HOMILIES OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

APPENDIX 20

Homily at the Mass

for the opening of the GC24

Rome, 19 February 1996

This celebration leads us into our GC24 as a spiritual event. We could not, in fact, inaugurate it without a communal act of faith in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All the better if this can be done in the Eucharist, the memorial of Christ's Resurrection of which the Spirit is the gift, testimony and guarantee.

Here and now the presence of the Spirit is for us a reality. We can allow ourselves to be guided by the similarity between our assembly and the one spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles. We, like them, are gathered together in one place, coming from the farthest parts of the world. And that is a sign of the mysterious energy which has brought us together.

But we feel ourselves united also spiritually: through the brotherhood that unites us even before we know each other; through our common project; through the common purpose which disposes us to convergence of thought; through the unparalleled accord created by the feeling that we are all disciples of Christ and sons of Don Bosco. The Spirit has already established between us those deep bonds of communion which the charism generates when it is welcomed and developed.

Like the disciples in the Acts we too speak different languages, we come from different cultures, we represent a whole variety of traditions and conditions of life; yet we confess and proclaim the same truths and adopt the same style of life.

We also are at the end of a period which is showing signs of accomplishment, while we await the appearance of a new era for our religious and pastoral experience.

"When the day of Pentecost was coming to an end" - so runs the text. Other Pentecosts, or "new times of the Spirit" are following one another in the Church; they attain and realize their specific possibilities, opening up the way to further innovations. And this happens also in our own Congregation; the period we are about to live together is certainly one of these Pentecosts.

We can see in our imagination the many people outside our present environment who are waiting to hear what we shall say to them after our reflections and spiritual experience: they are our confreres and the members of the Salesian Family, the young people and members of the faithful who are awaiting announcements in line with their hopes and needs.

Our daily experience of the Spirit's presence is confirmed in the reminiscences of the faith. Every time the people of God, or a part of them, have gathered together to renew the covenant, they have received the Holy Spirit. Every time Christ's disciples come together in his name to invoke the coming of the Kingdom, the Spirit is with them.

The Spirit is manifested as a power which transforms and upsets. He moves some persons to enterprises of salvation and liberation which give dignity and new perspectives of life. We may think of Moses or other biblical personalities, of whom it is related that they were seized by the Spirit of God and acted with the overwhelming energy of fire and wind. And above all we may think of Jesus who, through the power of the Spirit, faces temptations and gives himself to the mission of evangelizing the poor, casting out demons, curing sickness and vanquishing evil.

The Spirit raises up and inspires the prophets and sages who keep alive the people's hopes, and on this account risk the complex and almost incomprehensible facts of history, and especially sustain the living awareness of man's vocation and final success against the temptations of the here and now, and the satisfaction of purely material needs.

The Spirit too is at the origin of priestly service, which fosters the deepest religious experience, liturgy, prayer, reality of the temple, and everything serving as a means for an encounter with God.

In their common activity, guides, prophets and pastors, spiritual sages and men of action, have given and continue to give to God's people and to the ecclesial community, identity, solidity and orientation.

* In the same way the Spirit continues to work in our humble Society, which is a component of humanity and of the Church. We do well to proclaim with renewed and communal faith what we have frequently read and believed as individuals: "The Holy Spirit raised up St John Bosco". He formed in him the heart of a Father and Teacher, and in so doing gave rise to the novelty of our spirit and pastoral style, for the benefit of poor youth.

The Spirit inspired him to found the Congregation and the Salesian Family, and directed towards it numerous individuals who developed it in the course of time and today carry out its project in creative form. In the heart of these persons the Spirit continually prompts the desire for the experience of God, for holiness and for fidelity to the charism through priestly grace. He awakens them also through prophetic facts and voices, and leads them through guides he has chosen.

* But in the events and memory of faith is contained a promise of particular relevance for us. It was made by Jesus himself: The Spirit will guide you into all truth".

