THE SALESIAN MISSION:

“POOR AND ABANDONED BOYS”

“You should honour John Bosco, who took care of poor youngsters and created schools for them.” It is said that Mao Tse-Tung wrote these words in his famous Red Book. Whether this is true or not, there is no doubt that St. John Bosco is known and loved beyond the frontiers of the Congregation and the Salesian Family, and even beyond the Church herself, because of his predilection for boys and young people, especially the poor and abandoned.

As we reflect on this theme, which is central to our Salesian charism since it refers to those to whom our mission is primarily directed and our approach to them, we shall find it a point of convergence of themes previously dealt with; that is why we have placed this topic towards the end of this Retreat.

1.“….HIS PREDILECTION FOR THE LITTLE ONES AND THE POOR…”

As we know very well, the Salesian mission has its roots in the life, teaching and example of Jesus Christ. The Second Vatican Council points out that every charism portrays the Son of God made Man from different angles (cf. LG 46), and our Constitutions assert that we are “more aware of certain aspects of the figure of the Lord” (C 11). We do not have to demonstrate that the “predilection for the little ones and the poor” was one of the clearest, surest and, I would say, “most human” characteristics of the Lord Jesus. There are innumerable Gospel texts to prove it. However, I believe that some clarifications are necessary.

In the first place, the word used by our Constitutions is significant: to speak of predilection is to speak of love - of a “greater”, preferential love, but at the same time, a love that is not exclusive and does not exclude anyone. I think it is more appropriate word that “option”, which, as such, has no connotation of love, and can even insinuate a certain discrimination. Jesus never rejected anyone; but, within his universal love, he had certain predilections.

And so, we can ask ourselves: who were the people for whom Jesus had a predilection? Faithful to the Gospel, our Constitutions point to “the little ones and the poor”. Are we equating the two groups of persons here? Or are we using a hendiadys, that is, unifying the two groups without eliminating the differences?

For an answer we have to turn to the Beatitudes where the first one refers to the “poor” (Lk 6, 20) or the “poor in spirit” (Mt. 5, 3). In both texts (Matthew and Luke), the “poor” are promised “the Kingdom of heaven” / “the Kingdom of God”.

This would be the place to clarify Jesus’ concept of “poverty”. Without ignoring the complexity of the question or the very ambiguity of the word “poverty”, the term designates a negative situation, one of sin and human egoism, and at the same time a human and Christian ideal, one that is even “sanctioned” by a vow in consecrated life.

This clarification is simple and easy to understand if we go back to the Lord Jesus and his concrete situation (Sitz im Leben). Even at the risk of seeming tautological, we can say: the poor man is the person for whom the Gospel is “Good News”. Such a description does not automatically equate poverty with a social and economic situation but establishes a very close relationship with it; at the same time, it does not automatically condemn the “possession of things” but points to the real danger it entails. Furthermore, the description reminds us that the person of Jesus and his message were not “good news” for everyone, and that different kinds of obstacles can prevent us from accepting it: among them can certainly be socio-economic considerations (cf. the rich young man, Mk 10, 17-22 and parallels), but they need not be the only ones and perhaps not even the ones which, in the final analysis, determine our refusal.

In the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s canticle, the Magnificat (Lk 1, 51-53), the human attitude of self-sufficiency appears to be the opposite of “poverty” and leads to a rejection of the “Good News” of the Gospel which, in reality, is Jesus himself; it shows itself in three forms: pride – power – money. “He has scattered the proud - ⁵²He has brought down the powerful - He has sent the rich away empty” (Lk 1, 51-53).

Let us recall the text of Pr. 30, 8-9:

Give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that I need,
⁹or I shall be full, and deny you,
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
or I shall be poor, and steal,
and profane the name of my God.

He who has everything is tempted to say (if not with words, then with his attitude): “Who is God? Why do I need him if I can manage by myself?” At the same time, we cannot ignore the difficulty a person faces in believing in God’s love when he does not have even what is indispensable for himself and his family in order to live a life worthy of human beings, as sons and daughters of God.

