I guess ... it's just that I'm struggling with my preconceptions :-).
The Baltimore Catechism says, "Confirmation is the sacrament through which the Holy Spirit comes to us in a special way and enables us to profess our faith as strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ." It seems that, even with the sacramental grace conferred, a young child lacks the natural capacity to "profess our faith as a strong and perfect Christian."
And on a related question, doesn't giving Communion to young children assume that they're going to make a good Confession the *minute* they have the capacity to choose good and avoid evil? Obviously, if they have been baptized, they are free from sin until the age of accountability ... but there's a fuzzy zone there, isn't there?
Yeah. I was going to say something in the earlier post about postponing Eucharist for the same reason. There's that whole bringing judgement on yourself thing from 1 Cor 11. Yikes!
The Baltimore Catechism goes on to say:
Persons of an age to learn should know the chief mysteries of faith and the duties of a Christian, and be instructed in the nature and effects of this Sacrament.
I think we can say that a young child has the ability to "profess our faith as a strong and perfect Christian" in accord with their intellect and their station in life.
Personally, I wasn't very clear at age 13 about what was really going on at Confirmation; but, something definitely happened. Maybe it took several decades to manifest but it happened.