This week I have run into several of our young people who are seeking to be leaders for our "Searching in the Spirit" program which helps to prepare their peers for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Do you remember your Confirmation? Do you remember choosing the name of a saint? As Catholics, have you ever been asked, “Why do you choose another name in addition to your own?” What’s the best way to answer that question?
As we go through our sacramental preparation for Confirmation, saints are chosen to be a person we want to be like, as well as someone who can pray for us from heaven. Through the process of canonization (when someone is declared by the Church to be a saint) the Church is proclaiming that this member of the faithful practiced heroic virtue during their life on earth, ‘the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors’ (CCC 828).
To aspire to be like a saint is the same as trying to imitate an actor, musician, or athlete; a confirmation saint is someone who we want to be like! You may have a famous actor, musician, or athlete that you really admire for their talent and skill. What many people don’t realize is that there are good people to look up to within our Church, for us to try to be like as well! It is common for us to think that only adults are able to become saints, but that is wrong.
As a young teen in the early 4th century, Saint Agnes was martyred because she refused to denounce her faith. Saint Aloysius, a young Jesuit in the late 16th century, helped care for people who were sick with the plague, giving them care and love as they left this world. His close contact with the disease took his life soon thereafter. Both these young saints bear witness to having love of God as their first priority.
It is important to remember that as members of the Church, we are never alone, as St. Paul said, ‘We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1). These witnesses are the saints who continually intercede for us (CCC 956); in choosing a confirmation saint, we are choosing a special friend to intercede for us in heaven and after whom we can model our lives while here on earth.
You can’t call up a famous person you want to be like and ask them for help, but your Confirmation saint is someone who you can talk to whenever you need them and they will always have your back!