Transcript

In June of last year, the Pope promulgated a document entitled Ecclesia in Europa, the Church in Europe.

The Holy Father has a message here that's worth pondering carefully.

I'll have a very long quote.

For the sake of time, I've cut and spliced it.

Pope John Paul II, quote, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on Earth?

Will he find faith in our country, in this Europe of ancient Christian tradition?"

What's that mean?

"This is an open question which clearly reveals the depth and the drama of one of the most serious challenges which we are called to face.

The age we are living in can seem to be a time of bewilderment.

Many men and women seem disoriented, uncertain, without hope.

A feeling of loneliness is prevalent.

Many people, while not lacking material necessities, feel increasingly alone, left to themselves without structures of affection and support.

There's a selfishness, a growing overall lack of concern for ethics, and an obsessive concern for personal interests and privileges.

This is accompanied by a kind of fear of the future as something bleak and uncertain, viewed more with dread than with desire.

Among the troubling indications of this fear are the inner emptiness that grips many people and the loss of meaning in life.

The signs and fruits of this anguish include, in particular, the diminishing number of births, the decline in the numbers of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life, and the difficulty, if not the outright refusal, to make lifelong commitments, including marriage.

Many Europeans today think they know what Christianity is, yet they really do not know it at all.

Often, they're lacking in knowledge of the most basic elements and notions of the faith.

Many of the baptized live as if Christ did not exist.

The number of the unbaptized is growing.

The great certainties of the faith are being undermined.

Various forms of agnosticism and practical atheism are spreading.

There's a deep crisis of conscience and of Christian moral practice.

We are witnessing the emergence of a new culture largely influenced by the mass media, which is in conflict with the Gospel and the dignity of the human person.

Living one's faith in Jesus becomes increasingly difficult in a social and cultural setting in which that faith is constantly challenged and threatened.

In many social settings, it is easier to be identified as an agnostic than as a believer.

The impression is given that ab- unbelief is self-explanatory, whereas belief is neither obvious nor taken for granted.

There's also a vague and deviant religiosity.

There are evident signs of a flight to spiritualism and of a frantic search for extraordinary events.

Often those in need of hope believe that they can find peace in fleeting and insus- insubstantial things.

For example, with the paradise promised by science and technology, with the selfish pleasures of consumerism, or with imaginary and artificial euphoria produced by drugs, or even with the attraction of Oriental philosophies, with the quest for forms of esoteric spirituality, with the different currents of the New Age movement.

All these, however, are illusions, totally incapable of satisfying that yearning for happiness which burns in the human heart.

The disturbing signs of growing hopelessness does continue and intensify, occasionally manifesting themselves also in forms of aggression and violence.

At the root of this loss of hope is an attempt to promote a vision of man apart from God and apart from Christ.

This sort of thinking has led to man being considered as the absolute center of reality, a view which makes him occupy, falsely, the place of God, and which forgets it is not man who creates God, but rather God who creates man.

Forgetfulness of God has led to the abandonment of man.

European culture gives the impression of silent apostasy on the part of people who have all they need and who live as if God does not exist." Close quote.

The Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II.

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on Earth?

This is an open question which clearly reveals the depth and drama of one of the most serious challenges which we are called to face.

European culture gives the impression of silent apostasy on the part of people who have all they need and who live as if God does not exist.

In many social settings, it is easier to be identified as an unbeliever than as a believer.

The impression given is that unbelief is self-explanatory, whereas belief is neither obvious nor taken for granted.

Living one's faith in Jesus becomes increasingly difficult in a social and cultural setting in which that faith is constantly challenged and threatened." Living a Catholic life becomes increasingly difficult when our faith is constantly threatened and challenged.

Isn't that just as true for us as it is for the Europeans?

Isn't our faith being constantly challenged and threatened right here?

Aren't we immersed in the same apostasy ourselves?

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in our hearts?

God sends us love letters from heaven filled with Holy Scriptures, and they gather dust on a shelf while we read the sports page.

He became man, and He suffered and died for us, and we keep right on sinning and get annoyed if someone suggests we oughta repent and do penance.

He waits quietly in the tabernacles for us, and we ignore Him and flip on the TV.The story is always the same.

It's a story of Man abandoning God.

It's never God abandoning man.

God won't abandon us.

God hasn't abandoned us.

He knows how weak and fickle we are.

After all, he's God.

He knows everything.

So being the good God that he is, he's actually given us a sacrament that, among other things, is specifically meant to strengthen us in order to keep the faith in spite of the kind of challenges and threats we meet in this present darkness.

