By Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas

Homily preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., at the Church of St. Pius X, Forked River, New Jersey, for the Confirmation of Nolan Santos.

'I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons,' wrote our latest doctor of the Church – the great St. John Henry Newman – in one of his more famous meditations. His words have been coming back to me as I recall how I first stepped into a classroom of Ocean County College over a decade ago. It was my maiden voyage onto an unknown sea, difficult to navigate, because I was so shocked by the general ignorance of the products of twelve years of public education, let alone the overall lack of moral compass among the student body.

I discovered, however, that not a few students were genuinely open to a serious learning experience. I convinced the college administration to offer a course in Latin, after a hiatus of many years. Two of the students in that class were lifelong buddies, Nicholas Bacchione and Nolan Santos. The former was keen on playing academic "catch-up" ball; the latter, not so much so. And he headed for the hills in a couple of weeks.

Cardinal Newman frequently spoke about the importance of what he called the "personal influence" of a teacher:

the personal influence of the teacher is able in some sort to dispense with an academical system, but that the system cannot in any sort dispense with personal influence. With influence there is life, without it there is none; if influence is deprived of its due position, it will not by those means be got rid of, it will only break out irregularly, dangerously. An academical system without the personal influence of teachers upon pupils, is an arctic winter; it will create an ice-bound, petrified, cast-iron University, and nothing else.

My relationship with Nick went beyond the study of Latin and, over time, made him not only a better student but a better Catholic. That "influence" spawned a friendship – something not talked about a lot nowadays. And with a kind of ripple effect, Nick's friendship with Nolan moved Nolan into a more intimate relationship with Christ and His holy Church. They shared a friendship of virtue, as Aristotle put it: "Now equality and likeness are friendship, and especially the likeness of those who are like in virtue."

Today, Nolan, marks the completion of your initiation into the life of the Church. In some sense, it's like a commencement ceremony, which marks the end of a process, but which also launches you on a new adventure. Today, the Holy Spirit will flood you with His grace; this is wholly His work in you – it is not your doing. It is God's free gift to you. As Georges Bernanos ends his piercing novel, Diary of a Country Priest, echoing the final words of the Little Flower, "All is grace!"

Nolan, the good God has given you the great gift of a hunger and thirst for holy truth and, likewise, a passion for sharing that gift with others. St. John Paul II reminded us in his encyclical, Redemptoris missio, "Faith is strengthened when it is given to others!" And even more to the point, the finest thing that anyone can do for another human being is to introduce that person to Jesus Christ and His Church.

That is not an easy mission in this very secular society, but it is not a "mission impossible" either. It is the task of that "new evangelization", and you should be buoyed up for that mission by having this programmatic mantra ringing in your ears – a line heard in today's Gospel – "Be not afraid!"

You have been caught up in a web of grace, Nolan. Nobody could have planned it: Me at Ocean County College, Nick, You – and the Holy Spirit. Listen once more to Cardinal Newman's profound meditation; take it to heart:

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessa...