Sacraments of initiation introduce a person into the life of a community which is a life based on God's love for us.
We are therefore always urged to love one another, in his image and likeness. You can see this the first time that you celebrate the Eucharist and every time thereafter. In receiving the Body and Blood of Christ (i.e. Christ's very self), we receive the essence of God, we let God touch us.
This touch, in turn, moves us to treat each other with greater respect, forgiveness, and compassion. His friendship urges us to be friends.
Baptism and Confirmation begin this lifelong process. We say that we are "baptized into Christ's death and resurrection". This phrase means that in baptism, Christ opens us to the experience of his total commitment to us that his dying for us reveals.
He once said "what greater love can one have than to lay down one's life for one's friends." Well, in baptism, we enter into that "greater love" that draws us into the life of God, the life of the Risen Christ.
Confirmation completes this initiation by revealing to us that this "greater love" is the experience of the God's Spirit. Just as the Spirit unites the Father and the Son in their eternal commitment to each other, so too, the same Spirit moves us to deeper commitments of dedication and self-giving to one another, to the Church, and thus to God.
God's Spirit seeks to renew our use of the talents and skills that God has given to us on behalf of the world around us.
