For the last fifteen years I have been in charge of the confirmation preparation in my parish of  8,000 inhabitants – but how many Catholics there are, I do not know. They were 22 ten years ago, but only six last year to receive this sacrament. I asked to take care of these youngsters of 14 because when I attended the confirmation of one my nephews in another parish I was repelled by what I saw: the youngsters to be confirmed did not have any chance to speak up and express themselves. They were mere recipients.

To be confirmed is not an obligation but an invitation of the Church through the parish. We welcome those who come freely (or more or less freely, depending on family pressures.) My first concern is to go out to them and discern their expectations rather than fashion and coopt them into adjusting  to customs and religious practices of another age which they may not understand. It is not a question of convincing them to accept the habits of  “good Catholics.” That way of life is over. If you do not accept the change you cut yourself off the new generation which in turn will have to transmit the teachings of the faith.

I meet with those to be confirmed every two weeks for an hour-and-a half, and this for nine months (hoping for a new birth).  In order to make them reflect on their daily lives, I invite them to discuss topics of their age which concern them directly like violence, money, relations with parents, risk taking, success, daily news, life at school, etc. Through all these discussions I try to suggest to them that life is not just consumption but the sharing of values, and that there is a hierarchy of values that  gives an orientation to our lives. To spend one’s time surfing what is fashionable enslaves the mind while reflection liberates. As Christians we are part of public life and we have a responsibility for what goes on around us. Jesus did not confine his apostles into a monastery but sent them out to participate  in building the world in which they lived. Through these prolonged exchanges, I try to help young people discover the human face of God and his mode of action in the world: God does not intervene directly but through intermediaries because he has made us responsible.  We are free about how to use our free choice; it is our enlightened Christian conscience that should inspire our choices. It is up to us to understand how our individual freedom can become an answer to the call of the Spirit and thus an instrument of service for those we meet.

At the end of the road to confirmation, what is important is that the youngsters be able to say  “I” in order to translate the words and testimonies they have heard into a personal choice based on conviction. It is in that spirit that I invite them during their confirmation Mass to comment in their words about drawings they have made to illustrate their convictions, drawings that are projected on a screen to be seen by the whole assembly.

In short, to go out to meet the young on their road to confirmation is a wager about the future:  I am the sower; the soil may be arid; I sow even although I do not know if the grain will germinate.
Bernard Sipp,  sipp.b@evc.net
Strasbourg (France)