Milestones

Today is my brother’s birthday.  We don’t tend to make a huge deal of birthdays in my family, but this is one of the big “milestone” birthdays.  His girlfriend threw him a party on Monday night, and we are celebrating tonight and next week.  It got me thinking about milestones in our spiritual lives.  We tend to celebrate at weddings, whether they be church weddings or more secular events.  But do we celebrate other “milestone” sacraments?

Of course, there are some sacraments that seem to make more sense to attach celebrations to:  the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, First Eucharist, and Confirmation) and Matrimony or Holy Orders.  These are definitive milestones in our lives.  We become members of God’s family.  We receive Jesus for the first time in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.  We are sealed with the Holy Spirit.  We join ourselves to another, or we make a commitment to serve God as a priest or religious brother or sister.  These are causes for joy. 

It may not make sense to celebrate a “first confession” or an anointing of the sick, since those are typically more solemn sacraments, but there could be an element of celebration to them.  When a person goes to confession for the first time, he or she is restored to right relationship with God.  Isn’t that worthy of celebration? 

The sacrament of anointing of the sick is meant to give consolation and strength to those who are ill.  In this case, a celebration might be going “too far”, but we could still give thanks that God is with us in our trials.  And certainly, in the case of Last Rites, when the dying person receives the sacraments for the last time, we could celebrate that they are now ready to go to God.  Perhaps we don’t think of it as celebrating when we gather for a funeral, but part of a Catholic funeral liturgy is giving thanks to God for the life of the person who has passed away and praying for his or her soul.

Have you celebrated milestone sacraments in your life or your children’s lives?  How?  How could you incorporate a sense of celebration to other times of receiving sacraments?