Good, Faithful, and Courageous Servants

During this Jubilee Year, in this difficult world, we are invited to rise up, set out again, and, in newness of life, make our journey as human beings and believers.

Message of the Vicar, Fr. Stefano Martoglio, SDB

The prophet Isaiah addresses Jerusalem with these words: "Arise, be clothed with light, for your light is coming, and the glory of the Lord is shining upon you" (Is. 60:1). The prophet's invitation — to get up because the light is coming — seems surprising, because it is proclaimed in the aftermath of the harsh exile and the numerous persecutions that his people experienced.

Today this invitation resounds also for us who are celebrating this Jubilee Year. In this difficult world, we, too, are invited to rise up, to set out again, and, in the newness of life, make our journey as human beings and believers.

This is important all the more now that we have had the grace—yes, because it is a matter of grace—to celebrate the liturgical remembrance of John Bosco’s sanctity. Let it not be done out of mere habit: Don Bosco is a great man of God—a brilliant, courageous, and tireless apostle because he was a disciple deeply in love with Christ. He is our Father!

In life, having a father is very important. It is the same in our faith, in the sequela Christi (the following of Christ). To have a great father is a priceless gift. You feel it in your being; his experience as a believer moves your life. If it is so for Don Bosco, why cannot it be the same for me?

This is an existential question that moves and changes us, in the spirit of the Jubilee, so that we become "renewed," "changed" people. This is, for all of us, the profound meaning of the solemnity of Don Bosco that we have just celebrated: to imitate and not just admire him!

Don Bosco is a shining and powerful example to us for this Jubilee year that we are living, with its theme of hope, the presence of God who accompanies us!

As I noted in the strenna for this year, when speaking of hope, Don Bosco wrote:

“The Salesian—and when speaking to the Salesians, he speaks to each of us—is ready to endure heat and cold, thirst and hunger, fatigue and contempt whenever it is a question of the glory of God and the salvation of souls." The interior bulwark for this demanding asceticism is the thought of Heaven, a reflection of the good conscience with which he worked and lived. "In all our tasks, in all our work, in our pain or sorrow, let us never forget that He [the Lord] keeps the most minute account of every least thing done for His Holy Name, and it is certain that in due time He will reward us abundantly. At the end of our lives, when we present ourselves at His divine tribunal, he will say to us, while gazing upon us with a loving expression: "Well done, good and faithful servant. Because you have been faithful in little things, I will place you over many things: enter the Joy of your Lord.” (Mt 25:2l) “In fatigue and suffering, never forget that we have a great reward prepared for us in Heaven.” When our Father says that a Salesian exhausted from too much work represents a victory for the whole Congregation, he even seems to suggest a dimension of fraternal communion in the reward, almost a community sense of Heaven!

"Hello! By saving [another], save yourself [1]"

Don Bosco was one of the great persons of hope. There are many elements to prove it. His Salesian spirit is entirely permeated by the certainties and industriousness characteristic of this bold dynamism of the Holy Spirit.

Don Bosco knew how to bring to life the energy of hope on two fronts in his life: 1.) the commitment to personal sanctification and 2.) the mission of saving others; or, better,—and here lies a central characteristic of his spirit— personal sanctification through the salvation of others. Let's remember his famous formula of the three S’s: “Salve, salvando salvati.” It seems like an offhanded mnemonic device, like a pedagogical slogan; rather, it is, in truth, a profound thought which indicates how the two realities of personal sanctification and the salvation of one's neighbor are closely intertwined.

Bishop Erik Varden says: "Here and now, hope manifests itself as a glimmer. That does not mean it is irrelevant. Hope has a blessed contagion that allows it to spread from heart to heart. Totalitarian powers always work to erase hope and induce despair. To educate oneself in hope is to practice freedom. In a poem, Péguy describes hope as the flame of the sanctuary lamp. This flame, he says, ‘is always a descending border, in the depths of night.’ It enables us to see what is now, but also to foresee what could be. To hope is to stake one's existence on the possibility of becoming. It is an art to be practiced assiduously in the fatalistic and deterministic atmosphere in which we live.” [2]

May God grant us the ability to live this Jubilee Year in this way!

May we all go forward during this month with this vision that “shines in the darkness,”—with Hope in our hearts for it is the presence of God.

During this month, I ask you to pray for our Salesian Congregation which will hold its General Chapter. Please accompany us all with your prayers and your thoughts so that we may be faithful Salesians, living what Don Bosco wanted.

Footnotes

[1] “Hello, by saving [another} save yourself” A play on the Italian words: Salve (Hello, hi, hail), salvando (by saving someone) salvati (save yourself).

[2] www.clonline.org/en/current-events/articles/christianity-is-not-a-utopia, accessed January 15, 2025, Memorial of Bl. Luigi Variara, SDB.