austraLasia #2786
DB’S Visit to the FIN: Reminiscences and
Reflections, Why and Wherefore
Fr Eli Cruz, Provincial
MANILA: 17 January 2011 -- The pilgrimage of
the relic of St. John Bosco, a preparation for the
celebration of his 200 years of birth in 2015, ended in the
Philippines-North Province (FIN) on 15 January 2011, 200
years to date of the birth of St. Joseph Cafasso, Don
Bosco’s model and mentor.
The forecast rains for the days ahead
stopped the afternoon of the relic’s arrival on 23 December
2010 at the tarmac of the Philippine Air Force Base in
Manila, which the Philippine president uses when departing
for foreign or domestic trips. Don Bosco’s relic was
welcomed with full state honors, short of the 21-gun salute
reserved for heads of state. The papal nuncio to the
Philippines and the dean of the diplomatic corps in the
country, the Right Reverend Edward Joseph Adams, welcomed
our holy founder not only as saint of our faith but also as
the “unwritten patron of Vatican diplomats”, Don Bosco being
a sought-after mediator between Church and the State in his
times.
On 15 January 2011, the same apostolic
nuncio said the farewell Mass at the Shrine of Mary, Help of
Christians and by nightfall, before the relic’s departure
for Vietnam, the rains were back. Indeed, even in the city
of Legazpi, famous for its perfectly coned Mayon Volcano,
still experiencing torrential rains and flooded streets to
date, the chartered plane carrying Don Bosco’s relic was the
last plane in and the only plane out, because the rains
stopped and poured again as if to allow the convenience of
Don Bosco’s arrival and departure.
All throughout his 24-day sojourn in the
FIN, the fair weather allowed wonders to shine. Numerous log
books and large graffiti walls were all filled with
intentions and insights, surprisingly even from young people
studying in faraway schools unknown to Salesians, a good
number of them bearing the unpatented name of St. John
Bosco. Thousands of past pupils, much more than the hundreds
that attend the annual school homecomings, returned to their
alma mater, the younger ones bringing along their little
boys, the next generation of Salesian pupils. Non-Salesian
parishes, diocesan seminaries, and religious communities
headed by priests who were past pupils of Salesian schools
added to the people that swarmed some places visited by the
relic.
A motorcade towards the earliest Salesian
school in Tarlac, the longest so far it was claimed, and a
procession towards the mother house of the Salesian works in
Mandaluyong, said to be a close second to the throng in
Guatemala, showed not only the people’s devotion to St. John
Bosco and their admiration for his works, but also the
influence in civil society of our past pupils. In both
places, the alumni-mayors could not contain their emotions
for the privilege of their father’s short stopover in their
city gym or town plaza. The vice-president of the country,
once a boy in our youth center, made sure he was present in
the churches of St. John Bosco and San Ildefonso both in
Metro-Manila, two parishes that influenced him.
The cathedrals of San Jose, San Pablo and
San Gregorio, had the diocesan clergy and youth
representatives of their geographic region celebrate in a
festive gathering the 2011 Year of Youth in the Philippines
in the presence of the very father and teacher of youth.
All throughout, with each setting having
its own unique festive features, the spirit of prayer
prevailed, always with whatever rehearsed cheering from the
students toned down- whether in Mabalacat in the north of
the capital, Makati in the financial center, Tondo in the
port area, and Alabang for the street children village in
Metro-Manila, or Canlubang in the south of the capital. The
whole educative-pastoral communities were simply too
overwhelmed to even say a word. Many would describe it as
indescribable; one columnist would put it that way in her
long column on the front page of the leading national paper.
In a predominantly Catholic country where
uncommon or uncanny manifestations are easily accepted as a
sort of miraculous, digital pictures of Don Bosco’s casket
with the image of the Virgin Mary or the clear sky with Don
Bosco’s image formed by the clouds were soon uploaded in
Facebook or sent via e-mail. Miracles of healing have yet to
be documented, or perhaps there is no need, but testimonies
of transformations one could read from the log books or
graffiti walls.
Don Bosco’s relic has come and gone. And
to borrow the words of the poet Robert Blair: “Its visit,
like those of angels, short, and far between.” But a “why”
will linger. And the “why” must be a commitment to the
“wherefore.”
Francheska, a 22-year-old past pupil was
brutally killed in the morning of 6 January 2011 inside her
house in Better Living Subdivision, Parañaque, where
the Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians is located, the last
setting to be visited by Don Bosco’s relic. Francheska’s
death does not make sense at all especially in the context
of the joy of the visit of St. John Bosco, the father and
friend of youth. On second thought, we can make sense of her
death precisely in the context of St. John Bosco’s presence
among us. She was killed by five minors, teenagers,
neglected and exploited, living in the margins of an
otherwise middle-class vicinity, in a world of violence and
crime.
This is why God sent Don Bosco to this
world, to a world of exploitation, violence, and crime done
to and by young people, many of them minors already in
conflict with the law. Don Bosco dreamed of wolves becoming
sheep. If the death of young Francheska in the hands of
minors were to have a meaning especially in the context of
this once-in-a-lifetime visit of St. John Bosco, then to the
best of our possibilities no child or teenager among us must
feel that they are the last, the least, and the lowliest in
this world.
Don Bosco, of course, also educated young
people who had the capacity to excel in studies, in
servant-leadership, in sanctity of life. He educated young
people who came from good Christian families with influence
in industry, business, government, and the media of his
time. We have seen many of them during the relic’s visit,
enough to say that Don Bosco has become a leaven in both the
Philippine church and society through them.
But Don Bosco taught us that if people
who have enough of the wealth of this earth want to live in
a land where there is peace, where no one violates or harms
another, then those who have more must care for those who
are the last, the least, and the lowliest in society.
Otherwise, they will claim what they have been deprived of
in violent ways.
No wonder Don Bosco’s visit to the FIN
ended on the 200th birthday of his formator, St. Joseph
Cafasso, patron of prisoners, priest of the gallows,
chaplain of the hanged. Pope Benedict XVI said of these two
saints, Don Bosco and Don Cafasso: “These Saints were bound
to each other by total love of Christ and by their profound
charity for the poorest people.”
But Pope Benedict XVI continues: “In all
the fundamental decisions of his life St. John Bosco had St.
Joseph Cafasso to advise him, but in a very specific way:
Cafasso never sought to form Don Bosco as a disciple "in his
own image and likeness", and Don Bosco did not copy
Cafasso.” And so while St. Joseph Cafasso accompanied
criminals from prison to gallows, St. John Bosco sought to
prevent such endangered young people from even going through
a life of crime and the confinement of prison. This is our
wherefore.
