“You are loved, warts and all.”
Bishop Emeritus Patrick J. McGrath of San Jose said it at every confirmation. Diana Macalintal heard it dozens of times—and it never got old. “Somebody in that assembly needed to hear that,” she says.
In this episode of “Preach,” liturgist and co-founder of Team Initiation, Diana Macalintal recalls a bishop’s confirmation homily that “quickly devolved into an exploration of sin and evil,” complete with exorcisms and damnation. Like composing music, she explains, this preacher “did not emphasize the right notes—the right message.” Why? “Confirmation,” she says, “is all about strengthening the goodness that is in there, giving us the grace to do the hard things, to do the beautiful things in the world.”
That doesn’t mean avoiding reality. “For those who are being confirmed, these are oftentimes teenagers where real life is life and death. Whether it is or not, it is drama all the time.” Name those specific struggles, Diana urges, “in the context of this gift of the Spirit and how they can do their part in the mission of Christ.”
Diana also challenges a common assumption: There’s no obligation to choose a saint’s name at confirmation. In fact, she says, it can be powerful to lift up the church’s teaching that a person’s given name “is to be honored” as “the icon of the person.”
At her historically Black parish, St. Columba in Oakland, Calif., that truth carries special weight: “For so many, their ancestors’ names were taken away” during enslavement. When preaching centers only on the saint’s name, it misses a chance for healing—and risks echoing that erasure. Her invitation: “Honor the names that are given, because somebody loved that child enough to give them that gift.”
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