St. Patrick's Day
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Now that I've made my pleasantries, my rant for the day is this - "eating the other." Seth Worley introduced me to this phrase a year or so ago, but it's when one culture tries to "import" significant images, themes or stories into its own culture, but in the transfer, the significance behind the symbols is lost and obscured. Such is the case with Americans and St. Patrick's Day. Growing up, my grade school memories of the Day consist of wearing green lest you be pinched, teachers throwing up some decorations on the wall that were shamrocks and cheap imitations of the Lucky Charms lepruchan, and the annual story on the news about how they turn the Chicago River green for the day. I think the only thing I got "right" about St. Patrick's Day is that I knew it was connected to the Irish. And that's like claiming that all I know about Christmas is that once upon a time it might have had something to do with Jesus.
But there is an important story behind St. Patrick, and not the one about him chasing all the snakes out of Ireland (which is purely myth). Its a story that begins tragically: about a boy who was kidnapped from his own British bed as a boy and enslaved by brutal Celts. But it is a story of hope: forced to herd sheep on the lonely Irish plains, the slave-shepherd boy Patricius begins to do what others do in impossible situations: pray. After six years of "constant hunger and nakedness as my constant companions" but being spiritually forged through "at least one hundred prayers a day" Patrick escaped slavery by sneaking onto a ship and returning home. But "home" was not where Patrick's heart was anymore. After a vision in which a multitude from Ireland visited him crying, "We beg you to come and walk among us once more," Patricius, the escaped slave chose to return to Ireland as a missionary - Saint Patrick, apostle to the Irish nation. The first true missionary since the third century, Patrick went to these "barbarians" and taught them that there was a more hopeful story within their own myths and legends. His life and example and incarnational ministry among them saved their souls, their culture, and ultimately, western civilization as we know it.
He wrote a great poem/prayer known as "Saint Patrick's Breastplate," because legend has it that in his most challenging moments it brought God's protection to him. One historian lauds its worth, noting that in it, "the inarticulate outcast who wept for slaves, aided common men in difficulty, and loved sunrise and sea at last finds his voice."
"I arise today * Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity * Through belief in the threeness , Through the confession of oneness * Of the Creator of Creation
I arise today * Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism * Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial * Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension * Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom...
I arise today * Through God's strenght to pilot me: God's might to uphold me * God's wisdom to guide me * God's eye to look before me * God's ear to hear me * God's word to speak for me * God's hand to guide me * God's way to lie before me * God's shield to protect me * God's host to save me * From snares of devils, from temptations of vices, from everyone who should wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in multitude...
Christ to shield me today * Against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding * So that there may come to me an abundance of reward * Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me * Christ on my left, Christ on my right, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise * Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me * Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me." - Saint Patrick
That, my shamrock-kissing, green-beverage drinking, derby-party-hat-wearing friends, is what St. Patrick's Day is really all about.
