29th Sunday A
Group Confirmation
Basilica of the Assumption
October 18 2026
Welcome
I’m very happy to welcome you to the Basilica of the Assumption. This beautiful church is the first cathedral in the United States. It was designed by Henry Benjamin Latrobe who was the same architect who designed the U.S. Capitol. And today it is a very active parish, made up mostly of young adults. This parish serves the needs of the poor and homeless in the neighborhood. So it is a very special place in which to be confirmed.
The Meanings of ‘Confirmation’
But why is it important to be confirmed in the first place? Perhaps we can see its importance if we think about what the word “confirm” means. To confirm sometimes means to verify that what someone else has told us is actually true. And that is one of the things that happens in the sacrament of Confirmation. The Holy Spirit verifies that Scripture and the Church’s teachings are true. They are consistent and reliable. You can build your life on them.
There’s another meaning of the word “to confirm”. It is to ratify a choice that someone else made for us. Sometimes it is said that our parents made the decision to have us baptized, often when we were still infants – and that in Confirmation we ratify or confirm the choice they made. To put it another way, we choose on our own to be a Catholic Christian. Hopefully you made that choice a long time ago and I pray that you always will be an active, practicing Catholic.
Well, a choice is being confirmed today, but who is doing it? It is the Lord who is confirming what happened to you when you were baptized. At Baptism, the Lord called you by name to be his own, to belong to him, and in belonging to him to belong also to his people, the Church. At Baptism the Lord chose you to share his life, his love, his friendship. And today in Confirmation, the Lord ratifies that choice, his call, by deepening in your soul the presence of the Holy Spirit and his gifts of wisdom, understanding, right judgement, courage, knowledge, reverence, and fear of the Lord – gifts that help us to be more like Jesus, gifts that help you follow Jesus as active members of the Church, gifts that will help you discover the vocation that God has in mind for you.
The Imprint of Jesus
In the Gospel you just heard, some prominent people were trying to trap Jesus by asking if it was right for the Jewish people to pay taxes to Caesar. Caesar was the leader of the Roman Empire that had conquered their land. So it was a controversial question. People felt strongly about it.
But Jesus didn’t take the bait. Instead, he asked for a coin that had the image of Caesar on it. When they gave it to him he said, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar & to God what belongs to God.” So Jesus tells us to be loyal citizens by contributing to the good of society, but first and foremost to be good people by giving to God what belongs to God. And what is it that belongs to God? Is it not ourselves?
The image on the coin was Caesar’s. But the image engraved on our souls is God’s image. We are made in the image and likeness of God. That image was tarnished by sin but cleansed and renewed in Baptism, deepened in Confirmation, repaired in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and refreshed every time we take part in Mass & receive the Holy Eucharist. We can’t see the image; we can’t touch it or measure it – but it is there. By this spiritual image we are marked out as belonging to God and to one another in the life of the Church.
Who engraves this spiritual image in us? Who makes us over in the image of Christ our Savior? It is the Holy Spirit whose fullness you receive today. Listen to what St. Paul said in our second reading: He reminds the community he’s writing to that they were chosen by God, and adds: “For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with much conviction.” It is the Holy Spirit who puts the mark of God’s truth and love on our souls, that deepest part of us that sets us apart from the rest of creation.
Sooner or later we will belong to someone or something – what will it be? Some people belong only to the world of social media. Social media is not all bad but it is bad when we measure our self-worth by the number of likes we get or by the number of followers we attract. Some people devote their lives to money, possession, or power but in the end they belong to their possessions, not the other way around. And some people give their lives over to those who don’t have their best interests at heart. That is why we see so much isolation and loneliness in our culture. We’re more connected than ever, but also more isolated. We have access to information as never before, but we’re unsure about truth. This is a good day to ask, ‘To whom do we belong?’
Confirmation is a standing invitation to you to belong to God, to be a part of the people he has chosen to be his own, to be a person beloved by God and who finds joy in loving God by loving your neighbor. For the God who calls us to belong to him is not just any god – it is the God who is love, the God who sent his Son to redeem us, the God who walks with us every day of our lives, and leads us to the joy of everlasting life. In the power of the Holy Spirit, may the image of Christ shine ever more brightly in your hearts and in your lives all the days of your life!