March 17, 2017 - Happy Saint Patrick's Day

March 17, 2017

Saint Patrick and Saint Valentine

Most of the time we go through life, little realizing what is going on around us.  St. Valentine’s Day is Sweetheart’s Day, the day when guys are supposed to show their beloved just how much they love them by purchasing candy, flowers, and jewelry.  Everything is pink and red with flowers and cupids.  How pretty.

A month later is St. Patrick’s Day, the day for wearing green and being proud to be Irish.  As a kid, it meant wearing something green or getting pinched by other kids at school.  Maybe this is the reason we usually had Spring Break at this time.  So much easier than dealing with pinched kids all day long.  For many adults this is going to bars and drinking beer all night, sometimes beer with green food coloring in it.  Doesn’t sound too appetizing to me.

Most of us don’t know who these two men were, and most don’t care to know either.

Saint Valentine, or Valentius, was the Bishop of the town of Narnia (there really is a place called Narnia), north of Rome.  He was arrested for sharing Jesus wherever he went.  The judge told Valentius that if he would heal his blind daughter, he would believe.  If he could not heal her, he would put him to death.  Valentius prayed and the girl’s sight was restored.  The judge, his family, and slaves were all baptized.  Valentius was set free as were all the other Christians in captivity with him.

The Emperor, Claudius II, did not like that he continued to preach and ordered him arrested.  When he met the Christian, the emperor liked him, but Valentius did the unspeakable.  He told the emperor that he needed Jesus.  He was ordered to renounce Jesus or die.  He would not renounce him.  Claudius had him beaten with clubs, then beheaded him.

Not the idea of love we always picture for St. Valentine’s Day, is it?  Yet, he loved Christ so much that he was willing to die for him.  I guess that is true love.

St. Patrick, or Patricius, was born about a century later in Roman Britain.  Though is family was Christian, he was not much of a believer.  That is until he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Ireland.  For six years he was a slave in Ireland, pondering his life and growing closer to God.  One day he heard a voice telling him that his ship awaits.  He ran two hundred miles across Ireland and found a ship bound for England.  Somehow, he persuaded the ship captain to take him home.

Back home he learned more about the Christ that he had met in captivity.  One day, he heard a voice again.  This time it said, “We appeal to you to come and walk among us.”  He knew the voice was calling him to return to Ireland and share the Gospel message.

A lot of the story of St. Patrick in Ireland is shrouded in myth and legend.  It is known that he refused payment for things such as baptisms, he challenged powerful war lords and somehow converted them, and he left Ireland a truly Christian nation.  He used the shamrock to teach people about the Trinity, which is why the shamrock remains one of the symbols of St. Patrick. 

When he died, the pagan land of Ireland was the most Christianized land in northern Europe.  After the fall of Rome, as civilization and Christianity seemed to be dying, Irish missionaries spread out across Europe strengthening the church despite barbarian invasions.  One might say, the enslavement of a boy, saved Christianity in Europe.

I hope you have a lovely St. Patrick’s Day.  I intend to reflect on these men, who showed me what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!