DON BOSCO THE EDUCATORE

PASCUAL CHÁVEZ VILLANUEVA

DON BOSCO SAYS

10.

WHOEVER IS LOVED, GETS ALL, ESPECIALLY FROM YOUNG PEOPLE

Driving the cart ...

On a sweltering and stifling day I walked to Turin in the company of the most loyal Fr Rua and another Salesian, when all of a sudden my eyes lingered on a scene that filled my heart with deep sadness: a young boy, perhaps 12 years old, was attempting to drag a cart-load of bricks on the uneven, cobblestoned road. He was an apprentice bricklayer, thin and small who, unable to move a weight more than his strength could bear, was crying in despair. I pulled away from the Salesians and ran to that poor guy, one of many who, in Turin by then embellished with many beautiful buildings, grew under inhuman masters to the tune of beatings and curses. I was struck by those tears running down his face. I approached, smiling with a slight nod of friendship and helped him push that weight up to the building site. Everyone marveled to see there in that place a priest in a black cassock; the boy, however, understood that he could fly as well as he really wanted if I got beside him as a solidarity gesture of real help.

I like to remember this fact, one among many, because I consider it a symbol of my great love for young people. Love is not made of words, love speaks directly, straight to the heart. Of this I was certain: the path that leads to the heart is what convinces most of all and wipes away all resistance and possible doubt.

A memorable evening

I remember with emotion, as if it were today, the evening of January 26th, 1854. After the prayers I gathered in my scanty room 4 youths (between 16 and 20 years old) who were with me for some time. I was going to offer them "a trial of practical exercise of charity towards their neighbour". I couldn't go too far. If I had told them my intention was to found a religious congregation I wouldn't have achieved the goal. It was a time in which, with a simple stroke of the pen, various groups of monks and nuns had been erased. It was more prudent to ask whether they wanted to stay with me to help me to work with young people. I followed the example of Jesus who to the first disciples had only said: Come and see. From that evening we called ourselves "Salesians" for the first time. And with a fixed gaze on St. Francis de Sales, the champion of the goodness and the gentleness of the Gospel, we started. When I was about to be ordained priest, 18 years before, I had chosen among the resolutions: "The charity and sweetness of St. Francis de Sales guides me in everything". In my heart, that evening, the Salesian Congregation was born; it would be definitively approved only 20 years later! I expected a long and difficult journey, a real Way of the Cross, I assure you ... So much so that, years later, I confessed: "If I had known before that the founding of a religious society would cost many sorrows, hardships, oppositions and contradictions, perhaps I wouldn't have had the courage to undertake the work ".

A whole heart

"The practical exercise of charity" which I proposed to the Group was not pie in the sky. It was a testimony that I bore for many years. It wasn't a fixed "obsession" of mine. It was my intention for young people. Later, someone would have called it "pastoral charity". The Preventive System was not simply the system of kindness, but "kindness built into a system". This last sentence wasn’t said by me; it was written by a Salesian whom I knew as a boy and who regularly went to confession in the last years of my life. The basis was the love of God revealed by Jesus. I loved the young people because I knew that God loved them. I was never indifferent to any of them; and hence I was studying the best ways to do good and get increasingly closer to the Lord. With the experience gained over many years I was convinced more and more that I couldn't stop at the boy that I had before me, but had to see in him the man of tomorrow. I had to work with a perspective of the future.

That's why I used to be prepared to make room for sacrifices in order to reach high and noble ideals; I wasn’t content just to stretch out sufficiently, but to expect the best out of everyone. Also because I had an unshakeable confidence in his potential. And hope always supported me; that's why I was encouraging my collaborators: "Perhaps for some it will seem that your labours and your sweats have been thrown to the winds. For now, perhaps it will be so, but it won't be forever, not even for those who seem to be more unruly. The traits of kindness, which you have used for them, remain imprinted in their minds and hearts. The time will come when the good seed will germinate, will show its flowers and will produce its fruit."

In the last years of my life I felt rewarded to see how I was able to form a 'team' of the Salesians, very different from each other, but united and tuned into the same educative passion. So, I was able to enhance the burning and restless enthusiasm of a Cagliero, the stainless fidelity of Don Rua, the affability of Francesia, the journalistic vigour of a Bonetti, the disarming calm of an Alasonatti, the unshakeable loyalty of Buzzetti, the intellectual genius of a Cerruti, the enterprising spirit of a former partisan like Fagnano ... As years before I had been able to channel towards a new and unimaginable path of youthful holiness the ardent impetuosity of a Michael Magone, the candour of a Francis Besucco, the growing apostolic character of Dominic Savio. I was surrounded by young people who hadn't been afraid to show the fascinating and demanding road of Christian commitment, of honesty, of love for the work done "with noble precision", of the serene and contagious joy, of smiles and of the passion for life.

A personalised education

Although I worked with many young people, my teaching was never mass-produced, anonymous, generalised. It was always personalised. I used to use a special notebook: in it I put notes of the profile of each lad, his temperament, his reactions, some lack of light-heartedness, but of those who stay as alert like a prudent man, the reported progress in study and in conduct. I was using this notebook for a personal accompaniment of every lad. I used the same method to advise those who were in charge of teaching the catechism. It was the Notebook of Experience. In it, the catechists had to record the problems, the mistakes that took place at school, out and about, in the yard, anywhere. I recommended them to read every now and again the remarks made, the measures taken and the results obtained. It was a task to verify constantly the things that needed attention and continual presence. For this, in the Short treatise on the Preventive System I had defined the educator as "an individual dedicated to his students, ready to tackle every problem, every effort to achieve its purpose, which is the civil, moral and scientific education of his students”.

I dreamed of the educator as a "supporter", one who 'stands beside', the young lad, who knows everyone and asks from each one to be known in return. Just like the Good Shepherd, one who knows his sheep and is known by them.