Chapter 15. The Irish Hear the Gospel. After returning to his room, Patrick stayed up late into the night in prayer, interceding with tears on behalf of the people to whom he had witnessed. Dawn found him and his companions once again on their knees in earnest prayer. After praying, the men read from the Scriptures and sang some of the Psalms together. After a light breakfast, King Leire, his family, and their guests assembled outdoors in the shade of some large, spreading oak trees.
Patrick stood up and addressed the assembly once again. "Last night I told you that it was both easy and difficult to become an adopted child of the Father. It's simple because Jesus' yoke is easy and light. He is no Belenos who rules by fear; rather, He rules in love. He cares personally for each one of His subjects. At the same time, to become a subject of His kingdom, you must be willing to live by the laws of that kingdom. Yet it's impossible for any natural man or woman anywhere to live by those laws.
You can live by them only if you're born a second time. When you're born a second time, you can live by those laws through the grace He gives you." Patrick went on to explain what he meant by being born again. He also told his hearers about the laws of Christ from the Sermon on the Mount. After that, everyone enjoyed a meal together and rested for a while. "I'm just not sure that I'm getting through," Patrick told the other men uneasily.
"I wish I knew some way to present the Gospel that would really speak to their culture." "You mean the way Paul preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill?" Loman interjected. "Exactly. I can't help but reflect on the way that Paul told them.
As I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'To the unknown God.' Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you." So Paul presented the Gospel in a way to which the Greeks could relate. "Yes," Paul even added, "for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring." There he was actually quoting from their own poets, Menander, Loman explained.
"I never realized that," Patrick reflected, thinking hard. "Now, if the Greeks had seeds of truth in their culture that Paul could use in presenting the Gospel to them, I'm sure the Irish do as well." "You lived here for six years," Crispus reminded Patrick. "What did you learn about their religion during that time?" Patrick racked his brain for a few moments. "Well, for one thing, they believe in an immortal soul just as we do." "Hallelujah!" Loman exclaimed.
"That will pave the way to teach them what the Scriptures say about life after death and the day of judgment. What other things can you remember?" "Well, another thing is they believe that pools and springs of water are sacred. Perhaps that's a seed of truth I can use to explain baptism." "I've heard that they think certain trees are sacred," Crispus added. "Is that correct?" "Yes, it is.
But how will that help us?" "Well, couldn't you use that as a stepping stone to explain that our first human parents fell because of eating the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge?" "Perhaps so," Patrick answered thoughtfully. "That's a good point. In fact, in paradise, Christians will eat of the tree of life. What's more, the Scriptures say that Christ died on a tree. This is getting exciting." The men finished eating while the Spirit brought more things to Patrick's mind.
"God has just reminded me of something else," he told the others excitedly. "The Druids teach that the number three is sacred. They even have a special triad of gods: Terrenus, Isus, and Tuatha Dé Danann." "Just like the Trinity," Loman blurted out. "Well, sort of. But their triad is very different from our Trinity.
Still, it will provide me with a common frame of reference to explain the Trinity." Everyone had finished eating and relaxing, so Patrick began to teach some more, using some of the points of reference that he and his men had explored. It was late afternoon when Patrick finished. He sat down under a large rowan tree to rest for a moment and survey the crowd before him. "So what do we have to do to be adopted? To be... what did you call it? Born a second time?" one of the king's guests asked.
Although tired, Patrick stood up again, and the Spirit brought to mind the words of Paul to the Philippian jailer. "First of all, you must believe in Jesus Christ with all of your hearts. You must believe that He is the Son of God and that He died for your sins." Patrick then thought about Peter's answer to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. "Secondly," he added, "you must repent of the way you have been living. Then you must be converted.
