St. Patrick embodies Celtic courage, faith and strength

Blessings to you and yours on this St. Patrick’s Day. “May heaven hold you forever. May angels guide you now. May God and St. Patrick always walk in joy, peace and love beside you.”

Our readings this weekend give us two dramatic encounters with God and the challenge to listen to God. God leads Abraham in the dark of night to a new covenant relationship and tells him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the sky and will live in the Promised Land. In the Gospel of St. Luke, God speaks to Peter, James and John and chooses them to be witnesses of Jesus’ transfiguration and states, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

We are challenged to stop and not just hear, but to listen to the Lord this Lenten week. Tuesday is the Feast of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, who gives us a better sign of a silent, listening man open to and then doing the will of God.

Stop and listen. May we then have our eyes opened to the full dignity of another and be enlightened by the Holy Spirit to grow in courage, faith and strength.

Lent is a season to reshape our souls, bit by bit, to better listen and serve the Lord’s purposes. Popular movies chronicle the adventures of transformers, robots that can alter their shape to combat evil. If a hulking robot can become a speeding race car as needed, so might modern disciples grow more compassionate and be shaped bit by bit, degree by degree, into agents of good.

Sometimes darkness has to have its hour, but I can, bit by bit, bring the light and hope of the Lord to life. I can stop some of the hatred, bitterness, jealousy and heartlessness that causes darkness by refusing to give back in kind, by transforming negativity rather than transmitting it. I can do this by swallowing hard, in silence, and eating the bitterness, rather than giving it back in kind.

Celtic courage, faith and strength in the example of St. Patrick may mean just adding in one thing or giving up one extra thing this week. Add one thing for God that you haven’t been doing to your routine.

Sit and listen to the Lord for five minutes a day. Go to a weekday Mass, or stop and visit a church and pray the Stations of the Cross.

Give up fault finding, judging, nagging and a critical tongue. Cut an hour off the internet, phone or TV.

May the faith, strength and courage of St. Patrick be yours in abundance this day.