[StBernard] st patrick's day, 03.17.2006

[Westley Annis]

Today we celebrate the life and achievements of St. Patrick, (385-461) the
man God used to make the Irish culture one of the most Catholic in history.
 
It is with deep regret that st patrick's name is so often associated with
public drunkneness and sordid behavior that accompanies the parades given in
his honor all over the world.   he was a man of extraordinary personal
discipline, spiritual detachment, and raw courage.
 
He was born into a Roman family in great britain.  the exact location is
still debated, but one scholar i think highly of places it in  the area of
the lower severn river in northern wales.  His father was a deacon, and his
grandfather was a priest (remember celibacy was not mandatory for priests in
the west until 1139, seven centuries after patrick's death).  
 
At the age of 16 patrick was captured by pirates, and spent six long, lonely
years as a slave in Ireland.  the parallels between his story and that of
the old testament  joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, is
striking.   
 
joseph, after his father jacob had died, could have inflicted hideous
revenge on his bothers.  they realized this and went to beg his forgiveness.
in an act of almost superhuman spiritual strength and forgivness, joseph
said, "you meant it for evil, but God turned it to good."   for in being
sold into slavery he was able to connect with the rulers of egypt and
thereby give his people a refuge from the terrible famine.
 
patrick came to the same attitude.  after six years enduring the humiliation
of slavery, he escaped to france.   during the lonliness and solitude of his
slavery (remember he was of roman lineage, enslaved in a celtic environment
where even the language would have been foreign to him), patrick developed a
deep intimacy with God.   since he had no one to talk to, he maintained a
contining spiritual conversation with God.
 
with this state of mind, he entered a monastery in france, intending to
become a monk.   in the process of his discernment he felt called by God to
do something more.   he had enjoyed the spiritual peace he had developed
during his isolation as a slave, and thought to continue that in the
monastery.   through his prayer and reflection.  however, he came to see
that those six years were just a preparation for something else.   for him
to spend the rest of his life as a monk enjoying that intimacy would be a
good life, but it would not be what God wanted him to do.   for God was
calling him to re-engage the world, and bring to it the wisdom, patience,
and fortitude that his horrible experiences had given him.   God was calling
him to be a missionary.
 
the church was expaning in that time, so there were many places he could
have chosen to go, and many places he was needed.  of all the lands he could
have chosen, he chose to return to ireland.  the land which had taken so
much of his youth, and had degraded him as a slave.   this act of
unbelieveable spiritual fortitude and courage changed the course of history.
 
he spent 30 years transforming it into a bastion of Catholicism, which in
turn sent missionaries throughout the world for centuries after.   in his
spiritual memoirs, titled "confessions,"   he speaks of the role of
suffering in his life, in a way that is reminiscent of the way that joseph
came to see his slavery.
     we all know how hard it is to forgive.  so how did he manage to forgive
those who enslaved and mistreated him?   and beyond forgiving them, return
freely and devote the rest of his life to them???
    he speaks of it in terms of it in terms of the transforming effect of
sacrifice.   in  the old testament sacrifices were animals or grain that
were offered to God through burning.   the fire transformed the offering
into smoke, and the smoke rose to heaven, meaning that what was offered was
returned to God (the same symbolism behing incense).  the key is that what
was offered had to be something of value, and it had to be freely offered.
    in the old testament, animals and food were of the HIGHEST value, so
watching them burned and go up in smoke, instead of eating them, was a HUGE
sacrifice.
 
from the perspective of the new testament, we know that the perfect
sacrifice was made by Jesus, a sacrifice that is made present again at each
mass.  the dynamic of sacrifice can still enter other areas of life, which
is what patrick had come to understand.   after his captivity he had nothing
to offer God but his life.  he freely chose to go back to ireland as a way
to apply his life to the fire, and through the fire have it transformed into
spiritual smoke that would rise back to God.
 
the united states in particular benefited from the missionary outreach of
the irish catholic culture he established.   it is not possible to imagine
the history of the church in america in the 19th and 20th centuries without
the work of irish priests, brothers, nuns, and immigrant laity who made the
united states their home.
 
by all means celebrate your irish heritage today, and if you are not irish
give thanks for all that they have done to build our church and our nation.
but also remember who st patrick was, and the kind of life he lived.  and
remember that what St. Patrick himself would most want us to honor is the
God that bought him healing, and enabled him to heal a nation.
 
Truly he was a great man, and a great saint.