Gratitude to God by being the Salesian of Don Bosco we should be
May 13, 2019
INS 3rd. Provincial
Chapter concluding Eucharist
& Provincial Community Day
STC Anton Hall Shillong
11th May 2019
Dear Fr. Provincial and dear
Confreres and friends,
At the outset I thank Fr.
Provincial for honoring me by inviting me to give this homily to the most
important audience I can think of in the Province.
We are in the month of May, a
month very dear to Don Bosco. I would like to pay our filial homage to Our
Blessed Mother as we begin this reflection.// Blessed Don Rua was present at
the Slver Jubilee celebrations of Salesian works in Rome. One of the priests
spoke at length of the great things “they” had achieved. At the end Don
Rua got up and said that the speaker should not have left out “Our Lady”. She
had done it all”.
We know that everything began
with a dream. Little Johnny Bosco was told in that first dream vision he had at
the tender age of nine, “Mary is the mistress, under whose guidance you will
become wise, and without whom all wisdom is foolishness (BM I, 124). Imagine
the great appreciation Jesus has for His Mother! And our Mother too.
After several years of
experience, each one of us may also add “all our plans and projects would have
borne more fruit, had we been more devoted to our Bl. Mother. Don Bosco says,
“In Her I have placed all my trust” (MB I, 243). “Nothing has ever been done in
this Oratory, that has not been done in the holy name of Mary” (MB V, 439).
Therefore, following the spirit of Don Bosco let us strive -in the words of Don
Bosco- to “Cultivate a great and tender devotion to Mary most holy”. “Oh, if
you only knew”, continues to share Don Bosco, “how important this devotion is,
you would not exchange it / for all the gold in the world” (MB VII, 293).
This leads us to a second
point, namely, our GRATITUDE to God and to our Blessed Mother for all the
graces and blessings the St. John Paul II province of Shillong has received
first during the term of Fr. George Maliekal as the 1st Provincial,
and now with Fr. Paul Olphindro Lyngkot as the 2nd Provincial of INS.
We raise our hearts in gratitude to God and to everyone -including all the
benefactors, agencies, and all the others who have been instrumental in making the
Shillong Province what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow to the glory
of God. A great responsibility for this has been borne and will be borne by the
Salesian Communities all over the province spread into the Khasi-Jaintia Hills
of Meghalaya, the States of Mizoram and Tripura and the Dima Hazao district of
Assam.
Here I would like to mention in
particular the contribution of Fr. George Maliekal, the first INS provincial
and his Council members in establishing and expanding the province so laudably.
The hard-working leadership and daring initiatives of Fr. George Maliekal and
his Council are worthy of special mention. Their trust in Providence in spite
of several odds and God’s love and mercy for them and for us are the true
foundation on which INS stands. In a true sense INS is and should be an
uninterrupted praise of God’s Grace, as well as of His blessings and mercies.
Fr. Paul Olphindro continues to take forward with greater intensity the
original trust in God and His Providence. His vision impacts especially the
areas of Formation, Youth Ministry, Youth Activities and greater systematizing
and professionalism in our work and mission. We offer Fr. Provincial our prayers
and unstinted cooperation in fulling the Lord’s plan for the province. May St.
John Paul II bless the province, its Council members, Rectors and all those
holding key leadership roles and Salesian Family Members associated with the
Province in one way or another with greater missionary enthusiasm so that in
the midst of the ever-growing activities we may continue to become expressions
of Don Bosco’s project of life: Give me souls, take away the rest. As we keep moving forward allow me to place
one or two signposts: 1. Enduring and unshakable faith: The miracle was not that God parted the waters of
the Red Sea. The real miracle was that once parted, the people had the faith
enough to be willing to walk through/ with the walls of water on both sides!
The fearless person moves beyond fear and knows that there is nothing to fear.
The God who parted the waters can also hold up the waters. 2. Be calm. He knows
better: here I am remined of a delivery case during the Second World War. A
lady was rushed to a military hospital in Germany for emergency delivery. Her
husband walked up and down anxiously to await the result. Impatient he rushed
into the delivery room and enquired about his wife. He was asked to wait
further… But when he entered the first thing he noticed was the Crucifix
hanging. He took it down, smashed it on the ground and said angrily, “I do not
want my child to see that ugly figure of that crucified Jew when it will be
born…!” After the delivery he was called in. He asked anxiously if it is a boy
or a girl. The Sisters attending said “boy”. They added, “but there was no need
of smashing the Crucifix. Whether boy or girl, the child would not have looked
at it!” “Why”, he asked. Because, the Sister explained, the child- a boy- is
also a freak of nature. He is born without eyes!” Every gift of God needs to be
received with a lot of humility. 3. Difficulties are not many. Only three. One,
Returning love for hatred. Two, Including the excluded. And three, Admitting
that you are wrong. It is comforting to realize that the Province will not have
any other difficulties except these three. But difficulties are important.
Because, a world without the Cross would be a desert!
Our gratitude to God would be empty,
if we do not promise God to do everything better with a spirit of magis
(not magic, but magis). The Latin word magis would mean that there is
nothing in this world that cannot be done a little more and better. The spirit
of magis (a Jesuit inspiration) should never allow us to settle down to
a spirit of minimalism, being satisfied with just enough and not more.
