St. Patrick, Apostle & Lamp

“We are called to love even our enemies, and thus walk in God’s ways, following the law of the Lord.” This brief synopsis of the Word of God that we just heard on this Saturday morning, sisters and brothers, for me, epitomizes the life of one whom we gather to remember and celebrate this day in Syracuse — St. Patrick, bishop — Apostle of Ireland.

This walk in God’s ways was not an immediate one for Patrick. Although his father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest in the fourth-century church of Roman Britain, he readily confessed that he was rather indifferent to the faith until around the age of 16 when he was captured by Irish raiders and enslaved for a period of nearly six years.

In his writings entitled, Confessions, Patrick describes those years as being transformative. The frigid winters, the loneliness of shepherding sheep and caring for pigs in remote wilderness, and the harsh conditions forced on him led him to turn inward and develop a relationship with the one friend he had left … God. By his own account, he sensed God’s presence in nature, attributing his survival and emotional resilience to divine grace. He discovered as our Gospel proclaims, “He makes his sun rise on the bad and the good” (5:45).

Like Patrick came to realize, brothers and sisters, each morning the sun rises, offering light and warmth to everyone, regardless of their character or accomplishments. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that God provides not only the sun but all good and beautiful things to both the righteous and the sinner. And since we are God’s children, called to reflect our Father’s love, Jesus invites us to do the same.

Once again, the man behind the myth, Patrick illustrates for you and me in real time what it means to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, as well as, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Even after Patrick found his way back to his family, the memories of the people he had left behind, both captors and potential converts, weighed heavily on his conscience. Even in dreams he would hear an Irish voice imploring him to “come and walk again among us.”

Patrick’s desire to respond to God’s call in his life was not met with universal enthusiasm. You can imagine that his family didn’t want to be separated from him again. There were those who were concerned about his worthiness for ordination because of the sins of his youth. Patrick’s own writings testify to the ruggedness of Ireland and the violent and pagan nature of Irish society. But none of this would deter him from being a living gospel for all people to hear. Pope Benedict XVI in his years as Bishop of Rome would often remind his listeners that the Gospel was not so much a written text, but a living encounter with Jesus Christ. This was the heart of the mission of St. Patrick to the Irish clans.

It is also where the theme of this year’s parade, “Irish in the 315” meets today’s Scripture readings. Like St. Patrick, the same living God is calling you and me in this area to be that living gospel for the people around us. Jesus is challenging us to love all people, even “to pray for those who persecute you” (5:44). Unlike St. Patrick, we may not face persecution, and our list of mortal enemies may not be very long, but we all know people who make our lives difficult. And loving “those people” can prove challenging.

Again, as Patrick’s own life shows us, it can be easy to see people through the lens of their faults or failures. We can begin to withhold kindness because we unconsciously deem them unworthy of our time or patience. But Jesus and Patrick both call us to love even those who hurt us or those who seem undeserving. As you and I do so, we reflect the image of the One in whose image we are made. Just as the sun’s light radiates out to all creation, we can shine forth with God’s all-encompassing, unchanging love. You and I can bring this warmth and light to a world that these days can often seem overshadowed by harshness and judgment.

Again, a stumbling block might be our own distance from God at times, but as the life of St. Patrick teaches us, the Holy Spirit — God himself — can help us see God’s presence in our lives and in the lives of others. Maybe the best way to sum it all up is these words of St. Patrick:

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.