Saint Patrick on Missions

Many people don’t know that Saint Patrick, the missionary, had a lot to say about missions.

Saint Patrick wasn’t an “evangelical” as we know them today, but in spite of what some people say he wouldn’t have even recognized what is now called the Roman Catholic Church.  I have written before about Patrick and what he believed, so I thought this year I would share a few of his thoughts on missions.

I can certainly relate to Patrick’s struggles with language.  I take from his writing that he struggled not only with foreign languages, but his own as well!  He says:

Today I still blush and fear more than anything to have my lack of learning brought out into the open.  For I’m unable to explain my mind to learned people by using words as exactly as they do – as my mind and soul would like – spitting it out in so many words to make sense of my innermost meaning…

As I preach this morning – I can relate.

And yet for some reason, Patrick says, God chose him to serve the Irish people “in humility and truth”.

Patrick did not go to Ireland amid crowds of supporters and well-wishers.  In fact, it seems that friends and family wanted him to stay home, some of the church elders opposed his mission, and unbelievers criticized him.

…but with God for my pilot, I refused to acquiesce or give in to them in any way.  I was able to stand firm against them all, not through any strength of mine, but by God’s grace who conquers in me.

So at last I came here to the Irish gentiles to preach the Gospel.  And now I had to endure insults from unbelievers, to hear criticism of my journeys, and suffer many persecutions even to the point of chains.

Now I was able to hand over the freedom of my birth for the benefit of others.  And should I prove worthy, I am ready and willing to give up my own life, without hesitation, for His name.

…

There were many who stood in the way of my mission.  There was always someone talking behind my back and whispering,”Why does he want to put himself in such danger among his enemies who don’t know God?”

So why did Patrick give up so much?

The Lord says in the Gospel when He urges and teaches, saying:  “Go now, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.  And see, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

…

And also in Hosea He says, “A people that is not mine, I will call mine, and a people who has not received mercy, I will call one that has known mercy, and in the place where before it was said, you are not my people, there they will now be called children of the living God.”

In spite of Patrick’s shortcomings, he believes that God can use him…

I am certain this is what I ought to do, yet I do not believe in my own powers “as long as I shall continue in this mortal flesh,” because he is strong who daily strives to turn me away from the faith and from the purity of religion that is without any pretense, right up to my very last breath in Christ my Lord.  Yet my enemy the flesh continually drags me down to death, I mean indulgence in illicit pleasures.

…

I am bound to give God thanks without ceasing.  So often He has overlooked my stupidity, my carelessness, not just once, nor in only one situation; time after time, He has held back His full fury from me, who had been made His chosen helper.

Patrick writes that he tried to do nothing that would discredit the Gospel.  He would not accept gifts, but instead spent generously.  It reminds me of what Paul said to the church at Corinth – how he came in fear and trembling (1Corinthians 2:3-5), and how he tried not to do anything that would put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel (1Corinthians 9:10-14).

How shall I now give Him due thanks for all these things that He has showered upon me? … For I may do nothing unless He Himself has already given it to me.

…

Because of this may God never allow me to be parted from His own people, whom He Himself has won from the ends of the earth.  I pray my God that He will grant me perseverance and allow me to prove a faithful witness right up to the time of my passing over, for my God’s sake.

Amen.

Pray for us.  We are weak, foolish people.  The devil and the flesh and the world seek to drag us down, to distract us, to kill us.

And yet God can use us – and you – in spite of our weakness.  Even when we can hardly share clearly what we want to share.

Every good gift comes from Him.  May He allow us to be faithful to the end.