Culture for
Don Bosco was the world of the young. He breathed young, just as we breathe
air. He was ready to give his life for their welfare. On the 14 of May 1862, 22
members of the newly-founded Society of St. Francis de Sales completed their
novitiate year and formally pronounced their triennial vows of poverty,
chastity and obedience, while Don Bosco knelt by a table on which stood a
crucifix. When they had finished, Don Bosco stood up and gave them a few
comforting words of encouragement. Among other things, he said:
“One may wonder, did Don Bosco make those
vows too? Well, as you were making your voews before me, I too was making them
in perpetuity before the crucifix. I offered myself in sacrifice to the Lord,
ready to bear anything for His greater glory and the welfare of sould,
particularly the souls of the young. May the Lord help us to be faithful to
our vows” (Chrys, 25).
The
above-mentioned vow of Don Bosco to give his life for the good of the young had
its finest expression a few years earlier. In the summer of 1846 Don Bosco fell
sick. He was at the point of death! In God’s plan he got well again. While he
was convalescing, he was able to return supporting himself with a stick to the
midst of his beloved young friends. Seeing Don Bosco coming towards them, they
got excited. In a makeshift sedia
gestatoria the boys lifted Don Bosco up and carried him in triumph. In the
chapel after prayers of thanksgiving Don Bosco uttered what came to be known as
“the most solemn and demanding words of his life”. “Dear sons, he said, I owe my life to you. But you can be sure of
this: from now on, I shall spend my whole life for you” (Chrys 25-26).
Commenting on these words of Don Bosco, Fr. Chavez, wrote, “Don Bosco inspired
by the Holy Spirit, in a certain sense made a novel vow: the vow of apostolic
love, of the handing over of his life for the young, one that he will observe
every moment of his life” GC 26, p151.
Equally or more daringly something happened a few months earlier in the
same year 1846. Don Bosco had been working as chaplain of St. Philomena’s
Hospital and was looking after the spiritual direction of an institute
belonging to a rich lady. One day she gave an ultimatum to Don Bosco saying
either to work as she proposed or to quit the Institute to look after his boys.
Don Bosco’s reply was immediate. Without a second thought he replied, “my dear
Marchioness, I have already thought it over for a long time. You have money and
means, and you will have no trouble in finding all the priests you want to direct
your institutes. But poor boys have nothing, and that is why I cannot and must
not forsake them… I have dedicated my
life wholly to the welfare of these poor boys and no one will ever make me
stray from the path that the Lord has marked out for me” (Chrys, 26).
Don Bosco was
at home with the young already from his tender age of 5 when he used to gather
them to revise the Sunday homily. The dream at the age of 9 marked out clearly
his mission among the young. As a priest he was someone who had given his whole
life over to God for “a special mission” among the young.
CULTURE NOT JUST OF LOVE, BUT OF LOVE THAT IS MADE FELT
The essence
of Don Bosco’s teaching can be summed up in the following words. “It is not
enough to love, but make your love felt! Don Bosco’s
fatherly and friendly role among the young was seen in the way he loved the
young. Just as God the Father loves us first and brings us into existence Don
Bosco translated it into what is known as “prevenient
love”. He went out to the peripheries in search of the young. He took the
first step to help them. He eliminated distance, came close to the young, loved
them and made his love felt by them through acts of friendliness and
familiarity. His love was both universal and personal at the same time. He had
the wonderful capacity to make each one of the youngsters feel that Don Bosco
loved him and him only! Such was the power and persuasion of Don Bosco’s love.
Many indeed considered themselves his “favourites”. Make yourself loved and not
feared, Don Bosco used to say.
Don
Bosco knew how to educate the young to responsible freedom. The strong
personalities that emerged from Valdocco, the scene of his first years with the
young. Some of these personalities are Dominic Savio, Michael Magone, Cagliero,
Costamagna and many other high profile figures. Don Bosco’s love lead the young
to a love for God.
CULTURE
OF WORK AND PRAYER
Don
Bosco used to say, “My dear children, I do not ask you to fast or scourge
yourselves. I exhort you to work, work, work!” When asked how Don Bosco managed
to accomplish so much, his reply was “Thanks be to God, hard work is for me
more of a delight and relaxation than a burden”. Fr. Caviglia was of the
opinion that 90% of his talks to the Salesians revolved around the themes of
work, temperance and poverty. Don Bosco’s process of beatification and
canonization ran into difficulties with
regard to prayer and work. It was asked when did Don Bosco pray, for he was
seen as an indefatigable worker. The counter question, “when did not pray?” won
the day. It is true that he did not
spend long hours in prayer like saints Cure’ of Ars or Cafasso. Nor was he allergic to spending long
hours in prayer. However, in the spirit of “My dear children, I do not ask you
to fast or scourge yourselves, I exhort you to work, work, work!” and “Thanks
be to God, hard work is for me more of a delight and relaxation than a burden”
(BM IV, 148), Fr. Caviglia holds that 90% of Don Bosco’s talks to the confreres
revolved around the themes of work, temperance and poverty. Fr. Ceria in his
turn affirms that the specific characteristic of Salesian prayer is the ability
to turn into prayer. In this scenario it is more easy to see work than prayer,
and yet for Don Bosco turning work into prayer, it would be evident for those
who understand him deeply to conclude that he prays while he was working as
well as when he was seen praying only. In others words he prayed always. Prayer
was everywhere in his life. No wonder he was defined as “union with God”. This
uninterrupted union with God in the life of Don Bosco made the General Chapter 26 ask every
Salesian to pray for the “grace of unity” between contemplation and apostolic
activity which would keep at bay the danger of fragmented and superficial
acitivity. What gives unity to our being, writes Chrys Saldanha, is not action,
not even prayer, but love. Here it is useful to cite in full the words of
Chrys:
“…our
reflection and experience tell us that genuine love is always expressed in two
ways which complement and compenetrate each other: intimacy and dedication. In
love which takes the form of intimacy, one desires to be near the loved one, to
see his face, to speak with him, to enjoy his presence and his word. In love
which takes the form of dedication, one wishes to work for the loved one, to
serve his interests and his happiness, even at the cost of sacrifice. Thus it
is, for example, with the wife and mother: her love for her husband and her
children is expressed and also increases both in the moments of intimacy with
them as well as in the hours of work and fatigue endured for them. A love in
the form of intimacy alone, without dedication or fatigue, would be nothing but
sentimentality or laziness. A love in the form of work alone without a
face-to-face communion, would become a lack of appreciation for the other
person. In both cases, love would be on the way to its decline and possible
death.
