Who Do You Say That I Am?
Jesus asked the apostles who they though he was since some people doubted. Peter knew exactly who Jesus was.

Read: Matthew 16:13-20

• As Jesus publicly ministered to people, individuals saw him differently:
• Some saw Him as a great prophet
• Some as a great teacher
• Some saw Him as a physician, since He healed people
• Others saw Him as a fake
• Jewish leaders saw Him as a rebel and a trouble maker
• And a few saw Him as the Messiah, the Son of God.

Print out the questions below and answer them. Return the completed sheet to your catechist.

The most important question today is ... "Who do you say that Jesus is?"

1. Name two or three people you think have a very strong faith in God.

2. What do you think? (Circle one answer for each statement: A=agree, NS=not sure, D=disagree

3. Rate yourself from 1 to 10 (10 being the most) on how much your faith in Christ makes a difference in each of the following  areas of life.

Faith in the Bible
Read each of the Bible verses below and then complete the sentences using what you learned from the passage.

Romans 10:17
Faith comes from

Hebrews 12:2
Jesus is

Hebrews 11:1
Faith is

James 2:18-19
Faith is shown by

Faith is a Gift
Faith is a personal gift which was given to you by God. It is an offer of God's own love and presence, an invitation to deepen your personal friendship with Him.

God offers us this faith in hopes that our response will be "YES. Yes, I accept the gift of faith; I want it; I will treasure it; I will take care of it; I will pass it on to others."

When you were baptized the "YES" was spoken for you. Your parents and godparents accepted the gift for you. They promised God and the Church that they would help to bring you to the point where you  would be able to freely accept the faith for yourself.

Confirmation is meant to be a celebration of your personal "YES" to the gift of faith and to the full membership in the adult Catholic community which that acceptance implies.

Faith includes three distinct but closely related realities:

• Faith is received from the institutional Church.

• Faith is received through the living community (family and friends).

• Faith is received through one's own inner experience of God.

Accepting the formal faith system of the Church means coming to understand the meaning of the symbols, rituals, doctrines and laws in which the faith has been expressed.

Accepting the living faith is a process of growing in awareness and sensitivity to God's presence within one's own reality and growing in willingness to respond to that presence with love and commitment.

In Confirmation you are making a lifelong commitment to the community. During the ceremony you will be making a public statement that this is what you believe and that this is the community in which you are going to be actively involved. The public statement only occurs once. The process of confirming your faith is a lifelong commitment.

One can make the public statement at his/her Confirmation with the intention of saying "YES" to the faith commitment. For those people, the inner confirmation hopefully will come later in life. Real acceptance includes knowledge, appreciation and commitment. You cannot accept the faith unless you know something about it! You won't accept the faith unless you appreciate the Gift as something of value to you! And you haven't really accepted the faith unless it makes a difference, unless you COMMIT yourself to live according to its challenges.

Closing Prayer: Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed
Read: Matthew 17:14-20

Lord, help me to have faith in you. Faith even the size of a mustard see. Help me to take the first step towards that faith in you which can move mountains. I ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.