From the Marches of Navarre to the ends of the earth

St. Francis Xavier, whose feast we celebrate today, shows us how to make straight the paths that lead to Bethlehem

I remember the first time I saw St. Francis Xavier’s birthplace. The Castle of Xavier, in the village of Xavier, in the eastern marches of the province of Navarre, overlooks a long valley through which could enter all sorts of armies, and it looks like the defensive fortress it is. The first time I went, I was taken there by new friends, after visiting the Monastery of Leyre, an ancient Benedictine house first founded in 842, where the congregation today keeps an ordered liturgical life chanting according to the pattern of Solemnes. Leyre and his family home were the two most important landmarks and establishments of the region. I have to imagine that, worldly as he was, Francis Xavier was well-acquainted with the monastery’s church. Later, one of the original sevenJesuits, he was one of the company to vow poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Pope, and who also vowed to go to the Holy Land in order to convert the infidels. One could say that out of his contemplation of the faith, inchoately as a lad and then later under the tutelage of Ignatius of Loyola while both were studying in Paris, arose first a conversion and then the will to care for the poor and sick of soul. Almost by accident — “almost,” because there are no accidents in the divine providence—, he was sent as a missionary to the Portuguese holdings in India, whence he traveled to Indonesia, Japan, and China, tirelessly preaching the Gospel. Rightly did Pope Pius XI proclaim his the “Patron of Catholic Missions.”

From the smallest seeds grow the greatest oaks, provided the seeds and then the trees are well-tended. “All it takes” is everything: first the desire and then the commitment to do everything for the glory God, and to do nothing for any other reason whatsoever, and then the execution, one act of mortification, one act of service, one act of worship at a time. There are no hacks; there are no short-cuts: there is only the iron determination to put God first and to do His will whatever it takes, and, where that determination is lacking, the iron determination to cultivate the iron determination.

Today’s Gospel offers us a clue as to how to become this sort of man or woman: the truths of the faith, and the way to defeat the enemy (Lk 10:17-20) are “hidden … from the wise and understanding, and revealed to the little ones” (v 22). “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” And, as we are in the season of John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” It’s the little child who pleases father or mother effortlessly; the little child whose bumbling attempts to gain mastery, first over the tools and implements of daily living and then over self, gives endless delight to parents. There is no self-consciousness here: there is simply absorption in the task at hand and the desire to please mommy and daddy, who when he arrives home from work is greeted with unfeigned joy. When there is failure and frustration, a simple cry out to mom or dad means help is on the way.

The entire tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel is worth a careful read. The Lord appoints the Seventy to do the work of the Kingdom, and advises them that the harvest is plentiful and so, too, are the dangers. He instructs them how to do the work. He tells them that to reject them is to reject Him. And what do they do? They go out and do exactly as they are told, and return to the Lord with astonishment and joy.

To bring our loved ones and friends to the Lord’s saving touch, to lower the paralytics through the roof, first we must lower ourselves. We must stop pretending that we do not know what He wants of us. If we really don’t know, we need only ask. If we do know, we need only do it. Asking for something else is to no avail: a good father gives bread, not stones, even if the bread is not yet to our liking. Here we have another clue as to how to prepare for the feasts of Christmas: we must cultivate our taste for holiness, and the only way to cultivate it is to do the Father’s will. If you’re still not sure you know what it is, here’s another clue: what are you still refusing to do? Once you do it, you are preparing the way of the Lord.