All truth! That is no small matter in an era in which we are tempted to be satisfied with fragments, with brief publicity breaks, with fleeting samples. The whole truth is the only equipment which allows us to get at reality with any success and read the facts of history; because this is wisdom, this is true life, and this with Jesus Christ is the source of the significance of our personal and communal existence.

To attain to it we need a ready charity which creates communion of hearts, because no one has a monopoly of truth. And it requires also the patience which leads to words which are adequate and intelligible to all and lead to a common praxis. It is the antithesis of Babel, not only as regards points of view but also in what concerns vocabulary. It is not sufficient, in fact, that our inspirations coincide. We are body as well as mind, and we need expressions which are lucid and appropriate, and deeds which are useful and meaningful. And this is what we are promised. We shall find the way to reach a shared vision, to speak a common language and to act in harmony.

Of this we have urgent need. The whole truth means for us that we understand the concrete manner of expressing our apostolic consecration at the present day: that consecration through which we want to proclaim the primacy of God on our life, and on every form of life, by means of a charity which is committed to making young people aware of their vocation, and to placing ourselves at their side to enable them to fulfil it.

At the present day the 'whole truth' implies for us a fresh and shared understanding of our mission and of the choices that must be made to render it significant in different contexts. It was the Spirit who traced the lines of Christ's mission and pointed to the works which made it understandable to men, as Jesus himself proclaimed in the Synagogue of Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor". (Lk 4,18)

The same Spirit kept the mission on course, directed towards the Kingdom of God, against temptations to what is only temporal, to personal or corporate advantage, to a levelling down to current modes or a giving way to needs of the moment.

The 'whole truth' is for us a manner of understanding and expressing the radical following of Christ in a world which has legalized and well nigh exalted to the point of status symbols extreme representation of three idols: riches detached from solidarity, pleasure freed from responsibility, and freedom disjoined from service. We are called upon to proclaim not only ascesis and moderation but also the human and cultural value, indispensable to the person, of evangelical attitudes which lead from possession to sharing, from pleasure to commitment, and from freedom to love.

The whole truth implies for us that we understand and realize the new dimensions of communion. This in the first place within our own communities in face of the challenges made today to deep human relationships, to the family spirit, to sharing in responsibility, and to the communication of the salesian spirit which we see as the horizon of the work of the Chapter. But it also involves the external expansion of communion too. We are living through a time of small but numerous lacerations which call for reconciliation. Our societies are torn asunder by fission and discrimination, by insuperable social differences and by ethnic oppositions. The social texture disintegrates beneath the weight of selfish interests.

Our communion is called upon to be a leaven in both culture and neighbourhood, in the mentality of the young and in educational environments.

The promise we have received is that the Holy Spirit will accompany us and guide us in our seeking. He is not going to give us the truth already wrapped and delivered. What he will do rather is show us the typical paths to reach our objective already transformed by it.

One such path is the word: facts that have happened and lessons that have followed: "He will remind you of all I have said to you". Remembering, recalling, the creation of stable points of reference to which we can return, are characteristics of the Spirit. He repeats and makes resound in the Church all Christ's words just as he pronounced them, and allows nothing to be forgotten. This why he inspired the writing of the Gospels, why he offers them to us in liturgical celebrations and gives to ministers the grace to proclaim them.

For us too it will be important to remember events of the past. We are not a generation without a history, nor a Family without a Father.

The charism does not begin with us. It has already been lived, understood and expressed. Under its inspiration has been lived out the earthly existence of many confreres, especially those outstanding in holiness. To describe this style of life Don Bosco and his successors have written a great deal, and the community from time to time has tried to express it again. To go back so as to draw from the source the originality of one's own being and one's own grace is another of the Spirit's ways.

But the recalling of literal memories of the past is neither his only nor his main concern. He is also the Spirit of new understanding. The significance of his word is inexhaustible, and continued meditation on it is a source for us of new inspirations when the Spirit brings it face to face within us with the problems which challenge us. "I have many things still to say to you but you cannot bear them now. He will take what is mine and explain it to you".

