Today marks the Memorial of Saints Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf and companions. Their martyrdom took place in the mid-1600s, and they were canonized in 1930. St. Isaac Jogues is the patron saint of North America. These Jesuits ventured to the New World from France, and evangelized the Huron tribe in Canada and what is now upstate New York. Their devotion to their Faith, their mission, and the Native American people whom they loved, led to their deaths.
So it was that Jesuits from the great Catholic nation of France ventured forth to bring Christ to the 'heathens' in the rough country of the New World. The martyrs considered the unchurched state of the native peoples a problem crying out for a remedy, and gave their lives to that cause. They became part of a centuries-long tradition whereby missionaries from Western developed nations traveled to distant lands to bring Christ to those who did not know him.
St. Isaac Jogues is a fitting patron saint for North America today. Today, not only North America, but France and all of Western Europe have reverted to their former mission territory state, like once well-cultivated gardens thick with weeds. In this new order, the former mission territories of Asia and Africa have become global power plants for Roman Catholicism, crackling with the energy of new faith.
Working at a child sponsorship organization, we here at CARITAS For Children have learned that our sponsors, living in this land of material abundance, often become beneficiaries of those children living in lands of spiritual plenty. The living water of their faith, hope and love can slake our thirst as we trudge across a parched spiritual landscape. For many of our sponsors, these children are the only missionary they will ever see in their lifetimes. In many of us, missionaries such as these will have to suffice until the next St. Isaac Jogues comes ashore.