As for the “little ones” - who are closer to our charism - we need to clarify this central aspect of Jesus’ mission. We are well aware of his opinion of the “little ones” when we hear him inviting us to become like them so as not to be excluded from the Kingdom of God.

However, it is not an easy task to identify the characteristics of infants (the little ones) that the Gospel has in mind, for there are several typical aspects of infancy that certainly would not be referred to. The fact of the matter is that Jesus himself does give us the answer, but it often goes unnoticed. In Mark’s text, which is the more ancient among the Gospels, Jesus clearly states: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it” (Mk 10,15). The key-word here is the verb “receive” (in the original Greek: ), and it prompts the question: How do children receive what is given to them? The answer is simple and clear: with joy and gratitude, precisely because they have not “merited” what they receive.

Unfortunately, as we saw in another reflection, the more we advance in years, the more we lose the sense of giving and receiving as well as the joy and gratitude that go with it: “simplicity – which is called simplicitas in the New Testament - is nothing else but trusting in love”.¹

In this sense, it is worth giving serious consideration to the religious character of Jesus’ mission. It will lead us to delineate a profile of his most radical, and undoubtedly most “scandalous”, predilection which, without forgetting or minimizing his unlimited compassion and total solidarity with the poor, the sick and the marginalized, was his predilection for sinners, for those furthest away from God and therefore most in need of his love and forgiveness. Moreover, they were the ones most disposed to receive, with the joy and gratitude of a child, what was offered them as a gift, viz. God’s mercy and salvation (call to mind the “exemplary” case of Zacchaeus, Lk 19, 1-10).

Obviously, in a theocratic society like that of Israel, being a sinner also entailed a “social” stigma, but we would be plucking out the very heart of Jesus’ mission if we were to place “sinners” in the social category of the “marginalized”. It was not because they were socially marginalized that Jesus showed his predilection for sinners, but because they were in danger of losing themselves. When Christianity ignores this, it becomes a social movement which, especially in our time, means an ONG, often irrelevant and obsolete. And much the same can be said of a Salesian presence when it does not aim at bringing about and manifesting this marvellous synthesis of the pursuit of salvation and integral promotion.

It is quite likely that all this is accepted in principle, but it does not always become a criterion of action and a “strategy”, including a social strategy. Actually it is the way in which the Church offers an irreplaceable service, beginning from her innermost identity and leading to the transformation of society, especially in the face of injustice and the idolatry of power and money, which seem to be vastly on the increase.

All this corresponds to the convictions the Christian has learned from his Master, viz. that the evil he seeks to combat does not, in last analysis, come from social, political or economic structures, but from the heart of man (cf. Mk 7, 20). He is convinced that “only love is capable of radically transforming the relationships that men maintain among themselves” (Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church, 4).

2.“…WITH DON BOSCO WE REAFFIRM OUR PREFERENCE FOR THE YOUNG WHO ARE POOR…”

What we have said does not in any way eliminate our preference in the light of our Salesian charism, but rather illumines it and leads us to reiterate the typically Salesian convictions about our mission: on the one hand, we share in the universal mission of the Church (cf. C 3), which is fundamentally religious in nature, and on the other hand, we confront and offer practical responses to the social and economic problems of our world. We need to clearly reconfirm that those for whom we work are “the young, especially those who are poorer” (C 26), “in the first place youngsters who because of economic, social and cultural poverty, sometimes of an extreme nature, have no possibility of success in life” (R 1).

The fusion of the two aspects defines our Salesian identity in the accomplishment of our mission: our charism clearly defines the type of poverty we are concerned with, and at the same time explains why we dedicate ourselves to the young who live in this situation. On this second point, the same article of the Constitutions (in addition to a brief statement in R 1) declares: “Young people are at the age when they must make basic life-choices which affect the future of society and of the Church. With Don Bosco we reaffirm our preference for the young who are ‘poor, abandoned and in danger’, those who have greater need of love and evangelization, and we work especially in areas of greatest poverty” (C 26; bold and italics mine).

