Today is the feast of Saint Patrick. He lived in the fifth century AD. Born in Britain, he became a Christian missionary to Ireland. He is known as the apostle to the Irish.
It was the Irish missionaries who contributed in a big way to the re-conversion of Europe after the fall of the Roman empire.
There were periods were catholic Christianity was very strong and other times not so strong in Ireland.
Many Thousands of Irish missionaries helped spread the catholic faith in many countries including Australia.
The Irish church suffered persecution, especially from the Protestant rulers from London. However, the church also became powerful and in doing so lost some of its gospel humility. Ireland was certainly not the only place where this happened.
Powerful churches can lose sight of being servant churches.
Pope Francis in his letter ‘The Joy of The Gospel’ tells us that he would rather see a poor and humble church, than a rich and powerful one.
Jesus reminded us of the value of servant leadership when he washed the feet of his disciples at the last supper giving us all an example to imitate.
As we celebrate St Patrick we are reminded of our call to be missionaries like him in our reality guided by the gospel.
He went out of his comfort zone to proclaim the gospel. We are all sent as bearers of good news.
