Franciscan at Home

Al Sacramento de la Confirmación se refiere a menudo como "un sacramento en busca de una teología", o "un sacramento en busca de sentido" entre los ministros del sacramento. Aunque los documentos catequéticos presenten una consistente teología de la Confirmación, la diversidad en la práctica pastoral de diócesis a diócesis, e incluso de parroquia a parroquia dentro de la misma diócesis, sugiere que el Sacramento de la Confirmación tuviera diferentes sentidos y hasta diferentes teologías. En lugar de esto, propongo que la diversidad en la práctica no es el resultado de una teología variable, sino que se debe a diferentes enfoques pastorales. En su libro, Confirmation: The Baby in Solomon's Court [La confirmación: el bebé en la corte de Salomón], el Pbro. Paul Turner, sacerdote de la Diócesis de la Ciudad de Kansas - San José, Missouri, describe siete modelos de praxis en la tradición cristiana.[i] Utilizando el marco referencial del P. Paul como base para mis reflexiones, he distinguido tres modelos distintos para la práctica pastoral de la Confirmación hoy en día.

El Rito de Iniciación Cristiana para Adultos: En el caso de los catecúmenos adultos, la Confirmación se celebra inmediatamente después del Bautismo, en la misma liturgia. Los niños mayores a siete años deberían de ser incluidos en este modelo. En el caso de candidatos adultos, la Confirmación se celebra con adultos que fueron bautizados como católicos pero que no siguieron con su formación en la fe, o fueron bautizados en alguna otra tradición cristiana y que deseen entrar en plena comunión con la Iglesia Católica.

La Confirmación en el orden restaurado: Algunas diócesis[ii] celebran el Sacramento de la Confirmación antes del de la Eucaristía. Este modelo restaura el orden de la celebración de los Sacramentos de Iniciación al orden que tenía la Iglesia Universal hasta el año 1910.[iii] Aunque varíe la edad de la celebración en cada diócesis, generalmente situándose entre los ocho y los diez años de edad, el orden de la celebración ubica a la Confirmación antes de la Eucaristía.

La Confirmación de Candidatos Adolescentes: El Sacramento de la Confirmación se celebra después de la Primera Eucaristía, en algún momento durante la adolescencia; hay mucha variación en la edad para esta práctica, y generalmente abarca a los jóvenes entre trece y diecisiete años de edad.

Debido a la diversidad en las edades y circunstancias de los candidatos, se utilizan muchos diferentes enfoques hoy en día. Esto presenta retos únicos, entre los cuáles existe una confusión en cuanto a la teología del sacramento.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is often referred to as “a sacrament in search of a theology” or “a sacrament in search of meaning” among pastoral ministers. Even though the catechetical documents present a consistent theology of confirmation, the diversity in pastoral practice from diocese to diocese, and even from parish to parish within the same diocese, would suggest that the Sacrament of Confirmation has different meanings and even different theologies. Instead, I propose that the diversity in praxis is not the result of a variant theology, but rather of different pastoral approaches.

It was a warm, sunny day at the end of spring. Instead of spending the beautiful Saturday according to their own wishes, our students were reluctantly settling into their seats in a classroom. I saw looks of boredom on the faces of the youth and noted the variety of ages among those present. I glanced over at the two other members of our team: a young, enthusiastic priest and a very energetic woman who taught children much younger than those gathered before us. We had been recruited to deliver a day-long Confirmation retreat for a Native American community. On our three-hour drive to reach the reservation, Father had emphasized the fact that the culture from which these participants would be coming might present different challenges from those to which we were accustomed. Looking around the room, I began to understand what he had been describing. The ages of the confirmandi ranged from 5th to 11th graders; and some parents or family members also requested to attend the retreat. The sisters who ran the catechetical side of the mission church located on the reservation had already informed us that many of these students failed to attend any kind of courses regularly, and thus their level of catechesis was inconsistent.

The Book of Wisdom (18:6, 9) speaks to us about “the night of the Passover,” saying that the Israelites in Egypt were “putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.” Something divine was being instituted—established—when the Jews performed that first Passover meal according to the instructions they had received from God through Moses. Something “divine” because something of God.

However, the Passover meal of the New Covenant is divine in a far more profound way because in it there is not merely something of God, but God himself. The Body and Blood, the Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is really present in the Eucharist.

