Encounter with Love – April 13, 2018

Big fat snowflakes were falling on Sunday during rehearsal and it was almost 80 degrees and sunny on Thursday when we gathered for the Confirmation Ceremony at Visitation Church on Main.  Nineteen of our SFX youth joined sixty-five young people from Visitation parish to receive the sacrament.

As each teen was anointed I wanted to shout with joy, “you are God’s work of art!”  I have known some of these kids since they were born; most of them since they were seven or eight.  I know their parents, their brothers and sisters, their sponsors.  I know their ups and downs, their strengths and struggles.  And I know their goodness, their godness.  Our world (and church) sorely need their unique beauty.  And their intelligence…creativity…strength…courage…enthusiasm…wisdom…questions….doubts. 

As each young person was anointed with Chrism oil and sealed with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, the combined Vis-SFX choir sang Scott Scoper’s “Spirit Wind.” Spirit Wind, Breath of God, breathe new life into the world.

I was struck by Monsignor Offutt’s closing remarks.  He said, “every sacrament is an encounter with love…and tonight we celebrate these young people’s expanding capacity to love…and their expanding responsibility to love.” 

I don’t know what these youth will remember about their Confirmation Prep year. I hope they remember they are loved and called to love. I hope they remember that the Holy Spirit lives in them.  I hope they remember that the gifts of the Spirit (understanding, wisdom, knowledge, right judgment, courage, reverence and wonder-and-awe in God’s presence) are real and available to them – if they just breathe. I hope they remember that whether it is snowing or sunny, God has a purpose for their lives.