THE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR
Fr. Stefano Martoglio, SDB
WHAT A GIFT TIME IS!
The beginning of the new year is illuminated in our
liturgy by the ancient formula with which the Israelite priests blessed the
people: “May
the Lord bless you and keep you. May he let his face shine upon you and show
you his mercy. May he turn his countenance toward you and give you his peace.”
Dear friends and readers of Salesian media, we’re at the beginning of a new year. Let’s give each other our best wishes for the time that will be, for the time ahead of us, because time is the gift that contains all the others as our lives unfold.
So let’s amplify
this wish with what will illuminate it. Let’s give our attention to Don Bosco
who, when he arrived at the seminary of Chieri, fixed his thoughts on the
sundial that still appears on the courtyard wall, and said: “On a sundial I
read the following verse: Afflictis lentae, celeres gaudentibus horae. [Time will fly, if you are
cheerful; it will drag on, if you are not.] ‘That’s it!’ I said to my friend, ‘There
is our program. Let’s always be of good cheer and time will pass quickly.’”
(Biographical
Memoirs, I, 279).
The first wish we exchange at the beginning of this
new year is to live this advice in the way that Don Bosco would urge us: Live
well, live serenely, transmit serenity to those around you, and time will have another
meaning! Every moment of time is a treasure; but it’s a treasure that passes
quickly. Don Bosco always loved to comment: “The three enemies of man are:
Death, which overtakes him by surprise; Time, which keeps slipping by; the
Devil, who seeks to ensnare him.” (Biographical Memoirs, V, 606).
“Remember that being happy isn’t having a sky
without storms, a road without accidents, work without fatigue, relationships
without disappointments,” recommends an ancient saying. “Being happy isn’t just
celebrating successes, but learning lessons from failures. To be happy is to recognize that life is worth living,
despite all the challenges, misunderstandings, and periods of crisis. It’s
thanking God every morning for the miracle of life.”
A wise man kept in his
study a huge pendulum clock that at every hour sounded solemnly and slowly, but also with a great
rumble.
“But doesn’t that bother you?” asked a student.
“No,” replied the wise man. “Because at every hour I have
to ask myself: what have I done with the hour that’s just passed?”
Time is the only non-renewable resource. It wears out at an incredible speed. We know that we won’t get a second chance. So all the good we can do, all the love, goodness, and kindness of which we are capable, we must give now because we won’t return to this earth ever again. With a perennial veil of remorse in our hearts, we know that Someone will ask us, “What have you done with all that time I gave you?”
Our Hope Has a Name: Jesus
In the new
time that we’ve just begun, the dates and numbers on the calendar are signs agreed
upon, symbols and
numbers invented to measure time. Very little has changed in the transition
from the old year to the new year, yet the perception of a year coming to an
end always makes us take stock. How much have we loved? How much have we lost?
How much better have we become, or how much worse have we become? Time that
passes never leaves us the same.
The liturgy has
its own way of making us take stock as the new year dawns. It does so through
the opening words of John’s Gospel—words that may seem difficult but that
actually reflect the depth of life: “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to
be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” In the
depths of each of our lives resounds a Word greater than we are. It’s the
reason why we exist, why the world exists, why everything exists. This Word, this
Verbum, is God himself; he is the Son, he is Jesus. The Name given to
the reason why we were made is “Jesus.”
He’s the
true reason why everything exists; in him that we can understand everything
that exists. We shouldn’t judge our life by comparing it with history, with its
events and its mentality. Our life can’t be judged by looking at ourselves and
our experience alone. Our life is comprehensible only if we draw it close to
Jesus. In him everything makes sense and takes on a meaning, even those things
that happened to us that were contradictory and unjust. It’s by looking at
Jesus that we understand things about ourselves. A psalm says this well when it
states, “In your light we see light.”
This is the
way of seeing Time according to God’s Heart. Our wish for each other and for
ourselves is to live this new time in this way.
The new year
will bring with it important events and news for each of us, for the Salesian Family,
for our Congregation—everything within the gift of the Jubilee Year that we’re celebrating
in the Church.
May we let
ourselves be carried away in the spirit of the Jubilee by that Hope which is God’s
presence in our lives.
January, the
first month of this new year, is dotted with Salesian feasts that lead up to
the feast of Don Bosco. We thank God for this delicate touch of the Lord as we
begin the new year. Therefore, let’s give the final word to Don Bosco, and let’s
set this maxim of his firmly in our lives so that it may shape 2025 for us: My
children, treasure time, and time will preserve you for eternity.
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