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Pina Bellocchi Angelo Santorsola Damas Salesianas

THE SALESIAN FAMILY: TOGETHER FOR THE YOUNG IN TODAY'S CHURCH

FOREWORD

Other than an understandable difficulty in standing before an audience as qualified as this, each group having its own particular original treasure to offer, my clear awareness that I am part of this  “Family” and the joy of such an alive feeling of belonging to a spirituality which nurtures the hope of an ever deeper and more fraternal mutual awareness, helps me to see each of you as a gift and rediscover in each Group in our Family the desire to live even more in communion of spirit and convergence of action.

So I have been obedient, somewhere between freedom and belonging, to the superiors who gave me this 'gift', this wonderful opportunity,  asking me to briefly cover with you the first two chapters of the Common Mission Statement of the Salesian Family.

TOGETHER IN THE CHURCH'S MISSION WITH THE HEART OF DON BOSCO

We are aware that the apostolic mission of the Salesian Family means taking part in the Church's very own mission, remaining faithful  to the commitment Don Bosco handed on to us, which was the result of a particular “experience of the Spirit” .
 
It would not be saying too much to remind each of us of the common elements in the Groups which make up the Family (cf. ASC n. 304 1982):

  • the call to share in the charism given by Don Bosco to his Family, in certain relevant aspects of the human and supernatural experience of the Saint;
  • being part of the apostolic mission to the young and to ordinary people;
  • sharing the Salesian educative and pastoral project and spirit;
  • reference to the Preventive System;
  • reference to the Founder of the Family and his Successors, as the centre of unity.

 

Everything is clearly summed up in the specific way each Group 'owns' Don Bosco's charism.

It is important, in my view, that each and every group, in order to be more effective where we are called to be active on behalf of the young, begins to do so 'together' as Family, overcoming the temptation to useless propaganda..

Let's make this splendid adverb together, a lay term for 'communion', a password for our frame of reference and pastoral projects.
When we say “together”, we do not do so because things will go better that way, meaning that if we do things together we will achieve much more. No! This would simply be a business mentality. Those involved in marketing put workers together; Unions say: “Let's stay united”; football supporters hang out together in the same part of the stadium so they can shout louder.

No, if we say TOGETHER, it is not to be able to do more, but because in our lives, groups, our Family, we want to to emulate the kind of life found in heaven: Father, Son and Holy spirit. Three persons, equal yet distinct, who are so profoundly united that they make one God. Each exists for the other.

Here on earth, we are also equal yet distinct, each with his or her own face, features, personality, but we want to live so deeply united around the one unique project to be the “Family of Don Bosco” involved in human development, education and evangelisation.

Today more than ever, in a new social context steeped in ethical relativism, the apostolic experience of Don Bosco deeply challenges us to go back to some of his basic educational intuitions: “Honest citizen and good Christian”; “the young person is of great value”; “the Preventive System”; “ordinary life lived in an extraordinary way”,… .

APOSTOLIC VANITY

In the Book of Wisdom there is a key word, vanity, that can encourage us to take another look at our apostolic commitment.

Vanity (in Hebrew, hevel), can mean many things, but all with the idea of an insubstantial breath, like in fog. Well then, we too, so often discouraged by an ever more disordered and confused world where subtle tones have substituted for clear distinct colours, fall prey to mediocrity, "apostolic middle-class thinking”, a consumer mentality of “give me everything, now” which is harmful  to hope, joy and optimism.

Today, more than ever, we need to be clear about our faith, our charismatic and vocational identity. We need to sense, as a Salesian Family, the need for courageous choices which will help us overcome the "sirens": the lures of success, appearances, 'use and throw away', comfort without sacrifice.

Salesian humanism invites us to highlight the dignity of the human being, rediscover work, culture, friendship, joy, professionalism, as values to be defended and assisted in their growth within universal experience.

NOT ENOUGH TO FEEL MOVED BY THINGS

There are many new forms of poverty which we see with our own eyes and faced with which we feel moved to feelings of solidarity. But in all the amazing mix which gives rise to these things, we still do not know how to penetrate through it all.
We might like, as a Salesian Family, to make that beautiful prayer of the Mass our own prayer:

“Give us, Lord, new eyes to see the profound cause of suffering in our brothers and sisters, so we are able to renew them”.

We are talking about the new kinds of poverty that affect so many young people, poverty resulting from the complex combinations of perverse market laws, the obscene desire for profit at all costs, the idols of certain aspects of the technological revolution, the holocaust of environmental values sacrificed on the altar of production. Many, too many, young people are deprived of their human rights and dignity as human beings and children of God.

Faced with these situations of poverty it is no longer enough to simply feel moved. It is no longer enough to salve the wounds of people whose clothes are on fire. The usual social welfare sentiments could end up delaying the solution to the problem.

We need to ask for “new eyes” to get down to the root causes, and tackle what generates these monsters of new poverty.

While we are content with simply adjusting the handbooks of our superficial handouts and do not “renew” our eyes, we will always find excuses for wide-ranging absolution for our unforgivable inertia.

