The Good In The Green

I never used to understand this green holiday.  

Growing up in elementary school St. Patrick’s Day was simply the day my parents forgot to dress me in green--yes, I was that kid.  Celebration over four-leaf clovers, pots of gold, little green men.  I never really got it--though I would never pass on a bowl of those Lucky Charms.  They’re magically delicious.  

And then as a young adult I was schooled in a different meaning of March 17th. The Patron Saint of Shamrocks had become the Patron Saint of Guinness.  For many the clovers are replaced by whiskey; Leprechauns come to life by absinthe.  The only thing that doesn't change are the Lucky Charms--they’ll always be magically delicious. 

It’s no wonder I never really understood this green holiday.  I suspect the same is true for most people. 

The tragedy of our current confusion over Saint Patrick’s Day is that we don’t know what to celebrate: lucky pots of gold, wish-granting mythical creatures, green beer.  What has been lost in the haze of Guinness and Hallmark is that Saint Patrick’s Day is worth celebrating.  There’s reason to party, reason to dance, reason to feast.  Why?  Because the Good News of God’s Kingdom has come.  Not only to Ireland, through the ministry of this man we call Saint Patrick, but to the whole world because of the man we call Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ.  

The Good News is that in Jesus despair gives way to hope, loneliness gives way to friendship, chains of addiction give way to freedom, estrangement gives way to reconciliation, injustice gives way to what is right, ugly gives way to beauty, darkness gives way to light, boredom gives way to creativity, sickness gives way to healing, death gives way to life.

Break out the Lucky Charms world, there’s reason to celebrate!  

May we pray as Saint Patrick did long ago.  It’s what we all really need:

Christ be 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 every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.