Feast of St. Francis Xavier

St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier

One of the great things of the Advent Season is the number of saint's feasts that are celebrated during this time. They prepare us, in some way, shape or form, for the coming of Our Savior. Francis Xavier is one of them.

I must admit, I have always had a great fondness for this man.  I owe the Jesuits alot. Every single one of my spiritual directors was a Jesuit, along with some of my greatest professors. Each of them had a deep love for Christ, yet maintained a common sense approach to life with great balance. That really was the way of Ignatius, their founder.

Ignatius and Francis were best friends. They met as roommates at the University of Paris.  Francis at that time was very proud and arrogant.  Ignatius taught him alot and molded him into the man he became. Ignatius would say that Francis was "the toughest dough I kneaded." In August of 1534, 6 friends formed the Jesuit order to spread the Gospel.  Both Ignatius and Francis were ordained priests in 1537 and both were together in Rome when the Pope established the order.  Very soon, the Pope asked Ignatius to send Jesuit missionaries to India.  They needed a leader; Francis volunteered for the post.

My favorite thing about Francis is his friendship with Ignatius.  As they departed in Rome, Ignatius knew that they would only see each other again in heaven. They both shed lot of tears on their departure from each other. They corresponded through letters which sometimes took years to reach each other.  Francis helped evangelize India, Japan and had his eye set on China.  He baptized hundreds of thousands of people. One of the last letters Francis received from Ignatius, he wrote back:

Among many other holy words and consolations of your letter, I read the concluding ones, “Entirely yours, without power or possibility of ever forgetting you, Ignatio.” I read them with tears, and with tears now write them, remembering the past and the great love which you always bore towards me and still bear… .You tell me how greatly you desire to see me before this life closes. God knows the profound impression that those words of great love made on my soul and the many tears they cost me every time I thought of them… .
[May] God our Lord grant me to experience in this life his most holy will and, having experienced it, the grace to perfectly fulfill it.

He died shortly after, alone in a cell in China. They found around his neck a cord with the names of the friends he held close all those years.

At Christmas, Love becomes incarnate.  Christ came so that we would no longer be separated from Him or each other.  He died so that Love would no longer know death.  He rose so that Love would last forever.  This Season is not about presents and cookies. Its about Love.  

Think of those in your life that have left that mark of Love.  Who do you wear around your neck? Thank God for them today and reach out to them in some way. That is the greatest gift you could give at Christmas.  That is the best way to prepare the way of the Lord.

Maranatha!

Maranatha

Well, back by popular demand, its time to blog again. The Season of "Waiting for the King" has risen upon us. Throughout Advent and Christmastide, I will be blogging here and there with little liturgical tid-bits to help prepare our hearts for the Great and Awesome Day of the Lord's Coming! For today, on this First Sunday of Advent, I leave you with a meditation from St. Cyril of Jerusalem fitting for Advent:

"We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.

In general, whatever relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.

At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.

We look then beyond the first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At the second we shall say it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  The Savior will not come to be judged again, but to judge those by whom he was judged. At his own judgement he was silent; then he will address those who committed the outrages against him when they crucified him and will remind them: You did these things, and I was silent.

His first coming was to fulfil his plan of love, to teach men by gentle persuasion. This time, whether men like it or not, they will be subjects of his kingdom by necessity.

The prophet Malachi speaks of the two comings. And the Lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple: that is one coming.  Again he says of another coming: Look, the Lord almighty will come, and who will endure the day of his entry, or who will stand in his sight? Because he comes like a refiner’s fire, a fuller’s herb, and he will sit refining and cleansing.

These two comings are also referred to by Paul in writing to Titus: The grace of God the Saviour has appeared to all men, instructing us to put aside impiety and worldly desires and live temperately, uprightly, and religiously in this present age, waiting for the joyful hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Notice how he speaks of a first coming for which he gives thanks, and a second, the one we still await.

That is why the faith we profess has been handed on to you in these words: He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.


Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore come from heaven. He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new."

Prepare your hearts. He is Coming.