I am Patrick, a sinner,
unlettered, the least of all the faithful, and held in contempt by a
great many people… (Confessions of St. Patrick, 1)
Today we
celebrate our patron saint. For many people it is simply
‘Irish’ day. A day to be proud of being Irish, but from our
point of view, it’s a day to celebrate what God has given to us.
It marks the day when Christianity was first brought to Ireland.
And in sixteen centuries the faith in this country has developed to a
huge degree, even with penal times and serious persecutions. So
many men and women have been inspired to give their lives to God in
the priesthood and religious life and in turn bring it to other
countries. And so many men and women have lived out their faith
in ordinary lives, bearing witness to God by the way they live.
St. Patrick was the instrument God used to give us this great gift.
So why did Patrick come to
us anyway? Weren’t we doing OK on our own?’ Did we
really need Christianity? Hasn’t it brought many divisions?
The reason why Patrick came to us was very simple: The Lord of
heaven wanted to make himself known to us, and to know what He had
done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God wanted us to share the joy of knowing him.
So during his
time here as a slave, through suffering and hardship, the Lord was
helping Patrick to grow in the spirit. According to himself,
when he came here first he did not know the living God. But
somehow God made himself known to Patrick. He says that he used
to get up during the night to pray and no matter what the weather was
like, he used to spend time praying each day. God was inspiring
him to do this, to come to know him better, so that later he would be
strong enough in his faith to see him through his difficult mission
to the Irish people.
Then when Patrick finally
became free and returned to his own people he had a dream that the
Irish were calling him back to them to teach them about God.
Here is how Patrick describes the dream in which
he was called:
I saw in a vision of the
night a man coming as it were from Ireland, whose name was
Victoricus, with countless letters, and he gave me one of them, and I
read the beginning of the letter, which ran: ‘the voice of the
Irish’; and as I was reading the beginning of the letter aloud I
thought I heard at that very moment the voice of those who lived
beside the wood of Voclut: ‘we beg you, holy youth, to come and
walk once more among us’. And I was greatly troubled in heart and
could read no further. (Confessions, 23)
[God] came powerfully to
my aid when I was being walked upon… for many were trying to stop
this mission of mine; they were even talking among themselves behind
my back, and asking: ‘Why is that fellow thrusting himself into
danger among a hostile people who do not know God?’ (Confessions,
46)
Patrick
says that his call to go to Ireland brought him great pain, because
understandably he didn’t want to go back to where he had been
imprisoned. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to
return to the very people who had enslaved you? But he believed
that God was asking him to do this, and this gave him the strength
that he needed. His faith meant enough to him that he wanted us
to have it too. But it wasn’t easy and he says that he met
with great opposition:
Daily I
expect to be slaughtered, or defrauded, or reduced to slavery or to
any condition that time and surprise may bring. But I fear none
of these things because of the promise of Heaven, for I have cast
myself into the hands of Almighty God, who rules everywhere.
(Confessions, 55)
No
one would have known Patrick when he came first and he had to start
from scratch. But he came here and he preached to
the people and taught our ancestors about God, about Jesus Christ and
his death and resurrection, about Mary and the saints. And his
efforts paid off because he was prepared to give up everything so
that we might be able to share in the same faith. So it is thanks to
him that we are here today praying to the same God, receiving the
same Jesus in Holy Communion.
Then in 1879 during a time
of great suffering in Ireland, 30 people in Knock saw a vision of
Jesus as the Lamb of God on the altar accompanied by Our Lady, St.
Joseph and St. John the evangelist. It was a silent apparition
that lasted aproximately one hour but the people understood that it
was a message of encouragement not to give up and reassuring them
that they were on the right track.
In recent years our faith
has been greatly tested through scandals of various kinds. Many
people have fallen away and it is hard to blame them, but we persever
in our faith and if we want our children to have this faith too, then
we will have to pass it on. We do that primarily by the way we
live, rather than by anything we say. We may not feel that we
are having much affect on the world around us, but if we do our best
to live it, then we are planting seeds all the time and perhaps that
is all that we are called to do. There has been faith in this
country for sixteen centuries, and please God we will have it for
many more centuries as well. So as we celebrate our patron
saint, let us give thanks to God for the faith that He has given to
our people and let us also pray for the grace to pass it on to those
who come after us. Happy St. Patrick’s day.
I am
Patrick, a sinner, unlettered, the least of all the faithful, and
held in contempt by a great many people…
Check out this interesting website on
St. Patrick: http://www.confessio.ie/#
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