The Rector Major comments on this essential trait of our charism:

We do need  to note that the predilection in Don Bosco stems not only from the magnanimity of his fatherly heart, “great as the sands of the seashore”, nor from the calamitous situation of the young people of his time – much like that of our own – and much less from a social or political agenda. At the base of it there is a God-given mission: “The Lord made clear to Don Bosco that he was to direct his mission first and foremost to the young, especially to those who are poorer” (C 26). And it is well to recall that this took place “through the motherly intercession of Mary” (C 1);  she it was, in fact, who “showed Don Bosco his field of labour among the young and was the constant guide and support of his work” (C 8). “Normative” in this sense, and not simply anecdotal, is the attitude adopted by Don Bosco at a decisive moment of his priestly life before the Marchioness of Barolo and her offer, certainly holy and apostolic as it was, to collaborate in her works and abandon his ragamuffins: “You have money and will have no trouble finding as many priests as you want for your institutions.  It’s not the same with the poor youngsters…” (AGC 384, 19).

In these words, Don Bosco adds a motivation which is not only affective and pedagogical but also theological: “My poor boys have only me…” It is a simple but profound statement of his awareness of being a mediator, an epiphany of God’s love for them; without him, all of those who are the “least” would be lacking a manifestation of God’s love and, consequently, an experience of God as Father. To use a biblical expression; without him, they would find themselves like sheep without a shepherd. “As (Jesus) went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk 6, 34; Mt. 9,36 adds: “harassed and helpless …”).

3.“POOR, ABANDONED AND IN DANGER…”

Again, in the same Letter quoted above, Fr. Pascual says: “It would be very interesting to go more deeply into the typical characteristics of those to whom our mission is preferentially addressed: ‘the young who are poor, abandoned and in danger’. When we speak nowadays of ‘new forms of poverty’ among young people, poverty directly refers to their social and economic situation; abandonment implies the ‘theological note’ of lack of support through the absence of adequate mediation of God’s love; and danger refers back to a determining phase of life, adolescence, the time of decision after which habits and attitudes formed can be changed only with great difficulty. A deeper study of this kind serves as a starting point for deciding in each Province (cf. R 1) and community who are those to whom our mission is directed here and now, in the light of the criteria we have just mentioned” (AGC 384, 20).

As in the other themes, we find here once again Don Bosco’s extraordinary clairvoyance and his ability to bring together in an underlying unity a harrowing socio-economic problem, an exceptional pedagogical vision and an unshakable faith in God’s love towards everyone, particularly to those in need. Let us contemplate this “marvel of God’s grace”, our Father, Don Bosco. (We shall dedicate the next reflection to him.) And let us consider the three expressions, “poor, abandoned and in danger”, as aspects of a global description of those to whom our work is chiefly directed, enabling us, in our educative and pastoral work with them, to make more concrete the mission God entrusts us with.

At the same time, we have to remember that our mission does not depend on those for whom we work, as though it were optional, fortuitous or dependent on circumstances to be or not to be signs and bearers of God’s love! The mission is not something “negotiable”. All of us must be convinced that the Salesian mission will never be impossible or irrelevant, and it should be our endeavour to be faithful to it, and through it, to God and the young…

What happens many a time is that the situation of those for whom we work, while not taking precedence over the mission, does not take precedence over our activities and works either. If we were to make use of a diagram, we would say that sometimes our discernment and our decisions are not the most appropriate ones because we proceed in the following order:

mission – activities and works – those for whom we work

Whereas in fidelity to the Lord’s will, the correct order should be:

mission – those for whom we work – activities and works

It is not a matter of our going in search of those who can fill up our activities and works (many times, unfortunately, they are not the ones who should come!); rather, we ought to ask: for the sake of those to whom the Lord sends us as a priority, what are the activities and works we need to carry out here and now?

