In Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, which we hear in today’s Gospel, a voice from the heavens calls out, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” At that, Peter, John, and James fall silent, enabling them to listen to the Lord. Let us take this opportunity during our Lenten journey to listen to Jesus and reflect on what he is saying to us. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We should not take Saint Patrick’s claim about his ignorance at face value. To call himself a mere illiterate sinner was meant to highlight the glorious workings of God’s grace in him. The style of the Confession is not that of an ignorant man. He was aware of the Scriptures and of the Church Fathers and of late Roman literature. Patrick’s work evokes the style of the much longer Confession of his near-contemporary, St Augustine. Both were pastoral theologians of great insight, deeply aware of the presence of Christ in their lives.

Patrick’s theology came from his personal experience of Christ and his sense of mission to Ireland. Faith is not a knowledge about Christ but a life with Christ. It was not simply book learning about Christianity; it was an awareness of the presence of Christ and a lived response to that presence. For Patrick, faith was an awareness of the presence of God sharing his life at every moment. Starved of reliance on family and friends, the boy Patrick on Slemish discovered he was not alone. This sense of the presence and love of God shaped him and became the foundation of all that he did. It gave him a true sense of his own worth as loved by God, which he shared with others.

Patrick appreciated the worth of each human being. His Confession invites us all to personal conversion, on this his feast day. His message was to draw people to follow Christ in the sharing spirit of the Gospel. This mission is still an urgent one. Even in our prosperous society, the mantra of limited resources is used to hide the unequal provision of health care, education and employment. Our society is coarsened by injustice as much as by violence and murder. It is time to revive Patrick’s vision of the value of the individual, and let each one have their fair share in our land.​​​​​​​​​​​​

Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​