Good Exhaustion

ADVENT Saturday of Week 1

Feast of Saint Francis Xavier

Entrance Antiphon Psalm 17

I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;

I will tell of your name to my kin.

Reflecting on St. Francis Xavier,

and those lines from Psalm 17, I wonder...

This passing-on business

...my version of 'telling your name'

why is it so unpredictable

why doesn't it look the way I had envisioned it

why is it so darn un-satisfying?

And God answers:

You are always getting your name and my name mixed up!

St. Francis Xavier

after meeting Ignatius Loyola,

studied, was ordained and was sent to India.

He spent the rest of his life in the East, preaching the Gospel.

He made many converts

and fought against the exploitation of the native population

by the Europeans.

He died in 1552 of 'fever and exhaustion'!

(from my little universalis app)

I am going to presume that for Francis Xavier

That was the good kind of exhaustion

Exhaustion at having been used as a vehicle

for ‘telling your name’

God’s name is love

Love is exhausting

The good kind

And God says to Cindy:

Now go and exhaust yourself, Cindy

You aren’t every ingredient

(nor are you many, or some)

Because thinking you are

will lead to the very bad kind of exhaustion.

In this mission of ‘passing-on’

You have a part…your part

One no one else can fill

And…oh yeah…please remember whose name you are telling;)