OXYGEN

03 Dec – Feast of St. Francis Xavier, priest

Francis (1506-1552) was a nobleman from the Basque region. He studied and taught philosophy at the University of Paris, and planned a career as a professor. He was a friend of St. Ignatius of Loyola who convinced him to use his talents to spread the Gospel. He was one of the founding Jesuits, and the first Jesuit missionary.

In Goa, India, while waiting to take the ship, he preached in the street, worked with the sick, and taught children their catechism. He would walk through the streets ringing a bell to call the children to their studies. He was said to have converted the entire city.

He scolded his patron, King John of Portugal, over the slave trade: “You have no right to spread the Catholic faith while you take away all the country’s riches. It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise.”

He was a tremendously successful missionary for the ten years he was in India, the East Indies, and Japan, baptizing more than 40,000 converts. His epic finds him dining with head hunters, washing the sores of lepers in Venice, teaching catechism to Indian children, baptizing 10,000 in a single month. He tolerated the most appalling conditions on long sea voyages, enduring extremes of heat and cold. Wherever he went he would seek out and help the poor and forgotten. He travelled thousands of miles, most on his bare feet, and he saw the greater part of the Far East. He had the gift of tongues, and was a miracle worker. He raised people from the dead, calmed storms. He was a prophet and a healer.

- Patron Saint Index

Here in Singapore, we celebrate today as a feast day, and we use the readings for this feast day rather than those for Wednesday of the First Week of Advent. You can find the reflection for those readings on our website. St. Francis Xavier is the patron saint for our diocesan seminary named after him. The diocesan seminary, which is the heart of the diocese, celebrated its 25th anniversary on Dec 1. You can find out more about the seminary here.

Peace,
Dan
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1 Corinthians 9:16-19. 22-23

I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands. Do you know what my reward is? It is this: in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good News free, and not insist on the rights which the Gospel gives me.

So though I am not a slave of any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the Gospel, to have a share in its blessings.
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Mark 16:15-20

Jesus showed himself to the Eleven, and he said to them, “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.”

And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there are the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.
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Did you know that St. Francis Xavier wasn’t the first choice to bring the Good News to the Far East? Another Jesuit was supposed to do it, but that Jesuit took ill and Francis Xavier was his replacement. Francis had just 12 hours to get ready and board the ship that was leaving. When we read about the life of St. Francis Xavier, the apostle to the Far East, we might be tempted to wonder – why is it that we cannot be as great a missionary as this man?

As I prepared the write-up on this apostle to the Far East for today, what most struck me is that Francis did not set out to be a great missionary. He merely wanted to be a professor, but God had other plans for him. His friendship with St. Ignatius of Loyola led to him using his talents to spread the Good News instead. This is the key to following God’s will for us.

We know that God has a plan for each one of us, but most of the time, we do not know what that plan is. Most of the time, we fumble through life, trying to decide whether God is calling us to get married or become a priest or religious, whether God is calling us to sell all our possessions and become a missionary in a far-off land, whether God is calling us to join this ministry or that. Part of the discernment process, which the Jesuits are known for, is to discern what are our own charism. That is to say, what are our talents, and how is God calling us to use those talents?

If God has a plan for each one of us, it follows that God must have suitably equipped us with what we need to accomplish that plan. Those are our talents. Using our talents, particularly when we unite our will to God’s will, is God’s plan for each one of us. Hence, when we discern where God is calling us to, we also need to look closely at our particular charisms. For example, if I do not have the charism for music, I can safely rule out that God is not calling me to join the choir, whether or not the choir needs people.

Not all of us are called to become missionaries to foreign lands, but all of us are called to become missionaries where we are, bringing the Good News to people around us through the use of our talents. I, for example, do not have the talent of speaking, but I do have the talent of writing, and I use this to share the Good News with others as I do in this OXYGEN ministry.

So my friends, if we only take back one thing with us for today, let it be that each of us is called to be a missionary by using our talents to spread the Good News.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: We pray for all Christians to discern what is God’s will for us through a careful examination and exploration of our God-given charisms.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for our charisms that bring us much life and fulfilment through using them.

Upcoming Readings:
Thu 04 Dec – Isaiah 26:1-6; Psalm 118; Matthew 7:21. 24-27
Fri 05 Dec – Isaiah 29:17-24; Psalm 27; Matthew 9:27-31
Sat 06 Dec – Isaiah 30:19-21; Psalm 147; Matthew 9:35-10:1. 5a. 6-8, St Nicholas Bishop
Sun 07 Dec – Isaiah 40:1-5. 9-11; Psalm 85, 2 Peter 3:8-14, Mark 1:1-8; Second Sunday of Advent