PATRICK OF TOKYO

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Naomh Éanna's chapel

“…proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, call to obedience – but do all with patience and with the intention of teaching.” (2 Timothy 4)

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The Gospel given for this St. Patrick’s Day Mass was somewhat surprising – the parable of the darnel in Matthew chapter 13. And yet appropriate because it is true.

The Master planted good seed in his field, only to have his enemy come along in the secret dark of night to plant darnel alongside the wheat. Both crops grow up together. They are very alike, so that it’s difficult to distinguish one from the other and, what’s more, the darnel hooks itself onto the root of the wheat so that separation is quite tricky. That’s why the Master doesn’t want the darnel uprooted before harvest time, because the wheat, the good could be uprooted with the bad.

It’s clear that the enemy of God has planted darnel in the good field of His people. It has happened in the Church and in our own personal life. It is very evident in our culture and very difficult to distinguish at times what is of God and what is of the enemy, who is subtle and seductive.

And how difficult it is to wait for the harvest. In our personal lives there is the darnel of our sins that cling to us so easily and, despite our best efforts, we are unable to uproot them. Perhaps, in this parable we are being cautioned about putting excessive effort into the uprooting of our personal sins in case we do violence to the good that is within us. One of the greatest challenges for us is to have to wait until the “harvest” when the Lord will be the one to uproot and separate our sin; to have to live with the abiding reality of sin in our lives which seems to mock the genuine goodness and love of God that is within us.

St. Patrick planted the good seed of the Most Holy Trinity in the field of Ireland, giving particular emphasis to the person of Jesus Christ who is at the centre of all reality, the foundation of our faith, the One who is within us, behind and before us, above and below us, at our right hand and our left.

That is the purity of what he planted.

One of the most significant fruits of the planting of St. Patrick was the emergence of the monastic contemplative life that was at the heart of the Irish Church in those early centuries. Foremost among these was St. Enda, Naomh Éanna of Aran who is considered to be the father of Irish monasticism.

Éanna was about eleven years old when Patrick died and, though the two would never have met, the atmosphere of grace was in the very air. Éanna was converted to Christianity by his sister, the Abbess St. Fanchea who persuaded him to become a priest and he went on to found his monastery in Killeaney, Inis Mor.

From the time I was a little boy, my own spirituality was influenced by him and I took his name for my Confirmation. The ferry that brought us to Aran was named after him, so he was everywhere in my childhood days in Aran.

His little chapel in the cemetery in Killeaney has always had a special place in my affection and, after I was ordained a priest, I held the dream of one day celebrating Mass at his altar in his chapel. It took me more than forty years to get round to it!

Then a couple of years ago I decided to spend a few days on retreat in the house of my late grand-aunt Breege in Kilronan.

On board Saoirse na Farraige (Freedom of the Sea), the ferry at Galway docks I switched off my phone at 9.30am and left it off for the next five days. I put it and my phone at the bottom of my bag.

This retreat would be timeless, unmeasured and uncaptured. I had no watch, would not be counting my steps and, most challenging of all, I would not be taking photos.

In the early hours of my first morning, as I lay in bed I thought of my desire to celebrate Mass at the altar of Naomh Eanna in Cill Éinne. But I was tired and told myself I needed to rest and so fell back asleep.

And in my sleep a voice said very clearly, “go for it Eamonn!” So, I woke up and started out on the two miles to the little chapel of Éanna.

It was the kind of beautiful morning that would normally require a photograph. But I remained faithful to the discipline and let the dawn be the dawn, without trying to capture it.

Mass was simple and lovely but there was in me a little sense of despondency that a tradition that was once so strong and vibrant had disappeared completely. All that remains are these ruins that seem to reflect the ruin that is the Church in Ireland.

I sang ‘Céad míle fáilte romhat, a Íosa’ and as I finished, this man came into the chapel, hoping that I was at the beginning of Mass rather than at the end of it. He introduced himself as Patrick from Tokyo.

He had experienced his conversion to Catholicism in Kilronan a few years and was baptized there. And with the presence of this new, living Patrick it seemed like God was saying that there is no need for despondency because this Patrick is a sapling of new Christian life. Pay attention to the new life, the new sapling.

It was also significant that the old and new, West and East should come together on the ground of such a sacred tradition.

And indeed it is quite noticeable, the emergence of new saplings at Mass, the young people in their late teens and early twenties. Signs of hope over despondency.

It is important that their faith is built upon the foundation laid by St Patrick, life in the Most Holy Trinity, a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who is everything and in everything, even when He seems to have been sent into hiding by our present culture.

BREASTPLATE OF ST. PATRICK

1 I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One, and One in Three.

2 I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star-lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

3 I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, his might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need;
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

5 I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation:
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

(Source: Ancient and Modern: hymns and songs for refreshing worship #277a)

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks to me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

Salvation is of the Lord.

Salvation is of the Christ.

May your salvation, Lord, be ever with us.

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Below are two accounts of my Aran Retreat:



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