One evening, as I was offering Mass in the parish, I was joined at the altar by . . . a gnat. He showed up during the Opening Prayer; so when the time came for me to prepare the wine in the chalice, I was ready for him. He behaved just as I expected: he tried to get to the wine. Throughout the Eucharistic Prayer, I had to cover the chalices, uncover them for the essential parts—the invoking of the Holy Spirit and the Consecration of the Precious Blood—and then rapidly cover them again. Each time, as soon as the covering was removed and the fragrance of wine began to emanate from the chalices, here he came; and at times I had to brush him away as I continued with the prayers.

One evening when I came home from the office, my 12-year-old daughter was busily attending to her homework. Working on a lesson in suffixes, she asked me about the word “revitalize.”

I don’t claim to know much about grammar, but I do remember an insight on the suffix “-ize” from Dr. David Fagerberg, then a professor of liturgical theology at Mundelein’s Liturgical Institute. His lesson was short and to the point: “Whenever you see ‘ize’ at the end of a word,” he suggested, “it means ‘to make.’” For example, “trivialize” means “to make trivial.” “Familiarize” means “to make familiar.” “Minimize” means “to make minimal or small.”

It wasn’t grammar studied for its own sake in Dr. Fagerberg’s class, but the application of this “rule” to liturgical studies. If “ize” means “to make,” how ought we to understand liturgical words such as “symbolize,” “sacramentalize,” and “ritualize”? Applying the principle to these words, we see that the realities of faith—grace, salvation, redemption, the Mystical Body, the Paschal Mystery, and even Jesus himself—are “made” available to us via symbols, sacraments, and rituals.

The Sacrament of Matrimony is one such timely example. The unseen reality of marriage is ritualized and sacramentalized, thus made present to us here and now so that we can participate in it and conform ourselves to it. So if we wish to understand the newly promulgated Second edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony and participate in it fruitfully, we need to familiarize (make familiar) ourselves with its reality, substance, and mystery.

Waiting on God

We had just begun our new catechetical year at the parish. Following an opening session that was offered in large group, I made my way around to the various confirmation classes to sit in and see how things were going and how I might better support the catechists and candidates that year.

Before I became Catholic, if there was one word that summed up my evangelical Pentecostal Protestant experience, it was “spontaneous.” If there was one word that summed up my perception of the Catholic experience, it was “rubric.” My perception was that Protestants were spontaneous and therefore “authentic,” while Catholics had rubrics and were therefore “lifeless.” After I became Catholic, I began to work with RCIA and discovered that apparently I’m not alone. While concluding an RCIA inquiry meeting one year, I closed in an extemporaneous prayer and, when finished, one of the inquirers said out loud, “Wow! I had no idea you could pray like that. I thought Catholics could only pray memorized prayers.” As I have settled into being Catholic, I’ve learned the key to “authenticity” in prayer is not spontaneity but sincerity. Yes, there are many rubrics and prewritten prayers, but these are given to ensure that the faithful will hear more than an individual’s personal insights. As the tears streamed down my face during the Mass where my wife and I were received into full communion, there was nothing “spontaneous” about the event. The fact that I knew what was coming did not make it any less powerful or life giving. I’ve also learned that there is room for spontaneity. Like most things in the Church, it is both/and, with everything being done in its proper place and time. This article will examine aspects in the Church’s RCIA that allow for “planned spontaneity.” I use the phrase “planned spontaneity” because they are not truly spontaneous, but areas where the Church gives the celebrant freedom to adapt a particular part of the rite. I hope this article will inform those who direct RCIA and inspire priests to be more pastorally effective.

It is Confirmation time at St. Joseph’s parish, and the catechists have been working hard, with mixed results, to prepare the young adults for this important moment in their lives. Cecilia, for example, has become much more enthusiastic about her faith and is very excited about receiving the sacrament. Jacob has been respectfully attentive in the preparation classes but hasn’t yet become fully committed. Billy, on the other hand, is much less fervent than either Cecilia or Jacob. He is predominantly motivated by the desire to keep his parents happy and has no living faith. Then there is Sandra. She isn’t antagonistic to the faith. In fact she shows signs of real interest but, unfortunately, she has become involved with Steve, a lad of twenty, and has entered into an inappropriately intimate relationship with him.