“So,
it is our vocation and fundamental attitude as apostolic religious to live our
communion of love with God in the fervor of intimacy and in the generosity of
dedication, i.e. at the level of our personal relationship with God as well as
at the level of our activity for God.
“It is love, then, that makes possible
the unity of work and prayer” (Chrys, 80-81). For years we have been
discussing as to what is more important: Work or Prayer forgetting to look at
Don Bosco more clearly. Neither work nor
prayer is what is important, but LOVE expressed through either prayer or work.
Here again, it would be futile to carry on deliberating which should get an existential
priority in the Salesian charism, or in the day to day existence for
sons/daughters of Don Bosco. Here again, let us listen to Don Bosco. He would
say: “The world is becoming materialistic, hence we must work and make known
the good that is done. If one performs
even miracles praying day and night in his cell, the world will not pay
attention to him and believe him. He world needs to see and touch. The present
world want tosee the works, wants to see the clergy work…” (BM XIII, 96 cited
in Chrys, 78).
CULTURE
OF LOVE FOR A CULTURE OF WORK
For
Don Bosco love meant loving kindness, a love that was made felt through acts of
kindness. Such a love gives birth to a chain reaction of relationships which at every point deepens
one’s friendship with others. And when one realizes that friendship is the best
form of evangelization, one can imagine the possibilities loving kindness opens
before us for sharing the Good News.
Intimacy
and dedication, the two interpenetrating aspects of love should lead one to
combine the spirit of Mary and that of Martha (Lk 10:38-42). And I believe that
the combination of the two giving birth
to a single reality of hard work (of Martha) interpenetrated by a constant listening
to the Lord (of Mary) is the contemplation in action and action suffused with
uninterrupted union with the Lord after the example of Don Bosco. And whenever we leave our work for a moment
in order to pray is “recognize and affirm that God works without ceasing” : “My
Father is still working and I also am working” (Jn 5:17).
To
realize it in one’s life Don Bosco proposes several practical ways such as,
explicitly to think of God, use of ejaculatory prayers, visit to the Blessed
Sacrament, and prayer before, during and after work. This is how our whole life
becomes a “liturgy of life” (SDB C 95) heading the words of St. Paul, “ I
appleal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1).
CULTURE
OF EDUCATION AFTER THE HEART OF DON BOSCO
Don
Bosco is one of the great educators of the young. To the young he was simple
and clear. The educational method of Don Bosco is born of life he lived. The
dream he had at the age of 9 taught him to win over the young “not with blows”,
but with kindness, meekness and charity. And
he was asked to carry out the mission of education by being “humble,
strong and robust”. And that is what Don Bosco did during his life time and has
passed on to posterity. We read in letter of 1886, “Don Bosco has already been
sacrificing his life for the education and instruction of the young for fifty
years. The results of his work are so gratifying and so widespread that Don
Bosco has become the most famous educator of his times, both in the old and in
the new world. What has contributed to his fame is his Preventive System”
(Braido,115).
The
Preventive System is a spirituality-cum-educational experience. Here
“spiritual” is understood as letting God permeate the educator’s daily life:
his/her thoughts, words and actions, especially the educator’s plan for the
education of the young. It is being present to the young in different ways,
allowing them to bring out/develop what is best in them (ex “out” ducere “to
lead”
CULTURE
OF JOY
Education
cannot happen in sadness, in repression, in force. Education is a thing of the
heart. It takes place in joy, freedom
and in healthy relationship. So, for Don Bosco, the playground,
recreation, sport, music, singing, dramatics, celebration of feasts and
significant occasions, outings and picnics are all important. “I want to see,
says Don Bosco, my boys running and playing to their hearts’ content, because
then I know what they are doing” (BM V,3). In the spirit of being present to
his boys, Don Bosco encourages the educators of every age, each one according
to his ability to become, “the soul of recreation”. “Give everyone ample
freedom, we read in a write-up on the Preventive System by Don Bosco, to jump,
run and make as much noise as they want. Gymnastics, music, declamation,
dramas, outings are very effective means of building up discipline. They foster
morality and holiness” (ll sistema
preventive nell’educazione della gioventu, 295). We give below the words of Don Bosco in which we see that
he attributed to freedom of
expression as a constitutive and unique pedagogical principle. While answering
the question raised in a letter address to him namely, “What is your educational
system”, Don Bosco wrote: “It is very simple : give the young all the freedom to do what they like
most. The secret is to discover in them the seeds of their good dispositions
and help to develop them. And sin ce each one does with pleasure only what he knows he is able to do, I keep to this
principle and my students not only do their work, but they do it with love” (BM
XVII, 64, as cited in Chrys, 127).
CULTURE
OF OFFERING VALUES
Don
Bosco summed up these values in three simple words: health, wisdom and holiness.
In this connection I would like to share a conversation I had recently on the
occasion of the conclusion of the international Terra Madre in Mawphlang, Meghalaya yesterday (Saturday 7 November,
2015).
