Homily for the Solemnity of St. Patrick

Homily for the Solemnity of St. Patrick

March 17, 2021
1 Pet 4: 7-11
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.                 

I have no idea how someone whose DNA is 64% Western and Central European—that would be mostly German with some French; 14% Eastern European—that would be mostly Hungarian; 18% Jewish; and 2% South Asian—where did that come from?:  how that someone was designated to preside on the feast of St. Patrick, rather than, say, Tom Brennan or Dennis Donovan.  Call it a mystery of faith.

But Patrick, after all, wasn’t Irish either, except by a divine calling that he answered enthusiastically.  He was, as you know, a Roman Briton, perhaps Celtic or Welsh, or entirely Roman.  After an early life, up to age 16, that he, at least, considered irreligious or worse, he was formed spiritually by the harsh conditions of 6 years as a slave, tending pigs, during which he learned to pray; and formed by an uncertain number of years spent in monastic life in Gaul.

If there wasn’t anything specifically Irish about Patrick, we can say that he gave himself completely to the Irish.  Two dreams guided his escape from his youthful slavery.  At least one vision directed him back to his former captors, to become their slave again, this time in the style of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve (as St. Peter says, “he served with the strength that God supplied” [1 Pet 4:11]; to labor amid constant danger—at times his life was on the line—to convert the Irish to Christ.  As the Collect stated, “God chose the bishop St. Patrick to preach [his] glory to the peoples of Ireland.”

Patrick converted them thru personal courage, the sacraments, monasticism, and learning.  He had the courage to return to a place that had been so painful to him, then to preach up and down the land in the face of hostility from kings and druids.  The sacraments that he brought, of course, are Christ’s working on the soul.  Monasticism is a most ardent form of living the Christian life, and the Irish embraced it heartily and then exported it as ardently to Britain, back to Gaul, even to Italy.  Patrick considered himself unschooled, but he appreciated learning, and that thrived in the monasteries, which indeed preserved the treasures of Western civilization during the barbarian invasions.  Patrick himself was well schooled in the sacred Scriptures; he did what St. Peter urges, “preaching the words of God” (1 Pet 4:11), which permeate his 2 surviving writings and must have permeated his preaching.

Having given Christ to the Irish, Patrick thru the Irish became a gift to the world.  He belongs to everyone wherever his sons and daughters have spread the faith.  He teaches us to embrace courageously and completely the call Christ has given to us, to love the people to whom Christ sends us, and to base our service to them on God’s Word—the Word incarnate and the scriptural Word.

Stained glass: Our Lady of the Valley Church, Orange, N.J.