To get a snapshot of Celtic passion and how it responds to the Christian, a quick look at the book of Galatians throws tremendous light! This is where the Celts came under the influence of the teachings of Jesus as communicated by Paul the apostle for the first time. Like Patrick, Paul was welcomed as if he were an angel from God or Jesus Christ himself. The Galatians showed true Celtic hospitality to a stranger who was weak. They responded to the passion of Paul, to him as a person, taking on board what he said perhaps because of his zeal. The Celts love passion. Paul alludes to the detriment of zeal in Galatians 4, where he warns the Galatians that following someone who is zealous because of their zeal is not always healthy!

Paul’s tone with the Galatians displays his understanding of the Celtic psyche, he is not adverse to being harsh with his readers, ‘You foolish Galatians’ while at the same time he is able to say, ‘My dear children, for whom I am again in the depths of childbirth…how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone.’ The Celtic psyche needs to be told straight but at the same times needs that unconditional love and acceptance and a knowledge that relationship is for the long haul. Paul displays this magnificently in his letter. He can be an honest yet profoundly loving father!

Paul’s great verses on the Fruit of the Spirit written to the Galatians give us a clue as to the potential he saw in this group to live lives pleasing to God. The Celts have such potential as a people and yet swing between these fruit and the acts of the flesh. Paul’s reminder to the Galatians that they are to love their neighbours as themselves and the subsequent comment on biting and devouring each other is perceptive. All too often the Celts are at loggerheads with each other, not celebrating ach other but destroying each other. The lack of unity among believers in these islands is testimony to his.

The Galatians had begun the faith well, but now were been thrown off course. We have observed in these islands that the Celts are great at starting projects but very poor at finishing and do get blown off course. We are like those who as Paul says were running a good race and then something cuts in.

The Galatians were in danger of adding to the person and work of Jesus Christ becoming enslaved and entrapped to extra rules and regulations. There is much of the same expression in the church in the Celtic regions today. Much stress ‘Jesus and….’ We seem to have a penchant for not been able to except the gift freely. Somehow we believe that we have to try and please God and earn his love.

In his closing comments Paul appeals again to the hospitality in this people group, he says that they are not to become weary in doing good. This presumes that they were already doing good! He calls for good to be done to all people but especially to those within the household of faith.

Are you a Celt? – Recognise any of these traits?