The Holy Spirit and the grace of confirmation

By Bishop James R. Golka

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) 

These final words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven are not only fulfilled when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church on Pentecost but are also fulfilled in every baptized and confirmed Christian who is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday in this Jubilee Year of Hope, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and into our hearts fills us with great joy and hope.  

The event of Pentecost, 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus, fills us with great hope because it reveals the beginning of the Church’s mission of salvation and evangelization that is only possible through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We first see how the apostles were radically transformed by the tongues of fire that came upon them, and they were changed from men paralyzed by fear into bold proclaimers of the Gospel. We also see how the Holy Spirit inaugurated the Church’s mission of evangelization by not only inspiring the preaching of the apostles but also opening the minds and hearts of the multitude of people that were present and allowing them to hear the Gospel in their own language.  This miracle of both tongue and ear reveals the Church’s universal or Catholic mission to all the nations of the world. The powerful descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was so overwhelming and efficacious that over 3,000 people were overcome by the Gospel and baptized.  

We are also encouraged by hope when we realize that the same Holy Spirit that came upon the Church at Pentecost is still powerfully present and working the Church today, especially in this time of the New Evangelization. As I wrote in my pastoral letter “Christ Our Hope,” the Church has been prepared by the Holy Spirit for this time to evangelize the modern world: “One of the great signs of our times is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that has prepared the Church for these times.   Many see that the Church is ‘behind the times’ or struggling to meet the pastoral crises of our time, but in reality, the Holy Spirit has prepared and renewed the Church in a powerful and decisive way to meet the challenges of our day. ‘In our times, the Church after Vatican II in a renewed outpouring of the Spirit of Pentecost has come to a more lively awareness of her missionary nature and has listened again to the voice of her Lord who sends her forth into the world as ‘the universal sacrament of salvation’”. (Quoting St. John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, 2) St. John Paul II affirmed many times during his papacy that this is a time in which the grace of Pentecost is being poured out upon the Church is a new and powerful in order to be renewed in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the entire world.  
Pentecost Sunday also reminds us that we receive the grace and power of Pentecost in a personal way through the sacrament of confirmation.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.” (No. 1302) Just as the apostles were radically transformed by the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit to boldly proclaim the Gospel, so also does the Holy Spirit radically transform each of us through confirmation to proclaim and witness the Gospel through both word and deed. The catechism makes this clear when it teaches that confirmation “gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross.” (No. 1303) Therefore, it is crucial that we understand the sacrament of confirmation primarily as the sacrament of evangelization. Far from being the sacrament in which we “graduate” from religious education classes, confirmation seals and anoints us with the power of the Holy Spirit to be missionary disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

This understanding of confirmation is particularly important when we consider that it is especially the laity that are called to bring the Gospel to ordinary places of secular society. “But the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity.” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 31) May this Pentecost be an occasion for us to more deeply appreciate the graces we receive from the sacrament of confirmation and renew our commitment to the personal call from Jesus to bear witness to the Gospel wherever we are. 
This is also my favorite time of the year as a bishop, because I am blessed to do so many confirmations across the diocese.  To be able to witness so many lives being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit is very humbling and fills me with great hope.  As we journey together in this Jubilee Year of Hope and continue the great work of the New Evangelization, may we renew with confidence our hope in the promise of Jesus: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” (Jn 14:15)