Last week, I had the rare privilege of experiencing the places that were witnesses to the roots of my mother school, which is Xavier School. The school was named after St. Francis Xavier, a close companion of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was the one who commissioned Francis Xavier to preach the faith to the Far East. Francis Xavier did what he was told and was able to successfully share the Good News with countries like India and Japan. Along the way, he was challenged by a Japanese native to prove the greatness of his God by going to China. Francis Xavier mustered all his strength as he prepared to evangelize the greatest nation in Asia. Unfortunately for him, his desire was not enough to bring him physically to China as he died on the island of Shangchuan, waiting in vain for a boat that could take him to the mainland.
Failure it may seem to others, but St. Francis Xavier’s life proved to be a great source of inspiration to his fellow Jesuit brothers years after his death. Most notable of whom was Matteo Ricci, known in China as Li-Ma-Teu, the most well-known European in China. Ricci was able to penetrate the xenophobic barriers of Imperial China and gained favor from the Chinese emperor. Ricci did not resort to harsh missionary strategies that would have easily offended the Chinese people. Rather, he respected Chinese habits and customs, going as far as wearing Chinese clothes and becoming very fluent in Mandarin. His gentle and venerable approach won him many friends in China. To this day, I have been witness to his many works in various cities of China. One can only be struck with awe upon seeing magnificent Catholic churches standing proudly amid the many temples and Oriental edifices in the cities of Macau, Shanghai, and Beijing. My surprise comes from the wrong impression that Catholicism was immensely suppressed in China. In fact, in the mostly flatlands of Shanghai, a Catholic Church devoted to Mary stands at the peak of the hills of Sheshan. The continued existence and reconstructions of these churches are a strong evidence of how the Chinese people and the government respect Matteo Ricci and his fellow Jesuits by honoring the legacies they left behind.
This year, the Catholic Church marks the 4th centenary of Matteo Ricci’s successful mission to China. His chosen path of collaboration and respect of Chinese customs resulted in a deep devotion and reverence of Catholic faith among the Chinese people to this day. Though the Jesuits were evicted out of China during the Revolution, what again seemed as a failure bore new fruits as most of the Jesuits from the Chinese province transferred to the Philippines and turned their attention to tending the flock of the Chinese-Filipino community in Manila, Cebu, and Iloilo.
On the last night of our pilgrimage to the holy places of the Jesuit mission in China, we were asked which was the high point of the whole journey. Despite the splendid structures and influence left behind by Matteo Ricci and his fellow Jesuit contemporaries, I still deem most significant that humble chapel on Shangchuan Island that once housed the remains of Francis Xavier. Fronting the chapel is a view of the mountains of Canton, which represented for Francis Xavier the entry point of his desire to share the life of Christ with the Chinese people. As I was mesmerized by the very sight that Francis Xavier was probably gazing at, I marveled at how that simple desire to cross the sea to mainland China had rippled to Matteo Ricci’s mission and later on, even to the Chinese-Filipino communities in the Philippines, thus leading to the establishment of parishes and schools like Xavier School. There, on that solitary island, I learned the essence of school spirit. I do not talk of the shallow kind, which manifests through the loudest cheers during basketball games. I speak of a school spirit that takes root in knowing where my school comes from, learning about the people who had influenced its establishment and how the greater mission has progressed extensively both through victories and failures. In the spirit of Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci, Xavier School had emphasized to me the importance of going back to one’s roots by continuously sending its teachers and students to the origins of the institution. Through the experience, we take to heart and continue the mission of the school’s patrons, and are imbued with the desire to achieve, not for personal glory, but as means to attest and affirm that we are part of the mission that was started centuries ago by great men of passion, excellence, and holiness.