Tomorrow is the great feast of St. Patrick, and oh, how the Irish will celebrate! Especially Irish Americans, who tend to be louder than their brothers in sisters still on the Emerald Isle. As you drive through downtown areas across the country, you will hear a lot of noise coming out of local bars, but I must say, in defense of my heritage, not all of that volume is coming from Irish mouths. Look inside, and you will see Slavs, Germans, Italians, and a dozen other ethnic groups holding firmly to tall glasses of green beer. We ALL celebrate St. Patrick’s day!
Why do we do that in this country? We don’t have a comparable national celebration for those other ethnic traditions. I have a view but can’t prove it, that when the Irish came to this country in the mid 19th century, not only were they desperately poor, but they were holding on to agonizing memories of 700 bad years. Things were tough. Things were difficult, and so many times, things seemed hopeless. But, then they would remember their patron saint, this man who transformed Ireland and brought confidence, hope, and faith to the people. That hope has survived, but frequently that confidence has been sorely challenged, and that is the situation in Ireland today. More on that next week.
Hail, glorious St. Patrick!
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One of my favorite Irish songs is written in the 1920’s after Ireland gained its independence in 1922. The title of the song is “A Nation Once Again.” If you have any Irish genes, even though your family has been in Texas for a hundred years, it really touches the heartstrings. At least that is true in my case.
One other nationality, the Scots, are pushing for independence and departure from the United Kingdom. British power forced them into what is now the United Kingdom in 1707. The Scots are a very distinctive people; hard working, extremely intelligent and productive. Overall, they really prospered as part of the United Kingdom but the public policy of the Scottish people are considerably different from those of the UK, which is naturally dominated by the English and the government in London.
Last month, a “political tsunami” struck the United Kingdom and this once mighty state faces being broken up. The Nationalists won handily in the Scottish Parlimentary election and it is almost certain that a referendum will be held within five years as to whether Scotland should leave the UK.
There are two small books that many Americans have read and would find this whole issue rather interesting. One is called How the Irish Saved Civilization and the other is How the Scots Invented the Modern World. Let me just touch on the latter of these two books.
Scotland was a very poor part of the new United Kingdom, but the people were very intelligent and they saw their future in education. Two national universities in Glasgow and Edinburgh were soon among the best in Europe and many wealthy English people sent their sons to these schools for a truly great education. Out of those two schools has poured an extraordinary list of Scotsmen who have made a great deal of difference within the United Kingdom and across the Atlantic to the United States. Countless philosophers, inventors, statesmen and businessmen have their roots in Scotland and have made major contributions all over the Northern Hemisphere.
We don’t know yet if Scotland will become a new and independent country within the next few years but if it does, we should wish it every success.
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Can you visualize 5th Century Ireland? It was a land that was cold and almost constantly covered by fog. A large percentage of the territory was composed of bogs, which means the land was soft, sloppy, and difficult for walking. All in all, from 1400 years away, it seems to me to have been a very dreary place! Then…
Into the life and story of the Emerald Isle appears a man that while shrouded in mystery, nevertheless had an extraordinary impact on Ireland, future generations of Ireland, and all across the planet. St. Patrick had this influence not because of political or military leadership, but because he was a man of amazing faith, centering that faith on Jesus Christ in a manner that was so impressive that the people of Ireland were formed in that same faith and would remain steadfast in it until today.
The people of Ireland turned from the paganism that had marked their lives from time immemorial and committed themselves to the continued presence of Jesus, which vivifies the Catholic Church. Patrick may have been the most influential missionary since St. Paul. I believe that that is true, but yet we still know very little about him.
Onward through the bog!
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Many people are willing to admit that they tend to be somewhat hypersensitive. Since that is such a common failing, it’s no great shame. I do, however, tend to get somewhat irritated in Mid-March, when so many people remark negatively about the joyful influence present in much of American society on the 17th- ST. PATRICK’S DAY.