There are two elements which prevent us from grasping the truth of Jesus in its entirety: the times which are not yet complete, and our own level of vigilance and spiritual life. The first matures by itself as God works within all that exists, but the second is our responsibility. And so we are invited to look at events, to accept the invocations of humanity, and to respond to them with ready availability and faith.

Again, he is not only the Spirit of the word freshly understood, but also the Spirit of innovation and prophecy: "He will declare to you the things that are to come". We are nearing the dawn of a new century. Human circumstances are becoming charged with challenges and possibilities, especially in what concerns the person, religious experience, social life and ecclesial mission. New perspectives are appearing for the Church, e.g. a new effort at evangelization, ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, ethical humanism and the leavening of human relationships.

The Synod on consecrated life accepted these challenges, and to meet them called for authenticity, radical approach, vigilance over the signs of the times, and participation in the vicissitudes of the world in line with the charismatic originality concerned.

* * *

Events, the memory of faith, and the promise are elements which suggest the attitudes with which we could follow the paths the Spirit will show us. They are all summed up in the prayer: "Ask for the Spirit and the Father will give him to you". Ask for the Spirit - that is what we are doing at this present moment, and that is what we shall continue to do every day in the filial assurance that his gifts will not be wanting to us.

APPENDIX 21

Homily after election of Rector Major

Rome, 21 March 1996

In these days of discernment we are living through a unique event. I am not saying this only nor even principally in my own regard, but as regards all of us as a community, We have always believed that discernment is something that involves all of us with equal responsibility; that its result affects all of us with equal advantages or losses. We have all embarked on the same ship for the same voyage.

In this Eucharist our thoughts turn naturally to Don Bosco who has gently led us to this event, which embodies a future trait of his Family and his project.

The Lenten readings do not prevent us from turning our eyes to him; indeed, they offer us some interesting points in his regard.

* The first reading speaks of the covenant and the mediation of Moses. The covenant with God, the pact of mutual predilection with Yahweh, was the source of the personal dignity of every component of the people of Israel and the foundation of their social identity. On this memory and code was based the education of individuals, the building of solidarity and the strengthening of the sense of belonging. Israel was the people which placed God, his word and his law, above every benefit, agreement, offensive and defensive resources. For this reason, even though with much infidelity, Israel has been the "memoria Dei" which has come down to us as humanity's patrimony.

The fault of the people, and hence their misfortunes, did not follow so much from the fact of their festivities around a statue, as because they had forgotten the favour God had shown them by freeing them from slavery; they had entrusted themselves to earthly elements in seeking their lives and personal satisfaction. When looked at like this, idolatry is not a thing of the past; it is a risk at the present day. There are those who are of the opinion that in our own time atheism has become more widely spread.

The covenant is the situation of grace and enlightenment in which we know by intuition that God is the first, the indispensable and only one who can satisfy our thirst for life and our yearning for redemption and salvation.

We give it other names. we call it consecration, religious choice, our plan of life in God, the recognition of his presence in our existence.

It is a condition of humanity. The latter is in a state of covenant, because it cannot explain itself nor its internal operations without acknowledging that it belongs to God and is destined to return to him, in a similar fashion to a wife who cannot think of her condition apart from the relationship that unites her with her husband. But this is also that state of the individual who can find neither sense nor a point of anchor until he becomes rooted in God.

The Church makes her own and wants to express this love of God for humanity, and the need for God which humanity experiences. She perceives this very clearly; it was revealed to her in the event of Christ, through which God draws humanity to himself and unites himself closely with man in the flesh and in history.

Religious are led by grace to concentrate their own existence on relationship with God and on proclaiming that his love is real and underlies history. They live the covenant not as the story of a past event, a doctrine, a subjective sentiment, but as a personal relationship which configures their existence in time and determines their options, their commitments and their friendships.

