“I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah i, 4).
Today, we pause in the midst of Lenten penance to consider one of the greatest saints to ever come from these Islands. Such is his fame that around the world millions will recall his name, if not his work and mission. And while we may doubt the sincerity of their particular observance, none can question the importance of Patricius, Padrig Sant, St. Patrick. Our saint today is remembered as Bishop, Missionary, and Apostle of Ireland. But the land of his mission field and death often obscures the land of his birth: this land! One of history’s most famous Christians is, in truth, a Welshman from West Glamorgan. His family farmed a Roman villa, essentially a large, well-appointed plantation or estate, with many retainers and a successful agricultural model. His was a normal, Christian upbringing as most people would have expected it in those days. And yet, when God called him to an extraordinary work, St. Patrick said, “Yes.”
You know the story: he was kidnapped by Irish pirates during a raid up the River Neath. Taken across the Irish Sea and enslaved for years. Knew his calling by God. Escaped enslavement, only to seek seminary and ordination in Roman France. Ordained a Priest. Then that extraordinary moment when he lands, with his collaborators, on the pagan Island upon which he had suffered so much. The story sings to hearts because of the steadfast courage and the stalwart faith St. Patrick must have had. He battled the pagan Druids and taught the Irish people the nature of God as the Most Holy Trinity. By God’s grace, the Gospel triumphed — as it does, when preached with integrity and in its fullness — and by the time of the saint’s death, the Irish were on their way to being Christian for the next millennium and a half.
But now we see not only Ireland, but Patrick’s own Britain, with a new birth of paganism. Men and women whose ancestors built some of history’s greatest churches now labour in the darkness and despair of materialism, sensuality, and secularism. But the call of mission — the call of St. Patrick — still goes out from the Lord of the harvest. “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations,” God says to Isaiah, and to Patrick. And to us. As we rejoice in St. Patrick and celebrate his legacy, we must bring his call into our own lives. He was a normal Welshman who did extraordinary things for God. God may not be calling you to evangelise Ireland. But at your Confirmation, God appointed you a prophet to the nations: by your prayers, your everyday life, and — yes — even your words. Through the intercession of St. Patrick, Bishop and Missionary, let us ask God for his courage so that like today’s saint we, too, may be a prophet to the nations — even here in Splott.