THE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR
Fr. Stefano
Martoglio, SDB
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.
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” (60:1). The prophet’s invitation — to get up because the light is coming — seems surprising, because it’s proclaimed in the aftermath of the harsh exile and the numerous persecutions that his people have 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, set out again, and,
in newness of life, make our journey as human beings and believers.
This is all the more important now that we
have had the grace – yes, because it’s 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’s
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’s so for Don Bosco, why can’t 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’ve 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’re living, with its theme of hope, the
presence of God accompanying us!
As I noted in this year’s strenna, 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’s 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’s never forget that he [the Lord] keeps the most minute account of every least thing done for his holy Name, and it’s certain that in due time he’ll reward us abundantly. At the end of our lives, when we present ourselves at his divine tribunal, he’ll say to us, while gazing upon us with a loving expression: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Because you’ve been faithful in little things, I’ll place you over many things: enter the joy of your Lord” (Matt 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!
On your feet, Salesians! This is what
Don Bosco asks of us.
“Hail! 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, in its truth is 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 doesn’t mean it’s 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, Peguy 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’s 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’s 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.
[1] “Hail! By saving
[another} save yourself” A play on the Italian words: Salve (Hello, hi, hail), salvando
(by saving someone) salvati (save
yourself)
[2] https://www.clonline.org/en/current-events/articles/christianity-is-not-a-utopia, accessed Jan. 15,
2025, memorial of Bl. Louis Variara, SDB.
