Confirmation Bias
Atlanta, GA
March 21, 2021
Last week, clocks jumped ahead. This week, time leapt forward.
Milestones mark moments in life. Births, baptisms, and birthdays. Graduations, weddings, and funerals. These are the forks in the road that give us cause to pause…to consider where we’re going, and remember where we’ve been.
It seems like only yesterday that our elder son was confirmed in the Faith. As it happened, our younger one actually was.
Of the seven sacraments, Confirmation is perhaps the most unfamiliar, and least understood. But I have always had a soft spot for it, perhaps because I received it of my own choosing, as a young adult, after I graduated college and moved to Northern California.
Babies receive Baptism. Children give first Confession, and take first Communion. Matrimony and Holy Orders are the two sacraments of service. Catholics choose one or the other…or neither. And all of us need Extreme Unction, the soothing solace of healing hands…or the final benediction of Last Rites.
Confirmation is the third of the initiation sacraments. It is conferred at an age of volition, typically between first Communion and last year of high school. This wasn’t always so. Up thru the Middle Ages, Confirmation was linked to Baptism, and bestowed on babies.
After the Counter-Reformation, the chronological connection to Baptism weakened. Confirmation moved closer to first Communion in a joint display of Catholic comprehension, and both sacraments assumed the consent of their young beneficiaries.
Only in the 20th century was Confirmation officially permitted to follow Communion. Colloquially, Confirmation often presumes a later age of its young recipient, but it’s not canonically contingent upon it. It is not intended as a mere Catholic passage to early adulthood.
Though customarily conferred in high school, it can still be granted in grade school. And often is. By this sacrament, the recipient asserts, affirms, and pledges his Faith.
As Baptism saves, Confirmation seals. The one recalls St. John in the Jordan, the other the Spirit on Pentecost. In the earlier ceremony, holy water washes away sin, and grants eligibility to subsequent sacraments.
In the latter ritual, holy oil secures by the Spirit…with the mark of the Father and assurance of the Son…the wisdom and reverence, the courage and understanding, the judgment and knowledge, requisite to a holy life in the veneration of God. If Baptism is the wrapper, Confirmation is the bow. Yesterday, as throughout his life, David was the gift.
After a year of insanity, this traditional occasion was welcome relief…and release. Ancient and venerable rites are necessary and welcome, even (or especially) when… like Adam’s apple to shaving…they seem wholly incompatible with modern life.
Because of Covid protocols, only parents and sponsors could attend the ceremony. Even siblings were prohibited. Alexander, who had previously planned to join us, remained in Auburn. But he watched online and was, so to speak, with us in spirit.
Despite crowd limitations and separation, Holy Spirit Catholic Church was relatively full, and basked in the stained glass glory of a luminous spring day. The service, like the scene, was beautiful. And the Mass was moving.
The catechumens joined their sponsors in the front pews of the main nave. Most parents occupied the rear of the church. Some, like us, filled the chairs in either transept. From a distance, we spotted our son, beside his sponsor. David already benefits by a terrific godfather in Ken Miller, and marvelous godmother in Annie Antón, who is also Alexander’s Confirmation sponsor. To them David now adds a new blessing.
Misty Fernandez is a delight. She’s worked for years with Rita, and lives with her husband and children in nearby Roswell. Misty is one of those irresistible people to whom we are instinctively drawn. She seems always to be smiling, even when she isn’t. And when she’s around, almost everyone else is. In the middle of the church, she sat with David, and awaited the ceremony.
After the preliminary organ subsided, the annunciatory bells chimed, and the congregation rose. Down the center aisle, a crucifix led our Monsignor, a deacon, and the Bishop toward the main altar. There they genuflected, ascended the steps, and began the Mass.
After the Confiteor, the Kyrie, and the readings, His Excellency took to the pulpit, and gave his homily. It centered on the story of a young boy who asked his mother a question one morning as they returned from Mass.
In the Ordinary of the Mass, before taking the Eucharist, communicants acknowledge that they are unworthy recipients. Yet they proclaim to Christ: “but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed”.
“But what”, the boy asked his mother, “is ‘the word’?” Startled by this precocious question, she searched her mind for a haphazard response. Then, on the verge of a dismissive platitude or changing the subject, an answer came to her.
“The word”, she said with sudden assurance, “is ‘yes’.”
Yesterday, David said “yes”. With Misty by his side, he proceeded up the aisle, approached the bishop, and received the ointment.
He took the name of St Dominic, perhaps inspired by his stay in Spain a couple years ago. Or possibly because of the intellectual tradition of Dominic’s “Order of Preachers”. But most likely, it is because it was said of Dominic that “he loved everyone, so everyone loved him”…and that is also the case with David. For that reason and so many others, as I was of his brother three years ago, I couldn’t be more proud of my younger son today.
After the Mass, we said goodbye to Misty, and promised a celebration when the rest of her family could join the balance of ours. In the meantime, the three of us decided a rehearsal was in order.
With perfect temperature, low humidity, and no clouds, we’d have offended God by staying inside. So we drove to Roswell, found a sidewalk table at Little Alley Steak, and fêted our son with an al fresco feast.
The future, as Bill Bonner put it, is a closed book. We know not how the plot will twist, thicken, or thin…and can discover it only one page at a time. Yesterday, David turned another leaf, and started a new chapter.
JD
