All sacraments are actions of the Holy Spirit. Sacrament of Confirmation is known as
the sacrament of Holy Spirit because it is about a baptized person being sealed with
the gifts of the Spirit and his/her commitment to a life flourishing in the fruits of the
Holy Spirit.
• In the early church, confirmation was a third anointing within baptism administered by
the bishop which completed a person’s initiation into church. When Christianity
became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine in the
4th century there was an influx of people wanting to become Christian. That meant
the bishop could not be present at all baptisms and therefore priests and deacons
were allowed to do baptism and bishop retained the third anointing of baptism, later
known as confirmation. The French council of Riez [439 AD] and Council of Orange
[441 AD] made confirmation as a separate sacrament. Confirmation is best
understood as conclusion of baptism.
• Confirmation comes from Latin word confirmare meaning to strengthen, to make
strong a baptized person with gifts of the Spirit. In confirmation, the bishop anoints
the candidate with chrism oil and says, ‘be sealed with the gifts of the H. Spirit’, to
live like Paul who said: ‘I have run the race to the finish, I have kept the
faith’ [2Timothy 4:7]. [In the past, important letters and documents were sealed with
red wax. In confirmation we become the container [like a sealed letter] of gifts of
Spirit, approved or sealed by the Spirit. 1Corinthians 6:19, ‘you are the temple of the
Holy Spirit’]. Youcat: when a coach sends a soccer player onto the playing field, he
puts his hand on his shoulder and gives him final instruction. Same way, in baptism
the H. Spirit places his hand/seal on us and we step out onto the field of life to live
according to the gifts and instructions given.
• In Confirmation the Spirit re-activates or wakes us up to grace already received in
baptism to respond to Jesus’ call to join him as disciple and apostle. In confirmation
the anointed personally decides to follow the example and teachings of Jesus. An
apostle means to be sent out to build the community of faith, be a witness to Christ
in the world. We say like Jesus: ‘the Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to bring the
good news to all’ [Luke 4:18-19].
• In confirmation we are invited to experience the power/fire of God inside; what was
like embers is being fanned to flame, fire of God’s love; we move from indifference to
pro-active way of living faith and never to walk away from God. Imagine the power/
energy in the universe and imagine God’s power/grace behind all that, that power is
yours if ready to stand in the flow of love that Spirit pours into us [example saints].
• In confirmation, we are called to tune our inner motivations/intentions to the
beatitudes or attitudes of Christ [Blessed are the poor in spirit..Mathew 5]. That
means not to absorb all the negatives in the world but search for the fundamental
goodness that God put in us and in his creation. Confirm the goodness/gifts of Spirit
and stir that into flame. In the story of the pharisee and tax-collector, pharisee went
negative and the tax-collector reclaimed/confirmed his goodness through mercy of
God. Tax-collector was open to what faith could bring to his life. God doesn’t impose
himself on to us, we need to invite him to accomplish his purpose in us. A Theologian
said: best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. In confirmation we invite
the Spirit to send us out onto the field of life to practice the better and challenge the
negatives. Confirmation invites us to grow into our true self [anointed by the Spirit]
and be watchful of false self we might develop by walking away from God. You are
now ready to let the power of faith flow from you to shape your family/world into the
kingdom of God!