Saint Francis
Xavier, S.J.
Missionary
(1506 Navarre – 1552
Cina)
Xavier, what
will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
(Mt. 16:26). This warning of Our Lord's was given to Francis Xavier by Ignatius
of Loyola, who added these words: «Consider well that the world is a master who
does not keep its promises. And even if it were to keep its promises to you,
your heart would never be satisfied. But suppose that it were satisfied, how
long would your happiness last? In any case, could it last longer than your
life? And when you die, what will you take to eternity? What will it profit
a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?» Little by
little, this maxim entered Francis Xavier's heart and deeply marked it. Thus began
a process that would make him one of the greatest saints in the history of the
Church.
More than a passion
Francis was born on April 7,
1506, at Xavier Castle in Navarre, in northwest Spain. In 1512, his father had
all his goods confiscated in punishment for having fought alongside the king of
Navarre in a war against the Castilian throne; he died of grief in 1515. The
next year, the Xavier fortress was dismantled and the family's land taken. When
Xavier came of age, the family was ruined. Under such circumstances, a military
career did not attract him. Leaving his mother and his brothers in September
1525, never to see them again in this world, he went to the University of
Paris, where he stayed at the College of Saint Barbara in the company of fellow
students who, for the most part, had given themselves up to less than edifying
lives. Nevertheless, among them were two men of exceptional piety, Pierre Le
Fèvre and Ignatius of Loyola. The latter, originally from the Basque country
bordering Navarre, for some time had been considering founding a holy work for
the good of the Church. Having recognized the qualities of Pierre and Xavier's
souls, he tried to get them to share his spiritual ambition. So Ignatius led
Pierre Le Fèvre in the Spiritual Exercises for thirty days. At the end of this
retreat, Pierre was completely won over to the cause. Xavier was a more
difficult case. It is true that, thanks to Ignatius' and Pierre's advice, he
had already distanced himself from questionable friends and had rejected the
unwholesome doctrines that followers of Calvin had introduced in Paris. But
Xavier's heart, proud and open to the appeal of worldly ambition, felt only
disgust for the hidden life of renunciation that Ignatius advocated. Ignatius,
a fine judge of souls, first catered to Xavier's feelings, who had become a
professor of philosophy and aspired to a brilliant career and a large
following. Ignatius found him so many disciples that Xavier saw him as a true
friend in whom he could confide. Ignatius took advantage of this friendship to
remind him of the vanity of the glories and benefits of this world, and their
uselessness for eternal life. What will it profit a man if he gains the
whole world, and loses his own soul? Xavier, touched by the grace of God,
made the Spiritual Exercises in his turn, during which he asked for «intimate
knowledge of Our Lord, who has become man for me, that I may love Him more and
follow Him more closely» (Sp. Ex. 104). From then on, he had only one
passion: loving Jesus Christ and making Him loved by others.
Soon, the little group was joined
by four other students. Ignatius then proposed to his six companions that they
give themselves to God more completely and unite themselves to each other
through the bonds of religious vows. On August 15, 1534, in Our Lady's chapel
at Montmartre, Pierre Le Fèvre, at the time the only priest in the group,
celebrated the Holy Mass, during which all made perpetual vows of poverty and
chastity with the promise that they would go to the Holy Land or commit
themselves to the will of the Supreme Pontiff. As they waited to know the holy
will of God, they gathered often to pray and encourage one another in the
practice of virtue.
Straight to the
heart
On January 25, 1537, the first
members of the Society of Jesus found themselves in Venice, but since the
political situation made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land impossible, they decided
to go to Rome to ask for the blessing of Pope Paul III. The pope welcomed them
warmly and authorized them to be ordained priests; that ceremony took place on
June 24, 1537. The little group then scattered to several cities in Italy.
Father Xavier was sent to Bologna, where he devoted himself to teaching the
poor, the sick, and prisoners. Not knowing Italian well, he spoke little, but
with such conviction that his words went straight to the hearts of his
listeners. At the end of 1538, the king of Portugal, John III, asked Ignatius
to lend him some religious to evangelize India. Ignatius, with the Pope's
agreement, placed two religious at his disposal, one of whom was Francis
Xavier, who was not given the news until the day before his departure, March
15, 1540. All he took with him was the habit on his back, his crucifix, a
breviary, and another book.