As a traditional theology textbook puts it, quote, "When temptations are dangers to the faith, are great or even extraordinary, the sacrament gives the right...

gives the right to obtain suitable help from God." Close quote.

That sacrament, of course, is the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Regarding this point, the words of the Catechism of the Council of Trent seem as if they were written yesterday.

Quote, "If ever there was a time demanding the diligence of pastors in explaining the Sacrament of Confirmation, in these days, certainly it requires special attention, and are found in the Holy Church of God, many by whom the sacrament is altogether omitted, though very few seek to obtain from it the fruit of divine grace which they should derive from it by its participation." Close quote.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent.

Let's make sure those words aren't true of us.

Today let's try to come to a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Sacrament of Confirmation, which, of course, like the other six sacraments, was instituted by our Lord Himself to give grace to mankind.

17 centuries ago, St. Miltiades, who was pope from 311 to 314, gave a beautiful explanation of Confirmation.

Quote, "In Baptism, man is enlisted into the service.

In Confirmation, he is equipped for battle.

In Baptism, we are re- regenerated unto life.

By Confirmation, we are fortified for the combat.

Confirmation arms and makes ready for conflict." Close quote.

Pope St. Miltiades.

What is the pope saying?

By baptism, we're enlisted into the ranks of the Church Militant.

By Confirmation, we're armed and made ready for battle, spiritual battle.

How are we armed and made ready for spiritual battle?

The Catechism of the Council of Trent lists three effects that Confirmation has on those who receive it: the grace of strength, an increase in grace, and the character of a soldier of Christ.

Let's take a quick look at each.

The first effect, the grace of strength.

The Catechism says that Confirmation makes Catholics, quote, "Stronger to resist all assaults of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, while their minds are fully confirmed and safe to confess and glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Close quote.

In other words, this sacrament gives us a supernatural ability to keep the faith, come what may.

Second effect, an increase in grace.

To understand what a difference this increase in grace makes, just consider the clear example of the apostles, who were so weak and timid that even after three years with our Lord, they fled at the beginning of his passion.

Our holy patron, St. Peter himself was so intimidated by a serving girl that he actually denied that he was a disciple of our Lord.

And then, even after Easter, even after they'd seen our Lord resurrected from the dead, where do we find the apostles?

Locked up in the Upper Room for fear of the Jews.

But then, after Pentecost, after they're filled with all the grace of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, not only did they come down out of the Upper Room, they traveled throughout the whole world preaching the Gospel and counting it good fortune to suffer abuse, beatings, torture, even martyrdom for the name of Christ.

That's the difference this increase of grace makes.

That's the kind of change the Holy Ghost makes in a soul that's confirmed if we participate with it.

Third effect: character of a soldier of Christ.

Character is like a brand, only it's a spiritual brand.

It's an indelible mark that's imprinted on the soul of the person receiving it by the sacrament itself.

The character of Confirmation confirms us to our Lord in three ways: as priest, prophet, and king.

The late, great Fr. John Hardon, SJ explains how.

The character of Confirmation confirms us to our Lord as priests by giving us the strength to bear suffering in union with our Lord, and to sacrifice things that we love out of love for our crucified Lord who loved us first.

That's the character, uh, conforming it to us...

our Lord as priest.

The character of Confirmation conformingly ops- to our Lord as prophet supernaturally strengthens our will to be able to cling to the true faith in spite of any obstacles.

It supernaturally strengthens our intellect so that we never doubt the truth of our faith in spite of attacks by the rationalists and unbelievers.

It supernaturally strengthens us so that we can profess and defend the true faith effectively, irrespective of our natural gifts or lack thereof.

It makes it possible for us to have an absolute certainty about the faith.

Now this isn't sort of a brittle obstinate certainty like a fanatic has.

This is certainly like a little kid has when his fathers word.

What does a little kid say?

"My dad told me so, so it has to be right." Huh?

God is our Father.

He loves us with an infinite burning love, and He's absolute truth Himself, so that we know that anything He says has to be true.

Whether we can explain it or not is irrespective.

That's that kind of childlike faith.

Our certainty is based on this childlike trust and love of God the Father.

That trust enables us to see that our faith is worth being embarrassed for.

It's worth being mocked for.

It's worth being attacked for.

It's worth dying for, because we love God as our Father and we don't ever want to betray Him.

It's a question of love.

God loves us and we love Him, and we're not ashamed of that, and we're not going to apologize for that.

The character of Confirmation gives us the strength to faithfully witness by our words and our actions to this loving relationship.

We can compare it to another relationship of love: a marriage.

Any decent man would gladly defend his wife and his family, even unto death.

Huh?

We all know that.

