Bishop Power
SAINT PATRICK : CHAMPION OF THE OPPRESSED
Around this time two years ago I spent ten days in Ireland walking in the footsteps of my great great great grandparents, Morgan Power and Bridgette Byrne. They were transported to this country as convicts, arriving on our shores in 1797 and 1803.
My cousin, William Power, has written a detailed family history, but sadly has been unable to make contact with any known relatives in Ireland. But I was able to visit Morgan’s hometown of Roundwood in Co Wicklow and Bridgette’s in Trim in Co Meath. I was also able to visit the beautiful harbour of Cobh, near Cork. It was from there that, six years apart, Morgan and Bridgette were taken forcibly off to Sydney. William Power’s history reveals some of the shocking details of the five and half month journey via Brazil.
The day I visited Cobh harbour in 2008 was a beautiful spring day. At the time, a huge American cruise ship was docked and tourists were coming and going, seemingly without a care in the world. I couldn’t help but think what a contrast that was to what my ancestors must have been experienced in the same place over 200 years earlier. Morgan and Bridgette faced a cruel and sickening sea journey to a distant country with an unknown future. As I walked around the harbourside, I saw a plaque to the great Irish pioneer missionary priest to Australia, Father John Joseph Therry who would minister in Australia to my ancestors and countless others who embarked from Cobh harbour in similar circumstances. As I further reflect, I think of Patrick the future apostle of Ireland being taken against his will from his native British shores and led into slavery in Ireland. But I will return to that later.
In Bridgette’s town of Trim I went on a tour of Trim Castle and looked over the River Boyne and wondered what role they played in Bridgette’s life prior to her arrest. I took a photograph of the Magistrate’s court and asked what kind of justice Bridgette had received in her sentencing. My earlier visit to Wicklow Prison gave me some idea of how Morgan spent his time before being shipped off to Sydney.
Those of you who know Ireland better than I do will know that it isn’t far from Trim to Tara. I arrived about 9am to be told by the locals they didn’t expect to see anyone so early! I reflected on the vigilance which was so much part of St Patrick’s character. As I walked across the grassy mounds of the Hill of Tara I recalled Patrick’s fierce clashes with the Druids all those years ago. I thought of the next 1600 years and the cost of the wars and disputes around the world which were seen as a contest between good and evil. How many of those differences may have been resolved with the spirit of humility displayed by Patrick in his Confessions? How many lives would have been saved as result? At Tara I drank from the Holy Well hoping to imbibe something of my patron saint’s faith, tenacity and missionary zeal.
On a lighter note, in Ireland I was also on a quest to find the relatives of my Irish Wolfhound, Bridey. I had heard the story of the great grey dog which had led St Patrick through the mists of Ireland when he had returned to evangelise. Maybe he was a ghost of one of the hounds mentioned in the Confessions escaping on the boat with the young Patrick. We could also speculate on Patrick’s Dialogues with Oisin and how the legendary figure had sought the company of his faithful companion dog when he entered eternal life. Although I was told in Trim and in Tara that there were a couple of Wolfhounds in the districts, I failed to sight any in the land of Bridey’s ancestors.
I stayed in Dublin as a guest of Fr Mark Noonan and the staff of All Hallows College. Walking along the corridors of this great missionary college, I looked up at the “rogue’s gallery” to see the photographs of many familiar faces and of so many priests who have made an indelible mark on the life of the Australian church and wider society. With their companions scattered around the world they would proclaim the Gospel with the ingenuity and zeal of St Patrick.
The Gospel reading which we have just heard depicts Jesus with the power of the Spirit upon him returning to his home town of Nazareth. He goes into the synagogue, familiar to him from his childhood days. He applies to himself the words of the prophet Isaiah:
The
spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for
he has anointed me.
He
has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
to
proclaim liberty to captives
and
to the blind new sight,
to
set the downtrodden free,
to
proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
It was with that same grand vision that Patrick returned to Ireland. As a 16 year old he had been kidnapped from his British homeland and forced into slavery in Ireland. After eventually escaping, he returned to his home country, only to be called by God to go back to Ireland. The response to any vocation taken seriously is a daunting one. Patrick knew that his would come at an enormous cost. Yet he knew he would not be alone or unaided.
He would write heroically in his Confessions: “Who am I, Lord, and what is my calling that you should cooperate with me with such divine power? Today among heathen peoples, I praise and proclaim your name in all places, not only when things go well but also in times of stress. Whether I receive good or ill, I return thanks equally to God, who taught me always to trust him unreservedly. His answer to my prayer inspired me in these latter days to undertake this holy and wonderful work in spite of my ignorance, and to imitate in some way those who, as the Lord foretold, would preach his Good News as a witness to all nations before the end of the world.”
