An embassy to Heaven

Orlando Fedeli

 Clergymen who left everything to undertake a journey towards sure death, avid for giving their own blood for Our Lord Jesus Christ.

That happened in Japan in the XVI^th Century.

Saint Francis Xavier’s apostolic action all over the East was very fertile. Especially in Japan, the fruits of his apostleship remind the achievements of the Apostle Saint Paul, as they are told in the Acts of the Apostles. Millions of Japanese people were baptized and it was considered, without excessive optimism, that the whole Empire of the Rising Sun would sincerely cling to Catholicism.

But the Devil could not allow it. Lightened by a devilish breath, the bloodiest persecution has been unleashed. Every western person – and particularly every clergyman – that arrived on the Japanese isles was immediately murdered.

Paradoxically, instead of driving missionaries away through terror, the possibility of dying for Christ has stimulated so much zeal that, in the Portuguese colonies in the East, it was necessary to forbid the departure of priests to Japan, for so many had gone, and so many had died.

Neither the decrees, nor human prudence could stop the thirsty for martyrdom. At night, on the beaches, it was necessary to place soldiers watching to avoid priests to depart… to heaven.

Observing that there was no way to contain the priest’s fervor, the governor of Malaca decided to send an embassy to Shogun, in order to check whether it was possible to obtain some kind of concession, to avoid the death of so many Christians and so many ministers of God.

And there went the caravel of hope...

When it arrived to the Japanese isles, immediately all on board but one were killed. The remaining one was left alive, for taking to Malaca the news of the massacre.

By receiving the news about the happening, the governor of Malaca ordered the church bells to be joyfully rang, for Portugal had sent an embassy to Japan, but God judged the embassy so worthy that He called it up to Heaven.

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Nowadays, the apostolic spirit of those fathers would be perhaps considered imprudent, by the moderates of this feeble century in which we live...

Surely in our days, it is not necessary anymore to write treatises against “imprudent” zeal. “Prudence”, “balance”, “moderation” – the three great “virtues” of the lukewarm – are things that the Catholics of today desire above all. On the beaches, nowadays, instead of clergymen avid for leaving Malaca towards death, priests make the “pastoral of tourism”.

Wearing shorts and with whisky at hand. Along with ladies in bikinis.

Neroes or Yeasseihassus are not required anymore, for there is nobody else willing to be a martyr...

There are no “embassies to Heaven” anymore...

“Ensurge, Domine! Quare obdormis?” Give us clergymen capable of martyrdom! Give us ambassadors to Heaven!