What would St Patrick say?
What would St Patrick say to Bill & Hilary? Just assume he came back from the dead and was guest of honour at the St. Patrick's Day celebration in the States - can't you just hear him asking "Why the heck am I going to America?" St. Patrick is met on the steps of the White House - what do you think he would say to Bill Clinton?
Just imagine he decided to stay in Ireland and was invited to head up the parade in Dublin or Belfast. How do you think he would dress? In a Daffy Duck outfit? Or maybe as a MacDonald's hamburger? How drunk do you think he would get? Can you imagine him getting stoned on green beer?
What's wrong? Am I being too irreverent? Not half as irreverent as the celebrations which are supposed to honour the memory of a great Christian leader!
How does it work out that the honouring of a Christian leader becomes a godless jamboree, or for that matter going to church in July becomes a disgraceful display of bad temper when you aren't allowed to walk down a particular road?
Basically what happens is that we rework history and the memory of the dead to suit our own selfish ends in the present. The dead don't give us any trouble, they don't talk back, they can't complain so we use their memories to suit ourselves. Bet you William of Orange never expected to be marched up the Lisburn Road 300 years later or camped outside Drumcree Parish Church all year. You can be sure that Patrick never intended his Holy Trinity and the shamrock illustration to become an excuse for a booze up - drowning the shamrock - or that his memory could become a vehicle for the expression of a particular culture, political ideology or aspiration.
The dead are useful as a good excuse to ignore God's laws - even if they are Christian dead. Why worry about obeying God and loving my neighbour when the dead are there to remind me to hate them? Why worry about God's standards for living - like abstaining from drunkenness or illicit sex - when Paddy's Day is there to justify a 'good time'?
So back to my question. What would St. Patrick say to Bill, or Gerry, or David, or Bertie, or you or me? Probably something along the lines of what is referred to in Patrick's Confession of Faith, "…the Lord opened the understanding of my unbelief that I might call my faults to remembrance, and that I might turn with all my heart to the Lord my God." I suspect Patrick would urge us to turn with all our hearts to the Lord so that in the words of Alexander's hymn based on Patrick's Confession we might say:
"Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ to seek me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me."
What's wrong? Am I being too religious?