JERUSALEM: 1 February 2011 -- While tumultuous events
seem to be engulfing many parts of the Middle East at the
moment, and we do not forget our Salesian Family in Tunisia
and Egypt (and Sudan, and in many other parts of that
region), there was time and tranquility in Jerusalem, on
Sunday 30 January, for the Salesian Family to solemnise the
Don Bosco's Feast day in the Latin Rite with a children's
Mass in a local Parish. The youth choir sang together with
the students of theology. The Franciscan Parish Priest, Fr
Firas Hijazeen commented on the day’s Gospel in his homily:
“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the
earth”. Fr Gianni Caputa provides us with an overview
of the commentary.
The message was that Don Bosco, along with saints generally,
imitated the meekness and generosity of Jesus. Jesus treated
every one with meekness and compassionate love. He did not
enter Jerusalem with arms, but riding on a humble donkey. In
the garden of Gethsemane he cured the servant whose ear
Peter had severed with the sword.
Don Bosco was a meek person; he chose to stay with the
poor and spent his whole life in the service of young
people. He wanted to make Jesus known to them, not only with
his words, but above all with his personal example of a
humble and gentle style of life. Because of this, now, after
nearly 200 years, his spiritual children have spread across
the world. We can really say that Don Bosco “inherited the
earth,” morally and spiritually in the first instance.
In our modern cultures, humility, simplicity and meekness
are little valued, and those who practise them are
considered insignificant. To the contrary, Jesus, the
saints, Don Bosco, show us how to be humble and simple. They
teach us to choose the path of generosity, with trust in God
who operates with a long-term vision. When we look at the
picture of Don Bosco, his eyes strike us. His vision seems
to go beyond the immediate, to penetrate beyond appearances.
He was a man of the future, and therefore invested in the
education of the young.
"With the celebration of Don Bosco's Feast today, we thank
Don Bosco’s children who continue his work with meekness and
simplicity. We wish that the Lord also grant them vocations
from the Holy Land - from Jerusalem". _________________ AustraLasia
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