Jonah Chen
Certain things have the potential to change everything. Something happening in approximately an hour and a half definitely can, and one of the things is the Confirmation in our Catholic faith. You earn spectacular Gifts with Confirmation and a stronger connection with God. It’s not the connection you hear about in the CCD classes all year, of which you have to constantly go into prayer and sit for about an hour to attempt to hear God talking to you. No way. It’s a real thing; a little “live” broadcast to God in a manner you will never forget when you first try it. Get confirmed and look at all that you can get! And then, there’s even more. You know the saying from the movie “Spider Man”: “With great power comes great responsibility.” But there really must be a great deal of responsibility when you get confirmed. It might seem a little hard, with your life maybe going bad, your boyfriend or girlfriend just dumped you, nah-nah-nah. But responsibility suddenly comes naturally. It’s like eating an energy bar and being able to run 7 miles, while when you weren’t Confirmed, you could only run 3. Figuratively speaking though. But if you can, that’s great.
To be prepared for Confirmation, you have to be able to attend CCD classes every week, from which you will learn extraordinary things. I got out of Peter’s CCD class much great knowledge: the 7 Sacraments, the Mysteries of the Rosary, what God can do, what I can do, what people around can do, and what those things can do for us. I learned the 7 Sacraments and set them as the priority before the laws of humanity. I may get in trouble at school with the anti-religion enemies I may get. Knowing that I’ll get confirmed sooner or later, I might as well deal with it now. (Back at that time, I had just found out about confirmation and thought it was cool).
Quoting Peter himself, (not the apostle, my teacher, Peter) “When you are confirmed, you become a soldier of God. You no longer drink Spiritual milk. You eat solid food like a real soldier.” Hearing that, I thought I would be like Saint Michael’s front-line fighter or someone cool. But, instead, I learned something else.
“You have a sword and a shield. You serve God on this Earth.”
I’m not going to rise up to Heaven right away when I get confirmed and start fighting a horde of freaky red, horned demons. Instead, I will be right here on the Earth with my invisible sword and shield, defending unconfirmed Christians and guarding them until their time for confirmation which no one knows but God.
I’ve mentioned something about the Gifts before, right? Yeah, man, there are gifts, very special Gifts. You can’t hold them, but you can keep them forever. God decides whether you get to have it though; whether you deserve it.
The 1st one is WISDOM.
Pretty awesome Gift. You desire for things of God and give everything you have to God.
I’ll explain that a little bit. Rest of it, figure it out, muchacho, because even I myself am still learning all that it means, but yea.
Wisdom in a sense is the ability to comprehend things and give them up to God to honor Him. In return, He will send a decorated gift basket to you with another Gift!
And the next Gift, #2: UNDERSTANDING:
It lets you know about the very sophisticated faith we share and be able to untie its tangled relationship easily. There are so many mysteries in our religion, and maybe you can be the person to unravel a serious of the unknown which we’ve been wondering for centuries. You decide whether you want to get confirmed for this or not.
But hey, remember, it isn’t all about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. You see, If all you want are these Gifts, then you’ll understand how you will eventually devote all your Gifts to God and love Jesus 105%. Mary, Mother of God Himself, can help you. You can probably try sitting for a few minutes, praying to Mary, and asking her questions. She’ll definitely answer you in some ways; just keep all five of your senses open. I mean all five, seriously.
God grants you things when you deserve it, not as a giveaway at a lottery.
And next,Gift # 3 is COUNSEL!
Counsel is awesome. I actually know a few people with this superpower! You know the deceits of the Devil himself on sight or thought. You know the sins of the others as well as how they can obstruct salvation. However, you have the ability to save people from committing sins by giving them counsel or providing them guidance. You cannot just go around correcting people though; they’ll think your ‘de loco’. (Crazy)
Gift #4: FORTITUDE!!!
You are strengthened to do God’s will in everything. You need to always try doing the right thing, whether you want it or not. With sincere willpower, you will be able to do things right. Know what you are doing is for God and you will love every minute of it.
Gift#5: KNOWLEDGE.
