DIFFERENT TIMES BUT SAME MANDATE

Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, Priest
Mk 16:15-20

Today we celebrate the blessed memory of St. Francis Xavier. Together with St. Therese of Lisieux, Francis Xavier is the patron of the missions.

Born in 1506 to an aristocratic family in the Castle of Xavier, near Sanguesa, Navarre, Spain, Francis studied in Paris, France. Inspired by St. Ignatius of Loyola, he joined his company and became one of the founding members of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. Francis labored tirelessly for and in the missions, particularly in India and Japan. He baptized thousands and thousands, convinced that there is no salvation outside the Church. His right hand that opened the gates of the Kingdom to countless souls through baptism remains uncorrupt until today and is venerated in the Church of the Gesu in Rome. It is said that his dying wish was to go to the Philippines to spread the Gospel. Death in 1552, however, hindered Francis Xavier from coming to our shores.

Francis lived in a time different from ours. It was a time when the belief that there is no salvation outside the Church was very prevalent. This belief was the driving force that immensely motivated Francis to convert as many as he could to the faith and administer baptism to countless souls.

Today, the Church already acknowledges the “anonymous Christian”. The “anonymous Christian” is he or she, who, through no fault of his or her own, has not yet heard the Gospel, but strives to live moral lives by following the voice of their conscience. He or she, too, according to Vatican II, by God’s mysterious designs and unfathomable mercy, may also be saved. Without explicitly saying that there is also salvation outside the Church, the Church, however, reiterates her belief that God wishes that all men and women be saved and her role in the world is to be the sacrament of that salvation offered by God to all through His Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is the one and only one Redeemer of the world and the sole mediator between God and man. The Church, His spouse, is the privileged channel of redemption and mediation in and through Christ.

If Francis were still doing mission today, he would be very much surprised about the development of the Church’s understanding of herself in the world. But Francis would still burn with zeal for the conversion of the whole humanity to Christ and labor without rest for the incorporation of all humankind into the Body of Christ, the Church, through baptism.
We live in a time very much different from the time of Francis. But the mandate remains the same: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation” (Mk 16:15). This mandate is ours just as it was Francis’. Francis fulfilled his by laboring for and in the missions. How do we accomplish ours?