In the general audience, the pontiff spoke about “the concern to always go further” that marked the life of the Jesuit patron of the missions and great apostle of Asia. “Today there are also many courageous missionaries; I am thinking, for example, of those of Papua New Guinea”. Francesco Javier’s view of China and his death on the island of Sancian, at the gates of this great country, “a symbol for today’s time.”
Vatican City () – “You young people, who feel restless but don’t know what to do: look at Saint Francis Xavier, look at the horizon of the world, look at the towns and so many people who suffer and need to know Jesus . Look and go too, have courage”, Pope Francis said today to young men and women from all over the world at the end of the general audience on Wednesday in Saint Peter’s Square.
In his catechetical cycle dedicated to apostolic zeal, the Pope focused on the figure of the Spanish Jesuit, the great evangelizer of Asia. “Some say that he is the greatest missionary of modern times,” Francis commented, “but you cannot say who is the greatest and who is the least. Even today there are many hidden missionaries who do much more than Saint Francis Xavier. He is the patron of Catholic missions, like Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, but a missionary is great when he goes. And there are many, many priests, nuns, lay people who go to the missions, also from Italy. When I am presented with a priest as a candidate for bishop, many times I see that he has been on mission in that place for 10 years. This is great, he has left his land to preach the Gospel. This is apostolic zeal. And that has to be cultivated a lot; looking at these men and women we learn”.
Francisco then reviewed the stages of the life of Francisco Javier, who was “a young man of the world” who “left his worldly life to become a missionary.” He went as far as Goa, in India, which at that time was the capital of the Portuguese Oriente, and there he set up his base. “But he didn’t stop there. He went to evangelize the poor fishermen on the southern coast of India, teaching catechism and prayers to children, baptizing and caring for the sick. Later, during a night prayer before the tomb of the Apostle Bartholomew, he felt that he should go beyond India and bravely set sail for the Moluccas, the most distant islands of the Indonesian archipelago”.
“Then one day, in India – the Pope recalled – he met a Japanese man, who told him about his distant country, where no European missionary had yet arrived. And Francisco Javier had the apostle’s concern, to always go further, and he decides to leave as soon as possible, and he arrives there after a journey full of adventures in a Chinese junk. The three years in Japan are very hard, due to the climate, the opposition and the lack of knowledge of the language, but here too the seeds planted will bear great fruit”.
Even the last dream that he could not realize, that of China: “he understood that China, with its culture, its history, its greatness, in fact exercised dominance in all that part of the world. And today China continues to be a cultural hub with a great history.” Francis Xavier died on December 3, 1552 on the small island of Sancian, off the coast of China, hoping in vain to land on the mainland near Canton.” At age 46, aged by a life dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel , died in total abandonment, accompanied only by a Chinese who took care of him.”This is quite a symbol,” the Pope commented.
The intense activity of Francisco Javier “was always linked to prayer – he added – to the mystical and contemplative union with God. Wherever he was, he took great care of the sick, the poor, and the children. He was not an “aristocratic” missionary, he always went to the most needy and there he grew in greatness. The love of Christ was the force that took him to the furthest ends, in the midst of continuous hardships and dangers, overcoming failures, disappointments and discouragement, and even more, this gave him comfort and joy to follow and serve him until the end”.
“May the Lord give us a little of this zeal – the Pope concluded – to live and announce the Gospel. Even today there are brave young people. I am thinking, for example, of the many missionaries from Papua New Guinea, of my young friends who are in the diocese of Vanimo, of all those who have gone to evangelize. May the Lord give us all the joy of evangelizing, the joy of carrying forward this beautiful message that makes us and everyone happy”.
Lastly, when he greeted the groups present, Francis remembered the Ukrainian people as always. “There is a lot of suffering – he recalled – let us pray for the children, for the wounded, for those who have died. For peace to return.”