When I was in Sonada where I spent some 8 years or so, I was blessed with the
presence of many zealous and missionary minded Salesians like Fr. LoGroi, Fr.
Patrick Sheehy, etc. Fr. Sheehy -an Irish Salesian- was the personification of the
spirit of magis. He would express it by saying, “never say, die, boys”. It
was his constant refrain, especially when playing basketball! And, we never
lost when Fr. Sheehy was with us! And that enthusiasm was seen in all what he
said and did.
Well, at the conclusion of a
Provincial Chapter, and on a day in which we keep the provincial community day,
it would be redundant on my part to exhort you to a spirit of magis, because,
I am sure, that all of us are filled with a spirit of doing more and better in
whatever we shall do. However, I would like to remind all of us that “to be
filled with” only does not make us good missionaries. We become zealous
missionaries only when we are filled with and overflowing. Don Bosco translated
this spirit of magis to its highest degree when he accepted as his motto
“Give me souls, take away the rest”. With the phrase “take away the rest”, he
pushed the spirit of magis to its ultimate limit. He was ready to do
even the impossible humanly speaking with the help of God and of our Blessed
Mother. He expressed it in many ways, but especially when he said, “ I’ve
promised God that I would give of myself to my last breath for my poor boys” or
“In those things which are for the benefit of young people in danger or which
serve to win souls for God, I push ahead even to the extent of recklessness”. It
was Don Rua who affirmed that “he [Don Bosco] took no step, said no word, undertook
no task that was not directed to the salvation of the young …truly the only
concern of his heart was the salvation of the young”.
As we know, Don Bosco and the world
of youth cannot be separated. In this connection it would be in place that we
highlight at this auspicious occasion the recently published Apostolic
Exhortation of Pope Francis on youth. Allow me to summarize -however briefly- the
Apostolic Exhortation which crowns the Synod of Bishops on Youth. The Apostolic
Exhortation is known as Christus Vivit or Christ is alive.
Christ is alive
The post-synodal
Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, is dated Monday 25 March 2019. It was
signed in the Holy House of Loreto and is addressed to
young people , and to “the entire People of God”. The
Exhortation is composed of nine chapters divided into 299 paragraphs,
the Pope explains that he allowed himself to be “inspired by the wealth of
reflections and conversations of the Synod” . The Synod on Young People, was
celebrated in the Vatican in October 2018. A two-line summary of it is given by
the Pope himself right at the beginning. It is: “Christ is alive! He is our
hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world… He is
alive and he wants you to be alive!”.
In having a quick look at
this very beautiful Apostolic Exhortation, particularly relevant to us,
Salesians of Don Bosco, let me limit myself to the Chapter Headings and a few
significant thoughts.
Chapter one: “What
does the Word of God have to say about young people?”
Pope Francis recalls that
“in an age when young people were not highly regarded, the Exhortation shows
that God sees them differently”. It
therefore presents figures of young people from the Old Testament: Joseph,
Gideon, Samuel, King David, Solomon and
Jeremiah, the very young Jewish servant of Naaman, and the young Ruth. Then the
Pope moves on to the New Testament. He recalls that “Jesus, who is eternally
young, wants to give us hearts that are ever young”.
Chapter
two: “Jesus, ever young”
The Pope addresses the
theme of Jesus’ youthful years and remembers the Gospel story that describes
Jesus “as an adolescent, when he
returned with his parents to Nazareth, after being lost and found in the
Temple” . We should not think, Pope Francis writes, that “Jesus
was a withdrawn adolescent or a self-absorbed youth. His relationships were
those of a young person who shared fully in the life of his family and his
people”, “no one regarded him as unusual or set apart from others”.
Chapter
three: “You are the ‘now’ of God”
We cannot just say
that “young people are the future of our world”, says Pope
Francis. “They are its present; even now, they are helping
to enrich it”. For this reason it is necessary to listen to
them even if “there is a tendency to provide pre-packaged answers and
ready-made solutions, without allowing their real questions to emerge and
facing the challenges they pose”...
Youth,
writes Pope Francis, is more than simply
a period of time; it is a state of mind. That is why an institution as ancient
as the Church can experience renewal and a return to youth at different points
in her age-old history.
Chapter
four: “A great message for all young people”
To all
young people the Pope announces three great truths. One, “God who is love”.
Second “Christ saves
you”. And third, “He is alive!”.
Chapter
5: Paths of Youth
“The love of God and
our relationship with the living Christ do not hold us back from dreaming; they
do not require us to narrow our horizons. On the contrary, love elevates us, encourages us and inspires
us to a better and more beautiful life. Much of the longing present in
the hearts of young people can be summed up in the word ‘restlessness’”.
Thinking of a young person, the Pope sees him or her as someone “who wants to
fly on…”
The Pope, speaking
of growth and maturity, “paths of fraternity” to live the
faith, …The Pope then speaks of being “young and committed”, and the
young as “courageous missionaries”, witnessing everywhere to the Gospel
with their own lives, which does not mean “speaking about the truth, but
living it” . The word, however, must not be silenced: “Learn to swim
against the tide, learn how to share Jesus and the faith he has given you”.
