Confirmation

"Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost"

(Acts viii. 17).



BEFORE the coming of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost, the apostles were weak

and vacillating. One of them betrayed his Master for thirty pieces of

silver; another--the Prince of the Apostles, he whom Christ afterward

made head of His Church--thrice denied his Lord and his God.



After the descent of the Holy host, what a change! What a wonderful

transformation! They who before had been as timid as the lamb, as

changeable as the chameleon's hue, became now as bold as the lion, as

firm as Gibraltar's rock.



In a similar way does Confirmation act on the receiver. Confirmation is

that sacrament in which, by the imposition of the bishop's hands, we

receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and perfect Christians and

soldiers of Jesus Christ. It is the second in the order of the

sacraments, because the early Christians were accustomed to receive it

immediately after Baptism. In the 8th chapter of the Acts of the

Apostles we find the first recorded instance of the administering of

Confirmation by the apostles. Here we are told that St. Peter and St.

John confirmed the Samaritans who had been baptized by Philip. "They

prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. . . . Then they

laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost." In a

similar way does the bishop, the successor of the apostles, administer

Confirmation at the present day. First, he turns toward those to be

confirmed and says: "May the Holy Ghost come down upon you and the power

of the Most High keep you from sin." Then extending his hands over them

he prays that they may receive the Holy Ghost.



In the 6th verse of the 19th chapter of the Acts the sacred writer,

after telling about the baptism of the disciples at Ephesus, adds: "And

when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them." In

the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews St. Paul mentions

Confirmation, the laying on of hands, with Baptism and Penance, as among

the principal practices of Christianity.



The sacrament of Confirmation has been administered to the faithful of

every age from the time of Christ until the present. We learn this from

the Fathers and writers of the various ages. Among them St. Clement

says: "All must make haste to be confirmed by a bishop, and receive the

sevenfold grace of the Holy Ghost." The practice of administering

Confirmation is founded on tradition, then, as well as on Scripture. Is

it not reasonable to believe and practise that which the Christian

Church of every age believed and practised?



The apostles of Christ administered Confirmation by praying that the

faithful may receive the Holy Ghost and laying their hands upon them.

The successors of the apostles do likewise. Who will say that this

practice is not reasonable? Baptism gives spiritual life; Confirmation

increases it. Baptism makes persons children of God; Confirmation

strengthens them, causes them to grow, and makes them strong men and

soldiers of Jesus Christ.



All the morality of life is implied in the sacrament of Confirmation. It

strengthens man, it gives him courage to confess God; and as sin is the

denial of God, whoever has courage to confess God will practise

virtue.