Sacraments of Confirmation and Mystagogical Catechesis: Perspective from the United States of America

Abstract

Jesus taught us that faith comes to life when it is shared when it is lived in community; faith is not simply taught, it is caught. Full participation in the sacramental life of the Church is essential to sustain the faithful in pursuit of a life of committed discipleship. Since today’s Catholics face a challenge in living an active sacramental life due to the influences of secularism, relativism, a faulty anthropology, and a weakened sacramental worldview, a vibrant and doctrinally sound sacramental catechesis is needed to address confusion about the sacraments and promote an active sacramental life. The Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis contains eight principles of doctrinally sound sacramental catechesis as multiple lenses through which the strengths of sacramental catechesis programs on baptism, confirmation/chrismation, Eucharist, penance and reconciliation, anointing of the sick, matrimony and holy orders should be viewed. The Church’s great liturgical tradition teaches that fruitful participation in the liturgy requires that one be personally conformed to the mystery being celebrated, offering one’s life to God in unity with the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the whole world. For this reason, the Synod of Bishops asked that the faithful be helped to make their interior dispositions correspond to their gestures and words. Otherwise, however carefully planned and executed our liturgies may be, they would risk falling into a certain ritualism. Hence the need to provide an education in Eucharistic faith capable of enabling the faithful to live personally what they celebrate. One of the fundamental realities of the Church is that it is a worshipping community responding to God’s initiative of unconditional love and grace. In public worship, individuals, gathered together in community, assemble as a part of the Universal Church, the particular Diocesan Church, the Parish Church and the Domestic Church to praise God, acknowledge total dependence on God, and accept the gifts of divine life that God wishes to share in Jesus, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Among the six tasks of catechesis listed in The General Directory for Catechesis is liturgical education. Communion with Jesus Christ leads to the celebration of his salvific presence in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. The study concludes that the Sacrament of Confirmation helps a person remain faithful to his or her baptismal commitment to witness to Christ and to serve others. The gifts of the Holy Spirit associated with Confirmation are strengths (or virtues) that Christian living requires if it is to be fruitful and complete. Thus wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord, are divine aids to Christian living without which fulfilling one’s baptismal calling would be far more difficult, if not impossible.

Keywords: Sacrament, Confirmation Mystagogical, Catechesis, USA.