“Confirm (verb): to acknowledge with definite assurance.”
That’s the definition you get on www.dictionary.com. But for Catholics, the sacrament of Confirmation is so much more. During Confirmation, we firmly pledge our faith as adults.
We say YES to so much:
yes to God the Father,
God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit;
yes to carrying out the will of God in everything we do;
yes to love over hate, to hope over doubt, to life over death.
From the moment we are Confirmed, we acknowledge that we truly want to live as Jesus did, most definitely and assuredly.
I was Confirmed Wednesday, May 11th, just about two weeks ago. Once a month since September, Sister Virginia had been teaching me and the other Confirmation candidates exactly what the sacrament was about. We talked about saying “yes” to God and becoming adults in the Church, but I don’t think this fully impacted me until my Confirmation night. For all those months, I hadn’t really been looking forward to Confirmation; it was just something everyone in the Church went through—nothing too exciting. I admit, in the minutes before I left to go to the church around 6:20 that night, I was way more concerned with finding my shoes and fixing my hair than I was with becoming an adult in the Church.
However, once the Mass actually started, I started to realize…I was about to be a full-fledged, legitimate adult member of the Catholic Church. This was, in fact, something to be excited about! I could no longer think that I was too young to be active in the parish; no longer could I sit back and watch. Once Bishop Kmiec blessed and anointed me with oil, I was fully initiated. I am now Claire Marie Faith Kirby, and I’ve come to realize that the time to act for God is right here, right now. Not someday, not when I’m older. You can never be too young—or too old—to bring God’s goodness and kindness to others. More than anything, Confirmation has helped me realize this, and I’m ready to go out and spread God’s will.