Saturday, February 7, 2015

AN INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM INDIA BY E. MICHAEL JONES

 
One day after my arrival in Goa, I visited the tomb of St. Francis Xavier, where his mutilated but incorrupt body can still be seen. St. Francis Xavier had the degrees that would have allowed him to become a professor. When he arrived in Goa, the Portuguese authorities there, recognizing his credentials, appointed him head of the seminary. But St. Francis Xavier was not meant for academic life. He was nothing if not reckless in his desire to spread the Gospel. Seeing that the church was firmly established in Goa, Xavier moved on to Japan. Preaching to fisherman in Kagoshima who had returned home with empty nets, Xavier applied the gospel in literal fashion and told them to cast their nets over the other side, and when they did, they brought in a huge catch, just as Christ had predicted in the Gospel.
This is precisely what European Catholicism was doing at this moment in history. After losing millions of Christians to the Protestant Revolt, the Catholic Church set out, quite literally, into the deep, and people like Xavier and the Jesuits cast their nets over the other side and brought in a catch of millions of souls. Duc in Altum became the motto of the Church whenever the Church found itself in trouble, after feeling that it had labored all night and caught nothing.
It’s what I have done for 35 years in America. Now after becoming a pariah whose name American Catholics, like the professors at Notre Dame, never mention without appending a curse to it, I am being asked to set out into the deep and cast my nets over the other side. Like St. Francis Xavier before me, I find myself in Goa, ready to set off again to another land to explain the Logos.
During a long voyage back to India which began in November 1551, Xavier came to realize that the high Japanese culture which he came to admire so much all derived from China. The conclusion he drew from this realization was clear. The Japanese would not convert unless the Chinese converted before them. As a result Xavier made plans to visit China, a formidable undertaking at a time when no foreigner could enter China without government permission. Those who attempted to enter illegally often paid with their lives.
In September 1552, Xavier set sail for the island of Shangchuan, nine miles off the coast of the Chinese mainland. When he arrived in Shangchuan, Xavier could find no one willing to take him to the mainland. Eventually he cut a deal with a Chinese merchant who agreed to take him by night for a fee. The merchant took Xavier’s money and never showed up. Weakened by his travels and suffering from hypothermia, Xavier died on the night of December 2, 1552 at the age of 46.
Standing in front of his tomb, I found myself wondering: How did Francis Xavier feel waiting on the island of Shangchuan for the boat that never arrived. Did he feel that he had labored all night and caught nothing? I can’t tell you how many times I have prayed that prayer, but I can tell you that I can’t cast my nets over the other side without your financial support. India is engaged in a raging church-state debate which they cannot solve on their own. With the help of the Indian Jesuits and the book by David Wemhoff that we’re bringing out, we could make a significant contribution to defusing an issue which now poses a serious threat to India’s Catholic population. Your support will help me meet with the Hindu teacher who wanted to talk with me about preventing the sexualization of India’s children. Your support will help me to explain the real meaning of sexual liberation to Iranian Muslims. Your tax-deductible contribution will, God willing, bring about the conversion of more Jews.
Duc in altum,
E. Michael Jones
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