Patrick (20)

Tirelessly he feeds the faithful with heavenly feasts,
lest those who are seen with Christ should fail upon the way:
he gives them the words of the Gospel like loaves,
multiplied in his hands like manna.

He keeps his flesh chaste for love of the Lord,
flesh which he has prepared as a temple for the Holy Spirit
(by whom it is constantly moved to pure deeds),
and which he offers to the Lord as a pleasing living sacrifice.

He is the light of the world, the great burning light of the Gospel,
raised aloft on a candlestick, illuminating the whole age;
the fortified city of a king, set atop a mountain,
in which there is great abundance of the Lord’s possessions.

 - Sechnall, Audite Omnes Amantes

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 - 2 Corinthians 3.18

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

 - Philippians 2.12, 13

In these three stanzas we glimpse the artistry of Sechnall’s hymn. Carefully he folds Patrick and his ministry into images and events associated with our Lord Jesus during His earthly sojourn. He wants to show that Jesus was lively in Patrick and worked through him to accomplish His own work. Let’s have a closer look.

The first image has Patrick feeding the faithful of Ireland “with heavenly feasts”. He gives them the true Bread of heaven, even Jesus, in all his teaching. He feeds them “the Gospel like loaves”, just as Jesus fed the multitudes because He knew that without food they “should fail upon the way”. The life-giving teaching about Jesus was “multiplied” in Patrick’s ministry, faithfully and sufficiently given just like the manna that sustained Israel in the wilderness.

What a careful and beautiful blending of these images! Sechnall saw Jesus and His ministry being replicated in Patrick as he tirelessly taught and fed the faithful to see, know, love, and serve Jesus with the strength that comes from His Word.

Second is the image of Patrick as a living sacrifice. The words are borrowed from Paul (Rom. 12.1, 2) but the image of a spotless lamb whose flesh was chaste, who was the temple of the Lord, and who was “constantly moved to good deeds” clearly points to Christ and His teaching. Patrick was Jesus to the Irish by the example of his pure life and good works as well as of his heavenly feasts from the Word. And he sought no glory for himself but offered himself and all his labors “to the Lord as a pleasing sacrifice.”

Jesus spoke of His body as the new temple of the Lord, and Paul added that all believers and churches are the dwelling-place of God (Jn. 2.19-21; 1 Cor. 7.19; Eph. 2.19-22). Patrick thus bore witness to Christ and set an example for all believers and their churches to aspire to nothing less than dwelling-places of the Lord.

Finally, Sechnall refers to Patrick as “the light of the world”. Thus, he again compared Patrick with Jesus, at the same time that he pointed to Patrick to show what all believers should aspire to be, cities on the hill of their own Personal Mission Field, lighting the way to life in Jesus in all they say and do.

Jesus was alive and powerful in Patrick. This seems to be Sechnall’s basic message. And those who received his hymn and sang it would have known Patrick, have benefited from his labors, and been able to determine whether what Sechnall wrote was faithful and true.

Beyond that, though, those who received this hymn would have been reminded that as Patrick was in their world, they were called to be in theirs. To feed with heavenly feasts. Live selflessly for others. Shine the light of Jesus on everyone in their lives. For as Christ was alive and powerful in Patrick, so he should be alive and powerful in all who know, love, and serve Him.

Such He should be in our lives as well. Patrick was sent to be Jesus to the Irish people. He was faithful in that charge, and four centuries of revival and awakening were his legacy to the world.

We also are called to be Jesus to the people in our world, as many and as far as we can reach with our chaste, sacrificial, wholesome, and illuminating lives and words. God is at work in us, as He was in Patrick, to make us more like Jesus and to will and do of His good pleasure in all we do.

For Reflection
1. Which of the images in this part of Sechnall’s poem would you like to see more fully realized in your own life?

2. Whom will you feed, serve, or shine upon today?

Psalm 71.21-24 (Solid Rock: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less)
Increase my greatness, comfort me, and unto You shall praises be.
Your truth I will exalt full well, O Holy One of Israel!
Refrain v. 3
A Rock of habitation be;
command Your Word to rescue me;
my Rock and Fortress ever be!

My lips with joy and praises ring; to You, Redeemer, praise I bring!
I praise Your goodness all day long; LORD, humble all who do me wrong.
Refrain

Use me today, O Lord, as You used Patrick, and I will…

Patrick’s Legacy
You can read more about the impact of Patrick’s ministry in our book, The Legacy of Patrick. Here you’ll learn how Patrick’s work has affected generations of Christians down to our own day. Order your copy by clicking here.

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All Psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.