This week around the world, and even in our neck of the woods, St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated. Waters were colored green, people marched in parades and a lot of partying went on.
Most people don’t even know who St. Patrick was and why a holiday is named after him. St. Patrick was a man called by God to take the Christian message to Ireland, which he did and, as a result, most of Ireland by the fifth century had converted to Christianity. He lived mostly in poverty, but did so because of his love for God and the people of Ireland.
St. Patrick’s desire was that when others looked at his life, they would see Christ. You catch this desire at the end of his famous prayer “The Lorica”: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”
No matter when or where people looked at him, he wanted them to see Christ living through him.
 The questions I think we need to ask ourselves are, first, when we celebrate a holiday in commemoration of St. Patrick, do our actions, words and attitudes reflect Christ or something else? Secondly, this desire of St. Patrick was not for just a day or even a weekend but each and every day of his life, so does your life reflect Christ just at church or on Sundays, or can others see Jesus in you every day?