Certainly, in today's religious and social context, hisotrical, cultural and religious reasons don't make it easy for our apostolic intervention, but as John Paul II reminded us in Novo Millennium Ineunte (n. 58) :
“...A new Millennium is opening up before the Church, like a vast ocean to set sail on, relying on Christ's help. The Son of God, who became incarnate two thousand years ago for the love of mankind, also achieves his work today: we need penetrating eyes to see it, and a great heart to become its instruments. ”

It is important, as art. 11 of the Common Mission Statement for the SF reminds us, to be meaningful in our local area, by fitting in, in practical ways, to the life context of simple folk and the young in particular.

Let me modify for you some sayings of one of our Family's saintly individuals, Fr Joseph Quadrio, because I think they are more than ever relevant:

  • Let us discover how to be meaningful where we are at work, giving witness to our belief by being credible with a life style which should set us apart each day.
  • Let us know how to be good, understandable, loveable, welcoming, available to everyone, easy to approach.
  • Let's not set limits to our time and effort.
  • Let us give without measure, simply and confidently. Let us give everyone a hearing, kindly, openly.
  • Let's try to step into the shoes of those we deal with: we need to understand, know how to help.
  • Let us not put ourselves above others, nor at the centre of things.
  • We can stand nobly above whatever regards our personal prestige. We have no other ambition than to serve the young who are poor, no other pretence than to be useful to their growth as whole beings”.

 

INVESTING IN EDUCATION

Fully in harmony with the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who in his first letter to the Diocese and City of Rome drew attention to “the urgency of education” , we, as a Salesian Family would like to fully accept the challenge presented by society today and which calls on our charismatic identity.

To educate by evangelising and to evangelise by educating is the fascinating apostolic commitment of the Salesian Family yesterday, today and forever.

We are realistic when we say that to educate today is difficult, but we are also convinced that to educate today is possible, aware of the complexity and not forgetting that to educate is something of the heart, and something beautiful.

Don Bosco reminds each of us: “remember that education is a thing of the heart, and that God alone is in control, and that we cannot succeed in anything, if God does not teach us the art, and does not give us the key”.
 
The difficulty in educating is under everyone's gaze today. Social pressure pushes people to make their sons and daughters shining successes, athletes, people who are competitive in well-to-do society yet forgets to help them acquire virtues that will make them truly human: loaylty, honesty, justice, faith, modesty, courage, kindness.

The patriarchal family has changed; the relationship between young people and adults has changed; the value of traditional institutions has changed; the social worth of religion is changing; life models from the past have been replaced by others and there are few “credible adult models” today.

We should not be afraid to look at this  “dark wilderness”. Just closing our eyes to it means stirring up all kinds of educational pessimism. We live in a “complex society”, and this also affects education. Whoever is not aware of this will find himself lost in trying to educate.

Reading the Gospel, the teacher notes that Jesus likens man to the earth, a seed, a plant, funds to administer, to give increase to, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold. Jesus is someone who believes in humankind and always showed confidence in us.

Our beloved Don Bosco translated all this into the “Preventive System”  which for us in the Salesian Family is our way of being involved in human development; the choice of content for our educative and apostolic intervention; the apostolic spirituality of action, inspired by Francis of Sales.
We need to be aware of this fact: we are always educators in any encounter, responsible for the development and growth of the one we encounter. We are never excused from the work of educating. If, in all these encounters, we are bearers of God's heart and the rich quality of humanity witnessed to by Jesus and Don Bosco, we will contribute to making that complex matrix that makes up the human condition more healthy and fruitful.

“Education is a thing of the heart…the one who knows how to be loved, loves, and the one who is loved gets more, especially from the young…hearts are opened and they make known their needs and reveal their defects “.

CONTINUE TO “DREAM” WITH DON BOSCO IN ORDER TO BE AUTHENTIC AS A SALESIAN FAMILY

To dream is important, but without the inner strength that God gives you in prayer, without the patience that gives you the necessary energy to put up with “rough moments” along the way and the courage to walk on when things are not clear, the dream could vanish at the first onset of difficulty.

God's dream, then, is built around the strength and patience of the inner being. Without strength and patience, and without the prayer that nourishes this strength, no mission by the Salesian Family of Don Bosco in the Church is possible.

At times we can hide our mediocrity and disenchantment behind hyperactivity, but this is a short-lived deception. The Angel said to the Church of Ephesus: “I know all about you, how hard you work and how much you put up with... Nevertheless I have this complaint to make: you have less love now than you used to”. (Rev 2:2-4)

My dear friends, before being apostles we must be disciples who proclaim Christ, because they have an intimate and deep experience of him, and are committed, with Don Bosco, to the young who are poor. Let us renounce every temptation to activism and, through prayer, contemplation, listening to the Word, let us plant Christ's heart deep within our being, thus nurturing the “da mihi animas” and remaining faithful to the apostolic project that the Spirit has entrusted to the Salesian Family.

Let us all become sowers of hope who know how to discover the signs of Christ's resurrection in every affirmation of life and every gesture of love, in every struggle for justice, truth, reconciliation.

Let us renounce making our lives private property and set out to leave behind any selfishness and fear. Let us get on with taking the first step to encounter and love our brothers and sisters, and involve them as Family in the cause of the kingdom and in the service of the little ones.

 

Fr Angelo Santorsola, sdb

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