Tuesday of the 1st Week of Advent 2019
St. Francis Xavier
To be poor is to be weak. It has ever been thus in this valley of tears. The Torah, the first five books of the OT, clearly tells judges not to consider the wealth or poverty of the people who apply for justice to their courts. But we know that commandment was ignored too frequently by men in high office, from the time of Moses until today. This explains why Isaiah characterized the Messiah with the words “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.” We so much need righteousness in those who decide the fate of others. I am reminded of the recent case of a pro-life witness in California, who was trying to expose Planned Parenthood for marketing the organs of aborted children. The judge in the civil trial directed verdicts against the pro-life witness. The jury had no ability to disagree. The judge, of course, is a long-time supporter of that organization. This is the exact opposite of righteousness, is it not?
In times of crisis such as these, Our Lord raises up saints to hold fast to the true Gospel and share that good news with all those in trouble and pain. I believe that Christ acts in this way in every age, and is doing so today. St. Luke shares with us a wonderful incident from the life of Jesus in today’s Gospel. We have to understand the context, because the passage begins “in that same hour.” What hour? It was the moment that the seventy disciples returned to Jesus after their first missionary journey through the Jewish settlements in the Holy Land. They shared stories of the effects of Christ’s power against the evil spirits that were beleaguering those they encountered. And He told them that as they went, He saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. It was the vision of the defeat of evil that we all look forward to. But the result of their preaching, their exorcisms, and their healing was not the really great thing they should take joy in. No. The most important thing is that their names–and our names–are written in heaven. The important change is the one taking place in our hearts and minds, as we become more conformed to the images of Jesus and His Mother.
So Jesus–in a passage seen nowhere else–rejoices in the Holy Spirit. St. Luke is the “evangelist of the Holy Spirit.” We see the Third Person of the Trinity at work from the very beginning of his Gospel until the end of the second book, the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus is exercising one of His many spiritual gifts–perhaps singing in tongues–in response to the joy exhibited by the returning disciples. Joy is the second of the fruits of the Spirit listed by St. Paul when he writes to the Galatians. It is second only to caritas–charity. We should also rejoice, always. How do you do that when things are going wrong? Trust in God and make an act of thanksgiving for how Our Lord will bring good out of evil.
Our saint today, Francis Xavier, was perhaps the most effective missionary in the otherwise beleaguered sixteenth century. He was an early disciple of Ignatius Loyola, a man on fire with love of Jesus and the sacraments of the Church. He and a few other Jesuits were training to go to the Holy Land, but that became impossible because the Ottoman Turks were at their most violent. Instead, Francis journeyed to India–specifically to the Portuguese area around Goa–where he ministered off and on for the rest of his life. “ He also was the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, and other areas. In those areas, struggling to learn the local languages and in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. Xavier was about to extend his missionary preaching to China when he died on Shangchuan Island.” He was only forty-six years old when he died.
Francis spent much of his missionary career doing what the Church in America really needs today. The settlers and their descendants had been sacramentalized–baptized–but not evangelized. He and his co-workers spent much time building churches and schools, teaching the catechism, and forming Catholics in the faith. The communities they formed in many places continue to be centers of Christian formation even in our day. We need the inspiration and intercession of this most famous “patron of missionaries.” St. Francis Xavier, pray for us.
