Preparing for Confirmation Students

Besides providing psychological and pastoral consultation, I direct a religious education program and teach its confirmation class in my Catholic parish on weekend. 

After running a student assembly session for all students, from kindergarten student to 8^th grade student, students go to their respective grade level classes led by their own teachers.  I ran this assembly as the director and take my 7^th and 8^th grade students, who are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation. 

I emphasize that receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation is a very serious matter. It is not something to be forced into. So, I bluntly tell my students that they should not even bother to come to my class if their hearts are not into the Confirmation. I also tell them that I would speak to their parents if they come to my class because their parents pressure them to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this year, because it is not a right thing to do. 

Why the Sacrament of Confirmation is so serious – besides it is Sacrament? 

A Lutheran theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, expressed his concern, in his “The Cost of Discipleship” (1937), about dispensation of the Sacraments are becoming “easier”.  He coined the term, “cheap grace”, in criticizing the modern age’s tendency to make it too easy to appreciate incalculable values of grace, which is also a vehicle of the Sacraments.

Though I am not Lutheran, I agree with Bonhoeffer’s view and echo his concerns for the devaluation of grace and the Sacraments. 

Though he expressed this concern way back in 1937, the same problem continues on even today.

The kind of social culture we live in today has gotten very discouraging to discuss values of grace and the Sacraments these days. A result of this social trend is to make people take grace for granted or even become ignorant about. Then, the Sacraments of Initiation, such as Baptism and Confirmation, have become rather “routines” or empty rituals. 

To me, what Bonhoeffer was so concerned about – devaluation of grace and the Sacraments – “cheap grace”(cheapened grace) – boils down to a habitual lack of love in our faith. This makes our “faith” nothing but an empty formalism.

In 1 Corinthians 13:22, Paul says, “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

It is important to note that “love” in this Paul’s statement in the original Greek text is “agapēn (ἀγάπην)”.  So, it is not a “cheap love” because it is agape. 

A point I emphasize to my Confirmation students and their parents is that they must demonstrate “agape” for Christ in their faith to be recommended to the pastor and bishop to be confirmed.

In my teaching, I employ a psychological approach, too, to help students reflect and monitor their own feelings and thoughts about their relationship with Christ toward Confirmation.  I periodically assign them to journal their thoughts and feelings in reflection. And I have noticed that they express some anxieties, some confusion, and even a bit of skepticism, if not necessarily a doubt. 

Preparatory education for the Sacrament of Confirmation is not all about putting theological knowledge to make them look “smart enough” to be confirmed – though it is important to build the theological foundation and basic understanding of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I teach. What is most important for my students in this preparatory process is to cultivate their hearts of “agape” for Christ.  And, in order for them to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in the presence of Bishop, they must demonstrate their hearts ready to be like Peter’s heart after his reconciliation with Jesus (John 21:15-22). 

In reading John 21:15-22, we notice that Peter still had some hesitance, which reflects his anxiety, in facing Jesus, after betraying him three times (John 18:15-27).  Peter’s subtle uneasiness toward Jesus also comes from his anticipatory anxiety about following Jesus.  And, I invited my students to reflects their own feelings and thoughts toward Confirmation in reflection to the psychology of Peter in facing Jesus through reconciliation and re-commissioning (John 21:15-22). I pointed out to the students that their anxiety, confusion and even doubt, in their preparation for Confirmation can be compared to Peter’s uneasy feelings in facing Jesus, being asked if he loves Jesus three times, and being told that he will stretch out his hands, and someone else will dress him and lead him where he does not want to go (John 21:18).  Obviously, Peter realized that these words of Jesus point to a dark metaphor of his future crucifixion. 

Imagine how Peter could have felt when he heard this from Jesus, I asked my students. Then, I told the students that these words of Jesus are also for them to make theirs to embody for them to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, which means that they are psychologically and spiritually mature enough to confess their “agape” for Christ, which Peter failed to do so when Jesus asked him if he loves him three times.

Although in English bible, Peter kept answering to Jesus’ “Do you love me?” questions with “Yes, I love you”, there was a gap between the level of Jesus’ expectation on Peter’s love for him and the level of love in Peter’s answer, according to the original Greek text of the John’s Gospel. 

For the first two times, Jesus asked Peter if he loves him with “agapas (ἀγαπᾷς)”. But, Peter kept answering with “philō (φιλῶ)” (John 21:15-16). So, for the third time, Jesus asked Peter if he loves him with “phileis (φιλεῖς)”, and Peter answered with “Phileis(Φιλεῖς)” (John 21:18).

By consulting the original Greek text, it is clear that Peter’s answer never met Jesus’ original expectation – though an English translation text makes it as if Peter answered Jesus’ question on love with his love.  But, I believe that English translation for “philō” should be “affection” rather than “love”, as “love” is reserved for “agape”. 

My students can easily say that Jesus had to ask Peter if he loves him three times to “get even with” him for his three-time denials. But, I also want my Confirmation students to go a bit deeper to get in touch with the psychology between Jesus and Peter to help them handle their own dynamic psychology toward Confirmation. 

Jesus noticed that Peter was not really showing his love as “agape” for him when he questioned three times. But, Jesus wanted Peter’s “agape” in order for him to follow him as the shepherd to lead the new Church, whose early development is described in detail in the Acts of the Apostles. To lead the Church, Peter needed more than “philō”(affection) for Jesus. That is why Jesus had to tell peter the metaphor of crucifixion. It is because “agape” requires laying his own life for Christ. And, that is what my Confirmation students must understand in order for them to say “Yes” to the Sacrament of Confirmation with their firm determination.  No looking back. 

Peter’s response to Jesus’ metaphoric expression on Peter’s crucifixion really shows Peter’s lingering anxiety. 

Peter was still struggling deep I his heart about a prospect of following the Way of Jesus, which requires ultimate sacrifice.  That is why Peter asked, “What about John”( John 21:21).  Apparently, Peter wanted someone else to walk the Way of Jesus with him, hoping that John might. 

But, Jesus said to Peter, “What if I want him (John) to remain until I come?  What concern is it of yours? You follow me”(John 21:22). Basically, Jesus was telling still-hesitant Peter, “What about your buddy, John? Peter, it’s none of your business!  Just mind on your business and do my way!”

When I explained this to my students today, boy, they began to seem thinking and reflecting more deeply about what they are heading to! Maybe I scared them a bit. But, I have no apology because I sure do not want “cheap grace” in my commitment to religious education and preparing for strong-faith Catholic men and women. I want to make sure that the Sacrament of Confirmation isn’t cheap!