FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
XAVIER COLLEGE PREP, PALM DESERT
DECEMBER 3, 2009
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Thank you so much for welcoming me to your home here in the land of the gold and the black! And thank you for giving me the invitation to share the Eucharist with you as we celebrate the feast of your patron, St. Francis Xavier.
You don’t get schools named after you unless you are an extraordinary person, unless you have somehow left the kind of legacy that has inspired minds, hearts, aspirations, and achievements; and the whole world knows that the man who is your patron was certainly that kind of person.
In many ways, every one of us here today owes our presence and our community to St. Francis Xavier and we owe a debt of gratitude to God for the great gift of so brave and courageous a soul.
How does someone born in medieval Spain of a noble family, schooled at the University of Paris draw his last breath on this earth thousands of miles away in Japan? Something unusual and extraordinary had to have happened to him. Or more to the point, someone unusual and extraordinary happened to him. For Xavier, that someone was Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ who transformed Xavier from a man of ease and privilege into the greatest and most effective ambassador for Christ since St. Paul.
We shouldn’t make the mistake, however, and think that his life and his achievements are not available to us, that there is nothing that Xavier can teach us or nothing about his life story that we can imitate, because there surely is.
You see, Xavier listened to the same passage from the gospel we heard this morning and heard Jesus emphasize the necessity of building our lives on a strong foundation. Xavier learned from Jesus that, no matter how beautiful the house is, if the foundation isn’t strong, it won’t be able to withstand adversity and disaster. Xavier built his life upon the strong foundation of the love of God and on the love for everyone else without exception.
What foundation are you building your life on? Is your foundation strong or is it weak? Do you know the difference? I think you do. You know by looking at the choices you make every single day. Your daily choices become the foundation of your life.
Your choices become your habits, your choices become your values, your values become your character and your character becomes your destiny. You are creating your destiny by the choices you make today.
What are you choosing to care about? What are you choosing to ignore? What are you choosing to pay attention to? What are you choosing to reject?
Are you choosing to live your own life or are you choosing to live a life prescribed by your peers? Are you choosing friends who are trustworthy or are you choosing friends who are manipulative? Are you choosing to be the person you are or are you choosing to allow others to mold you into someone you aren’t? Are you choosing to continue to grow more mature or are your choices to remain childish and selfish? Are you choosing to take responsibility for the choices you make or are you choosing to blame others for your mistakes? Are you choosing to love and respect others because they are sons and daughters of God or are you choosing to allow others into your life merely on the shallow basis of looks or wealth or popularity?
You have a good idea today what kind of person you will one day be because, from your choices, you have a good idea of the person you already are.
If there is one thing we can aspire to in honor and remembrance of St. Francis Xavier, it is the importance of building our lives on a foundation which can withstand the storms of peer pressure, of rejection, of laziness, of heartbreak, of disappointment, of failure – all of those unavoidable experiences of every human life which can prevent us from living lives of meaning and of joy.
The meaning and the joy, coming as they do from a strong foundation, qualify you to have a school named after you – imagine that – and even if you don’t have a school named after you, you can still be a saint.