You will be able to discover the will of God with everything you encounter as well as its meaning and purpose. However, you need to be bonded with God; you need a true heart, concentration, and continuous prayers and pleading to God. It works. You have to love God beyond anything that exists in your life, including your family. He will reward you, your family, and your friends eternity if you’ve tried to be His great followers.
Gift #6: Piety!
Piety is to love God. Piety is to obey Him because you just want to be with Him forever! It’s awesome. You love God so much, He sends down whatever you want, just ask and pray and pray and pray. It’s the coolest. By saying it’s the coolest I’m not suggesting any kind of comparison because all 7 Gifts rock big time. They’re better than anything I’ve ever had, and you can count on my words.
Gift #7 – FEAR OF THE LORD
You should desperately fear sin and fear the most of offending God. With this, you are like the perfect hero who keeps no pride. I wish I could have this combined with Knowledge; that would help me by letting me know the right from the wrong.
Along with the seven Gifts of the Lord is the Holy Spirit. It sometimes appears as a dove as seen in many paintings. It’s really God in the form of a dove as the Holy Spirit because the Trinity is all in one.
The Holy Spirit appeared before the disciples as Fire, so no Dove there.
Holy Spirit rested on the disciples as the “tongues of Fire”. This is the first Confirmation taken place, and the disciples were the first Catholics getting confirmed. With the Holy Spirit, they became able to preach about God in different languages.
He’s a King, and people didn’t even bother treating Him right. That makes me mad.
The teachings, preaching, healing, leading, and etc are also the Powers and the Gifts. There are 9 things that God also gives with Confirmation. Yes, many more presents!
You can become a teacher and teach the people about God. It’s not sitting down in a classroom and having to torture people to listen. You call to those who are interested in Him, those who deny Him, and those who reject the existence of God. By leading them in and teaching them, you can earn them and yourself either freedom from Purgatory or an easier path to Heaven. Those are nice, aren’t they? And then, preacher! Great ability. You will speak with the Holy Spirit in you. You’re kind of like a stage amplifier, but you get a lot out of it. You will be amazed at what comes out of your mouth. You teach people. You lead them into the right direction. You will have positive influence to people. However, you must remember to teach the right thing with a pure heart. Go to Confession often because you as a preacher have the ability to uplift someone or bring him/ her to the ground. You have to do the right thing.
Leaders! You lead the people to the light, and they will cry out to the Lord, “Thank you for this great man/ woman!”
When people don’t praise God, let them know that is no good. They will thank you so much for saving them. You can lead someone to death and lead someone to life, but you can choose to do the better, lead them to life.
You can also become a priest. It might sound stupid to you, and in that case I ought to hit you on the head. Priests are respected beyond nature for their wisdom and help. They keep no money and have to give up everything to God. A priest helps people from the moment he opens his eyes till the moment he shuts them. He can do great things with his incredible powers. They should always help people and never do harms. It’s a hard path but an insanely rewarding one. You’ll have the eternal companionship of the One upstairs, if you get what I mean.
You can be a PROPHET. Now, that’s also pretty cool. Just like Jeremiah, Moses, and my patron saint (although he, Jonah, is not really a saint).
You become a prophet through God’s choice, not yours. You have to be a seriously hardcore believer to ever get this power. You do have the choice to become a faithful Catholic. Then, any of these powers will come naturally. If you lead, you lead. When you teach, you teach. If you don’t like it, it’s too bad. Do it with all your heart and soul because it’s rewarding.
Healing is amazing. You heal people within a time, or even manage to do it spontaneously. “YOU! BE HEALED!”
Poof. Done!
You can heal people mentally, physically, or even spiritually. You have to really deserve to get this special gift. You can’t hold grudges, you can’t harm others, and you can’t treat them with sheer disrespect.
There are many, many, many more gifts from God. You can get these.
Confirmation. God’s gift, is a decorated box with a bunch of chocolate sent to you.
Chocolate will always taste different! Your powers will depend on God’s will and choice.
Have fun, go to CCD, learn from a teacher and prepare for Confirmation. With your love for GOD, JESUS, the HOLY SPIRIT, and HOLY MARY, earn some seriously hardcore wisdom.
-Jonah Chen, 13, 7th grade, Confirmed by Bishop Farrell on April 6th, 2008 in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Christian Church in Richardson.