Kevon Felmine

In­sults such as "ma­com­ere man" and pres­sure to in­dulge in for­ni­ca­tion, were some of the tribu­la­tions Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op, Joseph Har­ris, told young Chris­tians that they may face in choos­ing to live a life pleas­ing to God. De­liv­er­ing the homi­ly on Sat­ur­day at the Holy Sacra­ment of Con­fir­ma­tion at the La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help Ro­man Catholic Church at Har­ris Prom­e­nade, San Fer­nan­do, Har­ris urged teenagers to keep their promise to God de­spite "hard­ship and per­se­cu­tion."

He told them: "I urge you to take that word which you will give to almighty God, se­ri­ous. When you search him, you say, I ac­cept to suf­fer per­se­cu­tion and hard­ship, rather than do what is wrong." He said: "That is why, when you be­gin to live what is de­scribed for you in that sec­ond read­ing (the let­ter of St Paul to the Gala­tians), you will suf­fer per­se­cu­tion and hard­ship. When you are called to live chas­tened lives, peo­ple will laugh at you. They will call you young men, 'ma­com­ere man,' 'pap­pyshows' and all kinds of things, when you say that you will be chaste.

"They will try to in­tro­duce you young women in­to all kinds of be­hav­iour. But you have told the almighty Lord, I ac­cept to suf­fer per­se­cu­tion and hard­ship, rather than do what is wrong." He ad­vised them not to let the parish com­mu­ni­ty think less of them be­cause they were young, but to be­come a mod­el of in­spi­ra­tion to them.

The church was packed as wor­ship­pers gath­ered to wit­ness 107 young men and women take that step to­wards liv­ing a life of Chris­tian­i­ty. As he opened the ser­vice, Mon­sign­or Chris­t­ian Periera told can­di­dates that they must ac­knowl­edge their sins and that they had cho­sen to im­i­tate oth­ers in­stead of the Lord. He told them that the must first wash them­selves of their trans­gres­sions and ask Je­sus for for­give­ness.

With their hearts filled and ea­ger to re­ceive the Holy Ghost, the young­sters joined with the con­gre­ga­tion, singing in uni­son, hymns such as Kyrie Elieson, Glo­ria and Veni Sancte Spir­i­tus. It was a in­deed a mo­ment of hu­mil­i­ty as the can­di­dates lit their can­dles and re­ceived their anoint­ing with chrism from Arch­bish­op Har­ris and Mon­sign­or Periera, mak­ing that great promise to almighty God.