The staircase you have just encountered -- not a shamrock or something covered in green -- leads us to our Father.
This is the the long range goal during Lent. We know that is a personal challenge ... to grasp fully the achievement at the top of the stairs. We "celebrate" death and promised resurrection from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. It is the same each year. What or who is different? It is you; it is me. You are not, I am not the same person ascending the stairs this year that climbed them last year. We, each of us, was a different person twelve months ago."For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes."
While all of the sons and daughters of Erin may be raising a glass to honor their beloved patron today, all of us might lift a prayer of gratitude to the Father and Son for the gift of new life. It is the new life given to each of us in redemption, in reconciliation. This is the same new life that captured a young Patrick who then brought an entire nation up similar stairs!
