Be a Confirmed Catholic NOT a Conformed Catholic

Confirmation and Jesus the Non-Conformist

The word ‘confirm’ means two things. It means 1.to verify as being true and 2. to strengthen and fortify. 

When Jesus came out of the waters of the Jordan after his baptism, a strange thing happened...he was confirmed.

He was anointed, fortified and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. He was verified as being 'my Son with whom I am well pleased' by the voice of his Father.

He was then led by the Holy Spirit into a hostile environment to face the Opponent, the Evil One. His time in the desert spent fasting and praying was part of the training and spiritual strengthening that the Holy Spirit brought about in Him. That 40 day episode was a microcosm of his upcoming ministry. It foreshadowed the epic battle between good and evil in which we find ourselves even today. It revealed that good will triumph over evil and grace will prevail over sin. The fallen world will be stripped away from the rule of the Devil, redeemed and reclaimed by Christ the King.

Satan tempted Jesus to conform to his system and his inverted kingdom. But Jesus was confirmed so that he would not conform. He would rebuke the world of lies and overturn it's rule as a sign of contradiction. The way CS Lewis put it, 'Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage'. 

This is why Jesus told the Father, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth” (Jn 17:14-19).

Later at his trial, Jesus said that he was in this world but not of this world. “My kingdom is not of this world”(Jn 18:36). 

Jesus is speaking of a world and a life that goes beyond the flesh, a life that cannot be bound by space and time. He is speaking of the life that we participate in through the sacraments, divine life, eternal life. Ultimately this life will be complete in the resurrection and in the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev 21)..

Confirmed Catholics

Confirmed Catholics know that this world is temporary and hence, we are not to become too comfortable or attached. 

The life that Christ offers is the opposite of what the Devil offers. Life in Christ is about humility, repentance, conversion, grace, redemption and sanctification. It is centered on the unchanging Word of God and the truth of the Gospel. Life in the fallen world is ruled by the Devil. It is about pride, deception, rejection of God’s will, wickedness, perversion, death and damnation. This is the world that St. Paul also urged us to reject when he said, “Do not be conformed to this world”. Since he understood that the fallen world is enemy territory, he said to 'put on the armor of God'  and always be ready to fight a spiritual battle against the Devil and his minions.

In the sacrament of Confirmation, Catholics are strengthened with the gifts of the Holy Spirit as battle armor. Our baptismal identity, and bond to the Church is strengthened and verified. We realize that we truly are sons and daughters of God through the adoption of baptism. 

In Confirmation, we are called to be a bold witness for Christ, to resist our culture’s prevalent progressive ideologies of individualism, relativism, materialism, deception, godlessness and death. We are supposed to swim upstream against the current.

When our culture has been diverted and redirected in a direction away from the truth and away from common sense, we are to proudly accept the banner of a non-conformist. We are never to be ashamed of the cross. That means the central sign of our Faith is held up as a paradoxical sign of victory over the world and the evil within it. We choose to be fools for Christ, preferring the persecution that comes, rather than sell out our God and his message.

Conformed Catholics

Saint Paul told us, "We can either ‘be conformed to this world’ or we can ‘be transformed by the renewing of mind’ (Romans 12:2). Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded.The Greek word for "conform" is syschematizo and means "to be molded according to a pattern”. 

Most conformed Catholics have been molded according to the pattern of their political ideology. They have been molded to the pattern of attachment to the world and to sin. Sin begets spiritual weakness and eventually loss of identity. Any time we hear that 'the Church must catch up with the times' or 'the church is out of step with the culture' or 'the Church is too old fashioned and conservative', we can be sure that it is coming from those who are conformed.

This is why Pope Leo the Great said, “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom”. 

Conformed Catholics have forgotten their baptismal dignity/identity and their Confirmation mandate to be bold witnesses for Christ. They have lost their strength to spread and defend the Faith through words and deeds. Conformed Catholics have aligned themselves with the zeitgeist of our secular, non-religious, scientistic, materialistic age. Not only have they forgotten the words but they have neglected the deeds.

Instead of spreading the truth which can never change, they spread the idea that truth is relative and evolving. They are petrified and ashamed of the cross. Their single motivation is fear of being different or being confronted for standing out. They fear the loss of their social standing and the comforts that come with easliy flowing with the cultural current. They are like salt that has lost its taste. They are like light eveloped by darkness.

The Church and Non-Conformity

The Church, as the pillar and foundation of the truth, is to be the light and salt, changing the world. “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father..” 

In other words, The Church is supposed to change the world and be the leaven which causes it to rise, not to allow the world to change the Church.

The image of the church as a sheepfold must not be interpreted as though the individual members of the church must have a sheep-like brain and a hive mind. We do not blindly follow the shepherds. Obedience yes but rejection of critical thinking no. Over and over, the Church has clarified that reason and faith are both necessary. Knowledge, wisdom, understanding and counsel are all gifts of the Holy Spirit given to those who are Confirmed. Do these sound like gifts that ignorant, mindless conformists need? Piety, Fear of the Lord and Fortitude are given as well. Do these sound like gifts that a passive, fearful conformist needs? The gifts are a clue as to what we are being called to do. 

Individual Catholics must choose on their own to read and learn, love and serve God and neighbor, and develop a personal relationship with Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Finally, recalling our baptismal dignity and our true home which is not of this world, we must embrace the cross of non-conformity and swim upstream against the poisonous cultural currents.

In these trying times we must choose to be a Confirmed Catholic not a Conformed Catholic. When we meet Jesus at the hour of our death he's gonna ask which one you chose to be.