“I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.”  These beautiful words begin that great prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, our patron saint’s great hymn to his Lord and God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

It’s an interesting thing when March 17^th falls on a Sunday: because not even the feast of a patron saint, even a saint so great at St. Patrick, can displace the Sunday of Lent in terms of the readings and prayers used at Mass this weekend.  So we’re still in purple today, not in green and gold.  But that’s all right.  I don’t think St. Patrick would mind too much, especially today, on this Sunday, this weekend dedicated as it is to the Transfiguration of Our Lord. St. Patrick bound himself to the strong name of God; and it’s thoroughly appropriate that even St. Patrick’s Feast Day bows to the strong name of the Holy Trinity, deferring to God’s Glory, in this case the glory which shines forth on Mount Tabor for the three principal apostles, Peter, James, and John.  He was showing them who he was.  He was allowing their earthly eyes to see a heavenly reality.  He showed them his glory.  

And this is what our God does for us as well, in so many ways.  He does it in the lives of the saints.  St. Patrick is not some cheeky little leprechaun.  He is a fierce and inspiring defender and promoter of the Catholic Faith; he cast out the snakes from Ireland, both literally and figuratively.  He converted that entire island to the Christian Faith: he too was a shining radiance of God’s glory.  St. Patrick’s life was another kind of Transfiguration experience, a sign of God’s glory for the island of Ireland, and beyond.  The light of Christ shining forth through Patrick reached to the corners of the world: think of Patrick’s heritage through his successors and spiritual sons and daughters: God’s glory shining in churches and shrines and monasteries built to the glory of God; God’s glory shining in the re-introduction of the Faith to those gone astray in many lands; God’s glory shining in missionary work throughout the globe by great Irish priests and sisters; and even the richness of the Catholic Faith brought by Patrick’s spiritual sons to a small hill covered with Chestnut trees just south of downtown in a small southern city.  

The light of Christ which shined forth for the apostles on the mountain that day, has shined forth again and again in the lives of the apostles, the martyrs, and the saints.  And that glory shines for us as well.  The Light of Christ shining in the life of St. Patrick continues to radiate for us, in our lives here and now.  God’s glory shines forth in our prayer; his glory shines forth in our worship; his glory shines forth in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, lifted up by the hands of an unworthy priest, the Sacred Host transformed from humble bread and wine into the resplendent glory of his Body and Blood.  In this place, dedicated to the honor of a great saint, every day for 129 years.  Think of how God’s glory has shined forth for hundreds of souls washed with new life in that very font, many of you here included.  Think of how God’s glory has shined forth, thousands and thousands of days upon days as Holy Mass has been offered on this altar.  Think of how God’s glory has shined forth for countless Christians, their souls made dazzling and spotlessly clean by confession and absolution of their sins in this very place, millions of sins brought to nothing for the glory of God.  

God’s glory did not just shine forth once.  His Glory was revealed on that mountain first.  But it shined forth again in the glory of the Holy Cross; it shined in the shocking surprise of the Resurrection; His Glory shines in the life of St. Patrick, whose work continues even here and now in this place.  Thanks be to our forebears in Faith, thanks be to Father Abbott and his great vision for this parish, thanks be St. Patrick whose zeal for spreading the Faith reached all the way here, and thanks be to God, whose glory shines each and every day, as he works wonders for us, here and throughout the world.  

Christ is with us, Christ is within us, Christ behind us, Christ before us, Christ beside us, Christ to win us, Christ to comfort and restore us; transfiguring us by his grace, so that when our time on this earth is done, we may be so transformed, we may be so radiant with God’s grace, the light of Christ shining so powerfully within us, that God the Almighty Father will look at us, bathed in the light of Christ, and say, “You look just like my son.”