View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
This time of year, I seem to filter everything I see and hear through my view of myself as Irish. Seeing the world through
green-colored glassesOnly the color register is different as I watch today's bloody battles and hate-fueled demonstrations on television. The arena is Israel-Palestine, but it reminds me of Northern Ireland where the poisonous passion is in remission, for now.
Both fronts suffer from religious righteousness as a toxic element in the politics.
"This land is mine, my fathers owned this land" has set the theme for six decades in Israel-Palestine and more than 400 years in Ireland. So many of us don't ever question Grandpa's version of history and move on. It's so easy to see "them" as different from us.
I always want to compare the Hawaiian cultural renaissance with Ireland's Gaelic rebirth, particularly with hope that the result will be as successful. We stayed with a Dublin friend on our last visit to our roots. She's a Gaelic speaker and the language is everywhere, a point of pride because it was once outlawed by the conqueror.
It's just a symptom of the change from the impoverished nation my ancestors left to "Celtic Tiger" as they've dubbed these prosperous times. When we noticed large, showy homes dotting Donegal, not a prosperous rural region at all, the explanation was that grants were given to families to ensure they stayed in the Gaelic speaking region and maintained their heritage.
Imagine requiring such a cultural commitment for occupancy of Hawaiian homestead land?
Personal struggles in life these days lead me to wish I could know the reality Mary O'Bierne Murphy endured when she left green Ireland for America with her six children who included my grandfather. If only we had debriefed the first and second generations for details while they were still among us. I feel we missed the chance for some grounding. I used to love this Oscar Wilde description: "The Irish have an abiding sense of tragedy which sustains them through occasional periods of joy." But it's been striking too close to the heart and I've taken that plaque off the wall.
As religion writer, I'm tolerant of the frequent queries about whether I am "born again" or have "found Jesus."
I never huff back to the newbies, but I confess now to a profound pride that my people have been Christians for 1,500 years. (Of course they weren't all, compliance isn't really in the tribal psyche.)
And that brings me to the fellow whose existence we'll celebrate tomorrow. St. Patrick is larger than life to the Irish descendants of the millions of emigrants who dispersed to survive persecution and poverty. In Ireland they know Patrick was not an Irishman and indeed, was really not the first to bring Christianity to the country.
But he was an effective missionary, with an eye to special effects that are still remembered 1,500 years after he died and in every corner of the earth. He used the shamrock with its three-in-one leaf to explain the concept of the Trinity.
Another effective visual aid was his challenge to the Druids. No one dared light a fire before the pagan priests lit theirs for the spring feast of Beltaine. But Patrick kindled a Paschal fire in celebration of Easter first. When it was seen from the seat of the rulers at Tara, the Druid priest told the High King that the new flame would surpass the old, and reign in the whole country forever.
St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated as a religious holiday in Ireland. But not here, even in the Honolulu Catholic church named for him; there the decoration is purple for Lent.
The festivities here tomorrow will be on the street in a noon parade through Waikiki and at bars and parties which may be full of "spirit" but it's not quite the same Spirit as described in Patrick's lesson on the Trinity.
RELIGION CALENDAR
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