Grave crises occur when this centre of gravity, which sustains and unifies the existence of the religious even from a psychological standpoint, loses its force; nothing else - no matter how noble - can take its place. As a result all the other components become weakened, there is no longer a bond between them, they become disjoined and crumble. The reasons which sustained the plan of life become obscure and no longer have the necessary force to orientate the individual.

For each of us the sense of the covenant and the attraction of God were not and never will be a matter of a unique and extraordinary moment, but rather a process of unification brought about through corresponding to many external mediations and provocations, and moved by dialogues which take place in our conscience and which lead us to make choices which are ever more total and definitive,

The covenant is a preference which grows and becomes clearer throughout life. For some it may have begun with a sudden blinding flash in a moment of particular spiritual intensity. But it will always need new recognition and new options. Tiredness. forgetfulness, negligence, other attractions, are always ready to pounce in the human soul.

For most people it all happens with a gradualness which can easily be confused with chance happenings: a first taste through contact with persons or settings of a religious vein which suggested a particular impression or value; then slowly comes the discovery of the source from which such values proceed; we begin to share through friendship, collaboration and confidence. the experience of those who impressed us. And finally we feel that we have been won over, in line with St Paul's expression: "I have been conquered by Jesus Christ".

* In this process of the discovery of God and becoming attached to him, Don Bosco has been for us in particular a providential mediation; our first contact with him was a determining factor.

Our Constitutions tell us: "The Lord has given us Don Bosco as father and teacher". We can remember the details of that first contact and the graces we have subsequently received as our familiarity with him increased: how much he has enriched us with projects, feelings, ideals and rapport during the different phases of our existence: as candidates for the salesian life, as novices, during the period of initial formation, in pastoral activities and communal responsibilities, in our thinking back as adults. His internal accompaniment has always been inspiring and encouraging. If today we were to renounce all we have received from him, very little would remain of our spiritual life.

Truly therefore he has been the gift of God for us. It is true that without him there would have been others to point us towards the Lord. But life is not made up of what might have happened, but of real events. Even our parents might have been other people but, as it is, we have within us the genes and inherited characteristics of those who brought us into the world.

And so in the expression we are speaking of, the word 'us' does not have a merely collective sense, as though it regarded the salesian community as a whole, but a distributive sense: to each of us, personally and individually, has been given the grace of contact with Don Bosco.

Our relationship with him is one of sons and disciples. Don Bosco had, and continues to have at the present day, admirers, collaborators and friends. Christ too had hearers, adherents, followers, disciples and apostles. Each of these words indicates a different kind of relationship.

We are not only admirers, collaborators and friends of Don Bosco. The term that best defines our relationship with him is the word 'Father', but it would be a mistake to think that this is merely a term of affection related to his ability for manifesting kindness and closeness to us.

There is something here that goes beyond kindness and affection. Its meaning is that he is the initiator of that spiritual experience we call the salesian charism. It generates us to the following of Christ for the young. We shall have many teachers, interpreters and even prophets of the charism, but only one Father - in the sense that Paul could say to the Corinthians: "For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel" (1 Cor 4,15).

* In the Gospel we have just heard read, Jesus lists the testimonies that have been concentrated on his person: John the Baptist, Moses, the Scriptures. All of them lead to two points which are definitively convincing: his works and, in the final instance, the voice of the Father for those who are able to listen to it: "The Father who has sent me has given testimony of me" .

Certainly, for us too the definitive testimony comes from the works of Christ, from the Spirit and from the Father. The Father has drawn us to himself with the call to faith; the works of Christ are manifest in our "liberation from evil" and in the desire to be conformed to him from our baptism; the Spirit makes us feel that we are God's children and in continual communion with him. But it is the pedagogy and holiness of Don Bosco which has led us to these testimonies. All holiness is a transparency of God the Father and a reflection of Christ. That of Don Bosco has something unique about it as regards the ability to reveal God to the young.

The Constitutions express this in a crescendo of expressions: in him there appears a splendid harmony of nature and grace, a harmony progressively enlightened in a strongly unified plan of life at the service of the young; a 'motif' explains the overall unity and renders it magnificent is the concern for souls, the joy at the presence and action of God in each individual, the desire to lead the young towards God who is the source of all happiness.