That is, you must resolve to leave your past way of life and live from now on for Christ, abiding by His teachings. Finally, you must be baptized in water and in the Holy Ghost for the forgiveness of your sins. In this manner, you are born again and receive adoption as children of God." Patrick looked with compassion on the anxious faces before him. He sensed that God had opened their hearts to receive the Gospel. In a powerful voice, he asked, "How many of you want to receive this new birth?
How many of you want to follow Christ as your King?" Patrick could not hold back the tears as a large number of the people came up and fell on their knees before him. Leire's son Fedelmid and his daughter Fedelm were among those who were ready to be reborn. Patrick lovingly embraced as many of the penitent hearers he could. Remembering his experience with the sailors, Patrick addressed the assembly once again in a solemn voice. "For twenty-five years, I've waited and prayed for this day.
But I need to warn you about something. This is not a step to take lightly. Once you become a Christian, there is no turning back. It would be far better never to become a Christian than to become one and then revert to your former ways. Christ is a King who demands exclusive devotion. Don't imagine that you can become one of His subjects and still worship your other gods also. He won't accept this. Once you are reborn, you can no longer celebrate the festivals of your old gods.
There will be no more Beltanes or Samhains. You can no longer live at war with your neighbors, plunder other nations, or live in drunkenness. And because you won't be doing these things, others will think you're strange. They will even hate you, and they may put some of you to death. If you're not ready to lay down your life for Christ as He laid down His life for you, come no further." Some of Patrick's hearers slowly backed away, but most of them remained firm.
Patrick then knelt and prayed at length for those who were ready to be born again. He directed them to confess their sins before God and to tell God that they wanted to be reborn as His children. After everyone had prayed at length, Patrick then led the group to a nearby lake. At the shore of the lake, he addressed them. "Our King, Christ Jesus, told us this about His coming. He said that just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so likewise His return will be.
Christians have always understood this to mean that when Christ returns, He will come from the east. For that reason, we associate the east with the realm of Christ and the west with the realm of Satan. Therefore, I want all of you to turn around and face the west. Now, repeat after me: 'I renounce Satan, his angels, and all of his ceremonies and works. I renounce Belenos, Lugh, Terrenus, and Bedeath.'" After the group had done that, Patrick continued, "Now, turn back around and face the east.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God?" The group answered in unison that they did. "Do you accept Him as your Savior and desire to follow Him as your Lord?" Again, the group answered in the affirmative.
"Do you desire to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins and to become children of God?" After the group assented, Patrick went on, "With the help of God, will you obediently keep God's holy will and commandments and walk in them all the days of your life?" When the new believers had answered the last question with a resounding yes, Patrick and Loman waded out into the water, and as the people came forward, they baptized them one by one.
When the last person had been baptized, Patrick had the new Christians line up single file. He then invited each of them to come forward and kneel in front of him. As they did so, he laid his hands on them and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit. He then took a small flask of scented oil from Loman, dipped his finger in it, and traced the sign of the cross on the forehead of each person. Soon the air was filled with the heavenly aroma of myrrh. "I want to explain to you what I'm doing," Patrick told them.
"I've traced the figure of the cross on your foreheads to signify that you are now the property of Jesus Christ. You are no longer under the dominion of Belenos or Lugh or Terrenus. Over one thousand years ago, a prophet of the Jews foretold that persons would receive this mark on their foreheads. He saw a vision in which a man with a writer's—" Patrick stammered for a few seconds, realizing that there was no word in Gaelic for "inkhorn" since they had no written language.
"Um, that is, a man with a bowl of black paint," he continued. Anyway, the man in the vision went to all the persons who worship the true God and marked what we call the letter T, which is in the form of a cross, on their foreheads. Patrick drew the letter T in the air with his forefinger to show its shape to the people. "That was a prophetic vision of what we're doing today." As his newly baptized flock reclined on the grass, Patrick reflected upon the six years he had spent as a shepherd in Ireland.
Now, once again, he was a shepherd, only this time the sheep were different. Would he be able to shepherd his new master's flocks as well as he had shepherded Milchu's flocks?