Previously we alluded to a “global description” encompassing three aspects of those for whom we work. Perhaps we could summarize it like this: following the example of Jesus and with a view to putting his universal mission into action, Don Bosco was “charismatically touched” by the danger that could obstruct the temporal and eternal happiness (“salvation”) of his boys, viz. their situation of abandonment in relation to God and others, provoked by their state of poverty, at times extreme.

If, at the beginning, we spoke of poverty as a value endorsed by a vow in consecrated life, we ought not to forget that the word “poverty” is ambiguous and also denotes a socio-economic situation that goes counter to God’s loving plan, making it difficult and often impossible for someone living in such a situation to feel himself / herself a son / daughter of God, personally loved by Him. How can one speak of God’s love to a person who does not have the basic necessities of life for himself and his family?

I think it would be interesting to examine the response Don Bosco gave (or better: felt called by God to give) when confronted with the youth situation of his time; that response would be normative for us too. Apparently Don Bosco was not the only one to perceive the problem of abandoned youth in Turin and in the big cities: it was, in some respects, a completely new situation, and many important personalities took various stands according to their different viewpoints. There was, for example, a whole current in literature that denounced the situation: recall if you will, among other books representative of this school, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Karl Marx, for his part, sought to overturn the unjust situation by starting out from an atheistic position and offering his own solution. Dostoevskij too was so intensely moved by the suffering of innocent people, especially children, that it became the strongest argument for his not believing in God. Don Bosco was not less sensitive than all the others, but he did not stop to adopt a theoretical position, be it in atheism or in theodicy; in the name of the God of Jesus Christ and his Love, he gave his life completely for the integral – that is, the temporal and eternal - good of a proletariat comprising children and young people.

To conclude this section, I would like to add a personal reflection. In connection with those to whom our work is primarily directed, I would like to use a word which, even if not drawn from the Gospels, contains a great richness from the etymological point of view. I am referring to the word “insignificant”. The usual semantics of the word tends to identify it with something “small”; but its etymology leads in a different direction. Let us take an example: a Salesian work which is significant (because of the presence of Salesians, because of their closeness to the boys which enables them to know each one personally, and because of the quality of education and Christian formation imparted) can run the risk of developing to such an extent that it becomes insignificant, that is to say: it does not “signify” any more, it is no more a sign of what it ought to convey.

Playing around with words, we could say: we shall be a sign of God’s salvific love, the more insignificant, from the human point of view, are those for whom we work. As the Rector Major states, in his Letter on the Eucharist, with regard to the banquet and its connection with poverty: “The invitation is not addressed to friends or relatives (cf. Lk 14, 12-13; Mt 5, 46-47), which wouldn’t be a bad thing; but which wouldn’t be an ‘evangelical sign’, nor produce the salutary shock of recognising that ‘the Gentiles do the same’ (Mt 5,47).” Instead, “the invitation [is] to take part in this ‘banquet of the Kingdom,’ with an evangelical predilection, that is the option of the revealed God, for the poorest and the abandoned, for the marginalized, for the sinners, for all those, in human terms, insignificant” (AGC 398, p.35).

4.“OUR MISSION SETS THE TENOR OF OUR WHOLE LIFE …” (C 3)

In the GC22, the then Rector Major, Fr. Egidio Viganò, clarified the theological meaning of consecration in [Salesian] religious life, recalling that, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, this consecration has two characteristics: it is God’s work (He alone consecrates us; we do not “consecrate” ourselves to Him) and it is all-embracing: it does not regard only a “sector” of our life (such as the profession of the evangelical counsels), but takes in all aspects. From this viewpoint, consecration and mission are not two “sides” but the “whole” of our life seen from two different angles. In a way, everything is consecration and everything is mission. Otherwise, the title of this section would be in contradiction with lived reality.

To come down to practical considerations, I think it best to link the predilection for poor youth with the important aspects we have developed in the course of this Retreat.

