|
79.1
First Point
After
Saint Francis Xavier joined Saint Ignatius and made a spiritual retreat
under his direction, he resolved to give himself entirely to God. He had a
great love for suffering, especially mortification of his body and senses.
It was this spirit that led him to undertake extraordinary penances.
From time to time he went three or four days without eating, and
when he did eat he abstained not only from meat and wine, but also from
wheaten bread, and satisfied himself with the coarsest kind of food used
by the poor. To mortify his body, he used a discipline made of metal, and
he beat himself so roughly that blood flowed freely from the wounds he
made. He slept very little, lying on a little straw on the ground. On one
occasion among others, he tied cords so tightly around his body and left
them there so long that they entered his flesh. The infection this caused
him was judged to be incurable, but he was miraculously healed through the
prayer of his companions. Once he sucked an ulcer full of pus that made
him nauseous.
It is by a life mortified like this that the saints who worked the
most for the salvation of souls prepared themselves and put themselves in
condition to achieve very great results in this ministry.
Since God has called you to so exalted a work, if you cannot
practice such great mortifications, at least you should mortify your
senses and your own spirit, which should no longer live in you, for God
asks you not to live and guide yourselves except by his divine Spirit.
79.2
Second Point
This
saint, by whom God planned to do such great things, had his heart set on
the love of humiliations, knowing that it is to the humble that God
gives in greatest abundance the grace[i]
to convert souls. Jesus Christ makes this clear enough when the only thing
he gives as a lesson to be learned by his holy apostles is that they be
humble of heart.[ii]
In this way he showed them what would make them most capable in their
ministry for the conversion of souls.
It was in this spirit of humility that Saint Francis always
traveled on foot, no matter how lengthy the journey except when he had to
cross the sea. In the same spirit he usually stayed in hospitals, and
during a long sea voyage, he acted as a servant toward everyone. Later,
for two months he served as a domestic servant for a Japanese soldier. He
wrote on his knees to Saint Ignatius, his superior.
That is how this saint prepared himself for the conversion of a
great number of souls, for God usually acts this way with those who serve
him with humility, as the Most Blessed Virgin testifies in her canticle
God acted in her regard; the more humble they are, the more God
accomplishes great things through them.[iii]
Do you wish to convert your disciples and easily win them over to
God? Be children like them, not in prudence, Saint Paul says, but
in malice.[iv]
The more you make yourself little, the more you love to be considered
such, and the more you cherish the persecutions and humiliations that
people direct against you, the more you will touch the hearts of those
whom you instruct, and engage them to live as true Christians.
79.3
Third Point
It
is inconceivable how many souls Saint Francis converted to God, once he
had filled himself with the spirit of God before going off to preach the
holy Gospel. It is estimated that he converted several hundred thousand in
the Indies and in Japan. He baptized several princes and even several
kings. He spent his time preaching, catechizing, confessing, and visiting
hospitals. Finally, his zeal was so extraordinary that he was always ready
at all times to exercise his apostolic functions. Nothing, no matter how
humble it was, was beneath him when it was a question of converting souls.
This saint had especially such a great zeal for the instruction of
children (which had been inspired in him by Saint Ignatius), that he went
about in the streets ringing a little bell to call them to catechism, and
he devoted himself to teaching them the principal mysteries of our
religion.
How happy you ought to consider yourselves, having been called to
exercise this function in the Church by which this great saint felt he was
honored! You should desire to share in the zeal which he had for so great
a work, and take the means this saint used to prepare himself to bring
about so many conversions.
------
Francis
(1506 - 1552) was born at Xavier in the Spanish kingdom of Navarre. He was
educated in Paris and became a professor of philosophy at the College of
Beauvais. It was at the University of Paris that he met Ignatius Loyola, a
fellow Basque, and became one of the first Jesuits in 1534. In 1542 he was
sent to India as an Apostolic Nuncio to the Far East. Seven years later,
after having labored ardently in the south and in Malacca, he carried the
Gospel to Japan. He died in 1552 at the age of 46 while waiting for
permission to enter China. He was canonized with Saint Ignatius in 1662 by
Pope Gregory XV, and is the patron of the Catholic Missions. The feast is
now celebrated on December 3.
|