Saint Patrick’s Day
Today with all the Irish all over the world we celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick who is credited with bringing the faith to Ireland. We also pray for all those who are suffering as a result of the War in Ukraine especially the refugees who have been forced to flee to other countries. I often wonder what St. Patrick who drove the snakes out of Ireland would do about the modern snakes that we have in Ireland today. I imagine he would look at what was going on around him and get on with the job of proclaiming the Gospel and its values which are timeless. The spirit of St Patrick affirms the worth of each human being. His Confession invites us all to personal conversion especially during Lent. His message is to draw people to follow Christ in the sharing spirit of the Gospel. This mission is still an urgent one especially in today’s Ireland were there are so many people who are experiencing a crisis of faith. proclaimed the message of salvation and he insisted on it and many years later we are the inheritors of the rich tradition of faith born of him. In our Gospel Reading for today the phrase Fishers of men” is used to describe the mandate given by Jesus to his first disciples. Two brother’s the fishermen, Simon called Peter and Andrew, were casting a net into the Sea of Galilee and got a huge catch. As he commenced his Sea of Galilee reaching ministry, Jesus called them to follow him and told them that in doing so they were to become “fishers of men”. Saint Patrick in his turn was a fisher of men as he took up the challenge to follow Jesus and through his acceptance of that challenge he brought the faith to Ireland and many people of his time followed the faith he professed as we follow that faith today. As we all know there are many snakes out there looking to destroy what we hold as being good and honourable as Catholics, it is up to us to us to choose the right course; to be brave under trials; so that we in our turn will be fishers of men.
Fullerton T 