ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Bishop Maginnis,
Bishop Burbidge,
Dear brother Priests and Deacons,
Dear Candidates for Confirmation,
Dear Sponsors,
Dear Families,
Dear Friends in Christ,

            Today we have a very special celebration. We have a double celebration because the Church on this seventh Sunday after Easter continues her celebration of the whole Easter Mystery, the Easter event, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Next Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, we will celebrate the first coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.

            In the meantime, today in this Cathedral Basilica, we anticipate that celebration by invoking the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation on all our candidates who are to be confirmed this afternoon. For fifty days the Church is intent on helping us understand just what it means that Jesus rose from the dead. On Ascension Thursday, forty days after Easter, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord into heaven. For forty days after Jesus rose from the dead, He remained with His apostles. He remained with them to continue His instructions, to continue to encourage them, to show them that He was alive, that He had truly risen from the dead, and that they were to be His witnesses throughout the whole world. They were to go to all the corners of the earth and proclaim Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Then on Ascension Thursday, after forty days, Jesus gathered the apostles around Him in a very moving meeting. He spoke to them for the final time He led them near to the town of Bethany, near the Mount of Olives where He had suffered his Agony in the Garden. There Jesus lifted up His arms, He blessed His apostles, and with that He was taken out of their sight. He ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of His Father in glory.

            The work of Jesus on earth was completed, but Jesus had promised solemnly that He would not leave His apostles orphans, that He would not abandon His Church. He had promised that on Pentecost the Spirit of God s love would come upon the Apostles, take possession of their hearts, and that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, would give to the Apostles the strength to do what Jesus had commanded them to do. The Holy Spirit would give them the fortitude and courage to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and to carry on His mission. That was God s plan so beautifully and profoundly simple, and yet so full of meaning. The work of Jesus Himself was accomplished. Jesus went back to heaven, but the Spirit of God s love, whom He would send into His Church, would be with her forever. That is what has happened, dear friends. The apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And these were the apostles who up to a few weeks before were weak men. We remember what happened the night before Jesus died, how He was arrested, how the apostles were filled with fear. We remember how the apostles fled. Peter, their head, denied Jesus and all the others abandoned Him. These were the apostles who were called to go out into the whole world. On their own there was no way that they would be able to fulfill their mission. That is why Jesus had foreseen and promised the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost that is exactly what happened. At that time the apostles began their preaching throughout the whole world. They spread out. Their head, Peter, went to Rome and there he testified, not only by His life but by his death. They crucified him upside down. Peter became the chief witness of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. During all this time the apostles were communicating the Holy Spirit to others through the Sacrament of Confirmation.

              In our first reading today, from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about the first martyr of the Church, Saint Stephen. We see how Saint Stephen was persecuted this is very often the lot of those who believe in Christ. Christians very often throughout history have had to suffer and many of them have had to die in order to proclaim Jesus Christ. Here in our first reading, we have the first martyr of the Church who gave this wonderful testimony of his belief in Christ. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. He had received the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. Throughout the ages there have been millions and millions of followers of Jesus who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and who have borne witness to Jesus Christ in their lives. Most of the followers of Christ are not called to die for their faith. But everyone is called upon to bear witness in his or her own life in the family, in the workplace, in the activities of every day all of us are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to His Gospel. Just as the apostles experienced their own weakness, just as they had to recognize that they were weak and sinful men, so all of us, dear friends, have to recognize our human weaknesses. We have to recognize the fact that there is no way, if left to ourselves, that we can be faithful to our calling faithful to Jesus Christ forever. That is where the great gift of the Holy Spirit comes in.

            Today, dear candidates for Confirmation, you have assembled here in order to receive this great gift of the Holy Spirit the same gift that the apostles received on that first Pentecost. Next week, on Pentecost Sunday, everyone in the Church will be celebrating this event. Meanwhile, we are anticipating this event here in this Cathedral. During this Pentecost celebration which we are anticipating today, you will realize that Jesus promise is fulfilled in your regard, just as it was fulfilled for the apostles on that first Pentecost. The Spirit of God s love comes to take possession of your hearts and your lives. This does not mean that from now on there will be no temptations not at all. This does not mean that you can desist in making the effort necessary --- no absolutely not. We are human. We have our human weaknesses and these human weaknesses remain with us forever. But the gift of God s Holy Spirit and the strength that comes from His love are infused into our hearts. This, dear friends, is the wonderful event that you celebrate today. And all of this is because of God s love. It is because as Christ tells us in the Gospel today the Father loves us. The Father loves Jesus and the Father loves us. Because of this love, because we are loved by God, we receive the greatest gift possible. We receive the gift of His love, and that gift is the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. The Spirit of God s love takes possession of our lives.

             Dear friends, this is a wonderful moment for all of us to renew our resolution to be faithful to Christ, and to realize that all the weaknesses we are capable of as human beings are still inferior to the strength that is offered us by the the Sacrament of Confirmation. The strength of God s love is something more powerful than our weaknesses. It is something that will accompany us all our lives.

             So today, dear friends, at the end of this ceremony as you leave the Church, you will be walking into the future, but not alone. You will have the great gift of God s love and His strength in your hearts. And with this, Christ Himself challenges you to go out into the world and bear witness to Him, to bring His name to other people, to let people see that by your lives you bear witness to Jesus. Jesus has told us: You are my friends if you do what I command you. With the firm resolution to be faithful to the Gospel of Christ, with the firm resolution to be faithful to the commandments of Christ, you begin a new phase in your lives the wonderful phase of Confirmation, with the Spirit of God s holy love in your hearts. Amen.