One of the best things about teaching confirmation candidates is witnessing their growth as they articulate God’s presence in their lives.
From the beginning of the school year, we talk about having a “sacramental worldview” and recognizing God’s hand in everything from creation to the sacraments. Initially, most children readily identify God’s hands in the beauty of the earth from the smallest shells to the grandest mountains. They likewise begin to express their recognition of God’s presence in the loving gestures of family and friends. When I become most encouraged is when a few of them begin to recognize religious themes in the novels they read or in the current events topics we discuss. When a child considers a rosary a good symbol for a book she has read because, as she explains, the main character turned to prayer and even though the character wasn’t Catholic, a rosary represents prayer to her, you know you are witnessing a child who is starting to look at her world through a spiritual lens.
At our recent confirmation Mass, Msgr. Smith asked the candidates to imagine attending a huge banquet – a feast of the richest, most exquisite foods – and only choosing a burger or a slice of pizza. He challenged them, saying when the best is offered, never settle for the ordinary. He compared this concept to their faith lives.
God offers us the best of everything, including the Eucharistic meal. How can we ignore the riches laid before us? How can we settle for the same, plain items all the time, when God continually offers everything?
Msgr. Smith compared the banquet image to going to church weekly and not thinking about God in between. He said going to church each week and going to confession once per year is good. He even went as far as saying that if you do those things, you will probably get to heaven; however, this way of living will allow you to only find heaven at the end of your life, rather than having tastes of heaven along the way.
Faith isn’t about checking off to-do lists; it is about seeking a relationship with God. Living with a sacramental worldview is communicating with God as we go about our days, noticing his hand in the awesome and beautiful things found in nature, in art, in people, in “coincidences,” and “close calls.” It is even in noticing God’s hand in our trials and challenges and recognizing that he never leaves us.
When we look at life as a great banquet, generously offered to us, we would be foolish to leave the gifts untouched. To find God, we should try to sample and savour as many of his gifts as possible. As C.S. Lewis stated, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
My students have been confirmed. Their baptisms have been completed and they have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. They have grown so much over the past few months and while I do pray that they will go to Mass and receive the sacraments, I truly pray that, as Msgr. Smith encouraged them, these actions will be rooted in a continually growing relationship with God.
I pray that the newly confirmed will recognize the gifts on God’s banquet table and receive them with gratitude and praise. I pray that they will be nourished in his Word, sacraments, and a sense of wonder. I pray that they will continue to grow in faith and trust God’s plans for them.
I pray that they will reach heaven one day, and that they will also see glimpses of it along the way. As St. Paul reminds us, “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully.” (1 Cor 13: 12).
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
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