After a journey of three months,
Father Xavier arrived in Lisbon in the company of Simon Rodriguez. Both were
received by John III, a truly pious man concerned for the salvation of souls.
While waiting to leave for India, they devoted themselves to the care of souls
in the capital of Portugal. Their apostolic devotion aroused such admiration in
Lisbon that the king was asked to keep them in the country. Ignatius decided
that Rodriguez would stay in Lisbon; as for Father Xavier, he would leave for
India. He left, in the company of three young confreres, on April 7, 1541.
At the time, the voyage from
Portugal to India by the Cape of Good Hope was an adventure from which no one
could be sure of coming out alive. If the ship didn't sink, epidemics, cold,
hunger, and thirst often decimated the passengers. On January 1, 1542, Father
Xavier wrote to his brothers in Rome: «I have been seasick for two months; and
all have suffered much for forty days off the coast of Guinea... The nature of
the difficulties and labors is such that I would not have dared confront them
for a single day, not for the whole world. Our comfort and hope in God's mercy
is growing continually, in the conviction that we lack the talent necessary to
preach the faith of Jesus Christ in a pagan land.» On May 6, 1542, they reached
Goa, on the western coast of India.
First method of
prayer
Having received from the Pope
full spiritual authority over the subjects of the Portuguese colonial empire,
Francis Xavier arrived in India equipped with the title of «Apostolic Nuncio.»
In Goa he found a Christianity confronted with the unedifying example of
certain Europeans. Thanks to his zeal, even before the end of the year, Goa
appeared quite changed. A good many souls were already walking in the way of
perfection. Father Xavier encouraged them in the practice of meditation,
according to the method that Saint Ignatius called the «first method of prayer»
(Sp. Ex. 238-248). This way to meditate consists of examining oneself
with respect to the Ten Commandments, the seven capital sins, the three powers
of the soul (memory, intelligence, will) and the five bodily senses. One asks
God for the grace of knowing in what ways one has observed or transgressed His
commandments, and for the help needed to correct oneself in the future. The
bishop of Goa wished for Father Xavier to continue the great good that he was
doing in the city, but the latter, driven by the Spirit of God, aspired to even
greater conquests. Like the apostles, he burned with the desire to face
dangers, sufferings, and persecutions to win as many souls as possible for
Jesus Christ. The governor of Goa, who knew his zeal, was sympathetic and
suggested to him the twenty thousand men in the Paravers tribe, hastily
baptized eight years before on the shore of the Fishery, and who had since
returned to their ignorance and superstitions.
Father Xavier wrote in a letter
to Saint Ignatius: «I am happy to go: enduring the strain of a long voyage,
taking upon myself the sins of others, when I have quite enough of my own,
living in the midst of pagans, suffering the heat of a burning sun, and all
this for God; surely these are great consolations and cause for heavenly joys.
For in the end, the blessed life for friends of the cross of Jesus Christ is,
it seems to me, a life sown with such crosses. ... What happiness can equal
that of living by dying each day, by crushing our wills to seek and find not
that which will profit us, but that which will profit Jesus Christ?» The
Christians he found on the shore of the Fishery knew nothing of their religion.
Father Xavier thus began with the rudiments of the faith: the sign of the cross
accompanied by the invocation of the three Persons in God, the Creed, the Ten
Commandments, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Salve Regina,
the Confiteor.
This concern for passing on the
rudiments of the faith is shared by the Church. In fact, in today's world,
marked by an overabundance of information and specialization in higher
education, we see that the most simple truths, those that lead to eternal
salvation, are not passed on. This is why the Holy Father, Benedict XVI,
promulgated the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
which, «with its brevity, clarity and comprehensiveness, is directed to every
human being, who, in a world of distractions and multifarious messages, desires
to know the Way of Life, the Truth, entrusted by God to His Son's Church» (Motu
proprio for the approval of the Compendium, June 28, 2005).
«If the laborers
were not lacking...»