There are more people of English decent in this country than Irish. The same can be said of Germans. However, we don’t make a big deal of the feast days of St. Augustan and St. Boniface. To me, that’s so natural, there is no reason to become concerned.
Whether it be exaggerated or not, the Irish have a reputation for being joyful and optimistic- while loving life, they are nevertheless, not fearful of death. The Celts of that northern outpost civilization have had 8 centuries of oppression and poverty. While things did improve for the last 40 years, sadly, Ireland is in deep recession again.
Nevertheless, that natural optimisim, that boundless hope, gives them the strength to move forward with confidence.
Will you be at a St. Patrick’s Day party tomorrrow?
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Death is the great equalizer in the human condition. The wealthiest and the poorest, the most brilliant and the most simple, those who work hardest and those who never hit a lick – each and every one of us will experience death. For most of us, it is a little sooner than we anticipate.
Regretfully, our society, being heavily tilted towards materialism, dreads the thought of death. We don’t want to talk about it, we don’t want to think about it and we are not particularly eager to confront it. Thus, the importance of Ash Wednesday. Thus, the value of Lent.
While all people experience death, some cultures handle it a little differently. Mediterranean people, with a great zest for life, are maybe more reticent to confront the reality of death than others, such as the Irish. There are a lot of jokes about the Irish and death and I think those jokes flow from the fact that the Irish as a people had a refined sense of the miracle of death. In the Celts, the eternal world was so close to the natural world that death was not seen as a terribly destructive or threatening event. When we enter the eternal world, we are going home to where no shadow, pain or darkness can ever touch us again.
A wonderful Irish poet, John O’Donohue, writes that, “Death is a lonely visitor. When it visits your home nothing is ever the same again. There is an empty place at the table. There is an absence in the house. Something breaks within you that will never come together again.”
Sometimes people are afraid about dying. There is no need to be afraid. When the moment of your dying comes, you will be given everything that you need to make that journey in a graceful, elegant and trusting way. It is a wonderful privilege to be with a person passing on into eternity. When you are present at the sacrament of someone’s death, be very mindful of their situation. When someone we know and love is dying, we should not concentrate too much on our own fear and sense of loss but give all our attention to this person who is about to begin this awesome journey. The dying person requires our total presence and total oneness with that person. Everything should be done to make their passing as comfortable and secure as possible.
After the death comes the wake.
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The other day, I came across an interesting article by a parish priest in Ireland who had been ordained about 15 years. His interesting remarks are too long for me to summarize here but let me give, first of all, the background.
The author is Father Paul Dempsey, a priest of Kildare. Dempsey pointed out that in the mid-19th century one of the strongest leaders of the Church in Ireland was Cardinal Paul Cullen, and he worked to create a model of a priest required for pastoral administration. That model succinctly follows:
“The priest was to regard himself as a man apart, marked out by his black or dark dress and Roman collar, prayerful, devoted, carefully nourishing his necessary learning, all this supported by regular retreats and clerical conferences. His life was to centre on his church, the focus of sacramental life for his people.
In addition, total obedience to his superior, the bishop, was expected. The priest’s opinion was in no way significant and did not need to be listened to.
This model of priest has been promoted for well over a century and still, to a certain extent, is encouraged by many figures in the Church today.”
Dempsey rightly bemoans the fact that this model not only has NOT disappeared, but seems to be somewhat resurgent and he gives some examples. More on the opinion of this dedicated priest later this week.
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How can you tell an Irishman has Alzheimer’s? He forgets everything but the grudges!
Yes, I know it’s a poor joke, but it does bring up the subject of grudges and I want to say a word or two about this topic. All of us are willing to admit that we all make mistakes. Implicit in that oft repeated statement is the willingness of the speaker to point out that he should be forgiven for his recent mistake, because, after all, he is only human, right? Have you ever noticed that many of us are not quite as easy in forgiving the mistakes of those around us as we are those which we have made ourselves? Again, that’s human, natural, and extraordinarily common. That does not, however, make it right.
Make the world a brighter place! Make the day a happy blessing.
LET GO of your grudges!
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