The Slave who returned to free his captors . . .
On this feast of St. Patrick, we remember a person who as a young man was taken into slavery in Ireland and who later escaped, only to return to preach the Gospel to them. Faith in Jesus Christ means freedom. Freedom from sin and death and freedom for grace and life.
The life of Patrick also expresses at a deeper level our own life. When we look at ourselves in the world, we find that we have given up up freedom for lesser things, only to regret it and have no way of regaining it. To hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the love of God and his desire to restore us to freedom, the Saints offer an opportunity that no one else can. The reason for this is not only are they teaching it, they are truly living it. Pope John Paul II said it best when we stated the the Church does not need more theologians to explain the faith, it needs more saints to live it.
In the eyes of the Gaels, Patrick sacrificed all to preach to them the Gospel at the risk of his own life. However, it is possible to say that for Patrick, returning to Ireland was not a risk, but an opportunity that God offered him to show his former captors a better way.
None of us should desire that others remain in slavery. While we can provide freedom in a material sense, only Jesus Christ can provide truly freedom in the spiritual sense. In this sense of Freedom, the love and grace of God alone is enough, everything else is simply blessings of the generosity of God.
In this season of Lent, it is time to search out what is enslaving us, so that we can beg the Lord for the grace to cooperate in his love in being freed from our pettiness and stubborness. Jesus has freed us from sin by his death and resurrection. Like St. Patrick may we return to those who are enslaved by the same things that bound us, so that we may be instruments to offer the freedom bestowed by Jesus Christ.
