St. Patrick's Day
Today the Church throughout the world celebrates the life of the Apostle to the Irish, St. Patrick. This feast day is especially important to so many of us in America and in other parts of the world because many of us can trace at least part of our ancestry back to that beautiful island. It is no wonder that each year on this day we swell with pride over our heritage, as Ireland gave so much to the world and gave the Church so many saints, not to mention matyrs for the faith.Like so many other important Church feast days, St. Patrick's Day has become an excuse for some to engage in debauchery, and many who do so don't even go to Mass on a regular basis, and not a few of those aren't even Irish! However, as with most things negative about the Irish, we can justly put at least some of the blame for this on the English. Realizing that too much of the Wearin' of the Green could instill a little pride in the Irish, the post-Williamite Crown forbade the celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Penal Laws also forbade the Holy Catholic faith from being celebrated openly for years, and Catholics were denied the rights of citizenship under British rule (It was not until the 19th Century that Catholics were even allowed to vote...and that is the overwhelming majority of the Irish population). When so many Irish fled the Great Hunger and went to England, Australia, and America, they wanted to do freely what they could not do at home: Celebrate their faith, and celebrate being Irish.
The celebration of Irishness has been divorced from the celebration of the faith in recent years, and that isn't really fair. This is a special day because a man who we know as Patrick, who was once a slave in Ireland returned to the very land of his captivity to preach the Gospel, and what was a nation with only a scattered few Christians when he arrived there became one so brimming with faith that she sent missionaries to preach around the world.
Today is a wonderful day to celebrate Irish culture, and to be proud of its influence on our society. We shouldn't forget, however, that March 17th is first and formost about a Saint whose name was Patrick, who brought the message of Christ to some of our distant ancestors. Because of that message, we too can have new life in the Lord.
Raise your pints high to St. Patrick, and to the long life of the Pope!
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 1:49 PM
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