A Little Blarney

Being honorary Irishmen on St. Paddy’s day

03/18/2023

Lk 5:1-11 While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets." When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

March 17 is the annual feast of St. Patrick. He was a missionary from Britain, its first bishop, and as everyone knows, he is the patron saint of Ireland and all Irish people. On March 17 everyone feels like an honorary Irishman. So let me tell you three cool things about St. Patrick and Ireland to get you in the Irish spirit today.

First, the roads in Ireland, really they are little lanes, are notoriously narrow, and accidents happen frequently. Well, a Jesuit priest and a Franciscan priest were driving in two different directions on these narrow Irish lanes and ran into each other. Both were pretty badly shaken as they stumbled out of their cars.

The Jesuit priest asked the Franciscan, “Are you feeling okay, Father?” The other priest answered, “Oh I got a good bump on me head and a bit shaken.” The Jesuit priest pulled a bottle of Irish whiskey out of his car and said, “Here ya go father, have a good drink of this and you’ll be feeling fine.”

The Franciscan takes a good drink and asks, “Aren’t you having any father?” The Jesuit smiles and answered “Oh, I think I’ll wait until after the police come.” Now don’t you guys get any ideas and try that yourselves. Your Irish accent isn’t good enough to pull that off. So the first lesson about the Emerald Isle is to beware the notoriously narrow lanes and clever Irish priests.

The second thing is that St. Patrick is actually not buried in Ireland. He is buried in Northern Ireland, which is a completely different country. And while Ireland is predominantly Catholic, Northern Ireland is principally Protestant. And St. Patrick is buried at Down Cathedral, a Protestant Cathedral, located in Northern Ireland.

Many years ago, I took a vacation with a priest-friend of mine, Fr. Eric Pohlmeier, who’s a bishop now, to Ireland. And we visited Down Carhedral and the tomb of St. Patrick. There’s a museum inside the Cathedral and it tells the story of St. Patrick. But St. Patrick’s history was definitely told from a Protestant perspective.

That is, they portrayed him as a rebel and antagonistic to the pope, to whom he was disobedient. In other words, they tried to paint St. Patrick as if he were a Protestant reformer 1,100 years before there were any Protestants. I’m not sure how accurate that version of events are, but whenever you read history keep in mind who’s telling the story.

Winston Churchill is credited with the saying, “History is written by the victors.” And there is probably a lot of truth in that. That’s the second lesson: it can be hard to separate the fact and fiction about St. Patrick. There’s often some blarney in it.

And the third thing to get you in the Irish spirit has to do with the movie “Star Wards: The Last Jedi.” In the movie Luke Skywalker has disappeared and is hiding out on a remote island away from all civilization. Well, that island was not a CGI (computer generated image) creation but an actual place.

That island is off the western coast of Ireland as part of two islands called “The Skelligs.” On that trip with Bishop Pohlmeier, we visited that island. In the movie Luke is living in these beehive-shaped huts that were really built by Irish monks founded by St. Columban shortly after the time of St. Patrick in the 500’s.

There Irish monks believed they were retreating to the edge of the world, just like Luke Skywalker felt he wanted to retreat from the known world, too. So, if you don’t have the time or money to go to Ireland, just watch the movie “The Last Jedi” and it’s as good as being there.

I know the juniors and seniors are going on college visits in the week before and after Spring Break. So let me end with an Irish blessing for travelers: “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm on your face. The rains fall softly on your fields. And, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!