St. Paddy's Day - A Catholic Oasis

I guess making memes can be a fun hobby of a blogger?

Ok, moment of truth here. My mind is kind of like the houses of hoarders (band name anyone?). I start with a somewhat simple idea. After deep thought I organically develop it into a decent-enough fodder for exposition, and then my mind jumps to something awesome and almost completely unrelated. I then spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to figure out how to reconcile my original, conservative concept with the outlandish idea that I thought of in my mental meandering. Those that know me well would probably not be surprised to know that I just spent an hour making the above meme before actually writing this. I found its concept so undeniably hilarious that I considered it an affront to mankind's affluent memesphere to keep it from actualized existence. Honestly I died laughing putting on the leprechaun earring.

To get to the beer and potatoes of the matter, I would like to offer up a couple points of interest regarding the upcoming day of festivities, March 17. I am going to make this pretty short for two main reasons: 1. What I say will possibly be wildly unpopular to my age group (so might as well make it short), and 2. That meme is entirely off-point and is causing me to lose all concentration in spontaneous outbursts of laughter. Without further pomp and circumstance, here are a few points to keep in mind with reference to the Feast of St. Paddy's Day in the general framework of Lent.

Lent is one of those words that most people see and inwardly cringe. I am hesitant to say the word has an implicitly pejorative connotation. Perhaps it is the meaning that we ascribe to it on a personal basis that makes it so. I always hated Lent as a child (yes, I too was normal once) for the absurdly simple bifurcated reason that my birthday ALWAYS falls in Lent and that, well, I was a child. To be laconically explanatory the earliest Ash Wednesday can occur is March 9 (my birthday) which so happened to be my 21st birthday in 2011. Enough said. To harken back to my childhood, when you receive a new N64 along with the Star Wars Podracer game on your birthday at 10 years old and then have to wait a month to play it, you will probably harbor some feelings of resentment towards the ecclesiastical calendar. I'm still not over it, but I will always remember the sacrifice I guess.

The struggle against whim and desire that is the nature of sacrifice is the anthropological value that Lent is geared toward instilling in us. I have often contemplated what makes a true woman or a true man. Personally, I hold to self-sacrifice, or generally will-power, as that defining characteristic. Every example of manliness (or true womanhood for that matter) that I have heard is rooted in a display of willpower. The manifestation of that, at its zenith, is self-sacrifice. Whether it be exercising self-control and not getting into a petty fight with one's significant other, or a father laying down his life to save his child from a burning building, it is that self-sacrifice that makes a man be a man.

St. Patrick's Day is a feast within the Church for a reason. It celebrates an English child that escaped slavery in Ireland to go back to that country bringing the gospel of sacrifice, exemplified by the boy-become-man that brought it there. The cultural resonance of this Lenten feast in our modern day has lost that sense of sacrifice. It has become a day that is "accepted" as a break in the Season of Sacrifice. By all means, have a couple Guinnesses to celebrate the Catholic heritage. The good Lord knows we don't have enough of that heritage spilling over to popular culture. Just don't lose sight of the universal season within the particular day.

So as not to be hypocritical here, I've had my share of cut-loose St. Paddy's Days. While we're young (disclaimer: I'm still very young) it's easy to think of such days as holidays and not holy days. It's easy to get lost in the tide. 

Lent is counter-cultural. In the golden age of instant self-gratification it is pretty easy to find things to give up for the 40 days. The best thing about it, though, is when that 40 days ends. Where we are in the end depends on what we did to get there both in life and in Lent. Good things come to those who wait. I wore the buttons on that N64 controller down to nothingness after Easter, but at that age I found out that I could refrain from playing. Let's show the culture what we're made of. It's better to have Lented and lost than never to have Lented at all.

~Worley