Western society as we know it owes its existence to people who in the face of adversity stood and did not only the right thing, they gave away the gifts, the graces, that God had given them fearing nothing but not fulfilling that mission. "…a recounting of those essential moments when everything was at stake, when the mighty stream that became Western history was in ultimate danger and might have divided into a hundred useless tributaries or frozen in death or evaporated altogether. But the great gift-givers, arriving in the moment of crisis, provided for transition, for transformation, and even for transfiguration, leaving us a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful, more beautiful and strong than the one they had found" (Thomas Cahill: The Hinges of History, Introduction). Maewyn Succat (meaning war-like) was born in AD 389 in Southern Britain during its declining days as a Roman outpost. Sixteen years later this young man of upper class breeding was captured by a raiding party of Gulls called Scoti and later called the Irish. It was two years later when on the last day of December AD 406 that the Rhine River froze. What had for centuries been a huge natural barrier that had separated the Roman from the barbari now became a temporary natural bridge carrying hundreds of thousands of barbari South into Rome's Empire. The Empire would die in one generation and be overrun by a people who left us no history of themselves and who nearly erased the history of all prior civilizations, if not for Maewyn the slave. Maewyn was made a shepherd. Abused by his slave master and given such scant clothing, his Winter's work was more than keeping his flock alive. He had to survive. Out of his misery he cried out to God. It was six years later that he received a vision which urged him to escape from Ireland by a boat which landed him in Gaul (modern France). Maewyn became a deacon, then a priest and changed his name to Patrick: meaning noble. Risking his life to return as a runaway slave, Patrick sought to be sent back to Ireland and was made a bishop. Today we have no concept of how truly unique this event was until we realize that priests had become dependant on the wealthy aristocracy and bishops had become entrenched in trying to maintain political stability for their own survival in a crumbling Empire. It had been almost 400 years since a missionary zeal burned in the heart of a human so that he overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony and did not love his life so much as to shrink from the fear of death. On this Sunday following Saint Patrick's day I can hold up no other man in history from Paul the Apostle to the last days of the Roman Empire who so perfectly lived Peter's words to the scattered and persecuted believers to whom he wrote his first letter. Going back to those who abused him, Patrick did not retaliate for his mistreatment, "Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." He bore the abuse in his own life so that by his own brokenness, those people who were like sheep having gone astray would by brought to the Shepherd and Savior of their souls. Patrick knew by experience what Peter meant when he wrote, "So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." 1 Peter could have been read by Patrick as a prophetic and personal letter. Follow with me as we read starting at 4: 12. "Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." Typical of Patrick and so atypical of today, when landing in Ireland, he gave gifts to the kinglet and the lawgiver but excepted nothing in return. Over the next 20 years, he was arrested many times and escaped just to keep on preaching. He taught the Irish how to read, established schools, monasteries, changed the has laws of slavery, broke the power of the Celtic Druids, developed a strong native clergy and sent out missionaries into the crumbling Roman Empire. His converts inspired by Patrick's own passion were driven to the unreached peoples no matter what the cost. It was these traveling missionaries who gathered up the writings of earlier cultures and practiced their newly acquired skill of reading and writing by copying the ancient texts saving for all time lessons of human history from the book burning barbari. Never underestimate the power of a gift-giver who loves not his life unto death. Where can you give a gift, a grace of God, today which as a light in the darkness will reflect the love of Jesus the brightest? That place will be a place of sacrifice. "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Luke 6: 27-28) "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20) |