ST. PATRICK’S DAY: Celebrating Love, Not Leprechauns
I don’t know about you, but St. Patrick’s Day was an all-day affair in my kindergarten class: assembling construction paper leprechauns, painting rainbows running into pots of gold, eating shamrock-shaped cookies served with mysterious green milk (mixed behind the scenes with food coloring, of course). It wasn’t until I was much (much) older that I learned St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish and the day set aside to honor him had almost nothing to do with any of those things we had done in our classroom. Only shamrocks (used as a teaching tool to explain the Holy Trinity) were relevant to the actual story behind the holiday celebrated on March 17th.
St. Patrick, born in Britain in the late 4th century, is remembered and honored for his perseverance through trials but even more so for his willingness to love and forgive those who had done him wrong. At the age of sixteen, St. Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. During his captivity, he developed a deep spiritual connection with God; his faith, in turn, provided endurance for the hardships he faced in his life as a slave. After six years in captivity, St. Patrick escaped but returned to Ireland years later as a missionary, driven by a vision to spread Christianity among the Irish people.
“But I say to you, love your enemies,” Jesus told the crowds in Matthew 5:44. I’d say the story of St. Patrick sets a mighty fine example of doing exactly that, loving his enemies by taking the Gospel to the Irish people who had sent his life in a direction he had not intended for it to go.
So many stories in the Bible teach a similar lesson, don’t they? Joseph, Hagar, Moses, the disciples, Paul, and on and on. Almost all the well-known names from Scripture have stories that didn’t go the way they expected. That’s how it works when God gets involved: Expect the unexpected. Even if it means a few detours. Even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone. Even if it means forgiving the very people you least want to forgive. St. Patrick knows just how you feel—but off he went to Ireland to do exactly that.
Soli Deo Gloria!
