Spread and defend the faith by word and deed

Jun 02, 2017

By Ken Cham
On May 6, the fourth Sunday of Easter, His Grace Archbishop Julian Leow celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation with one of the largest groups of confirmands ever in the history of St Ignatius Church (SIC).

Seventy four students from the English Sunday school and 28 students from the Mandarin Sunday school were anointed with the Oil of Chrism. It signifies their receiving the seal of the Holy Spirit to mark their total belonging to Christ and their enrollment in his service forever. With Confirmation — the completion of Baptism — the baptised are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with the special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence, they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.

In his homily, Archbishop Leow hoped that the confirmands would be able to recognise the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd after 11 years of Catechism. In the real world, they have to face all the challenges, pitfalls and cliffs that they may fall over if they wander too far from the Shepherd. They must also share the faith — to bring others who are in darkness into the light, those in ignorance to understanding. As it was also Vocation Sunday, Archbishop Leow shared that the call for each one of us is to discover what is God’s will for us — what has God called us to? Are we living out that vocation that God has planned for each one of us? The basic vocation that each disciple of Christ is called to is to love as Jesus loves.

At the end of Mass, SIC Parish Priest Fr Andrew Wong CDD congratulated the confirmands who are now adult Catholics, responsible for their own faith and spreading the Good News to others through words and actions. As they are now on a new journey of faith, they should attend faith-formation programmes and serve in church ministries to strengthen their faith and be witnesses of God.

Fr Wong also reminded them that, “Faith is a life-long learning process and a special encounter with the Lord. The more you seek, the more you will find. The more you find, the more you will understand. The more you understand the more you will explore. And the more you explore, the more you will act in love, through and with the Holy Spirit, to give glory to God.” SIC Assistant Parish Priest Fr Lawrence Ng CDD was the concelebrant at the Mass with godparents, family, friends, catechists and fellow Catholics in attendance.