1. In the first place, giving freely: I believe that this fundamental trait of love is totally beyond question, but it can be endangered to the extent to which we move away from our “charismatic predilection”. At the same time, it is worth emphasizing once more that giving freely (because of its very nature) does not exclude but expects and “requires” a response. Such a response is full, in the case of a poor and abandoned boy, because, having “nothing” to give in return, he makes his response of love by giving himself completely.

Among the many anecdotes in the life of our Father, Don Bosco, I like to choose an episode which is particularly eloquent and charming in its simplicity. It refers to a young boy during the early years of the Oratory who

had been shopping, and, besides other provisions, was holding a jar filled with vinegar and a bottle of olive oil. At the sight of Don Bosco the young boy jumped with joy and called out: “Viva Don Bosco” [Long live Don Bosco]. Laughing, Don Bosco asked: “Can you do what I am doing?” and clapped his hands. Overcome with joy, the boy put the bottle under his arm and clapped his hands, as again he shouted: “Viva Don Bosco.” Naturally, as he did so, both jar and bottle fell to the ground in pieces. Stunned, he began to whimper that his mother would beat him when he got home (BM II, 74).

Everything was happily resolved, thanks to the generosity of the shopkeeper.

2. From this perspective too, we have to emphasize the importance of the expression and the manifestation of love. The Salesian mission assumes that those to whom our service is primarily directed and who are the privileged object of God’s love have not had an experience of love manifested to them; that is why, in their case more than in any other, we need to ensure that they perceive it in the most concrete way possible. As Fr. Pascual Chavez says: It is a matter of giving the most to those to whom unfortunately life has given the least. And undoubtedly, a fundamental element is the effective possibility of their integral promotion through education; otherwise, all that remain are beautiful words or pious desires.

3. However, there is another aspect which seems to me particularly important and delicate, especially in our times, and it is the need for the manifestation of God’s love to be perceived through the (paternal-maternal-fraternal) manifestation of our agape-eros… the way Don Bosco did. This, we must immediately add, has nothing to do with sexuality, and is completely the opposite of a risky deviation.

There is a text in the Ratio 2000 – more precisely, in the booklet on Admissions – which summarizes this trait very nicely. It alludes to the danger that this love, shown in a Salesian way, can be confused with its radical falsification, or more explicitly, with a homosexual contra-indication. We know that, for subtle psychological reasons, this inclination intensifies especially when dealing with fragile and “defenceless” youngsters who, as such, are the typical recipients of our educative and pastoral activity.

The text says: “On account of its particular characteristics, (the vocation to Salesian consecrated life) implies special requirements with regard to homosexuality. It is a question in fact of a vocation-mission that is lived in male communities, that leads to constant contact with poor youth, preferentially male, in need of attention and affection, in a family style and an educational method, which is expressed through loving-kindness, the ability to make oneself loved and to show love” (Admissions, n. 77, p. 57).

Today more than ever, we have to guard against every type of deviation in this field (which, on the other hand, is more dangerous today); but we must not, for fear of such a deviation, renounce the specific and essential trait of our charism! It is the authentic identity of our consecrated chastity that enables us to “bear witness to the predilection of Christ for the young; it allows us to love them in an open and uncomplicated way, so that they ‘know they are loved’, and it enables us to educate them to love and to purity” (C 81).

4. There is another very important and practical consideration, and the Rector Major chose to emphasize it in his Strenna for 2008, viz. “the promotion of human rights, in particular the rights of juveniles, as the Salesian way of promoting a culture of life and a change of structures… Don Bosco’s preventive system has a wide social influence (…) The education to human rights, in particular those of juveniles, is the best way to put into practice in different settings our commitment to prevention, to all-round human development, to the building of a world that is more equitable, more just, more healthy. The language of human rights also enables us to discuss our pedagogy and introduce it into the different cultures of the world.”

I would like to conclude by recalling once more the last sentence in the section on Chastity in our Constitutions: “(The Salesian) turns with filial trust to Mary, the Immaculate Help of Christians, who helps him to love as Don Bosco did” (C 84).