Dear Friends,
Welcome to the holiest week of the year! (and this year we kick it off with both palms and spaghetti!) I hope you will have an opportunity to join us for the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Saturday). They are the high point of the Church’s liturgical year and commemorate the amazing gifts of Eucharist and eternal life which Jesus gives to us.
This year, we are excited to have 16 receiving Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Two others will make a profession of faith and be confirmed. What a great blessing for our church community! It is really a beautiful liturgy and I hope you can join us in this wonderful celebration of Jesus’ dying and rising.
Many of us who were baptized as infants may find this grouping of receiving three sacraments in one liturgy to be a strange thing because we received the three sacraments at different liturgies. We received Baptism as an infant, First Communion in second grade and Confirmation years later from the bishop. So, why do these young people receive all the sacraments at one time?
Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are called the sacraments of initiation. For the first thousand years of the Church, people were confirmed immediately after Baptism and then received communion at the same liturgy. For a number of different pastoral reasons the sacraments gradually were split up and celebrated at different liturgies.
A little over fifty years ago, the Second Vatican Council decided to restore the catechumenate (RCIA), the initiation process of the early church. This process involves a longer, community based training in the teachings of Jesus and prayer. It culminates at the Easter Vigil where those seeking to be Catholic Christians receive the three sacraments.
While there has always been a hope that people be older and understand the sacrament of confirmation before receiving it, that hope does not outweigh the tradition of having those baptized after the age of reason (age 7) receive all the sacraments of initiation at one liturgy. The grace received from the sacraments is more important than a thorough understanding of the sacrament itself. Like any human friendship, you do not need to know your friend completely and fully before you enjoy the beauty of the friendship with them. The friendship itself is a process of discovery.
You may notice that the architecture in many churches reflects the connection of the sacraments. Often, when we enter a church, the baptismal font from which we bless ourselves, remembering our baptism, is directly across from the altar. We can easily see that baptism leads to the table of the Lord, from which we receive the Eucharist. Having received the Eucharist, we are sent forth in mission to do God’s work in the world. To be able to do God’s work in the world, we need the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to us at Confirmation.
Eucharist not only completes initiation but renews our Baptism every Sunday when we gather as the Body of Christ. Fed by the Eucharist we are better able to live as Christ for one another. All of these sacraments transform us and, while celebrated at one liturgy, continue to provide God’s grace to us throughout our lives.
Please join us this week as we remember and celebrate all that Jesus has done for us!
Peace,
Fr. Damian