Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21

Have you noticed when shopping online that before the final purchase is completed a notification will pop-up on the screen to "confirm" the transaction? These little safeguards are meant to confirm our final decision before they are executed. As Catholics we believe that making a personal and final decision for God is so important that one of our seven sacraments is called Confirmation. Jesus promises those who make the decision to follow him that they will not be left alone in this world. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will fill us with interior light to walk as a Soldier of Christ. This Sunday we look at the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, who will confirm and complete our initiation into the Christian life.

Being alone after losing a loved one brings grieving and loss in a way that no one ever hopes for. Jesus knows this and is preparing his disciples for the reality that he must go back to his Father in heaven. In some ways Jesus disciples will have the feeling of a double-loss of losing him, first at the crucifixion and later on when he ascends to heaven. Yet this is necessary so that the Holy Spirit will be poured out, sent from the Father and the Son to fully reveal the Triune God to the world. The Holy Spirit will finalize what Jesus accomplished by covering the face of the earth as he once did at the beginning of creation, bringing new life to all things. As a body dies once the spirit departs, without the Spirit of the Lord we also die spiritually. To be alive the Spirit must be present.

It is this very same Spirit that inspires Philip in our first reading from Acts of the Apostles to boldly proclaim the Gospel to the people of Samaria. This past week we heard in Acts chapter 6 that Philip was one of the seven men chosen to be ordained as the first Deacons of the Church. Deacon Philp’s visit to Samaria must have been a bit controversial since the Samaritans were often avoided because of their historic intermarriages with Gentiles and their peculiar interpretations of Judaism. But this prejudice did not prevent Philip from entering into their community and revealing to them the good news of the Messiah. Many began to have faith in Jesus and were baptized by Philip. Baptized into Christ these Samaritans were ‘born again’ of water and the spirit (Jn 3:3). Notice however that Deacon Philip can only evangelize and baptize — it is the apostles who come after his visit to "lay hands" on the Samaritans so that they receive the Holy Spirit in full portion. This distinct act of the apostolic laying on of hands following baptism is the foundation of the Sacrament of Confirmation. As successors of the Apostles, bishops continue to confirm baptized people in the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands and the anointing with oil.

This holy anointing of the Spirit causes a deep love for God and the things of God within the soul. In our second reading St. Peter opens with the words “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” (1 Pt 3:15). When Jesus reigns as Lord in our hearts we have the inspiration to live as a soldier of Christ, to live a godly life of sanctification. Like Philip we have what we need to courageously proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. This week let us thank God for the Gift of the Holy Spirit, our heavenly safeguard who confirms our decision for Christ, executing our faith into action.

Father Brian Campbell is a pastor in the Diocese of Palm Beach