Before this rich harvest of
souls, and thinking of the immense good that could be done with the help of
numerous workers, Francis Xavier turned to Europe, where many intelligent men
were wasting their energies in occupations of little use. «Many times,» he
wrote, «the thought occurs to me to go to the universities of Europe and shout
there, like a man who has taken leave of his senses, to tell men richer in
knowledge than in the desire to make good use of it, how many souls are,
through their neglect, denied the glory of Heaven and are going to Hell! If, in
studying the humanities, they also considered the account that God will ask of
them, many of them, moved by these thoughts, would turn to the means, to
spiritual exercises designed to give them true understanding and an intimate
sense of the divine will, to which they would conform more than to their own
inclinations, and they would say, 'Here I am, Lord: what would You have me do?
Send me where You will; if necessary, even to India...' I almost wrote to the
University of Paris that millions and millions of pagans would become
Christians, if the laborers were not lacking...»
Caring about the
soul
On April 7, 2006, Cardinal
Antonio María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, during a Mass celebrating the
fifth centenary of Saint Francis Xavier's birth, explained the saint's passion
in these words: «Xavier cared about the soul: his soul and those of everyone,
the soul of each human being. He cared about the 'soul,' because he cared about
life: life in its fullness, life in happiness, eternal life. ... He cared about
the salvation of man and because of that, his life consisted in using himself
up so that every creature he met might know and make his own the truth that God
so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have eternal life (Jn. 3:16). Precisely because of
the love he had for man, he desired that the greatest possible number of
peoples and individuals come to the Christian faith. This explains his tireless
search for souls in the most remote places where the Good News of Jesus had not
yet penetrated.»
So many did Francis Xavier bring
to the faith each day that often his arms would be tired from baptizing.
Overwhelmed with work, he was alone only during the night, much of which he
would devote to his religious exercises and studying the local language. But
God never abandons His servants. He flooded the missionary's soul with heavenly
consolations and gave him to a large extent the gift of miracles. At the end of
October 1543, Father Xavier decided to return to Goa to look for
reinforcements. There he learned – three years after the fact – that Paul III
had approved the Society of Jesus and that Ignatius had been elected General.
So he made his solemn profession, using the formula his Brothers in Rome had
used.
Yet he knew that other countries
were waiting for the Good News. He was perplexed—should he push on toward these
distant lands, where the name of Christ was unknown to so many? He went to the
tomb of Saint Thomas the Apostle to ask God to enlighten him. He stayed there
four months (April-August 1545), helping the local parish priest, who would say
of him: «In all things he led the life of the apostles.» «In the holy house of
Saint Thomas,» wrote the missionary to the Fathers of Goa, «I have employed
myself in praying continuously that God Our Lord might grant me to feel in my
soul His most holy will, with the firm resolution to accomplish it. ... I have
felt with great interior consolation, that it was the will of God that I go to
Malacca, where several recently became Christians.»
After several months spent on the
Malaysian peninsula of Malacca, where he did not fear to search out sinners
where they lived—in the gambling houses and brothels—to put them on the right
path, on January 1, 1546, he began a cruise of more than 2,000 km, in the
course of which he evangelized a number of islands, in particular the isle of
Morotai, where he risked his life amidst cannibal tribes. In a letter to his
confreres in Europe who were worried about this adventure, he replied, «The
souls of the isle of Morotai must be instructed and someone must baptize them
for their salvation. I for my part have the obligation to lose the life of the
body to provide my neighbor with the life of the soul. Therefore I will go to
the isle of Morotai to help the Christians there spiritually, and I will face
every danger, entrusting myself to God Our Lord and placing all my hope in Him.
I wish, to the full extent of my small and miserable abilities, to experience
in myself these words of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord: He who finds
his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it
(Mt. 10:39)».
Full salvation
The zeal of Saint Francis Xavier,
who spent himself without counting the cost to proclaim the Gospel to thousands
of souls, is a lesson and an example for our generation. It reminds us of the
urgency and necessity of mission, in accordance with the teaching of John Paul
II: «The temptation today is to reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a
pseudo-science of well-being. In our heavily secularized world a 'gradual
secularization of salvation' has taken place, so that people strive for the
good of man, but man who is truncated, reduced to his merely horizontal
dimension. We know, however, that Jesus came to bring integral salvation, one
which embraces the whole person and all mankind, and opens up the wondrous
prospect of divine filiation. Why mission? Because to us, as to St. Paul, this
grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ
(Eph 3:8). Newness of life in Him is the 'Good News' for men and women of every
age: all are called to it and destined for it. ... The Church, and every
individual Christian within her, may not keep hidden or monopolize this newness
and richness which has been received from God's bounty in order to be
communicated to all mankind» (Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, December 7,
1990, no. 11).
