The third element in the “profile of the new Salesian” is the mission, that is, carrying out Don Bosco's original project now, and defined as "being in the Church the signs and bearers of God's love for the young» (C. 2). We "find our own way to holiness” in this (C. 2).

In fact the mission "before being characterised by exterior works, is manifested in making Christ himself present to the world through personal testimony. This is the challenge and primary rask of consecrated life!" (VC 72). Today it is a much more urgent mission as new poverties in the world of the young are on the increase. Pope Francis declared that they were “throwaway material”. To be able to represent God's salvific love we need to be able to reproduce not only the motive for it, his predilection for the weakest, but also the manner of loving them, without delay and without measure, or, put in other words, with our lives as guarantee and limit.

1.Converted to the passion of Jesus and his ministers

In the morning we will contemplate Jesus, who was compassionate towards the crowd, and who taught his disciples to share their poverty and obey his mandate to welcome the little ones and look after them. It will help us bring about that "pastoral conversion" that has "its model and source in the very heart of Christ, apostle of the Father" (C. 11).

In the account of the multiplication of the loaves of bread and the fish it is not the miracle in itself that interests the narrator, but what happens to the disciples. Through his conversation with them, Jesus converts them to mercy: before sharing what they have with Jesus, they will share his compassion for the crowd with him. The miracle can only happen when the disciples make what little they have available to Jesus. To satisfy the crowd's hunger, Jesus had to conquer his disciple's hearts and get what little they had from them…, along with their complete trust.

2.Becoming small so as to look after the little ones

The motif for prayer this afternoon is the pastoral conversion that Jesus expects of us. On a day when the disciples wanted Jesus to think of them as “the greatest”, Jesus had them contemplating a child and commanded them to become like this child. The child, Jesus thought, should be the measure of importance in the kingdom of God. That is, he wanted a community where the one who is important is worth no more than the one who is insignificant and where the powerful accept that they are weak. Jesus wants a community of equals (cf. Mt 23:8-12), but not so everyone becomes great and influential, but because they have all become like children. This conversion is the sine qua non for apostolic mission.

Moreover, only genuine conversion, from being great to being small, makes it possible for the weak, defenceless, abandoned to be well looked after, better assisted. In the apostolic community the concern for the person in difficulty is not just a temporary pastime nor is it an individual task. A Christian community is not saved is someone in it is lost. We can't give up on those who are lost, even through their own fault or through weakness, because the God in whom we believe never gives up, does not want to less any of his own.

Communities where the insignificant count for something, where the little ones are welcome and the weak are defended, where the lost one is sought out, are a place of gratuitous love, an unequivocal sign of God's love. In the Christian community, more than being concerned for one's own salvation, we need to worry about living by saving others.

3.Today's aims

The fundamental objective for today is to submit the way we live as apostles in our everyday circumstances to the judgement of the Gospel. We usually think that by evangelising others we are already sufficiently evangelised ourselves. And so our vocation becomes a profession. It is not enough to work a lot for others we should only work like Jesus did, the apostle of the Father.

In the morning we need to identify the ultimate, deepest and often hidden reasons which make us feel and act as people sent by God to the young. Why do we feel this way – but do we really feel it? – as sent by Christ? There are two things we have to take seriously: the apostle comes into being to represent God's compassion. Someone he sends never goes out to realise his own plans, no matter how excellent they may be. Whoever does not share the “passion to save” has not been sent by God, who has no other concern than to save. Who or what are we looking for when we work: do we yearn for the salvation of others or to save ourselves? And something else must not be forgotten!: the disciple learns mercy if he stays with Jesus, when he is living, and taking rest with him. The second thing to consider is more comforting: the compassionate Jesus had – and still has – need for disciples, even if they live by overlooking the needy ones they have been sent to, even if they have little to offer, are lacking in foresight; Jesus needs people like us…

In the afternoon we will take it as a serious matter that Jesus demands pastoral conversion of us, which begins by becoming smaller and takes a huge step forward when we look after the little ones. Everything else can go and at times must go, except our brother in need. How could it be possible that we would not be interested in what God has most at heart? Who are we representing if we are hard of heart and ready to condemn? Have we scandalised the young, ourselves or our brothers? What are we ready to cut away so that none of the little ones will be corrupted or despised? Looking after the little one or the sick is not a matter of choice for the one who lives with Christ; but to succeed the disciple must accept that he is weak and insignificant: so that 'pastoral conversion' can take place there must first of all be a conversion to Christ.