St Patrick’s Day

Happy St Patrick’s Day to you all!  It is a day of celebration but like not other in my memory or the memories of people much older than I.  We celebrate our faith and our sense of Ireland but do so, in a quieter and more solitary way than heretofore.  Maybe we are experiencing something of St Patrick’s sense of isolation

As I have done the past three days, I recorded today’s Mass in Kilmovee and published in on our parish website kilmoveeparish.org and on this blog.

RECORDING OF TODAY’S MASS IN KILMOVEE PARISH CHURCH

THIS IS MORE OR LESS THE TEXT OF TODAY’S HOMILY.

Like myself, I’m sure you find this a strange St Patrick’s Day.  When ordinarily we would be gathering in our churches for Mass and maybe preparing to go to parades in Ballaghaderreen, Kilkelly or wherever, we find ourselves on our own now in our homes and restricting our movements to the bare minimum.

It is a far cry from what we might expect yet we are here to live this day, to be part of this day and to shape this day. And, please God we will come to realise that, that we still have in us what it takes to shape this day.  So my wish for you and for myself is that we will shape it well and shape it around faith and around St. Patrick in whose honour this day is listed each year for the 17th of March.

Maybe this is a time to hear again the message of St Patrick as he came to be with us and to bring to us, what he felt was the greatest gift he could bring, the gift of faith. That gift I’m sure, wasn’t widely welcomed at first but, bit by bit, it began to sink into the hearts of people and to be embraced by them and we have since then been known as the Land of Saints and Scholars. There is still a deep faith in this country and it would take a lot to quench it and, please God, may it never be quenched – that flame of faith that Patrick brought is still burning.

I was thinking about today, and it may not be a totally unique or original thought but just thinking that Patrick’s time in Ireland was initially time of captivity. He was brought here. He was a slave, as we know, sent to mind pigs.  We know all the stories.  We were brought up with them. I’m sure during that time of captivity that Patrick was not happy to be here. He did not choose it nor ask for it and certainly he would have wished to be elsewhere. Still somehow, during that time of captivity and enslavement, he came to know God in a very deep and personal way. We are told that he prayed, non-stop, day and night. In those prayers he found solace and strength.

Maybe in these day of captivity for ourselves when our lives are certainly curtailed and what was free and easy to us even a week ago, seems a memory. Maybe there is some call to us to turn again to prayer and to find God and peace, even in the uncertainty of these days.  That is what Patrick did and we are told that when he found freedom and returned to his own land, he continued to hear the voice of the Irish calling him to come back. So he did; as Bishop and priest came back to them.

We may well come out of these days, not necessarily better people because I believe we are, in the main, good people anyway but come out as people with a renewed sense of faith and a a renewed sense of purpose.  Maybe we will see these days of captivity as an opportunity to focus on what’s important to us.  I imagine most of us now are thinking about family and the parents among us about their children and those children that may be away from home.  They are on our mind all the time and that could well be a reminder that it should be like that always. A reminder that we should always be caring  of each other and loving of each other.

I was baptized in Cloonloo church on St. Patrick’s Day and this morning I am remembering my parents, God rest them.  I am grateful, in a way, that they do not have to go through these days of uncertainty. I’m sure many of you might feel the same, we don’t have to live with the fear of the impact this might have on them. In remembering our parents, we believe they have not forgotten us. They continue to have a concern for us like all parents have concerns for their children and their wellbeing.

My parents are buried in Templeronan Cemetery on the edge of Lough Gara.  As you drive down the road to the cemetery, on the left hand side of the road there is an old stone we call St Patrick’s Rock. I cannot recall who first brought me to see it as a child but it has always been there.  There is a dent in the rock, the track of a knee and the local legend was that St Patrick prayed there.  Rainfall often nestles in the spot and was for many “Holy Water”.  I think of it today because St Patrick left his mark on that hard rock.  The rock’s hardness was melted by the kneeling of a man in prayer.  Perhaps that’s what we do today with the situation and difficulty around us. In the hardness of these days, we kneel and leave our mark.

The second reading, if you don’t mind me taking a few seconds, speaks about what we might now call “fake news”.  Paul is warning Timothy about it and telling him that people will listen to all sorts of stories and myths.  He warns about the danger this holds.  I think there is a lot of that going on at the moment.  There is a lot circulating on social media that is being shared, often in good faith, but without accuracy. These messages  are sent in good faith but many of them don’t bring peace – certainly they don’t bring me peace. If a message has the potential to worry or frighten people, maybe it’s a message better not sent. We do well to take our stories from an authentic source and to follow guidance.  That source for us is God as it was the source for Patrick too and God’s voice relayed through people who are genuinely working for our good at this time and seeking to keep us safe.

I wish you all a blessed, peaceful and healthy St Patrick’s Day.  May our tomorrows be better because of the mark of our prayers, like St Patrick’s knee on the road to Templeronan.