Saint Patrick's Day

Statue of Saint Patrick as Shepherd

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 238

For your name’s sake, O Lord, do not deliver us up forever, 

or make void your covenant. 

Do not take away your mercy from us, 

for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, 

Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, 

To whom you promised to multiply their offspring

like the stars of heaven, 

or the sand on the shore of the sea. 

If I were teaching a willing class of teenagers or young adults, I might ask them to memorize and recite daily Azariah's prayer. (At one time, as a hobby and to ease my troubled mind, I memorized and often recited long passages of scripture and poetry.) This passage from the Book of Daniel expresses with marvelous clarity the faith of Israel and the penitential spirit. 

Within the story, the occasion for the prayer is Nebuchadnezzar's attempted execution by fiery furnace of Azariah (Shadrach) and his mates Meshach and Abednego. But the larger context is the persecution of Jews in their own homeland by the Greek tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes (167–164 B.C.). The Books of Maccabees describe in grim detail that horrible time. By way of encouragement, an unknown author penned the legends of Daniel and his exploits in Nebuchadnezzar's empire. The message was very traditional: we must do penance for our sins as we wait on God's mercy, for the Lord will not abandon his people. 

If savage persecution as a penalty for sin seemed arbitrary and disproportionate to Israel's crimes, doing penance nonetheless gave the oppressed people a way to respond in hope. Complaining that "It's not fair!" simply didn't cut it. You might as well blame God for creating Eve who tempted you to do precisely that which he had forbidden.  

Azariah gets it right when he says, "For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins."

This admission doesn't come easily. A child caught in misbehavior will deny it, and then make excuses for it, and then blame someone else. If the adult threatens enough to overcome that resistance, the child might admit, "I did it," but only in fear of punishment. Adults act pretty much the same way. We admit guilt only as a last resort, when every other avenue has been closed. How many public figures have admitted their shameful behavior and publicly apologized, as the rest of us scoffed at their sham remorse? 

Grace, however, gives us the power to do the impossible. As some saint must have said, "Without grace the easy is impossible. With grace the impossible is easy." 

Azariah, in the fiery furnace, is filled with grace. He does not hesitate to recognize and own his sins and the sins of his nation. 

Collect of 3rd Tuesday of Lent

In this twenty-first century, many Catholics find themselves unprepared for the Sacrament of Penance. They were trained as children to confess picayune "sins" against their parents, siblings, and playmates but, fifty years later, many have never learned the more complex art of adult confession. Since most of our personal sins are deeply rooted in history and culture, often within a familial and social context, it is not easy to identify one's personal guilt. Where does my responsibility for sin begin in this tangled web? What specifically did I say or do that violated the Spirit of God? 

We pray for guidance and enlightenment, and a whole hearted readiness to confess our sins. That eagerness is borne of great confidence that the Lord, who reveals our sins to us, is even more willing to forgive. As Azariah prayed:

And now we follow you with our whole heart,

we fear you and we pray to you.

Do not let us be put to shame,

but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.

Deliver us by your wonders,

and bring glory to your name, O Lord.”