"What made St. Patrick great when many men of far
greater ability are today forgotten or barely known? There were many church men
of far greater learning than Patrick, better trained for the job than he was,
and in every human respect his superior. While Patrick was a superior man, if
we had been living in his day, we would have picked a number of other men as
far more likely to make their mark and achieve greatness.
There were, however certain things which set Patrick
apart. First of all there was his faith. R.P.C. Hanson in his book, St. Patrick, writes, “Patrick realizes
perfectly well that God's providence is quite compatible with his meeting
disaster and death. He is prepared for the worst to happen. His faith in God is
not a faith that God will always work a miracle to save him, but a conviction
that he can entirely trust God to bring about a good result whatever may
happen, the faith of a man who has cast himself entirely on God."…
It was said of St. Patrick that he was a man of one book,
the Bible, not because he was an ignorant man, or one not versed in the
thinking of his day, but because all his learning and experience were brought
to focus on one thing, knowing and proclaiming the Word of God… St. Patrick
knew that his God is the true and great God, Lord of all creation, and at all
times he acted in the certainty of God’s victory. Other men were more impressed
by their obstacles and enemies and less impressed in practice by God, and
despite their great abilities, they failed to accomplish what St. Patrick did.
What impresses [us] most, God or our problems?”
No comments:
Post a Comment