St David's Day (2008)

Today is St David's Day again. The last time I wrote about it, I wondered about the prophetic power of verse. Today I shall write about what I heard today, and did not hear.

I cannot imagine that St David was a neglectful shepherd. I do not think he would have left his sheep in the rain and damp. I cannot believe that he would have taken them to task for being sheep, nor make them to be as "huddled masses yearning to breathe free". I cannot imagine him to have been a dark and violent figure, booming imprecations at the innocent. I do not think that these are limitations imposed by my lack of imagination; rather, these are logical limitations imposed, one way or another, by what little we know of him.

In fact, I look at what he said in his last moments. "Do the little things in life," he said. It makes me humble and focussed on my task. I am no administrator, no lord or baron, no assassin or mercenary, no blood-stained man of the sword. If I ever have been, it was a false role. I am no shepherd either, but I must hold true to that which is my gift. My gift is all about little things done well, and the small made greater.

For there are none of us who are 'gifted' except by the humanist pattern of this world – and yet we are all gifted with the powers of the Spirit that is within us. God grants each person something unique that is that person's own self, and He also gifts us with what we do not deserve, something rare and useful in a specific and special way. So for all that, we must be humble and do the little things. If our gifts should be made glorious by what they have helped to build, so be it. He who bestowed those gifts shall be glorified, while the flesh which is as grass will find its rightful end.

David of Glyn Rhosyn, be our inspiration this day, for as long as the first day of March be a remembrance of you. For the departed saints, often forgotten in the fires of this world, are given to us as encouragement. And we thank God for them all.