Confirmation October 8, 2011: Gospel Images of Jesus

My name is Chellsy and I am one of the presenters at the Confirmation preparation sessions at St. Anthony. For those of you who were not able to join us for the first session, I hope that you will use this resource with your parent and/or sponsor to review what we discussed. I look forward to meeting all of you.

Let's begin with a prayer:


In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lord Jesus, thank you for bringing us together today to spend time learning more about you. Help us to do your will and give glory to you. Draw us deeper into your Sacred Heart and let us come to a fuller understanding of your unending love for us.  We ask all these things through Christ Our Lord.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

I want to challenge you to answer the question: Why am I coming to Confirmation preparation?

I want you to be honest. You must honestly assess where you are if you want to be able to get somewhere in this process. Is it just because your parents told you to? Is it just what was on your calendar so you are going? Do you have a desire to learn more about your faith? Do you want to receive Confirmation?

I am here not to teach you information (although I hope you will learn some). I am not here to talk about stuff. I am here because I know a Person. I am here because of a relationship that has changed my life and I want to share that with you.

To have any kind of relationship you must get to know the person, spend time with them, talk to them, listen to what they have to say etc. We all know this from our human experience.  The same applies in our relationship with God. How do we come to know more about Jesus? One of the primary ways is through the Gospels.

The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Why do we have four different books to tell us the story of Jesus' life? They all give us a different perspective. They were written by different men, with different purposes and audiences in mind so they focus on different aspects of Jesus' life.

St. Matthew

Matthew was one of the 12 Apostles. He was a Jew and writing primarily to a Jewish audience who were Christian converts but were arguing among themselves about if they still had to practice the laws of the Old Covenant. Matthew begins his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus. Why? To his Jewish audience, it was very important to know that Jesus came from the line of David because that was what the prophecy of the Messiah said would happen. Matthew focuses a lot on Jesus' heritage and his teachings. He shows how Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant.

St. Mark

Mark was not one of the 12 Apostles. His Gospel was actually the first written of the four in chronological time. Mark was writing to a group of mostly new non-Jewish Christians who were being persecuted for their faith. He focuses on the "Good News" about Jesus - his actions and death that brought about our salvation. He was trying to encourage his audience as they went through this very difficult time.

St. Luke

Luke never met Jesus when He was alive. Luke was a companion of Paul. Luke was an educated Greek man. He was a physician, artist and historian. He was writing to a group of wealthy Christians who lived in the city who were becoming complacent in their faith. He really focuses on giving an orderly account of Jesus' life from things that happened before he was born, all through His life. He was trying to draw his audience back to the practice of their faith by giving them a secure knowledge of what happened in Jesus' life. We hear a lot from Luke's Gospel at Christmas because he tells us what happened. His Gospel challenges his audience to live their faith more fully.

St. John

John's Gospel is different from the other three. John was the youngest of the 12 Apostles and he is often called the beloved disciple. John and Jesus were very close and John was the only one of the 12 that did not abandon Jesus when he was crucified. John stood at the foot of the cross with Mary and Jesus gave his mother into John's care. John focuses a lot on the signs and miracles of Jesus. He is writing to give strength to Jewish Christians who were being ostracized by other Jews so he focused a lot on the signs and wonders that Jesus performed. Jesus performed miracles to strengthen faith and give glory to God and John highlights this.

All of the Gospels give us a different perspective and focus on different things, but they all tell the same story: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world, suffered, died and rose from the dead so that we could be in relationship with him.

We have to make a decision about who Jesus is. Some people will say that Jesus was a good moral teacher or a prophet. These are not the options we have. Jesus claimed to be God. A good person would not claim to be God if He wasn't. Our three options are:
1) He is the Lord;
2) He was the world's best liar;
3) He was a lunatic and thought He was God.

The best evidence we have that Jesus really is the Lord is that all but 1 of the 12 Apostles were killed for believing in Jesus. If they knew it was a lie or even for a second doubted that Jesus was not who he said he was, don't you think that one of them would have confessed when faced with death? Maybe before they crucified Peter upside down or when the knife touched Bartholomew's skin as they were about to skin him alive they would have changed their story - but they didn't. These men were willing to die for what they believed.

At the core is that Jesus died for you and me so that we can be in relationship with him. As Catholics we believe that Jesus made one sacrifice for us all but that at every Mass, that one sacrifice is made present to us. When we are at Mass it is as if we stand and the foot of the cross at that very moment of sacrifice.

Reflect on this video:

As Jesus asked His Apostles 2000 years ago, He now asks you: "Who do you say that I am?" Mt. 16:15 Who do you say Jesus is? Lord, Liar or Lunatic?