Pope Francis Points Priests to Don Bosco

(ANS – Vatican City) – First in front of about 700,000 young people in Panama City; then in a general audience at the Vatican; finally, on January 31 during morning Mass celebrated at St. Martha’s House, for the third time in less than a week Pope Francis pointed to Don Bosco as a model and example to follow.

On the saint’s feast day the Pope began by recalling the importance of Mama Margaret, a humble woman, “who had not studied in a school of theology” but who was able to pronounce “a mother’s prophecy” when she told Don Bosco, on his ordination day, “Today you will begin to suffer”—a suffering understood as a sign of commitment to doing good.

Then, examining Don Bosco’s apostolic action, Pope Francis observed: “In that Masonic and anticlerical era when the aristocracy paid no heed to the poor, who were really the poor, the ‘left behind,’ he saw those young people on the streets and said: ‘This can’t be left like this!’

The Pope continued: “He looked with human eyes, the eyes of a man who is brother, even of a father, and said: ‘This can’t go on this way! These young people may perhaps end up with Father Cafasso, at the gallows.’ He was moved as a man, and he began to think of benevolent ways to help young people grow. And then, he had the courage to look with the eyes of God and go to God and say: ‘You have created these people for a fullness; they are in a really tragic situation….’ And so, looking at reality with a father’s love—Father and Teacher, says today’s liturgy—and looking at God with the eyes of a beggar, who asks for something of light, he begins to move forward.”

Thus, after having pointed to Don Bosco as a model to all the young people of the world in the WYD vigil in Panama, on the 31st the Pope presented him as an example for all priests, as an emblem of the priest who “spent so much time in front of the tabernacle” and a long time in the midst of his people.

“He did not go only with the catechism and the crucifix, [saying] ‘Do this.’ No, no: he went close to them, with liveliness. He made them play, he put them in groups, like brothers…. He went, he walked with them, he listened to them, he saw them, he cried with them, and he brought them along, like that.”

The Pope then thanked God for Don Bosco and recalled his distinctive trait, which also represents the signal that a priest is going on the right path: “Joy. The joy of Don Bosco is known: he is the master of joy, eh? Because he made others enjoy themselves and rejoiced himself. And he suffered too. We ask the Lord, through the intercession of Don Bosco, today, the grace that our priests be joyful: joyful because they have the true sense of looking at the matters of their pastoral care, the people of God, with human eyes and with the eyes of God.”

As a summary of the homily, on the morning of the 31st, the Pope also tweeted: “Don Bosco had the courage to look at reality with human eyes and with the eyes of God. May every priest imitate him by seeing reality with human eyes and with the eyes of God.”

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