Magna aude

It takes one’s breath away to think of what St. Francis Xavier did as a missionary during only ten years. If you or I had been born in the 16th century and had been sent as a missionary to the "Indies", what would we have done?

I know what I would have done. I would have stayed in Goa all my life, doing what I could to help people become good Christians. Or, I would go to another city and try to evangelize that little corner of the vineyard.

Francis Xavier was made of different stuff. He was not satisfied with evangelizing a corner of the vineyard. He wanted to Christianize the entire vineyard.

In his case, the entire vineyard was half the world – all of East Asia.

After a voyage that lasted 13 months, he arrived in Goa and started to work at once. But since there were already some priests there, he went to the south of India where there were none. Among the poor and oppressed fishermen, he is said to have baptized 10,000. Leaving another priest to take care of them, he pushed on, to Malacca, and to the islands that are now part of Indonesia.

In his travels he met a Japanese named Anjiro who told him stories about Japan. Xavier decided he must go to Japan to bring the Gospel there. But there were difficulties. No ships would go there. So he hired a ship to take him there. It turned out to be a pirate ship. On it Xavier sailed with Anjiro and seven companions.

On August 15, 1549, they landed in Kagoshima in southern Japan. To this day, Japanese Catholics consider that date as the beginning of Christianity in Japan.

Xavier stayed in Japan two years. While he was there, he learned about the great culture of China. Again, leaving other priests in Japan, he decided he must go to China to evangelize that nation.

But again, there were difficulties. China was a sealed country, no foreigners allowed. So Xavier decided he would get himself smuggled into the country.

He was waiting in the little island of Sancian, looking for a way to be smuggled into the mainland, when he fell ill and died.

That was Francis Xavier. In the service of Jesus Christ, nothing seemed to him impossible. The word simply did not exist in his thinking.

We might coin a Latin phrase to serve as a motto for what he did: magna aude. Dare to do great things.

There is a sentence in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that might apply to Xavier: "When I am powerless, it is then that I am strong." What is impossible to man, is possible to God. The Angel said that to Mary in the Annunciation: "Nothing is impossible with God."

In God’s service, nothing is too great to dare. Magna aude: Dare to do great things – even the impossible.