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3rd December 

Solemnity of St. Francis Xavier

READ: (Jer 1: 4-8; 2 Cor 4: 7-15; Lk 10: 1-16)

REFLECT: Have missionary zeal and courage, be people persons in missions and realize that God calls us through others.

Dear friends, today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Francis Xavier, who by his dedication and service committed himself for the spread of faith and missionary work in Europe and Asia. A short note about St. Francis Xavier will help us understand better the significance of him to all of us.  

St. Francis was born in Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre, on April 7, 1506. He was born in a prosperous farming family whose finances suffered significantly during the war with Aragon. Francis traveled to Paris to study.  He had Peter Favre as his friend, and two of them were greatly influenced by Ignatius of Loyola, who encouraged Francis to become a priest. In 1530, Francis Xavier earned his master's degree, and went on to teach philosophy at the University of Paris.

It was St. Ignatius of Loyola, who persuaded Francis to pursue a holy life and became a priest. Francis was hesitant at first, but the constant prompting of Ignatius with a question “What will it profit a man to win the whole world and forfeit his soul?” changed the life-style of young Francis. On August 15, 1534, Francis Xavier along with Peter Favre, and several other friends, took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The men planned to travel to the Holy Land to convert non-believers. Francis Xavier started his study of theology that same year and was ordained on June 24, 1537.

Francis and Ignatius were co-founders of the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits. They took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Pope. They also promised to visit the Holy Land to convert “infidels.” In March 1540, Francis departed from Rome to India. He was the first Christian missionary to visit Japan, then Borneo and the Moluccan Islands. Francis died of fever on Shangchuan Island on December 3, 1552, while preparing to sail to mainland China to continue his missionary work.

Three months later, in Feb 1533, his incorrupt body was taken from the Island and was buried in St. Paul’s Church in Portuguese Malacca on 22 March 1533. On 11th Dec 1533, St. Francis Xavier’s body was taken to Goa and the remains are placed in a glass container encased in a silver casket, on 2nd Dec 1637. Xavier was beatified by Pope Paul V on October 25, 1619, and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622 at the same ceremony of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Pope Pius XI proclaimed him the “patron of Catholic Missions.”

St. Francis Xavier is honored by the Catholic Church, other Christian churches, and the Jesuit order for his missionary accomplishments particularly in India, Southeast Asia and Japan. Because of his missionary endeavor and the zeal that he had for missions earned him the titles “Apostle of the India” and “Apostle of Japan.”  Even till today, there are many pilgrims who go to St. Francis Xavier’s Church at Old Goa to honor him and obtain God’s blessing though his intercession and prayers.

So based on the life history of St.  Francis Xavier and the liturgy of the word for the day, I would like to share with you three points of reflection.   

1. Have missionary Zeal and Courage:

St. Francis Xavier is for sure a patron for all missions and missionaries. Because of the nature of his life and vigor and enthusiasm that manifested such passions for missions in missionary endeavor. He was completely focused on the mission that he was entrusted with and was courageous enough to go forward, because the hand of God was at work in him. Today’s Gospel reading from Luke invites us to reflect on the missionary aspect and importance in our lives. The sending of seventy two others two by two by Jesus on a mission is an implication for all of us as how we need to delve into the mission of God. I am sure that the harvest is plentiful and laborers are few was realized by St. Francis Xavier and so he moved ahead with the grace of God to be a missionary for God’s mission.

We know from his life history that St.  Francis Xavier at the request of King John III of Portugal, two Jesuits were initially chosen for the mission to India, but were unable to set out. Ignatius then gave the responsibility to Xavier who accepted willingly and readily though totally unprepared for the challenge that he was to face in India. On April 7, 1541 the ship ‘Santiago’ sailed East with Xavier on board. After his arrival to Goa, he made himself available to people by visiting the sick, serving lepers, preaching to the Portuguese, and exploring new options for mission.

It is said that St. Francis Xavier is possibly the most significant Christian missionary after St. Paul. Francis had been to several missions in abroad, primarily in the Portuguese Empire of Mozambique, Malacca, and, most significantly, Goa. Today we need such persons with missionary zeal and fervor to proclaim God’s message to all passionately yet amicably. Today, the church needs missionaries who represent Christ, speak of and for Christ, make known the message of Christ everywhere. Still there is a feel that harvest is plenty, and the laborers are needed to work for God’s kingdom and propagate faith everywhere. So we need to pray for and plan out measures that can reach out to people the message of Christ, the ways and means we need to sort out to bring people closer to God. So like St. Francis Xavier, let us be committed to the mission of God than the mission of the self.

