After the service was over, and the
congregation went into Downey Hall for treats and desserts, I was asked the
questions "How do you feel?" and "Do you feel any
different?" by many people. I responded by telling them, "No, I don't
feel physically different," and I followed that up, saying, "In the
sense of being mentally and spiritually different, I can indubitably sense a
change." After Confirmation, the Church views Confirmands as adults. After
hearing that I was now seen as an adult through the eyes of the Church, I knew
there was something new and different about me. I am a new person. I am someone
who can be looked up to. I am partitioned from childhood. I am now an adult in
the Episcopal Church. I am confirmed, not conformed.
-
Seamus
Clerkin, Spring 2014
What difference does it make? Learning more about our faith,
our traditions, our rites, our mission – in the course of several weeks, a
group of four young people from several churches in Erie county came together
to walk through an intense exploration in preparation for confirmation in the
Episcopal church.
I tried to remember my own confirmation experience at Holy
Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Johnsonburg. It’s odd what stands out in my
mind: the choice of Augustine for my confirmation name (because he was naughty
in his younger years but still found a way to be canonized), singing “Come Holy
Spirit” verses and drawing Bishop Murphy’s attention, my wonderful spiritual mentor and friend, St. Angela Marie
Servidio, who encouraged my growth in the Christian faith.
And I remember what Seamus described. A change – something
about me had shifted at the moment of confirmation. I was no longer a child,
and while I was still young in faith (what the Church used to call the stage of
Mystagogy (post-Easter neophyte member in the ancient tradition), I was no
longer naïve. I had knowledge, and I had a role in the mission of the work of
Jesus Christ.
I can remember other moments of change heightened by the
sacramental rites: becoming Almi’s husband in the rite of marriage, being made
a priest in the rite of ordination. Each time, something inside and outside
changed – ontologically changed. My very essence was different; the moment
before I was not, then as a result of sacramental sign in words said, hands
laid on, and oil applied, I became someone new.
Seamus’ words on what happened to him at confirmation are
worth all of our reflection. How often do we consider just how much we changed
when we became full members of our faith tradition? How often do we affirm our
own participation in the Jesus work in the world? How often do we recognize
that as a result of Christ’s love and invitation, we are not nor can ever be
who we were before our transformation in the sacrament of confirmation?
Thank you, James, Koby, Mauri, and Seamus, for your
willingness to be confirmed in faith, and for confirming in us our call to
share in Jesus’ mission of love and forgiveness in our broken world.
Peace,
Fr. Shawn
