St Patrick’s day goes beyond the day of the a saint in the Catholic Church. It is a holiday in here in the United States that is very much associated to Irish-American heritage and their contributions to our country. As a native of Chicago, where the Irish-American Daily family serviced as mayor for many years, the Chicago River in the downtown area is dyed the color green and a huge parade takes place. But who was St Patrick? We might not know a lot of details about this saint, or we might just assume a lot of things about him. He lived in the 4th and 5th century. For the facts we have, it appears that Patrick was actually born in England and brought to Ireland as a captive. He served a king there for six years. He escaped his captivity and returned to England, firm and devout in his Catholic faith. He went to Gaul (present day France), where he became a priest and bishop. He returned to Ireland as a Bishop and a missionary. His missionary success in Ireland in converting the faithful there to Christianity is honored in his role as the patron saint of that country.
In the prophet Ezekiel’s message today, water is an important symbol for the Jewish people who had experienced a terrible exile from their beloved holy city of Jerusalem. In his vision, Ezekiel describes a life-giving stream that nourishes trees that bear an abundance of fruit and that gives life to many creatures. In many ways, that waterway is a sanctuary. With the problems that we have had with the water system here in Jackson, with the scarcity of water for a lot of cities here in the United States and in other countries that has brought about a lot of attention in the public media, we perhaps do not take access to clean water for granted like we did here in the United States for many years. May we see our Lord as the source of life-giving water for us.
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