I think it’s a smart thing when the leaders of the church choose to use the opportunity of the sacrament of Confirmation to give those receiving it additional instruction and I agree that this instruction, and perhaps the ceremony associated with it, should be impressive about what a wonderful thing our faith is.
Unfortunately, parents these days aren’t always so good at teaching this stuff from inside the home, and aren’t so great at following through on catechism, CCD or whatever classes they bring the children to. Some parents who have promised to bring up their children as Catholic, have abdicated this responsibility, following the faith when it’s convenient. Unfortunately, that means the children who could and should have been a stronger grounding in faith will lose the opportunity.
When our leaders take the opportunity to create a series of classes, a nice ceremony, and to do it at an age when the children are able to develop a better understanding of our faith, then at least the parents who are TRYING (if often forgetting and failing) to meet the requirements of our faith, will be bringing the kids in for classes and the kids will be exposed to it. I agree that it would be nice if these classes were designed to ignite love for our faith in the hearts of those who are preparing for confirmation. Some parishes and dioceses accomplish this, others do not.
However, even if there is a good program of preparation, it is not a guarantee that someone will pay attention… or even the parents will treat it as anything other than a mere formality. If the parents do not consider it an important thing, the kids will not.
Thinking it through… if the Church does not consider it worthy of making a significant preparation and/or ceremony, then why would the parents feel any differently?
I understand that the sacraments are gifts and God does not confer the gifts only on people who took a class or wore a particular dress or passed a test… but as humans, we like to wrap up our important gifts, take classes to help us understand, try to create traditions that will make the recipient of the gift to take it seriously. I think that’s a valuable thing… to the extent that some parishes and dioceses do not pay attention to this, I pray that they will start.
Maybe the poster of this original question in this thread has a point, though… in the jewish faith, there is a particular ceremony, well known, with classes leading up to it, that signfies their right of passage. The ultimate faith-result may be different, but wouldn’t it be a good thing for our leadership to prescribe a specific procedure, classes leading up to it, measureable prerequisites for getting it?
We get specific and detailed, with significant and moving preparation for the ceremonies (which are well known beyond just members of the Catholic faith) in instances of baptism, marriage, confession, holy orders and last rites. But when it comes to confirmation? Sometimes the bishop does it, sometimes not. Sometimes it’s for older teens, sometimes elemetary school kids. Sometimes there is a specific uniform or dress, sometimes now. Heck, my husband recently got confirmed and I was surprised that something I thought was automatic… taking a new name of a saint… was not even discussed. The ceremony of it… the package that we wrap this gift in… is so haphazard, I have to think it would be nice if our leaders would create a more stable way of making it special.