Imagine a man that's married a wonderful woman, and yet when someone teases him about that or makes fun of her, he actually apologized for being in love with his wife or took off his ring.What will we think of them?

Well, I'm not going to say it from the pulpit.

Well, okay, how about us?

Are we embarrassed to show our faith in public?

Are we embarrassed to say grace in public?

Are we embarrassed to make the sign of the cross in public?

Are we embarrassed to let people know that we're Catholics and we take exception to their mocking our holy religion?

Don't ever be ashamed to follow Christ.

We need to be witnesses.

Don't ever be ashamed of our holy faith.

As our Lord says in St. Matthew's Gospel: Whosoever, therefore, shall acknowledge me before man, I also will acknowledge him before my Father; but whosoever shall deny me before man, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.

It's a promise and it's a threat.

The character confirmation conforms us to our Lord as king by giving us the supernatural quality of leadership which enable us to direct others on the path of salvation.

Our personality is supernaturally strengthened to enable us to witness to Christ in the world and in the Church.

It enables us to be able to withstand bad examples, scandal, seduction, and even gives us the ability to trap the enemies of the cross of Christ to His service.

So, the three effects of the Sacrament of Confirmation are: first, the grace of strength by which we are able to resist the temptations and seductions and blatant attacks that come to us from the world and the flesh and the devil; second, an increase in grace by which our interior supernatural life increases in every way, but especially in the sense of becoming spiritually mature or spiritual adulthood; third, the character of a soldier of Christ by which we are conformed to our Lord in three specific ways.

First, we're strengthened so we can bear suffering and sacrifice in union with our crucified Savior; second, our wills are strengthened so that we cling to the true faith, come what may; our intellect are strengthened so not...

we don't doubt the true faith in spite of attacks; and we are also strengthened overall so that we can profess and defend the true faith effectively.

We're also given a supernaturally strong personality and supernatural gift of leadership so that we can witness to Christ and lead others on the path of salvation.

What are we saying?

We're saying that the character of Confirmation gives us supernatural powers to keep the faith.

And not only to keep the faith, but to spread the faith, this holy faith that we've done nothing to deserve, but we've got the powers to spread it to those others who so desperately need what we have been freely given.

With all that in mind, as your priest, I'm going to challenge everyone here.

By this time next year, everyone here should set a goal, everyone here that's confirmed, I don't care what age you are, should set a goal to have at least one convert or one fallen-way Catholic back in Church, or both.

I'm serious.

I'm serious as a heart attack.

You have that power.

If you don't do it, who will?

Start exercising all these spiritual powers that our Good Lord gave to you.

God will use you as an instrument if you just let Him.

The first time around, He started with 12 guys from the hick part of the Roman Empire and He overthrew the whole world.

That's exactly the same person right up there in the Tabernacle that did that that time, and there's a lot more than 12 people I'm speaking to right now.

We're not shooting for the whole world.

Just one person in one year.

You can start today.

Remember, we're the Church Militant, the Church Militant.

That's not the Church you flip on the TV and veg out.

The Church Militant.

Keep in mind that we have the true faith by the mercy of God, not because we're big shots and certainly not because we deserve it.

We don't.

No one deserves to have this faith.

We don't want what we really deserve, and we don't want anyone else to get what they really deserve either.

The question is basically pretty simple: are we just going to stand there and watch people fall into hell because we're too nervous or cowardly to say something, do something for them?

See, we know something they don't know.

We have something they need.

We know something they need to know.

They need our help.

And if we don't tell them, who will?

Once you start gathering them, we'll start convert classes in January.

Don't ask me how.

If he wants to get it done, he'll have to provide.

Okay.

Today we started with the Pope's description of the apostasy.

Let's close with some comments from Father Harden.

Quote, "Never, never in my judgment in the 2,000 years of Christian history has the Sacrament of Confirmation been more necessary, more indispensable to remain supernaturally alive.

Though I've said this many times, I repeat a thousand times over, ordinary Catholics cannot survive in our day.

And the verb is cannot survive.

Only heroic Catholics who have been strengthened by the Holy Spirit and the Sacrament of Confirmation will survive.

We have this power.

We have this strength.

But how this needs to be said: we need to use the power that we've got.

We dare not, we dare not be slaves of human respect.

We must courageously, outspokenly, clearly profess our faith to everyone whose life we touch.

In other words, we are not merely to have received the Sacrament of Confirmation, we are to live this sacrament by following in the footsteps of Jesus crucified." Close quote.

Father Harden.

Have we merely received the Sacrament of Confirmation, or are we living the sacrament by following in the footsteps of Jesus crucified?

When the Son of Man comes, will we find any faith on Earth?