The first casualty of war is truth.
Cicero made that observation.
Lies emerge in war's birth.
Leaders lie, politicians lie. The reason for the conflict is mired in lies also. But, I lie also at the expense of truth. The truth of who one is, and, truths we must honor or live as captives as though I were someone else.
Truth tells.
St. Patrick's Day is filled with tales, woes and perhaps lies about his story.
And, truth too.
He drove out the serpents of Ireland, so the biography of his life tells.
A kernal of truth resides here.
His life was a long ordeal of being captured by Irish pirates from his Roman Britain home, and put in captivity as a slave for decades perhaps.
He knew oppression, suffering, resiliency, and hope, however captured.
Escape enters.
He returns home after his captivity and escape only wanting to return to Ireland as a missionary morphing lives and mending with blessings of reconciliation and a wreckless and wile love of God.
Dud he rid the Emerald Isle of snakes?
Robert Ellsberg's All Saints suggests that Patrick, the apostle to Ireland from 389 until 461,
glows with apocryphal achievement such as ridding Ireland of the snakes, more than his charity
and forgiving heart for his captors.
Truth is that Patrick is an iconic believer who follows Jesus the Christ, his founder and inspiration.
Non-violent, his legacy is a lesson in peace this culture of conflict and battle the world over
needs.
It does.
St. Patrick, pray for us!
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