2. Be people-oriented person in missions:

There is no doubt that St.  Francis Xavier was a man of God and people-oriented person, because his aim was not to focus on himself as prominent or important in the places of missions wherever he went rather he learnt the needs and desires of the people addressed it and implanted the seeds of word and faith in them and directed them to God. Perhaps, he had everything at his disposal; he was on the right move to have a great life ahead at the University of Paris; power, fame and wealth were within his easy reach. Yet, by the grace of God makes a choice to serve God and his people. Even though he did not know Asian languages, he worked diligently teaching and preaching in coastal South India, the Malay Archipelago, Moluccas, and even Japan.

Someone has very rightly described St. Francis Xavier as people person, because, he had the ability to mix easily with persons of various social-classes, races, and beliefs. He understood people. He learned the languages and adopted the native dress of the peoples he served. He lived probably the beginning of Inculturation; he had a deep sense of cross-cultural understanding, and appreciated that God’s presence was already present in all cultures, peoples, places, languages and things.

It is also said that St.  Francis Xavier desired that women should be treated with dignity and he was against the practice of Sati. He even instructed the slave masters to treat them humanly, taught them catechism on Sundays to pray, meditate, recite rosary and examine their conscience. Yes although it was initially a struggle and challenge, yet St. Francis Xavier grasped that the cultural diversity is a unifying factor for people to grow and profess faith in Jesus Christ, as one people of God.

Today we all of us as bearers and  sharers of Christ have a great task ahead of us and at times it becomes a stumbling block to win over the heart of the flock of Christ, because we do not manifest the qualities of adjustability and  adaptability. Most of try to be bosses of the flock entrusted to our care by way of dominance and authority, insensitivity and irresponsibility or we try to promote self, deviating from the focus for which  we are called as bearers and sharers of Christ. The second reading of the day from St. Paul’s letter to Second Corinthians gives us a push to have the courage and spirit that St. Paul had as a missionary in his times and St. Francis Xavier too. Thereby, St. Paul very aptly says that we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Although we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down in very many ways yet we are not crushed or left to despair or destroyed, we always carry in the body the death of Jesus in order to manifest Jesus in our bodies.

Yes, we are called to manifest Christ in our bodies, the temples of the Holy Spirit. I am sure that’s what St. Francis Xavier did too in his life as a missionary, experiencing difficulties and hardships but in all the struggles, he did not show cold shoulder or reveal to the world his weak and feeble nature but manifested Jesus and the power of Jesus through his works of evangelization. So today, we also need to manifest Christ to others in life like St. Francis Xavier, in spite of the difficulties we experience or hard paths that we may go through and help oneself and others find Jesus as our refuge and strength.

3. Realize that God calls us through others:

The first reading from Prophet Jeremiah presents to us the vocation story of Jeremiah. Just as God called Jeremiah saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you and appointed you a prophet to the nations,” God calls St. Francis Xavier through St. Ignatius of Loyola. We know that St.  Francis Xavier as a young man, having been born in a noble family in the castle of Xavier, Francis was full of himself. At the University of Paris from 1525, he looked to become famous.

We see the intervention and the invitation of God in the life of St. Francis Xavier, by Ignatius of Loyola the then student in 1529. Ignatius with his persistent but gentle utterance of the bible verse, “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his life?” (Mk 8:36) eventually claimed and gained Francis Xavier as a partaker and sharer in the vineyard of the Lord.

We also hear from the life history of St. Francis Xavier that he wasn’t selected initially to be a missionary, but St. Ignatius calls St. Francis Xavier when another priest becomes sick and urges Francis to go in his place. Yes, today God calls each one of us at different point of time, in different situation, through different persons and places to work for the kingdom of God and to spread his faith everywhere. God can speak to us through a heavy wind or a gentle breeze, God can speak to us directly or through different persons, but what we need is a willing heart to dispose ourselves and an open ear to listen to his voice and immediately respond to his call.

Today, if we introspect our own calling as priests, religious or Catholics or as Christians, we might realize that our calling to be a follower of Christ need not necessarily be directly from God but from others too. It might be from our parents, elders, priests and religious or an inspiring person etc. Because what matters is our faith in God and our contribution to the spread of faith, sowing the seeds of God’s word in everyone’s heart. So let us realize our own calling like St.  Francis Xavier and contribute our share in the spread of God’s word and faith to one another in the world.

RESPOND:

Do we have the missionary zeal and enthusiasm to proclaim God’s message in the midst difficulties and problems?

Do we become people persons or self-centered persons in the places of ministry and missions entrusted to our care?

Do we realize that God calls us through various persons, places and times to partake and share in his mission?

Let us have the missionary zeal and courage, become people persons by God’s grace and realize that God calls us to reach out to the world through others as well. Amen.

“Never should we become one with God, unless he first united himself with us. He anticipates our choice and possession of him by his choice and possession of us.” (St. Francis De Sales, TLG, Bk 7, Chapter -2, p. 215)

Wish you a Happy Feast of St.  Francis Xavier. God bless us all. 

Live Jesus!

Fr.  Ramesh  George  MSFS