The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1919. FAITH AND FATHERLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 13 March 1919, Page 25

T h e New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1919. FAITH AND FATHERLAND

fNOTHER year has gone • another station in Erin's via dolorosa. St. Patrick's Daycomes again to revive and renew the spirit of faith and the spirit of love of country that enabled Ireland to carry her cross through all those weary years, so bravely, so hopefully, so nobly. Perhaps there have been no darker days in the course of her martyrdom than those that have just gone down; even in the blood-stained years of Pitt, even in the heart-breaking months of the Famine, she hardlyendured as much as she has gone through during the four years that have witnessed what with such irony is called the war for the rights of small nations. Notwithstanding all she is still as indomitable and still as sure of ultimate victory as ever: Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there. As Grattan saw her swooning and reeling beneath the blows of her tyrants so we have seen her stricken down in our day; we have heard them proclaim that she is at last in her tomb; and we have no more lost faith in her destiny than he. He saw her a nation to-day we are able to re-echo his proud words, to do reverence, to her in that new character once more, and to exclaim with him, Esto perpetual . i :*•

Ireland stands for two things which the world needs badly; and she stands for them almost alone. Her fidelity to religion and her fidelity to true nationality are at the root of all her wrongs': and; all her passion. Ireland was true to her ancient faith when the adulterous Henry turned his coat; she was true to it when the soldiers of Henry's illegitimate daughter, and later, those of the murderer Cromwell, burned her churches and slaughtered her children. The Catholics of Ireland stood by King Charles and by King James when the Protestants of England became successful rebels. The Catholics have been always loyal to law, but they have never been loyal to iniquity; for. of all people on earth they put first the higher law of God and conscience and paid in blood for not bending their necks to laws made by men who set themselves above both God and conscience. They never apostatised; they never were renegades; deep within the soul of the race remained, impregnable and intact, the fortress of faith and love which saved them from moral corruption and gave them the secret strength whereby they were, able to resist the blind, brutal forces that were brought to bear on them for their destruction. The seed of perpetual youth was safe in Irish hearts, and the bloodshed but watered it for a richer harvest. Famine, slaughter, banishment could not kill it it needed but the breath of a new spring to make it bloom again. That devotion to the old faith and that reverence for the Motherhood of Mary which have been the proudest heritage of our people saved them from the plagues which kill nations more surely than the sword of the tyrant or the pangs of "hunger. The faith that saved them from filth also protected them from race-suicide; it enabled them to live down-the lies and the calumnies and the hatred of their oppressors, who, themselves unfaithful, cannot forgive the Irish people for their fidelity. Hand in hand with that faith has always gone the deathless love of country, ineradicable and springing up forever in new generations of the children of St. Patrick. More than a triple crown is on the head of Erin after all her sorrows. As she was the light of the world in dark days of the past when scholars flocked to her ancient schools, as she sent forth missionaries who planted the Cross on the banks of the Loire and the Rhine, so, to-day, she who has brought down from that rich past the traditions of true justice and purity stands for the sanctity of the family and for the maintenance of a freedom guaranteed by the higher laws which must control all human laws if the world is not to rush down in chaos and confusion. St. Patrick taught the ancient people of Ireland how to reconstruct the family on a Christian basis. They learned from 'him that the father on earth is a symbol of the Father of us all in Heaven ; and on that foundation he was able to build up the truest and most lasting civilisation the world has ever' known—a civilisation that endures now as a thing of wonder and reproach to the nations that have left God and His altars to wander in the desert of immorality and disorder. He taught the parents that the child was a child of God, possessing an immortal soul, redeemed by the Death of Christ; and on that principle he was able to train the Irish people to become the greatest teachers in Europe, and to give them a tradition which remains in our time, living in our hearts in all the lands where the wandering Gael has found a home, the one hope of regeneration amid a materialism which threatens to destroy every ideal of which man ought to be proud. * Esto perpetua ! What shall we say of her hopes to-day when the whole world is calling on her ancient tyrants to break her shackles at last ? What shall we say of the men who have won for her the recognition of every freeman and every true man on earth to- her rightful place among the nations ? All the long sufferings have not been in vain. There was a high destiny in her sorrows of the past. It was not wasted blood that was spilled at Limerick, at Aughrim, at Benburb, at Tubberneering, at the Post Office; nor was it in

vain that so many of her sons went forth during so many ages to fight for lost causes across the world; not in vain the .deaths of the mothers who would not take the bread tendered by d the Soupers, or of the' little children who might have lived had they become apostates like their tyrants. The smoking altars, the dismantled schools, the brutal soldiery greasing their boots with the heart of a roasted priest in Arklow town; all had their meaning, all have had * part in the mysterious designs of God who purified Ireland by such trials and made of her sons and daughters real apostles for the purification of his people. _'. It was He who enabled her to stand erect under all her scourgings and to look to the future with immortal hope in her eyes, proud in her poverty, noble in her anguish, worthy mother of the children who loved her so passionately and so purely. It is He who.-will break her persecutors into dust and humble the proud.ones who have sinned even more against Him than they have against our Mother Erin. It is He who now at the end of the long night of seven centuries foretold by Malachy bids her lift up her head proudly and look upon the light that is breaking in the east. Surely the signs tell that €he end of her sufferings ft near and the day of her glory at hand; and surely every one of us, at home or in exile, is burning to do his part in the last struggle for the rights of the oldest and noblest nation that was ever trampled upon by Brutality and bigotry. Lord, for ae day of service done her I Lord, for ane hour's sunlight upon her! Here, Fortune, tah' world's wealth and honor You're no my debtor, Let. me but rive ae link asunder Of Erin's fetter. A Reminder All those who really care for the freedom of small nations are reminded that our Government, alone among the Governments of the free Dominions, has not called upon the English' Government to keep its pledges and to do justice to Ireland. Are you going to take any steps to prove that you have no part in this cowardly Orange silence ? Will it cost you too much to make a united demand that our representatives notify Messrs. Massey and Ward that the time has come for them to do their duty in this matter ?