Sixth Sunday of Easter

Dominica VI Paschae A
17 May 2020

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” says the Lord.  Following the Lord’s commandments carries with it a new promise made by Jesus in his remarks at the Last Supper in today’s Gospel selection.  Jesus teaches that love should drive us to keep his commands.  St. John must have been so captivated by this notion of an interior drive to recognize what a gift God’s commands are, because in his writings he so often highlights that love of God is shown in obedience.  The interior drive of love, as opposed to mere external obligation!  And when our love drives us to be obedient to the Lord, we find a rich promise.  Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”  Note that Jesus is the first Advocate sent by the Father to be with us.  Now Jesus references another Advocate.  Jesus promises that his departure is important, even necessary and good, because by it he can then ask the Father to send to those who love him the Holy Spirit of truth to be an Advocate or a Paraclete, as is said in other sections of the Gospel.  Whether using the Latin or Greek based words, ‘Advocate’ or ‘Paraclete,’ the meaning is the same.  An advocate is one who is literally called to your side, who stands with you, to advise you, to strengthen you, to guide you, to defend you, to advocate for you.  You can picture this in the legal context in that someone’s legal adviser stands at the side representing him in court.  No surprise then that in some languages the word for “lawyer” shares that root of “advocate,” which you can detect in the Spanish “abogado” and still more clearly in the Italian “avvocato.”  The apostles would receive this promised Holy Spirit to come be with them, at their side, some days later at Pentecost when they were given this Advocate for their mission to the world.

How do we receive the promise Jesus made?  Our first gift of the Spirit of truth happens at our baptism when by rebirth into the family of God we are made temples of the Holy Spirit.  From this, we are given a life that needs to be nurtured and that is intended to grow.  The disciple is by no means finished upon receiving baptism only.  This is clear from the Scriptures, and so following that cue our Catholic practice evidences that there is more expected after baptism.  Among many other ways a disciple needs to grow after baptism, we can note the need to respond to the Lord by deeper love that motivates our obedience.  For our purposes today, I want to focus some attention on a significant way we receive the promised Advocate.  It is so significant that it is its own sacrament.  Let’s look closely at the first reading and marvel at the origin of our Catholic practice.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (8:5-8, 14-17) we get insight into the activity of the ancient Church, how things looked, and what happened as the apostles and other disciples sought to fulfill the Lord’s command to continue his mission.  In today’s selection we hear about Philip who is one of the deacons we heard about in last Sunday’s first reading.  Philip is in non-Jewish territory preaching and making converts to Christianity and baptizing new disciples.  But notice what happens next.  Acts says, “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”  So, what is going on here?  Philip the deacon had been preaching and baptizing with great response and joy in the city.  You can see clearly that there is more to be done than only baptism.  There are two distinct movements we might say.  There is baptism.  But then there is a distinct giving of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands.  Why didn’t Philip just lay hands on them?  Why did the Apostles Peter and John have to come all the way from Jerusalem to these new Christians to lay hands on them who had only been baptized?  You see here a distinct and separate bestowal of the Holy Spirit that apparently only the Apostles could do.  And they do it not according to the first way the Holy Spirit is received, that is by immersing a convert in water at baptism (as Philip had done), but by laying hands on them in prayer such that they receive the Holy Spirit.  Friends, what is this?  What do these acts of the apostles show us?  This shows us the ancient origin of what we now call the sacrament of confirmation.

Sometimes people are confused and wonder where confirmation is in the Bible.  Some go so far as to reject confirmation because they do not find that word in the Bible.  Certainly, the word ‘confirmation’ is not there, but the reality of what confirmation is, is indeed in the Bible.  We have it in today’s first reading.  Using the same faulty logic would one deny the “Trinity” because Jesus speaks of the Father and the Holy Spirit and himself as the Son but he does not use the word “Trinity.”  Well, no!  The reality of the Trinity is there, even if the word is not used.  Today’s first reading shows us that there is a special giving of the Holy Spirit that is different than baptism and which is done by different ministers.  Philip was a deacon and could preach and baptize.  But priestly and apostolic ministry was needed to lay hands on a Christian for this second giving of the Holy Spirit.

Confirmation completes the initiation that was begun in baptism.  In fact, reception of confirmation is necessary to complete and to fulfill baptismal grace.  In particular, its reception gives the Holy Spirit so that a Christian has strength to share in the mission of the Church to go out and to proclaim the kingdom, and to make new disciples.  This connection of power for evangelizing mission is one reason why we in the Western Catholic Church (as opposed to the equally valid Eastern Catholic practice) have kept the bestowal of confirmation ordinarily by a bishop.  While a priest has the sacred power to confirm by virtue of priestly ministry in apostolic succession, it is ordinarily a successor of the Apostles who comes to confirm.  However, a bishop may give permission for priests to confirm on his behalf, and priests regularly do so for groups entering the Church, like for those in RCIA.  Priests also confirm in cases of emergency.  Confirmation can often be misunderstood and undervalued.  There can be confusion about the purpose of confirmation when its reception has been moved around from younger to older, and thereby can be mistakenly viewed as some sort of teenage ‘rite of passage’ in faith.  Confirmation is even sometimes skipped altogether.  But let us be clear about the ancient origin and value of confirmation.  It completes our full initiation into Christ and into his Church with shared responsibility for the mission to make disciples.  It is the gift of the promised indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.  It fulfills the promise Jesus made at the Last Supper that if we love him and obey him this promised Advocate comes to us so that we are not orphans or abandoned.  Rather, with the Spirit of truth guiding us and guarding us, standing with us, and comforting us, we can be fully alive in the joy and power of God.  And so, like the joy that filled Samaria at Philip’s work, we too should seek confirmation and seek to live its grace so that we become part of the great chorus we heard in the psalm: “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.”  What is this joy?  What is this crying out?  It is crying out in joy for the promised works of the Holy Spirit sent by the Father and the Son at Pentecost and received by the baptized faithful to give us evangelizing power as disciples of the Lord!