On St Patrick’s Day we celebrate our identity as a people sharing this small, beautiful island. Across the country and beyond, parades, exhibitions and a variety of musical and other cultural events will mark the occasion, nowhere perhaps more than in Downpatrick, where the great man is said to be buried at the cathedral where I was privileged to spend several years of my early ministry. The Patrick story is a complex one and scholars suggest it is probably a compilation of the missionary endeavours of two or more individuals in the fifth century. Be that as it may, what emerged was a church Celtic in character and faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This put it at odds on some issues – notably the date of Easter – with the wider church, which in time imposed its rule. However, in recent years the riches of Celtic spirituality have come to be recognised with its ability to soften the edges of more formal religious practices. The Celtic knot, for example, found on so many relics of that early period, was the Celtic way of saying that all is connected, everything and everyone belongs, that all is one in God.
Identity can be a complex matter There are many variations of Irishness, for example, as illustrated in Andrew Trimble’s recent TV documentary about the Ulster Scots tradition. This is a man who wore the green jersey of Ireland on the international rugby stage with distinction and pride. For too long on this island identity has been about difference – I am this and you are that – and too many have been treated as if they don’t quite belong because of their religious identity, their politics or even their gender. We have neglected the message of Patrick to see Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Instead we choose what might be called vacuum-sealed theology, where God is shrunk to our size to serve our prejudices and interests – a god made in our image. Human identity is about something much deeper than race, colour, religion or politics. It is God-given in that we are all made in the image of God – or, as one of the saints put it, “All things created bear the divine fingerprint”.
Christians are reminded that the benefits of Holy Week and what followed are not restricted in some way to Christians generally or the super holy
Sadly identity issues are central to many of today’s tensions and conflicts, not only on this island but far beyond. In both Ukraine and Palestine, some leaders argue that their opponents don’t even have the right to exist and that the most awful of crimes are therefore justified, often on religious grounds.
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In his book The Dignity of Difference, the late Jonathan Sachs, former chief rabbi in England, wrote about faith in the unsettled world of 2002. His words are still relevant today: “The test of faith is whether I can make space for difference. Can I recognise God’s image in someone who is not in my image, whose language, faith, ideals are different from mine. If I cannot, then I have made God in my image instead of allowing him to remake me in his ... Can we create a paradigm shift through which we come to recognise that we are enlarged, not diminished, by difference just as we are enlarged, not diminished, by the 6,000 languages that exist today, each with its own unique sensibilities, art forms and literary expressions? This is not the cosmopolitanism of those who belong nowhere, but the deep human understanding that passes between people who, knowing how important their attachments are to them, understand how deeply someone else’s different attachments matter to them also.”
As Passiontide begins, Christians are reminded that the benefits of Holy Week and what followed are not restricted in some way to Christians generally or the super holy. In tomorrow’s gospel reading we are told that Jesus made this quite clear in this reference to the crucifixion: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” The invitation extends to all.