In the sacrament of Confirmation, the Holy Spirit gives us grace for strengthening, particularly to make us firm in bearing witness to Christ. In the earliest years of the Church, this often meant martyrdom: the Christians asked for the strength to stand firm when asked to deny the faith under pain of death. In several parts of the world, this is the meaning of Confirmation for our Catholic brothers and sisters today. In our relative comfort, we must pray for them.

Even though we do not face martyrdom, we do share with them our need of the Holy Spirit to help us bear witness to others. Many of those around us in Church give informal witness to their faith every day, sometimes standing up to hostility or going against the grain by their fidelity to the moral teaching of Christ and the Church. Good books can help us to be better informed when speaking to others so that in union with St Paul, we preach “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2.2) and not our own opinions.

Giving witness to others is not an optional extra for the specially devout. It is an integral and necessary part of our Christian discipleship as baptised and confirmed members of the body of Christ.

If we are the friends of Christ, we do what He asks of us. We deepen in our friendship with Him by regular confession, good Holy Communions where we make a proper preparation and thanksgiving, finding sound prayers, novenas and devotions to say, to enrich our life of prayer, and by spiritual reading such as the lives of the Saints.

Building on this solid base, we can then bring our discipleship to Mass on Sunday. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. We draw upon the source of grace which is the Mass, and then bring to the Mass the offering of the witness that we have been able to give, the charity we have shown, and the deeper friendship with Christ that we have tried to foster in our souls.

Our Confirmation is our own personal Pentecost when we received the Holy Spirit and the permanent seal or character given in the sacrament. Confirmation is a sacrament which marks us out permanently as the soldiers of Christ, the people He relies upon to bring His word to the world today.

On this feast day of Pentecost, we should ask the Holy Spirit to renew His grace within us and confirm or strengthen us anew as the followers of Christ. We can examine ourselves on the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. To what degree are these gifts evident in my life today? Do I fear the Lord or do I simply presume on His grace, taking it for granted? Do I have fortitude in following Christ or do I come to the Church as a “consumer”, expecting to get something and complaining if I think I have had poor “service.”

Awakened to the call of the Holy Spirit, we are then moved to ask humbly for the grace to live the seven gifts anew with the fervour and freshness given by the Holy Spirit. Then we can truly pray who desires to burn with love in our souls, making the prayer from our hearts,

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Sermon preached by Fr Finigan at St Austin and St Gregory, Margate on Pentecost Sunday 24 May 2015.