Lá Fhéile Pádraig: 17.03.26
Ardeaglais, Ceatharlach: Aifreann: 10.30am
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir! A very happy & blessed St. Patrick’s Day to all of you. A special welcome to our many guests who join us for our Mass this Lá Fheile Pádraig; Her Excellency Florence Ensch, Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Ireland, Mayor Francy Weyrich, Mayor of Vianden with his wife Denise, and Josy Bassing, a Medieval Historian. Last June our Willibrord Pilgrimage led by Fr. Thomas, visited and were warmly received in Vianden, the home town of Ambassador Ensch. To all of you and the other dignitaries, visitors and parishioners, I say: Tá failte roimh go léir go dtí an tAifreann ar Lá Fheile Phadraig.
Matthews text begins: “Ansin chuir Íosa parabal eile os a gcomhair”[1] (then Jesus put another parable before them). St. Patrick would have been very familiar with Matthew’s text. Saint Patrick’s world of the fourth and fifth century was an adventurous time to live, coming between the Roman Empire and the birth of the Middle Ages. Persecution ended; the opportunity for mission began.
As the old order of the Empire passed on, a new Europe was born, a Europe rich for evangelisation, for the sowing of the good seed (“an síol maith”[2]).
Patrick sowed an síol maith, Columbanus, Willibrord and many more sowed it. It is said that the success of Patrick was his ability to translate the gospel into the local culture, we call that today ‘inculturation’. Many Irish women and men: priests, religious and lay have responded to that missionary call and have been drawn to other continents to follow the example of Patrick. Every one of them in their day were masters at inculturation. And today Ireland has become mission land for many international priests and religious who populate our parishes, presbyteries and religious houses, continuing to spread among us the fruit of those early Irish missionaries to their home countries, we might call it ‘a reverse missionary journey’.
Patrick, unlike many of our saints, has left behind us two important testimonies: his Confession and his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. The Confession reveals a man of deep prayer, who trusts completely in God, who has a great commitment to mission and an intense love for the Irish. If we don’t love those we are missioning to, we are not imitating Christ. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, we meet a man completely opposed to the horrors of violence. On reading it, I shudder to think of his excoriating message to today’s world leaders, as we look on at Iran, the Middle East, Ukraine and of course Gaza.
Both writings of Patrick begin with an acknowledgement that he is a sinner. His Confession begins: “I am Patrick, a sinner, the most rustic and least of all the faithful, the most contemptible in the eyes of a great many people”[3]. He begins the ‘Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus’ in a similar vein: “I, Patrick, a sinner and untaught, established in Ireland, declare myself to be a bishop. I believe most firmly that what I am I have received from God …”[4] with that paragraph ending “… if I am worthy, I live only for God, to teach the heathens, even though some despise me”[5]. Patrick was deeply aware of his own worthiness, scarred by a sin he had committed in his youth, a sin that would remain with him in later years. Indeed church authorities of the day used it to undermine his mission.
Maybe we sometimes find it hard to comprehend that our faith was brought to us by a sinner who became a saint. It’s not easy to accept that the messenger can be flawed. Pope Francis reminded us “the saints were not supermen, nor were they born perfect. They are like us, like each of us …”[6].
On this day as we celebrate St. Patrick, his mission to us, and his putting flesh on Christ, we pray that his faith may inspire ours. That the light of Christ may open our eyes and those of our world leaders to the darkness that is war, to the anger of vitriolic language, the actions that follow and the loss of countless innocent lives.
We need to look beyond the snakes and the shamrocks. We need to look for substance beneath the shallow glitter that is too readily associated with this day. Patrick was a man of substance. Yet a man who like us often felt “briste agus bruite” broken and crushed, whose faith sustained him. May our faith sustain us in the knowledge that it is centred on Christ: “Críost linn, Críost romhainn, Críost in ár ndiaidh, Críost istigh ionainn”, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me”.
[1] Mt.13:24
[2] Mt.13:24; Mt.13:27
[3] Duffy, Joseph, ‘Patrick in his own words’, Veritas, 2019, pg. 15 ‘Confession’, ¶1
[4] Duffy, Joseph, ‘Patrick in his own words’, Veritas, 2019, pg. 33 ‘Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus’, ¶1
[5] ibid.
[6] Pope Francis, Angelus Address, St. Peter’s Square, 1st November 2013