Today we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The legends about Patrick are many but the facts are few. But one fact stands out: the missionary disciple Patrick preached the good news, the Gospel, to the Irish: Jesus Christ is alive. And because He lives, we live.
You may have read “The Irish in America” or have seen the PBS film “The Irish in America: the Long Journey Home.” Some have taken issue, of course, with a few interpretations in the book as well as the film. Nonetheless, both the book and the film begin with a riveting account of the great Irish potato famine of the 1840's. An estimated one million people died and another one million emigrated to America. These became the “huddled masses” who enriched politics, literature and music, and much more. The book and film endeavor to portray:
the struggles of the Irish for acceptance;
the rise of Irish-American neighborhoods in the great cities of the northeast and the midwest;
their quest for a better life;
and their quick entry into politics and the use of politics to move to the middle class and beyond. It's a fascinating story.
Whenever I think of the Irish, four aspects come to my mind: humor; faith in God; family; and friends.
Yes, humor is an essential ingredient of life, and it abounds wherever you find the Irish. You may have heard, e. g. the story about the successful Bostonian, Pat Murphy, who phoned his mother in County Cork and asked: “What do you think of the pet bird I sent home to you?” His mother said: “Lovely! It had a nice, salty taste.” Murphy was aghast, “My God, you cooked it! That was a rare South American Parrot. The bird spoke five languages!” His mother replied, “If the bird was that smart, why didn’t it say something before I cooked it?” So much for Irish humor.
Last week in the word of God, we were in the wilderness with Jesus and the tempter. Evil abounded. This week we're on a mountain-top with Jesus transfigured. Goodness abounds more.
The word of God takes us back almost four thousand years to the land we know today as Iraq. Here Abram or Abraham hears the call of God. And because he was a man of faith who trusted completely in God, Abram set out for an unknown land.
Now some of us can relate to this challenge. Going off to an out-of-state college or out-of-state job? We didn’t quite know how things would work out. We may have been anxious, even afraid.
I’m sure Abraham was anxious. And yet because Abraham trusted completely in God, God made a covenant with him and promised Abraham that he would prosper.
God’s word is not only about long-ago people in faraway places. God speaks to us here and now, calls us to be men and women of faith, to trust completely in God, especially as we face everyday challenges. Remember the words, “do not be afraid. I am with you always.”
Paul, in his letter to the Christian community in Philippi in Greece, proclaims that our citizenship is in heaven. Live as citizens of heaven, Paul urges us, so that God may glorify our fragile human selves.
In the Gospel according to Luke, the disciples experienced at Mount Tabor the transfiguration of Jesus; they saw the unique and awesome presence of God in Jesus of Nazareth. As the scriptures describe this experience, the face of Jesus became as dazzling as the sun, his clothes as “white as light,” reminding us of the white cloth given to us in baptism. The disciples suddenly saw a vision of the “glorious” Jesus beyond the flesh and blood Jesus of their everyday lives. They saw the face of God in their midst: the Father’s beloved Son.
But who is this Jesus, the face of God in our midst? The early Christian community saw Jesus as the fulfillment of all their hopes, so they named him the Messiah, the anointed one.
And the more they reflected on who Jesus was, the more they saw him not only as the fulfillment but as the foundation of their hopes as well, so they also named him the Word, the eternal Word that the prologue to the Gospel according to John captures magnificently in the passage, “In the beginning was the Word …” etc.
The Jesus of the Gospels is not the Jesus of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, which is more fiction than fact. Jesus was a real historical person, like ourselves. He experienced fatigue, hunger, joy, friendship, disappointment, and loneliness as we do.
But he was more than human. He had a unique relationship to the God of ancient Israel; in fact he was one with God. He was a rabbi, a teacher, a prophet who proclaimed the kingdom of God was breaking into our midst.
He worked signs and wonders, healings and exorcisms, which heralded the ultimate triumph of good over evil, of life over death. And through his own life, death, and resurrection, he opened to us the doors to eternal life with God.
What did this Jesus teach? That the kingdom of God was breaking into our midst and that you and I can share in this kingdom by living a life of discipleship with Jesus here and now: a life of regular prayer; a life of fasting or doing without those attitudes and behaviors that can break or fracture not only our relationship with God but also our relationships with one another; and a life of almsgiving or generous voluntary service to one another.
And thirdly, Jesus taught that God is our Father. This is indeed a tremendous reality of our faith. The God of this magnificent universe who became flesh in Jesus and is alive in our midst by the power of the Spirit—yes, this triune God, creator, redeemer and sanctifier, lives and breathes within us.
So today as we re-experience Abraham's call to venture into the unknown, and as we reflect upon our citizenship in heaven, and in particular as we meditate upon the transfigured vision of Jesus that the early disciples experienced, may that word of God inspire us to renew ourselves spiritually.
May we rededicate ourselves to Jesus the Christ in regular prayer and give up those attitudes and behaviors that can break or fracture not only our relationship with God but also with one another.
Let us live life in generous service to one another so that we participate fully in the kingdom of God—yes, forever gloriously alive with the glorious transfigured Christ.
