Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

Lectionary: 175

All nations shall stream toward it; 
many peoples shall come and say: 
"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain, 
to the house of the God of Jacob, 
That he may instruct us in his ways, 
and we may walk in his paths."

I met a fellow recently who still remembers his Catholic upbringing. He likes to go with his adult children to Mass once a year, on Christmas Day. I am sad that he has lost his faith but encouraged that he can still say to his children, "Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain to the house of the God of Jacob." Perhaps he will receive instruction and return to God's ways and walk in his paths. 

It's wonderful that we maintain the practice of faith in a foreign land. While many will observe Christmas with gift-giving and football games, we will gather in our churches to honor the Lord. 

I still remember the shock of hearing one story several years ago, when Christmas fell on Sunday. The minister told his congregation a week earlier they would not have a Sunday service the following week since everyone would be too busy with Christmas. Obviously the Birth of Jesus meant nothing to that misled congregation.

Today's gospel story about the centurion reminds us of the "fear" we should practice in the presence of God. We do not put off our faith when it's inconvenient. 

This centurion was a man of dreadful violence. He, his men and his army had subdued the known world with the most efficient killing machine the world had ever seen. The life of an enemy combatant or suspected subversive meant nothing to him. Like some combat Veterans I have met in the VA, he had killed and could kill again. 

But he quailed in the presence of Jesus. Like King David a thousand years before, this soldier had learned and practiced the fear of the Lord. 

We don't learn this virtue by violence. Parents, teachers and ministers don't teach it by beating their children. Reverence is not taught; it is caught by those who admire and want to emulate the devout. 

The old man I met recently, with his nostalgia for the Christmas Mass, might yet admire us for our practice of Advent; for our prayers, fasting, penance and works of charity. He and his adult children and grandchildren might wonder that you and I still fear the Lord even in the twenty-first century, as we expect his Coming.