ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Each year, I rejoice at the opportunity to be with you as we honor the memory of Saint Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. I greet Bishop McFadden, the priests and deacons, consecrated religious, and all the faithful gathered here―all you who, by your love for our Catholic faith, demonstrate your profound attachment to Saint Patrick. It is fitting that, before we participate in the Annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, we first participate in the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament from which Saint Patrick derived his zeal and his vigor. This Eucharistic celebration has, then, a deep impact on the day’s festivities. The annual festivities therefore are not only a celebration of Irish culture, but also a celebration of the gift of our holy faith which has so imbued Irish culture. This is the treasured legacy of Saint Patrick.

            I extend my gratitude to all who have organized this Liturgy and the Parade. I thank Father Mackle and the parishioners of Saint Patrick Parish for their gracious hospitality. I also thank all who have organized and supported the Annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.  This event enhances our cultural diversity and is another tradition of which the City of Brotherly Love is so proud.

            On this Third Sunday of Lent, the Liturgy presents to us the gospel passage about Jesus cleansing the Temple. This is a significant moment and Saint John the Evangelist, places this event very early in Our Lord’s Public Ministry. When Jesus and His disciples go up to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus is fulfilling the Law of Moses, which dictated that male Israelites had to appear before the Lord (Ex 34:23). In coming to the Temple, Jesus observed with indignation the commerce which was taking place in the Court of the Gentiles. There, animals for sacrifice were being sold. The noise and clamor, the filth and congestion, and―very likely―the cheating which were taking place moved Jesus to anger. He overturned tables of coins, drove away the sheep and cattle, and chased out the merchants. In this action, Jesus showed that he is the Messiah, in Him the prophecies are fulfilled.

            When the leaders challenged Jesus, asking for a sign to prove His authority, Jesus responded with statement which would be used against Him at His trial: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). While the chief priests and scribes took these words literally as a reference to the Temple built by King Herod the Great, we know that, in this response, Jesus was actually speaking about the “temple of His Body,“ and foretelling His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

            When he entered the Temple, Jesus was confronted with the reality of worldliness and indifference to the sacred. He took immediate action to make right, to proclaim the truth, to establish order, to remind others of the presence of God. At the same time, Jesus knew that His words and actions ultimately would lead Him to the Cross.

            Today, we recall the memory of Saint Patrick. The Apostle of Ireland had been a carefree and callous youth who, before the age of sixteen, was captured from his home in Roman Britain and sold as a slave in Ireland. Enslaved in a pagan land, young Patrick regretted his former indifference to his Christian faith. In moments of intense sorrow and loneliness, in the depths of his maturing heart, Patrick learned to pray. He found new strength from his faith and knew that he would escape from his captors. After several harrowing years, Patrick escaped and returned home. In time, however, God would show Patrick what he was to do with his life.

            In a succession of visions, Patrick became aware that he was to return to the land of his captors and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Ireland. We marvel at the courage of this man who was ready to risk everything and to sacrifice his freedom to return to the land in which he received such harsh treatment as a slave. We marvel at his enormous charity, for he returned to a people whom he might have despised, in order to bring them to faith in Christ. We marvel at his zeal, for he spent the rest of his life in the service of the Gospel as a Bishop, pouring himself out for the sake of the salvation of the Irish people.

            With firm resolve, Patrick returned to Ireland, a land steeped in pagan practices and superstition. Observing the erroneous ways of the people, he determined to spend himself in the cause of their conversion. In his Confession, Saint Patrick declared: “And He inspired me … above many others to be the man … who, with reverence and without complaint, should faithfully serve the race of the Gentiles to whom the love of Christ brought me and left me for the remainder of my life, if I should be so worthy; yes, to serve them humbly and sincerely. Consequently, by the light of our rule of faith in the Holy Trinity, … I must make known the gifts of God and His everlasting solace. Boldly and without fear I must faithfully preach everywhere the name of God, so that even after my own death I might leave a spiritual legacy to my brethren and my children whom I have baptized in the Lord—so many thousands of people” (The Confession of Saint Patrick, 13 -14).

            On October 1, 1979, the Servant of God Pope John Paul II addressed seminarians at Saint Patrick Seminary, Maynooth, during his Apostolic Visit to Ireland. Although addressing future priests at that time, the words of our late beloved Holy Father still resonate to all who are the spiritual sons and daughters of Saint Patrick. Pope John Paul II stated: “I wish to recall to you one simple but important lesson taken from the life of Saint Patrick, and it is this: in the history of evangelization, the destiny of an entire people―your people―was radically affected for time and eternity because of the fidelity with which Saint Patrick embraced and proclaimed the Word of God, and by reason of the fidelity with which Saint Patrick pursued his call to the end.” Pope John Paul II added: “What I really want you to realize is this: that God counts on you: that He makes His plans, in a way, depend on your free collaboration, on the oblation of your lives, and on the generosity with which you follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in the depths of your hearts.”

            With the zeal with which Jesus restored order to the Temple, with the zeal with which Saint Patrick carried the Gospel to the pagan people of ancient Ireland, so you, dear brothers and sisters, are to go forth into the indifferent, clamorous and troubled world of today and to bear with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just as the legacy of Saint Patrick and the missionary spirit of the Irish people have reached the farthest shores of the world, so you are needed for the work of the new evangelization, the mission of reigniting in the hearts of all a renewed desire for Jesus and for the truths which He taught.

             The news of recent weeks and months is dominated by an uninterrupted series of discouragement, anxiety, greed and violence. Assaults on the dignity of life in the cause of science and research, heart-rending violence in schools and neighborhoods, the daily worry caused by the fragile economy weigh heavily on the hearts of men and women of good will. In the face of all these problems, in response to the resounding anxieties of our turbulent times, we must reinsert the Good News of Jesus. As Saint Patrick, with the strength of the love of Christ, evangelized the unbelievers of old, so we, urged on by the love of Christ, must influence the culture of today. We all have a share in God’s Plan for the salvation of the world.

            Today, the parade in which we participate will be a joyful witness to the legacy of Saint Patrick. That legacy is the strength, power and love of Christ. This legacy of Saint Patrick is not to be celebrated only once each year. Rather, it must be carried daily to our homes and neighborhoods, to our workplaces and our schools, to every place where human hearts need to be touched by the transforming love of Jesus.

            Let us never waver or shrink away from the mission to which we are called. Our call is from Jesus and His presence will sustain us. With Saint Patrick, we pray: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me … Christ in all who may think of me! Christ in the mouth of all who may speak to me! Christ in the eye, that may look on me! Christ in the ear, that may hear me!” (The Breastplate of Saint Patrick, in The Wisdom of Saint Patrick: Inspirations from the Patron Saint of Ireland, by Greg Tobin).  Dear friends: with Christ to pilot us at every moment, let us go forth to bring His uplifting Gospel of life and love to a world in need.  Amen.