I remember a number of years ago being enthralled by Archbishop Francis Carroll’s homily at this ecumenical service. He compared St Patrick with the great missionary apostle, Paul. How much of Patrick’s writing resonates with the teaching of Paul: each was painfully aware of his own weakness and limitations and totally reliant on God’s grace. Each was inspired to preach the Good News with great zeal and enthusiasm, sharing with everyone who would listen the details of their own graced life. One of the most powerful experiences in my 44 years as a priest has been the witness of the people I have been privileged to serve. On many occasions I have seen good people plunged into unimaginable tragedy and I wondered how they would ever survive. Yet time and again I have seen such people not only come through those awful events but somehow almost miraculously grow through them. I can attribute that to three things: the great resilience of human nature, the support of good people around us and the grace of God. St Patrick is the embodiment of all that. How much his character and spirit must have given heart and hope to my ancestors and the multitude of Irish people landing in what is now Australia in humanly impossible conditions.
Not only the Irish priests and religious coming to Australia but lay-people including and especially convicts could identify with this passage from Patrick’s Confessions: “I came to the Irish heathens to preach the Good News and to put up with insults from unbelievers. I heard my mission abused, I endured many persecutions even to the extent of chains; I gave up my free-born status for the good of others. Should I be worthy I am ready to give even my life, promptly and gladly, for his name; and it is there that I wish to spend it until I die, if the Lord should graciously allow me.”
The Confessions vividly describe the harsh conditions endured by the youthful Patrick in his life as a shepherd: living roughly in the woods and experiencing snow, frost and rain. But rather than crush him, it led the future Apostle of Ireland even closer to God through a life of continuous and faithful prayer. Undoubtedly that experience of solitude and deepening relationship with God would impel and sustain him in his future ministry
Patrick’s own experience of being sold into slavery as a teenager ensured that when he returned to Ireland as a pastor he would speak out strongly against an abuse which was still seen as acceptable in Christian quarters. His Letter to Coroticus is a strongly worded protest against the slaughter and kidnapping of Irish Christians by a small-time British “king”, Coroticus. Patrick is particularly concerned for the fate of the women he rightly sees as being most vulnerable. He appeals to the soldiers of Coroticus to listen to him even if their master fails to do so. He expresses his hopes in these terms: “If only God may inspire them to come to their senses eventually and return to God, so that, however late, they repent of acting so sacrilegiously (murderer that he is of the Lord’s brethren!) and free the baptised women whom they previously took captive, so that they may be free to live for God and be made whole here and forever.”
Some of you will be familiar with Thomas Cahill’s 1995 book How the Irish Saved Civilization. The chapter on St Patrick powerfully illustrates the part which the Apostle of Ireland played not only in his adopted country but in subsequent world history. Thomas Cahill makes some brave claims: “Patrick’s emotional grasp of Christian truth may have been greater than Augustine’s. Augustine looked into his own heart and found there the inexpressible anguish of each individual, which enabled him to articulate a theory of sin that has no equal – the dark side of Christianity. Patrick prayed, made peace with God, then looked not only into his own heart but into the heart of others. What he saw convinced him of the bright side – that even slave traders can turn into liberators, even murderers can act as peacemakers, even barbarians can take their places among the nobility of heaven.”
Watching Songs of Praise on ABC television last Sunday, I was moved to hear Rev Ian Paisley speak with such admiration about St Patrick and openly declare that he personally and all Irish people owed their freedom to Patrick. To hear him speak of St Patrick as an agent of reconciliation not only gives hope for the unity of Ireland but for peace in our wider world. World leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Mary Robinson and Barack Obama bring a spirit of hope and reconciliation to a world so much in need of unity and harmony.
I am painfully aware of the trauma currently being experienced by the Catholic Church in Ireland in the wake of revelations of widespread abuse by people in positions of trust and the failure of church leaders to adequately respond to complaints of such abuse. I say that without any sense of superiority, aware of similar experiences here in Australia in our recent history. I agonized over whether even to bring up the horrible business today. But I looked to Patrick who railed against injustice and abuse of every kind especially against the weak and the innocent; Patrick who stood up so courageously for freedom; Patrick whose own innate humility led him to a life of penance to which Croagh Patrick is a permanent monument and Patrick who was so aware of the advice of the scriptures that “the truth will set us free”. Today we invoke the intercession of St Patrick praying that victims will be listened to and taken seriously and that they will find healing and peace; that those responsible for abuse will recognise the enormity of their actions, that church leaders will seek the wisdom and help of others, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, in seeking to reform the structures and practices of a church which allowed such abuse to take place, and that the love of God and the example of Jesus may be enabled to shine through the gloom giving hope to a church which has been the instrument of so much good and so many blessings since the time of St Patrick.
My theme for this homily/address has been St Patrick: Champion of the Oppressed. That was very much part of Patrick’s contemporary role. Down through the centuries not only has he been a source of inspiration and hope to the people of Ireland, in good times and bad, but in the direst of circumstances men, women and children everywhere have been given strength, wisdom and hope as they looked to him as a model of Christian living and the best of human values. At the same time the great Apostle of Ireland continually challenges us to live out his spirit by following the dictate of the Prophet Micah “to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God”.
(Bishop) Patrick Power
Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
Canberra
17 March 2010
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