Steven Sanchez, Jr.

My Green Confirmation Shirt

So I have this green shirt. It is a lime green dress shirt. I have had this shirt since my junior year in high school. I still actually wear it now. This was the shirt that I wore when I made my Confirmation – a holy sacrament in the Catholic religion. As I mentioned earlier, I was indeed raised catholic. In my catholic upbringing, we weren’t the most avid church attendees. We went on all the major holidays, and then most weekends during summer (because of the festas). From a young age, though, I did attend catechism. Catechism was a once a week Sunday-school type of thing, except we met on a weekday after school. I actually enjoyed catechism a lot – mostly because it meant that I was able to spend more time with my friends.

I took these catechism classes through high school. In my younger years I received the sacraments of Baptism (just after I was born), Holy Reconciliation, and the Eucharist. Come my junior year of high school, I began my preparations to receive the sacrament of confirmation. Before we could do our confirmation, we had to take confirmation-preparation classes for a year. This class was a form of ‘super catechism’ in that we began to get tested on stuff that we learned and were to make sure that we understood what we were learning and what it meant to us.

We were in this confirmation class right in the middle of high school. I went to a public high school. I knew who Jesus was and believed in him, but I didn’t live a Christian lifestyle at the time. I had more fun enjoying the high school life and prioritized fun and socializing over what really was important in life. It was in this time when I wasn’t always making the smartest decisions and in my confirmations classes at the same time that I began to take notice of a few things. I was beginning to acknowledge God working in my life and began to have a desire to take my faith into my own hands and start my walk with God on my own. I saw the sacrament of my Confirmation as the perfect opportunity to do so.

I began to take my confirmation class a little more serious. I began to go to church every Sunday (it was also required of us) but while I was in church, I began to pay more attention to the readings and sermons that were happening. I was getting really excited to finally claim God in my life as something that I wanted to do. The day of my confirmation arrived, and it was a great day. I can mark that day (and the days in preparation before) as the time when I really allowed God into my life and I took control of my own faith.

Now, in preparation for the day of my confirmation, we all went out and got special outfits because this was indeed a special day. Our teachers, however, asked that we be modest in what we get, and they wanted us to wear black and white or dark navy and white. I simply chuckled. That color scheme wasn’t me. I was excited about receiving the Holy Spirit. I wanted my outfit to be just as excited as I was. So, on the day of my confirmation, I wore a lime green dress shirt and khaki pants. To me, it wasn’t up to what the teachers thought about how we looked. I felt that my personal relationship with God was way more important than what I was wearing. I had also learned at a retreat when I was much younger that God doesn’t care what we wear to church. When the teacher told me that at the time, it took me back, and I was shocked to hear that. After I pondered that thought several years later – it is really true. It doesn’t matter what we look like or what we wear. What matters is what’s in our heart and our relationship with God.

It was that day, the day of my confirmation that I first ‘stuck it to the man’. I wore my bright, lime green shirt proudly. The other guys were in muted, dark colors. Me, on the other hand, I was excited and I let it show. My confirmation was my first steps in my faith with God, and I will be forever happy and thankful that I started to make that walk.