Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Francis Xavier, patron of the missions and therefore our patron as well,
since we are missionaries. And who is St. Francis Xavier? He's known to be the greatest missionary
since St. Paul, baptizing anywhere from 40 to 80,000 people. He was a great miracle worker,
had the gift of tongues, the gift of calming storms, and also raising the dead. And God rewarded
his holiness of life and his efforts to spread the gospel by also keeping his body incorrupt
after death, even till today. And so what was St. Francis Xavier's motivation to make all these
sacrifices in going to the missions? His motivation was the salvation of souls. You see,
love for God and love for neighbor. The way men give glory to God in this world is by
saving their souls and becoming saints, if possible. The salvation of souls gives great
glory to God, and it is also the ultimate good for our neighbor. And so loving our neighbor,
willing the good for him, consists first and foremost,
in desiring his salvation and working for his salvation. And so we see love for God
and love for neighbor at work in St. Francis Xavier. And we know that there is no salvation
outside the church. And for this reason, he goes to the missions and seeks conversion of souls
as the Second Vatican Council affirms in its constitution on the church.
Lumen gentium, paragraph 14, basing itself upon sacred scripture and tradition. It teaches that
the church, now sojourning on earth as in exile, is necessary for salvation.
Christ, present to us in his body, which is the church, is the one mediator and the unique way
of salvation.
There is no other name given to men by which we must be saved except that of Jesus Christ.
In explicit terms, he himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism, and thereby
affirmed also the necessity of the church. For through baptism, as through a door, men enter
the church. Now, St. Francis Xavier,
used to write scathing letters to all of the intellectuals whom he left in Paris, saying,
you know, you are going to have to answer for God when you come before his judgment seat for all of
your learning and all of the accolades which you acquire in this life. As souls go without knowledge
of Christ and his church and perish.
And so, this should be a great inspiration for all of us, for souls who are discerning their vocation,
you know, to give their lives to God in the service of church and to go to the missions to save souls.
Now, God rewarded St. Francis Xavier with great consolation as well. You see, we can't outdo
God in generosity. If we give ourselves entirely to God, we can't outdo God in generosity.
If we give ourselves entirely over to him, to the service of our brothers and their salvation, God rewards us with divine consolations.
Here's a quote from St. Francis Xavier at the heavenly consolation he received when his converts
ended up destroying their idols. He says,
When I have finished baptizing the people,
I order them to destroy the huts in which they keep their idols,
and I have them break the
statues of their idols into tiny pieces, since they are now Christians. I could never come to
an end describing to you the great consolation which fills my soul when I see idols being
destroyed by the hands of those who had been idolaters. You see, we can never outdo God in
generosity. All of the sacrifices that St. Francis Xavier had to make in going to the
missions and leaving his homeland, his native language, he is then rewarded by God with
heavenly consolation. Now, there's one method that St. Francis Xavier used to use when meeting
new peoples who had never heard.
And what was that? He would simply show them an image of the Blessed Mother holding the child
Jesus. This says so much. First, it says the power of sacred images, that they are sacramentals,
that we should have sacred images in our homes, in our cars, on our persons, in our wallets,
and have them blessed by a priest.
They become sacramentals, that is, instruments of God's grace. The power of sacred images.
And also for the fact that it presents an image to the mind, remains present in our imagination,
much more effective than reading words, reading an explanation of who the Blessed Mother is,
present an image. Plus, he may have had difficulty.
He may have had difficulty communicating with them, unless the gift of tongues were present then and there.
But I don't think it was a gift which was constant, but which one? One which came and left.
And so the importance of sacred images, and of course, the image of the Blessed Mother,
because she is the mediatrix of all graces, the mediatrix of salvation.
is the one who brings us to Christ and to the church and to salvation. Let's invoke the
intercession of St. Francis Xavier for all of our missions and for the conversion of the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.