St. Patrick: Two Homilies

Two Homilies given at the Church of St. Patrick in Halifax

(Homily One: 2010) What do we know about St. Patrick? What is fact, and what is legend? We are certain that he was born somewhere in the island which includes England, Wales and Scotland towards the year 400, that his parents were Roman Celts, that marauders captured him when he was sixteen, brought him to Ireland, where he tended sheep as a slave. He learned the Celtic language spoken in Ireland, and the solitude of being a shepherd was the opportunity for him to develop a strong prayer life and lay the base for his vocation. After six years he fled from his master and returned to his homeland. But soon after he ended up in France where he studied for the priesthood. He accompanied St. Germain of Auxerre who was sent to Britain to counter heretics there, and later was ordained a bishop and sent as a missionary to Ireland. This was in accord with a desire to return to Ireland which was nurtured by his prayers and visions. At that time the Druids, a more sanguinary version of the tree-people of the film Avatar, were very influential, and his mission was a perilous one. But he laboured many years, ordained priests and bishops. According to the tradition, his place of burial is within the graveyard of the Anglican cathedral of Downpatrick, a place which I visited. His dates of birth and death are unclear. One account has him living over a hundred years. That may not be the case, but it is clear from the evidence that he laboured in Ireland in the middle to late 400's.

Patrick is one of the patron saints of Ireland, but he is also the patron saint of those who emigrated from Ireland and their descendants, including those of you have Irish ancestry here today at St. Patrick’s. These descendants commemorate him with March 17th parades and celebrations in many cities across North America, which bring together those who have some Irish ancestry and those who wish they had. Here we are doing just that.

The life of Patrick, as that of many Irish people in the last two centuries, was marked by a crisis which led them to leave their native land. The crisis in Patrick’s life was his being captured and taken as a slave at the age of 16, and for the rest of his life he was in constant motion from one place to the other in carrying out his mission. He knew fear, danger, struggle, upset. The crisis in the life of Irish emigrants was the potato famine of the 1840's, compounded by the poverty and oppression of the farming classes. The only way out for many was emigration, facing the unknown and trying to create a home for themselves in a new land. At its height the population of Ireland was about 8 million. Perhaps a million died of the famine, and over the next decades emigration was very intense, to the US, to Canada, to England and Scotland, and to other countries, mostly English-speaking. It is estimated that up to 8 million people left Ireland over the years. Some of them left during or very soon after the potato famine, others left later. The current population of Ireland is about 4.5 million. The total Irish diaspora in various countries of the world exceeds 50 million.

St. Patrick is the right patron for those of you here today who claim Irish descent. Indeed he is the right patron for all of us, because most of our ancestors were caught in the crisis of migration. Because of his own life experience he has a special affinity for the struggles, the uncertainties, the oppression, that your ancestors experienced in Ireland, during the dangers of sea travel in which many died of diseases such as cholera, during the years of establishing themselves in a new land, starting at the bottom of the ladder.

But note that all the perils that Patrick encountered had a purpose in God’s providence. That purpose was to bring the Gospel to the country in which he spent six years of slavery. Likewise God did not permit this mass exodus of people from Ireland in the 19th century without a purpose. Most of the migrants were Catholic, and their presence in various countries gave the Catholic Church a firm foundation in countries that remain in majority non-Catholic. And let us not forget their many other contributions, cultural and economic, to the countries to which they henceforth belonged. They play a full role in the life of their countries. The scattering of the Irish people was not in vain.

We live in a period where the Catholic heritage brought by Patrick is under a cloud. Ireland is no longer distinguished by its high rate of religious practice. Indeed the Irish Church is caught in the struggles which has been part of our own Catholic life for the last twenty years or so, stemming from the phenomenon of sexual and physical abuse of children in Catholic institutions. The same downturn applies to us, though perhaps not so dramatic, since the decline has been more gradual. The Catholic tradition, in spite of the shortcomings of some of its official representatives, is a valuable one, one that could fritter away within decades. The Church could end up a small ghettoized minority. Education in the faith is often more perfunctory, and the passing on of the faith from generation to generation has become more difficult, more counter-cultural. We have a major challenge on our hands.