Japan ... and China
In December 1547, Father Xavier
made the acquaintance of a Japanese nobleman named Anjiro, who had wandered for
five years in search of a spiritual master who could give peace to his soul.
«We discovered Father Francis,» Anjiro would relate, «in the church of Our Lady
of the Mountain, where he was performing a wedding. I fell completely under his
charm and gave him a long account of my life. He embraced me and appeared so
delighted to see me that it was evident that God Himself had arranged our
meeting.» In the course of their conversations, Father Xavier learned about
Japan. When he found out that «the king, the nobility, and all the people of
distinction would become Christians, for the Japanese are completely guided by
the law of reason,» it was enough for him; he left for Japan.
Nevertheless, aware of his duties
as Apostolic Nuncio, he resumed contact with India and returned to Goa, which
he would leave on April 15, 1549 for Japan. The following August 15, he landed
on Kagoshima, where he spent more than a year learning the Japanese language
and customs. Toward the end of 1550, he left for the residence of the most
powerful prince of Japan, then for the capital. There, a great disappointment
awaited him—the king, who in fact was only a puppet, would not even receive
him. Father Xavier nevertheless obtained permission from the prince to preach
the Christian faith, and had the joy of welcoming several hundred conversions.
But soon a revolution broke out, and the missionary had to leave. Having had no
news from India for two years, he decided to return to Malacca, where he
arrived at the end of 1551. It was there that he received a letter from Saint
Ignatius written more than two years before, naming him «Provincial of the
East,» that is, for all the missions of the Society of Jesus from Cape Comorin,
in southern India, all the way to Japan.
On April 17, 1552, the missionary
took to the sea once more, this time headed for China. This voyage, the last
one of his life, would strip him utterly and conform him to the suffering
Christ. At the beginning of September 1552, he reached the island of Sancian,
ten kilometers from the Chinese coast. The handful of Portuguese who had put
into port there at the time greeted him with joy, building him a wooden hut and
a little chapel made out of branches. Father Xavier immediately began to tend
to the children and the sick, to preach, catechize, and hear confessions.
Nevertheless, he sought to find a Chinese «smuggler» who would secretly lead
him to Canton. Access to the shore of China was strictly forbidden. Anyone who
dared to violate this prohibition was, if caught, doomed to torture and death.
On at least two occasions, the missionary found a man who agreed to lead him
there in exchange for a large sum of money. Each time, once the money had been
received, the «smuggler» disappeared.
On November 21, Father Xavier
celebrated his last Mass. As he came down from the altar, he felt himself
weaken. He tried to return to the sea, but the rolling of the ship was
unbearable for him. Taken back to Sancian, he spent the last days of his life
half-conscious. Without medicine, and certain of his imminent death, he raised
his eyes to Heaven and spoke with Our Lord or Our Lady: «Jesus, Son of David,
have pity on me. — O Virgin, Mother of God, remember me.» As he was saying the
name of Jesus, he breathed his last, at dawn on December 2, 1552. He was only
forty-six years old. His body was taken back to Goa where it is still venerated
by the faithful. Francis Xavier, canonized along with Ignatius of Loyola on
March 12, 1622, is the heavenly patron of Catholic missions.
When one considers the life of
this giant of holiness, one is struck by the number of travails and sufferings
he had to endure. His secret was a boundless love for Jesus. In the Spiritual
Exercises, Saint Ignatius had taught him to listen for the call of Christ: «It
is My will to conquer the whole world and all my enemies, and thus to enter
into the glory of My Father. Therefore, whoever wishes to join Me in this
enterprise must be willing to labor with Me, that by following Me in suffering,
he may follow Me in glory» (Sp. Ex., 95). In his obedience, Francis
Xavier was «prompt and diligent to accomplish [Jesus'] most Holy Will» (ibid.
91). In turn, he gave himself fully, without counting the cost, to extend God's
kingdom on earth. May he obtain for us the grace to be like him filled with
zeal for the eternal salvation of our neighbor.
Dom Antoine Marie osb.
http://www.clairval.com/lettres/en/2007/04/25/2250407.htm