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December 3, 2022Usually when I tell folk that I graduated from Xavier University they make a couple of assumptions. The first one is that I am talking about Xavier University in Cincinnati. The second one is that my alma mater, my Xavier, is a Jesuit institution. They are wrong on both accounts. I am a proud 1988 alumnus of Xavier University of Louisiana located in New Orleans. And Xavier was founded by Saint Katharine Drexel, S.B.S. in 1925. Yes, Mother Katharine named Xavier for Saint Francis Xavier, the prodigious Jesuit missionary, whose feast we celebrate today.
The way I understand it, Mother Katharine wanted to name this university after Saint Francis Xavier because the university was her great missionary effort. And as if that were not enough, both before Xavier’s founding and long after, Saint Katharine founded more schools and parishes for Blacks and Native Americans than you could shake a stick at. Like her patron, Saint Francis Xavier, Katharine Drexel took to heart today’s gospel: “proclaim … the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Cure the sick...” Saint Francis Xavier probably did not imagine that God would use him to inspire a Philadelphia heiress to inaugurate a university in his name; a place where the Gospel of Jesus Christ would touch and transform lives and produce people who would heal the sick and cure the ailing as health and social welfare professionals of every kind; a place to lift up the heartbroken as artists, musicians, teachers, businesspeople, and other professionals; a place that would effect humane and just teaching throughout the globe as judges, lawyers, and public servants.
What a grand example of discipleship we have before us as we begin the awesome season of Advent. As we take time in these days to reflect on the power of Jesus’ resplendent message in our own lives, we can prepare ourselves to receive Jesus anew – born for us, for our time. It just so happens that we are a people in tremendous need of a Savior who can heal our tortured, fear-driven souls in these days of grinding uncertainty. Probably a lot like the days in which Jesus was born where chaos and oppression reigned. Truth was hard to find. Death and violence lurked around every corner. As Pope Francis reminds us, we are called to be missionary disciples. We enter this holy season, once again, counting on the grace that God’s beloved Son gave to this world. And like the sainted missionary disciples—Francis Xavier and Katharine Drexel—we too embark on our journey to proclaim with our lives, Jesus’ Gospel of hope, love, and peace for all people.
