Bishop Frank J. Caggiano delivers the homily at May 18th Confirmation Mass, St. Augustine Cathedral
My brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Of all the thing we do in life, all the things we can devote ourselves in life, the one that matters the most, the one that we should love the most, the one that has the greatest value is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, to be His disciple in the world. Because you know, my friends, as you are learning, that is the road to everlasting life. And I come to you to remind you that walking that road is not easy. It will demand hard choices, hard decisions, hard work. It will demand discipline and sacrifice. It will demand from you, from us, and from me that many times we will not do what we may want to do because we will choose to do what is right to do. And that, my young friends, takes a lot. That is why you’re here, because the spirit who is already alive in you will come again today, right now, and He will give you the seven gifts of His power so that you could make the hard choices, that you will be able to make the sacrifices, that you will take a step away from the crowd or the flow or what everybody else does, that you’ll be able to stand on your own two feet, as we all do in our Christian life, to live faithfully, whatever the cost may be, because you will never make those choices alone.
The Spirit will come with His grace and power so that you will be able to do what you know is right, even if you’re the only person who is doing it. You may say, Bishop, but I mean, I try to be good. I just try to say my prayers. I try to come to Mass. So what else could that look like? My young friends, I could give you many examples. Allow me just two. You are growing up in a world that is telling you the truth doesn’t matter. You’re growing up in a world that tells you the truth is only your opinion or our opinion, or worse, we are all being told that what’s politically correct, that what our politicians tell us how we should live is the truth. But you know differently. Look, our Lord and savior, our redeemer, who freely gave His life so you and I might have eternal life, did He not say, I am the Truth? And we’ve begun to understand what that means, to be able to make choices that are not popular, choices that may make you have to step away from the crowd to say, with all respect, I don’t believe that, and I will not live that.
Is that hard? Yes. Can you and I do it? Yes. If the Spirit is alive in us, us, and we allow Him to give us the courage to speak the truth. One other example. You know, my young friends, I was confirmed 53 years ago in pre historic times when there was no internet at all. Can you imagine? Therefore, you’re growing up in a world that I don’t understand completely. You have opportunities I never had. You could go online and ask an opinion, a question, and you could get a thousand people giving you all different ideas and opinions. But you could also go online and go on social media, and people can be disrespectful. People that will not tolerate you because you look different, sound different, have a different religion, different politics. We now have this phenomenon that we cancel people, whatever that means. And yet I want you to look at the Lord once again. See, on the day He freely died, notice what He did. He extended His arms on the cross. Of course, the Romans forced people to do that so that crucifixion might be more painful. But Jesus chose to die. And at the very end, He was teaching us a lesson for His arms were extended it out because He was embracing all God’s children, the rich, the poor, people of every color, language, culture, and way in life.
He was embracing the saints and the sinners, all God’s children, to give them an opportunity to learn a path of life and forgiveness and peace. You and I, we do the same thing. When you have to make a choice between either canceling someone out or with respect, listening, between choosing to hold a grudge or forgiving, to choose between violence and mercy, those choices, my friends, are not easy for any of us. But the Spirit is coming to help you to to do the right thing, which is also often the hard thing, so you may achieve your destiny in Jesus Christ. Do you see here in this sanctuary? We have your pastors are here. They are your spiritual fathers. You know, my young friends, they love you dearly with all their hearts. Their doors are always open to you as your parishes will always be home for you. They are here because they love you. If you ever have a choice or a challenge or something hard that you need to talk to somebody about, their doors are always open to you. My friends, these wonderful priests deserve a round of applause in thanksgiving for all that they do for us.
Which means if they are your spiritual fathers, I am your spiritual grandfather. And so on your confirmation day, make grandpa happy. Never be afraid to make the hard choices. Never be afraid to step out of the crowd and do what you know is right. Never be afraid to make the sacrifices you have to make to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Never be afraid to be great. My young friends, we are proud of you, and we all love you, and go out those doors with the power of the Holy spirit and show the world Jesus is alive in you. Congratulations, and may God bless you all the days of your life.