Is not this perhaps what struck and attracted us too? that God came closer to us, within our range, with a welcoming human countenance as he captivated the disciples through the humanity of Jesus.

We know from experience that someone gave strength to our desire for life, truth and commitment; and that from lawful and immediate pleasures, which please youngsters so much, he urged us on to horizons of sense, responsibility and transcendence.

Don Bosco has applied with us too the preventive system, making attractive what is good, leading us to see the beauty of the faith, showing us the happiness there is in serving God and our neighbour.

* What he asks today of Salesians is that they live this covenant in all its joys and demands for the benefit of the young. Its immediate and transparent testimony in word and works is the contribution we make to the evangelization of the young in a secularized world.

That the young are looking for an underlying sense to everything is evident everywhere. That the great mass of youth follows the tide, while those who feel interiorly attracted by God are looking for travelling companions, is something that we ourselves perceive every day. That what pleases young people is life, and they are digging in it to discover what adults have already found in contact with Christ, is one of our maxims. It is indeed the fundamental law of the preventive system. We must not deprive youngsters of the good news of God by limiting ourselves to the provision of safe recreation for them.

In our commitment with the laity too, the witness of our consecration will be a primary and determining factor: the Spirit attracts the lay people to the sphere of Don Bosco to bring them closer to God, through a maturing of conscience and a deeper meeting with Christ. From those who are consecrated they expect to receive something. What will it be? Organization? Professional animation?

No! What they are looking for is rather the sense of God, the religious vision of his existence, the closeness of the Lord, the memory of his mercy. We too need to start again from God. What the Lord is saying to us today in the liturgy and in our family event must kelp us and make us capable of giving it effect.

May Mary, who formed the heart of Don Bosco in apostolic consecration, mould our own hearts too so that we may be able to combine in a single project the love of God and dedication to the young.

APPENDIX 22

Homily on the Feast of the Annunciation

Rome, 25 March 1996

The account of the annunciation to Mary of the birth of the Messiah is one of the most beautiful parts of St Luke's Gospel. It relates a real fact and at the same time puts forward the sense of the history of humanity, which is our own. It is concerned not only with the past, but is also a key for reading the present.

But before going on to any application, let us pause for a few moments in contemplation, as though we were looking at a picture or panorama.

The story is built up with snatches from the Bible which recall ancient hopes, express the expectations of the time, and anticipate the dreams of man's salvation. All this is concentrated in Mary who in her person represents humanity called to receive God within it.

"Rejoice": this is a salutation used by the prophets when they addressed the Daughter of Zion, who was also a representative of humanity, and in particular of that portion which had made of God its inheritance and hope,

It is not just a conventional introduction, like our usual "Dear ...". It ensures the favourable will of God, bringing with it a proof that can be verified. Isaiah says: "Shout for joy, barren one who has borne no children! Break into cries and shouts of joy, you who were never in labour!"

"The Lord is with you" frequently appears when God calls to a mission; it is repeated in the narration of callings which involve an important task for salvation.

Again the phrase "nothing is impossible with God" was said to Sarah, the wife of Abraham, when she was desperate about her sterility, at the beginning of the generation of believers. It expresses God's decision to intervene in human affairs in favour of man, overcoming any limitations of nature or human liberty.

We are therefore facing the reality of an outstanding event. We are looking at a "vocation", a call to her who through such an circumstance was to be the mediatrix and human protagonist; one who in the first place was therefore asked to believe (and that is the most difficult part!), then accept the commitment, and then give her collaboration as her life went on.

There is in the annunciation an image of God, and a certain well discussed film has tried to explore it. It is interesting to see whether the image it finds coincides with our own image of God. Not the one we have because we have studied it in books, but the one we live within us and often apply unconsciously in our activities. God does not remain outside human history but works in its heart, precisely where events have their origin and become interwoven.

