December 3 - Homily for Today

+ Francis Xavier – (1506-52) - was one of the greatest missionaries in the history of the Church and is the patron saint of the foreign missions. He is known as the “apostle to the Indies and Japan.” He was born to the nobility of the Basque region of Spain, and studied and taught philosophy at the University of Paris, and planned a career as a professor. But a friend, Ignatius of Loyola, convinced him to use his talents to spread the Gospel. He became one of the founding Jesuits, and the first Jesuit missionary. In Goa, India, while waiting to take ship, he preached in the street (often setting religious verse to popular tunes), worked with the sick, and taught children their catechism; he would walk through the streets ringing a bell to call the children to their studies. He is said to have converted the entire city.

Francis scolded his patron, King John of Portugal, over the slave trade: “You have no right to spread the Catholic faith while you take away all the country’s riches. It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise.”

Becoming all things to all men – as encouraged by St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians - St. Francis Xavier became a tremendously successful missionary for ten years in India, the East Indies, and Japan, baptizing more than 40,000 converts. His epic finds him dining with head hunters, washing the sores of lepers in Venice, baptizing 10,000 in a single month. He tolerated the most appalling conditions on long sea voyages, enduring extremes of heat and cold.

Wherever he went he would seek out and help the poor and forgotten. He traveled thousands of miles, most on his bare feet and saw a greater part of the Far East. He had the gift of tongues, was a miracle worker, he raised people from the dead, calmed storms, was a prophet and a healer. He died on December 2, 1552 in China of a fever contracted on a missionary journey.

St. Ignatius was right in redirecting St. Francis Xavier’s vocation – focusing it more intently on what the Lord told all whom he called to do: go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. The Lord was with Francis and he will be with us as we do our part this day in spreading that same gospel to the people he puts in our path!

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.