This year, the celebration will be presided over by the parish priest, Fr. Tim. Cecilia’s mother, Barbara, is a little disappointed by this development, not so much because having the bishop does add a bit of gravitas to the whole occasion, but rather because Fr. Tim seems to have lost his belief in the reality of the Sacrament of Confirmation. He intimated as much to Barbara in an unguarded moment during last year’s parish barbeque. Let’s be clear here, Barbara fully accepts that the bishop can delegate the Confirmation to Fr. Tim, since by ordination the latter has the latent power to confirm, requiring only that this power might be “unlocked” by the bishop. It is more that Barbara is worried that Fr. Tim’s lack of faith might affect the efficacy of the sacrament.

Will all the hard work of the catechists founder on the reef of Jacob’s imperfect zeal, Billy’s indifference, Sandra’s state of grave sin, and Fr. Tim’s lack of faith? Or perhaps none of this makes any difference at all since the Catechism teaches us that the sacraments have inherent power to communicate grace or, that they work ex opere operato (CCC 1128).

The Latin phrase ex opere operato means “on account of the work worked” or, more colloquially, “by the completion of the sacramental rite.” This fact is contrasted with the idea that the sacraments work ex opere operantis. This second phrase means “from the work of the worker” and would, if applied to a sacrament, imply that a sacrament has no inherent power to give grace but, rather, that grace is given because of the meritorious quality of the action of the recipient or the minister.

The Church first developed the notion of ex opere operato during a dispute with the Donatists in the fourth century. These North African heretics claimed that priests and bishops who had apostatized during the persecution of Diocletian (but who had later returned to the fold) were unable to validly administer the sacraments. This was denied by the Lateran Synod in 313 A.D. (under Pope Miltiades), which condemned the Donatist position as heretical since neither the moral state of the minister nor his lack of orthodoxy in matters of faith can block the effect of a sacrament.

Later, during the Reformation, the phrase ex opera operato was used with reference to the role of the recipient, rather than of the minister. The reformers claimed that the sacraments were merely an opportunity to profess faith in Christ, and it was on account of this faith (and not some inherent power in the sacraments) that the recipient was justified and sanctified. No, responded the Council of Trent, while faith is needed for justification (and sanctification), the sacraments themselves have the power, as tools in the hand of God, to infuse grace into the recipient.[i] This is also part of the difference between the sacraments of the New Law and those of the Old Law. In the Old Law, religious rites like circumcision did communicate grace but, being “weak and needy elements” (Gal 4:9), they only worked ex opere operantis. They did not have inherent power to give grace but, rather, they were opportunities for the Jews to manifest their faith in God (and the Messiah to come), and it was because of this faith that grace was given.

So clearly, then, we know from these two controversies that a “sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God.”[ii] If this is the case, however, what is the use of all that preparation—all that catechesis? Doesn’t our Catholic intuition (a.k.a. the gift of the Holy Spirit called knowledge) tell us that surely Cecilia benefits from the sacrament more than Jacob does, and both benefit more than either Billy or Sandra?

To put all of this another way, the question before us is this: accepting that the sacraments have inherent power to give grace, nevertheless, what kind of cooperation is needed on the part of the recipient and of the minister, and what is the role of the catechist in all this?

According to the Code of Canon Law, in order for the Sacrament of Baptism to be celebrated validly and lawfully, there must be a minister of baptism. There is no circumstance in which a person may baptise himself. There are three important canons in the code which are relevant to issues revolving around the minister of baptism:

- Canon 861 defines the ordinary and extraordinary ministers of baptism, and the circumstances in which the latter may lawfully baptise.

- Canon 862 defines the territorial restrictions on the exercise of baptism by ordinary ministers.

- Canon 863 details the circumstances in which the diocesan bishop is the proper minister of baptism.

The baptismal font is an important feature and symbol of any parish church. It is necessary for catechists to have a clear understanding of the role of the baptismal font and the place of baptism for the life of the community. The canonical norms on the baptismal font and the place of baptism are clear: candidates must be baptised in the baptismal font in the proper parish church. The following norms will outline the baptismal font and also make clear where baptism is to be administered.

The question of the baptismal font is rarely discussed in any great detail. While the faithful see baptisms carried out at the baptismal font, many of them might not know much about the font itself. As the place where parents present their child for baptism or where adults are initiated into the Christian faith, the baptismal font is a sacred place.