with an addiction to pornography. I knew the harm being inflicted on my body and mind, but I persisted in sin. The only reason I had for hope sprung from the experience I had in Confirmation and youth group. In moments of selfish desperation, my strength came from knowing God walked with me in the darkness. No magic cure arrived, and the images from my experience leave permanent scars in my life. But that’s part of my journey. That’s part of my story. And while the ultimate ending is still yet to be written, in this instance the grace of God conquered a particular evil in my life. I attribute that to the work of the Holy Spirit in me, that same Spirit I received quickly but powerfully with the sign of the cross and some fragrant oil as a sophomore in high school.

If you’re considering Confirmation, do it. Invest time, thought, and prayer into making the experience worthwhile. If we could only see the abundant grace being dangled in front of us, we would leap into God’s loving arms. You have nothing to lose. Dive in. God will catch you and do the rest.