St. Patrick's Day

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Today is St. Patrick’s Day.

Not to burst your bubble but St. Patrick wasn’t Irish – he was from Britain. Catholicism had come to Britain in the 2nd century and was well established there by the early 300s. However, by the time Patrick was born, around 385, Britain had grown comfortable and began to fall away from Christ.

Even though St. Patrick’s father was a deacon, and his grandfather a married priest, he says that “I did not then believe in the living God, not even when I was a child.” Nor was he alone in this. He and thousands of other Britons were captured by pirates and sent to Ireland as slaves. Later Patrick wrote, “We deserved this, because we had gone away from God, and did not keep his commandments. We would not listen to our priests, who advised us about how we could be saved.”

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Prior to his capture and enslavement, Patrick, like many others lived a comfortable life that was spiritually dead.

The problem with living a comfortable life is that we think we have all we need, and we don’t need Jesus - so we don’t pray. If we don’t pray, then God cannot fill our soul and eventually everything feels empty. But we don’t know what we lack so we double down in our effort to find contentment through more success, more entertainment, more travel, more experiences…it’s an addiction that must be fed by more and more of the drug that satisfies momentarily but leaves us desperate for more and the vicious cycle gets worse and worse. This is the sin of sloth which dominates our age.

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In his autobiography Patrick wrote:

“I remained in death and unbelief until I was reproved strongly, and actually brought low by hunger and nakedness daily… It was there that the Lord opened up my awareness of my lack of faith. Even though it came about late, I recognized my failings. So, I turned with all my heart to the Lord my God, and he looked down on my lowliness and had mercy on my youthful ignorance.”

Pride is the self-reliance that makes us think we have everything under control. We may believe in God, but we live as though we don’t really need him. That is why we spend so little time in prayer and too much time at work and entertainment.

If we continue this way, we will never be happy.

That is when God in his mercy allows us to experience some trial, some dark night that strips us of all we relied upon.

Patrick was stripped of everything when he was enslaved in Ireland for six years. That is when he turned to God.

A Dark Night can be almost any suffering that demonstrates the futility of self-reliance and opens the way to a greater faith and our purification. 

Again Patrick writes: “After I arrived in Ireland, I tended sheep every day, and I prayed frequently during the day. More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved, so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same. I even remained in the woods and on the mountain, and I would rise to pray before dawn in snow and ice and rain.”

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Once he is set free from his spiritual slavery, then God delivered Patrick from his physical slavery, he escapes Ireland, making it safely back home to Britain.

You might imagine that the story would end there. I mean, Patrick has learned his lesson. He has faith, he has a prayer life. He can just settle down and live a good life. But that is not what Patrick does.

He goes back to pagan Ireland, where he would either be captured and enslaved or martyred. He risks everything for the love of Christ and souls. However, in a very short time, by the power of God, Patrick converts all of Ireland to Christ.

Patrick took a risk and won many souls for Christ.

Why are we so attached to our comfort zone, so afraid of what people might say or do, that we are paralyzed to help others to Christ?

Courage is the willingness to risk lesser things for the sake of greater.

I know you love Christ. Prove it to him and yourself. Risk the lesser things for the greater. 

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St. Patrick’s Day is a day to take a risk for the love of God.

Prayer moves us from a dead faith to a living faith.

How will we help others encounter Jesus in prayer?

Two steps:

1.  Befriend them.

2.  Invite them to prayer.

That’s what Patrick did.  

And remember, it’s a lot better to be enslaved by pirates and taken from your homeland, stripped of your comforts and attachments than to be spiritually dead.