Confirmation at St John the Evangelist (Silver Spring) Dumbed Down

At St. John the Evangelist Church (Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring MD) some school children received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Archbishop Wuerl conferred the Sacrament.  I am told that during the homily, he asked the children if they had seen the video set that he produced that explained the Sacrament.  No one raised their hand.  I am also told that his homily was someone paltry, but that could be because he had to ad-lib "on the fly" after realizing that his educational effort with the video was not utilized, for whatever reason, by the sisters who taught that class.

The lack of attention to the archbishop's educational endeavor might explain the strange program cover that you see to the left.  It is the program used at that confirmation.  Right away, we see glaring hints as to what was taught (and not taught) to the children regarding this vital sacrament.  The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, at least some of them, are not the ones about which I was taught, and I suspect that goes for a good number of this blog's readership.  Count the ones in the program; I count eight.  But I learned of seven of them!

The last two in the program are the problematic ones.  They seem to be placed there as a substitute for "fear of the Lord."  You've got to admit that "wonder and awe" does sound nebulous at best.  The question comes to mind, "wonder and awe - of what??"

When I saw this, I pulled out my Baltimore Catechism to understand the precise definition of "fear of the Lord".  Question 178 is "Why do we receive the gift of fear of the Lord?"  Answer - "We receive the gift of fear of the Lord to fill us with a dread of sin on account of the goodness of God and the punishment He can inflict."  So now the light bulbs shine!  You see, we are an "easter people"!  We are a "kinder and gentler" type of catholycs.  We don't want to think about those nasty, judgmental things like..sin..and...punishment (as in hell?).  We want to believe that God is just a jolly, lovable ole' fuzz-ball who wouldn't be so mean-spirited to send anyone to hell.  So what if they're complicit in the slaughter of millions of unborn children?  All that really matters is that we are nice and sweet and we follow "lenten carbon fasts", etc.  Ad infinitum.  Ad nauseum.

I trust that the readers know I was being facetious about the "easter people" stuff.  Sadly, though, that is how many catholycs believe and live - blithely negligent of the dangers in which they place themselves and their unsuspecting children.  The truly tragic thing as that these children do not have a clue as to the tremendous graces that are theirs as a result of this sacrament.  Not knowing this, and the other truths of the Faith will make them all the more vulnerable to the malevolent forces in what passes for culture today.