Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Memorial of St. Francis Xavier

"I shall live in the house of the Lord all of my days." - Ps 23:6

Recently, I was praying on this psalm trying to determine what exactly it means to live in the house of the Lord. Do I even want to live in the House of the Lord? If this is the goal, then how do I get there?

I would like to imagine that these are the questions that would have gone through Francis Xavier's mind before undertaking his journey. In fact, I sincerely hope he had his share of doubts before embarking on a journey to places unknown, to die far from home. Most of all, I hope that through his doubts came this shimmering vision or idea of the goal, a mirage even. It must be a mirage, something hoped for, yet really unseen. What are our lives but this: seeking something that is beyond the scope of our imagination, something so great that we cannot even fathom it.

St. Francis Xavier is the patron saint of missionaries, easily dismissed because most of us do not live the life we attribute to the mission fields. However, each of us is missioned by our Baptism. We are all called to serve, to live as disciples of Christ. I think we all approach the journey with our own perspective of what the House of the Lord may be. We all have to face the ultimate question: is the journey worth it? Is it worth giving our lives to Christ? Is heaven worth the prize?

I still have a difficult time determining what is and isn’t worth the struggle. Francis is my inspiration to keep struggling along, continuing my own journey with St. Ignatius’s parting words to his friend: “Ite inflammate omnia” - Go set the world aflame!

Reflected by Matthew Keppel

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