Chapter
six: “Young people with roots”
Pope Francis says that it
hurts him to see “young people sometimes being encouraged to build a future
without roots, as if the world were just starting now”.
Chapter
seven: “Youth ministry”
The Pope explains that
youth ministry has been affected by social and cultural changes and “young
people frequently fail to find in our usual programmes a response to their
concerns, their needs, their problems and issues”.
Therefore, “youth
ministry should always include occasions for renewing and deepening our
personal experience of the love of God and the living Christ”. It should
help young people “to live as brothers and sisters, to help one another, to
build community, to be of service to others, to be close to the poor”.
Chapter
eight: “Vocation”
“The first thing we
need to discern and discover is this: Jesus wants to be a friend to every young
person” . Vocation is a call to missionary service to others, “for our life
on earth reaches full stature when it becomes an offering” .
Chapter
nine: “Discernment”
The Pope recalls that: “Without
the wisdom of discernment, we can easily become prey to every passing trend”.
“A particular form of discernment involves the effort to discover our own
vocation. Since this is a very personal decision that others cannot make for
us, it requires a certain degree of solitude and silence”.
The Church needs your
momentum, your intuitions, your faith… And when you arrive where we have not
yet reached, have the patience to wait for us”.
This very brief summary of the 299
paragraphs of the Apostolic Exhortation was meant only to recall that the Post
Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on Youth is a gift of the Holy Father to the
whole Church, but especially to us Salesians for whom Don Bosco and Youth
cannot be separated.
In professing his special love
for the salvation of youth Don Bosco invites us to love them as he loved and to
care for them as he cared for them. However, in the changed situations of today
it is good to remember that it is not just working -even working hard- for them
that matters, but net working with many others -both individuals and societies:
their parents, their families, their educators, publishers of books and
literature, the world of media, governments, agencies of different kinds, etc.
The entire digital empire is beckoning us… to make the best of it on behalf of
the young. We are no more just teachers or “educators”. We are participators
along with innumerable other stakeholders.
Among the many influences we
may have on the young, I would like to mention especially the role of the
liturgy in general and of the Eucharist in particular and more especially the
role of prayer and of the Word of God. Young people whether they are Christians
or not are present in all these moments. They are all moments of evangelization
for us and for them. We cannot afford to read poorly, or sing badly, or
celebrate casually. We need to prepare them well. It cannot be just business as
usual. In a vast country like India where we Christians are so few and the
non-Christian group so large, everything we do should carry a missionary
responsibility. Just think of our educational institutions. So many thousands
pass through our corridors, but more especially through our heart. How would
and what would JESUS have done creatively to share his Good News with them!
As Salesians we cannot carryout our mission on
behalf of youth alone anymore. Alone we can do very little today. We have to
become not just educators, but participators, networking with others having an
inclusive educative pastoral mission.
As we dip deeper into the all
challenging digital and the artificial intelligence world participatory mission
will become more demanding… in serving young people. What has happened to our
General Council in Rome may also help us to improve our thinking. They left behind
a lot of structures of the Pisana model and have adopted the Sacro Cuore Campus
model -each of the Councillors occupying a small room large enough for a lap
top or a computer and a little more perhaps, but with the same or more
efficiency. It is a paradigm shift not only for the General Council members,
but perhaps for the entire Salesian world at large inviting us to reflect more
on ideas and concepts for the welfare of Youth than on structures -which are
also, of course, needed, but with a lesser degree. More networking and less
net-less working.
May the Word of God both as
Word and as Flesh and Blood we receive every day, inspire us to seek what is
good for young people in the spirit of Don Bosco. May the maternal assistance
of our blessed Mother help us to evangelize the young with a heart filled with
the missionary ardor of Don Bosco. There is only one option for us: Mystics or
Mistakes. Mystics like Don Bosco. Mistakes, if we are not mystics. Mystics are
those who digest the Word of God and experience a spiritual strength that goes
beyond the intellect, a sort of union with the Absolute in Jesus Christ. This
morning’s Word of God, for example, invites us to experience a peace and joy
beyond anxiety and sufferings, and to enjoy the fruit of the Paschal Mystery
(first reading from the Philippians). Or the Gospel passage wherein a child is
held up as a model for the disciple -not because of any supposed innocence of
children, but because of their complete dependence on and trust in the parents.
So must the disciples be in respect to God
Let me conclude: Someone once
took Abraham Lincoln to task for being too courteous to his enemies, and
reminded him his job as president was to destroy them. Lincoln answered, “do I
not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends!” Let us too destroy all our
enemies by making them our friends.
To end on a Marian note and to
honor the INS Patron St. John Paul II:
St. John Paul II was born at
Wadowice, Poland. As soon as he was born his mother asked the midwife to open
the window so that the new born “Lolek”(as the little one was called) may hear
the hymn to Mary. That was on May 20, 1920, the month dedicated to Mary. May our
Blessed Mother lead INS ever more closely to Christ Her Divine Son. Amen.
(Fr. P.V. Joseph SDB)
Sat 11 May 2019
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