St Patrick’s Day
With each passing year it seems the 17th March is getting more “frothy” with an ever decreasing public deference to the real reason behind it. We’re now more or less stuck with two extremes; there’s the no ‘Saint’ word Paddy’s Day parade brigade, while on the other extreme you have the almost time frozen “Saint” Patrick brigade, that is so serious about adhering to the image of this man dressed up with Mitre and Crosier and Mass vestments, none of which were in vogue at all in the 5th Century. Add to that the image so often presented of him floating through a sea of snakes and shamrock, just to complete the picture from their side. Whatever happened to the middle ground where most of us find ourselves to be more comfortable?
How Patrick, as a British citizen, would ever have wanted to come back to the land where he was so badly enslaved and abused is indeed amazing. How he managed to lock into the truth of faith in such a convinced way, (firstly as a young teenager, and then later as an adult), is yet another amazing feature of this man’s character. Especially so when you consider that it actually was his Faith which took him back to the land of his Oppressor in the first instance. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise all the same, because the working of God’s Spirit in the human heart is always truly ‘amazing’! Understood in a different way – the truth of the relationship between God and humankind should always surprise us; otherwise we can be rightly accused of arrogant complacency.
There’s been very little complacency or arrogance in Rome since last Wednesday, not to mention huge surprise too, especially for Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. If ever the expression “the weight of the world on his shoulders” has a clear and visible expression I’d venture to suggest that the first images seen on television of the new pope – was a perfect example. There have been over two hundred Popes since Pope Celestine is believed to have sent Patrick back to Ireland as Pastor! Sixteen centuries have passed since that time and quite unbelievably some of Patrick’s own writings have survived to this day. The extract from his ‘confessions’ the truth of which, like the Gospel message itself, hasn’t changed one whit with the passage of time, (see bottom of next page). If Christians could be as committed under the Pontificate of Francis, as Patrick and others were under the pontificate of Celestine, not only Ireland but the world, would be a much happier and a much better place. A O’N