|
From Patrick's own well
known short account of his life we find he was born in Wales, a Roman
Britain, into a Christian family, with his father being a deacon and
grandfather a priest. At 16 he was captured by a raiding
party and enslaved in Northern Ireland as a herdsman on Slemish.
At age 22 he fled his master having heard what he believed was God
telling him that ‘a ship was ready waiting and to go home’.
A few years later he recounts a vision of an Irishman and of voices
crying out as one “we appeal to you, holy servant boy, come and walk
among us”. Some years after training for the priesthood at St.
Martin’s monastery in Tours France, by God’s grace and in obedience,
Patrick as the ‘slave’ of Christ returned to the land of his slavery in
431AD with Pope Celestine’s blessing.
In a prophetic act of demonstrating the ‘Light of Christ’ for all
Ireland he is reputed to have defied the High King Loegaire at Slane in
pre-empting the lighting of the ‘Kings fire’, the first fire of spring,
from which all else would follow, in lighting theirs.
Patrick came with an evangelical spiritual dynamic that confronted the
Druids animistic spirit world where the spirits were to be feared and
placated with sacrifices to gain their favour. How different was
Patrick’s proclamation with humble Shamrock in hand, of a powerful
Triune God of Love and sacrificial grace and with his ‘good news’
being confirmed with miraculous healings and 'power encounters’
with the Druids. As such he is credited with the baptism of
thousands and the consecrating of some 350 Bishops and priests to lead
the new Christian communities. He saw both wealthy women and kings' sons
converted, and on occasions was beaten and robbed of all he had and put
in chains perhaps awaiting execution. His ‘Breastplate invoked God's
protection 'against every poison, burning, drowning, and death-wound;
against every hostile power, laws of heathenism and heresy, the spells
of women, smiths and Druids and every knowledge that binds the soul of
man'.
The Celtic church communities followed the Eastern church tradition, not
only in their Baptismal formula and Easter date, but also in their
appetite for meditation, scripture and in seeking God - a unique
‘genetic code’ that resonates with us today. Rather than being a
separate sub-culture from the wider community, they understood it and
related to it, effectively reinterpreting the good news of Jesus to its
needs, thereby transforming it in the Light of Christ.
For us today to effectively break into our ‘market place’, spiritual
warfare will be inevitable. If we fail to grasp the supernatural power
of God’s love and grace in action, we will remain compromised,
broken and defeated. This spiritual warfare necessitates the 'good
news’ working together with God's power through prayer, loosing
‘strongholds’ over our culture, before we may through creative actions
in love and care, ‘occupy the land’. This triune dynamic of
the Gospel, united prayer and compassionate action must powerfully flow
together for this same Celtic dynamic of mission and pilgrimage to be
realised, if Ireland is once again to become a land of saints and
scholars as Patrick and our famous saints made it to be.
By Roy Crowe |