As we celebrate St. Patrick’s, let us remember the Catholic heritage which he solidly implanted in Ireland, and the many obstacles which he faced courageously during his mission to Ireland. Let him be a beacon for us as we enter into the struggles of our own time, here at St. Patrick’s on Brunswick St., in the Irish populations of Canada and many countries of the world, and among all of us whatever our lineage, because we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, nourished by the Word of God and the bread of life.

(Homily Two: 2011) What is there to say about St. Patrick that has not yet been said? He is lost in the mists of ancient history. We seek the truth behind the legends about him. We are at a loss for precise dates. When precisely was he born? When did he die? Did he do all the miraculous things attributed to him, such as banishing the snakes from Ireland? Many have tried their hand at putting together what we do know for sure. We have an outline, but many details are missing.

We know that he was not born in Ireland. He was captured by marauders as a youngster and served his Irish master as a shepherd until he escaped out of Ireland. After becoming a priest and a bishop he returned to Ireland. His mission was to serve the new Christian community already beginning there, and to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to many others, mostly under the influence of the Druids, priests and wisdom figures of the local nature worship going back to the Iron Age. The word Druid means tree-seers. Trees were majestic, long-lived, and represented the mystical force of nature; Druids were the ones who sensed those forces, channelled them, and made them available for good or for ill. Just think of some of the druidic characters you encountered in the memorable film trilogy, the Lord of the Rings.

Patrick opposed Druidism tooth and nail and was persecuted for it. He is said to have attended the meeting of Irish kings and chieftains at Tara, and he laid down the gauntlet there. He made many sworn enemies among the proponents of nature religion, but made many converts as well. He was fearless, as we can see from his famous prayer known as the Breastplate:

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the Cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour;
The service of the Seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death-wound and the burning
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Indeed powerful words we need to hear today, and take to heart as we seek to unmask the forces of evil in our day. They contrast with the waverings and hesitations of many of our leaders.

At the same time Patrick’s attitude towards the people he was bringing to Christ was welcoming and respectful. He did not try to impose an alien liturgy and structure upon them. What emerged from his creative ministry was a Celtic Christianity, which used many of the images and artifacts that the people were used to, but transposed to their new belief system. Bonfires as a religious event continued; there continued to be sacred places and sacred pillars. Many pillars took the form of the celtic cross, which is often said to be a combination of the cross which represents Jesus Christ and the circle which represents the sun. We could go on. The transition from nature religion to Christianity was a smooth one, thanks to St. Patrick and many who followed in his footsteps. A peculiarly Celtic form of Christianity with its own observances emerged. It was only in the early Middle Ages, after Celtic missionaries had evangelized parts of Europe, which, unlike Ireland, suffered the barbarian onslaught, that the variant Celtic observances were blended into the practices of the emerging Roman rite.

So, as you can see, St. Patrick was a man who allied fearless preaching of the faith and respect for the traditions of the people to whom he was preaching. He is an example of what an apostle should be in today’s world. The message of Jesus ought to be preached without being watered down, but it needs to be preached in such a way that those who hear it know that they are understood, respected, treasured. Jesus’ message does not come to abolish our identity and culture, but to fulfill it. To hit the right notes in this kind of evangelization is very difficult in today’s world. Indeed we are called to find these right notes, because the new evangelization is a key theme within our archdiocese. At times we can be too timid and too compromising about our values; at other times too rigid and too demanding. We need discernment. Patrick was a man of wisdom, and as we celebrate his feast today, we can ask for a share of that wisdom as we too find ourselves in a culture which for all its familiarity to us poses challenges which in many ways lies beyond our depth and our comprehension.