A Missiology Lesson from San Francisco Javier, S.J. , A Great Fisher of Men in Asia

December 3 is the feast day of San Francisco Javier (Francis Xavier).  It is a very special day for Japanese Catholics, like me, because San Francisco Javier, a Jesuit missionary priest, was the one, who brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to Japan in 1549.

Prior to coming to Japan, San Francisco Javier served as missionary priest and evangelized in India and Malacca from May 1545 to April 1549.  In 1547, while in Malacca, San Francisco Javier met a Japanese fugitive, Anjiro (a.k.a. Yajiro in Japan), as he sought San Francisco Javier to confess his sins of committing murder in Japan.  Upon his confession, San Francisco Javier sent Anjiro to Goa as his metanoia resulted in his desire to become Christian.  Anjiro ended receiving the Sacrament of Baptism in Bom Jesu church in Goa and even studied at San Paulo College there.

San Francisco Javier’s mission in Goa, India, was obviously successful by the time he sent Anjiro there from Malacca for his baptism and Christian education. In fact, his meeting with this former Japanese criminal is believed to have prompted San Francisco Javier to embark on his mission in Japan.

On April 15, 1549, San Francisco Javier set sail to Japan from Goa, India, together with his missionary companions, including Anjiro Paulo de Santa Fe, and two Jesuits, Bro. Juan Fernandez, and Fr. Cosme de Torrres. En route to Japan, they stopped by Canton, Ming China. They first reached the shore of Japan on July 27, 1549, in Bounotsu, a port town near Kagoshima City and remained there until receiving permission to land. On the feast day of Assumption (August 15), 1549, San Francisco Javier and his companions landed in Kagoshima.  In his letter to the Jesuits, San Francisco Javier wrote that he and his companions were well-received by people of Kagoshima and enjoyed their hospitality. He also wrote in the letter that people of Kagoshima appeared to be wonderfully delighted with the doctrines of the divine law as they are new to them.

Though San Francisco enjoyed friendly hospitality upon his arrival in Kagoshima, the most of his missionary experience in Japan turned out to be struggles.  He had a difficulty in learning Japanese, and had to rely on Anjiro’s assistance. However, what was most difficult to his mission in Japan was that many Japanese people he tried to evangelize turned out to be skeptical and critical to Christianity.  Some were even repulsive, especially those whom he called “bonzu” (bouzu), Buddhist priests. He attributed problem, in part, to the prevalence of Buddhism and Chinese philosophy in Japan. This experience led him to evangelize in China, as he thought converting the Chinese would eventually contribute to make the Japanese more receptive to Christianity. San Francisco Javier realized that the Japanese learned Buddhism and philosophies from sages of China, and thought, therefore, that evangelization of China would be the best way to evangelize Japan.  This must have prompted him to set sail to China from India in 1552, after his difficult years in Japan, as he once he returned to Goa from Japan, though this ambitious mission was not accomplished as he died due to illness near China on his way.

Of course, the mission of San Francisco Javier in Japan won some converts, especially in the areas where he was able to win supportive authorization to evangelize from the provincial samurai lords.  In fact, it was his missionary and evangelization technique so unique in Japan to reach out first to provincial samurai lords rather than ordinary people of the areas.  San Francis Xavier did not practice this technique when he was in India, as he primarily ministered to the poor. He obviously realized that different missionary and evangelization techniques and methods had to be applied to different countries of different cultures and political systems. Though Buddhist priests, who were hostile to the new teaching that he brought, also tried to prevent provincial samurai lords to reject him and the Christian teaching he would preach, San Francisco Javier was able to gain some provincial samurai lords’ support and won as many as 500 new converts just in 2 months of evangelization in the Yamaguchi region.  In this region, its provincial samurai lord, Yoshitaka Oouchi, even gave him an abandoned Buddhist temple for his missionary activities, in exchange for gifts from Europe.

You may wonder if such a missionary and evangelization technique that San Francisco Javier used in Japan would be considered as “bribing” or simply the methodological cleverness to have the mission accomplished. Whichever his technique may be, there was an obvious contract in his missionary methodologies in India and in Japan.  In India, he solely reached out to the bottom of the society. On the other hand, in Japan, he tapped from the top down in the societal hierarchy.  Perhaps, he would gain much less converts, had he simply applied the same missionary and evangelization methodology also in Japan as he did in India.

This contrast within the missionary and evangelization methodologies of San Francisco Xavier in India and in Japan is subject to interesting debates in missiology in light of inculturation. Nevertheless, one thing for sure about San Francisco Xavier’s missionary is that he is the harbinger to bring the Good News of Christ further in Asia. Perhaps, given the extensiveness of his missionary, San Francis Xavier is comparable to St. Paul of Tarsus, the champion of the first century apostolic mission, and St. John Paul II’s global mission during his papacy from 1978 to 2005. 

In comparing San Francis Javier’s mission to St. Paul’s, contrasting Francisco’s debate with Buddhist priests in Japan to Paul’s debate with Epicurean and Stoicism philosophers in Athens can be another interesting subject for comparative missiology study, while further contrasting these to St. John Paul’s commitment to interreligious dialogues on a global scale, blue-printed in his 1979 encyclical, “Redemptor Hominis”, reflecting “Nostra Aetate”(In Our Time), 1965 Vatican document.  As a matter of fact, the spirit of “Redemptor Hominis” – redeemer of men – as San Francisco Javier was gung-ho about “redeeming human souls” in light of the Jesuit motto: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (for the greater glory of God).

St, John Paul II's global mission

Just as during the first century, there was no apostle who traveled on missionary as far as St. Paul, there was no missionary priest who traveled as far as San Francisco Javier in his time.

What we can reflect on the feast day of San Francisco Javier is – how willing and passionate we are to take up on these words of Jesus: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20). One thing for sure to take these words in practice as St. Paul, San Francisco Javier, and St. John Paul II, did is to be filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  We must be made gung-ho by the Holy Spirit to respond to our respective missionary calls and go.  Ever since Jesus made St. Andrew and his brother, St. Peter, the very first batch of fishers of men, we have been incorporated into this missionary tradition of the discipleship by virtue of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. 

Now, we are called to serve the Lord as his fishers of men to the ends of the earth in the spirit of “Nostra Aetate” and “Redemptor Hominis” with the evangelical methodological adaptability of inculturation.  Through the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ shows us where to go and how we shall set the his kingdom nets for a great catch of human souls.