He sends an angel: i.e. he communicates with us and makes his designs known to us, not only (and perhaps not even mainly) through great organizations, but in the ordinary course of life: The angel comes to Nazareth, to a private house, to a young engaged woman experiencing the love of family and responsibility. As we see boys and girls around us we have to remember that communication with God is happening in their hearts as well.

The Annunciation is a meditation on humanity, especially on that part which is becoming aware of its own inability to attain happiness and is asking it of the Lord: they are the poor. This part of humanity is not only the object of God's compassion and generosity, but through its desires and expectations has the ability to welcome God who sets up with them a communion even at the present time, like that which was to be realized in the Incarnation. And it is also interesting to ask ourselves whether this vision of humanity shapes our thoughts and actions. God becomes conceived within the events of concern to humanity.

It is a vision of the Spirit, the same Spirit who hovered with love over the primitive chaos at the beginning of creation, who kept alive the fire of expectations and desires, moving the chosen people to their partial realization. His is the mysterious power which to the human eye seems sterile, limited or lost. And it is a matter of a fertility which is not common, which is highly valued and esteemed, from which the children of God draw their origin. This is an invitation to look at our faith again, in the action and strength of the Spirit. Just as a virgin can conceive a child, so our apparently sterile world is fertile through the Spirit with possibilities which exceed our wildest dreams.

It is a presentation of Jesus with an abundance of messianic names: "Great", Son of the Most High, Son of David: the flower of humanity and its greatest expression, the definitive word of God.

* The actors who play their parts in the annunciation are the ones who also appear in the facts which concern us personally as believers. This is why I said that the story reflects what happens to each of us and to the Church. The question may occur to us: what difference could there be between this account, so elaborate from a literary and religious standpoint, and the humble episode itself, hidden and perhaps externally very ordinary, in which the young Mary of Nazareth found herself involved?

The Gospel story is certainly not a fictional embellishment, nor is it just an edifying meditation, but it gives the true dimension of the event because it sees it in the light of its development after the Resurrection. It embraces what Mary could not understand at the time.

And so we are taught to live in faith the events in which we are involved, to understand that the future consequences of options we make does not depend on their grandeur or magnificence, but on the fact that they have within them the seed of eternity, which is the sense of God and adherence to his will.

* Artists, especially painters but not painters alone, have shown a preference for this scenario of the Annunciation. They always include it when they are presenting the story of salvation. But many of their efforts have left us with a feeling of exaggeration and detachment. Before their masterpieces, as before this scene in the Gospel, we are left unmoved and thoughtful.

We would like to scrutinize Mary's soul through the lines of her countenance portrayed so delicately by artists, to detect something beyond the spoken words and the external scene; we understand that what was most important and mysterious took place in the heart and mind of Mary, a young woman of marriageable age, which at that time meant somewhere between thirteen and fifteen years.

Her conversation with the angel, whether it be seen as a revelation, vision, something she heard or only internal inspiration, is something private and hidden. The consequences begin to unravel afterwards and they reach even to us.

One of them is her reading of history, expressed in the Magnificat, precisely in the light of this personal event. It is the story of a poor and humble people whose vicissitudes are not found written in the books of great empires. But they will be more decisive and powerful than the great powers. Following on her conception came her motherhood and the education of Jesus. In these the contemplation and understanding of human events is continually enriched. Then Christ followed his own path, acquired his autonomous dimension which led to the realization of the redemption, precisely as God the Father had said at the Annunciation.

Our active life, be it consecrated or lay, leads to tension between internal and external activity, personal response and the transformation of reality, contemplation and service. These things are a challenge to us, and often a temptation as well. We always want to do more, and little by little we begin to put our trust in the means and activities, which begin to leave us internally empty, unless we link ourselves continually with the starting point from which we draw strength and significance: God's invitation to collaborate with him.

The Annunciation reminds us of the priority of what is internal. Nothing is produced outside themselves by man or woman unless it has first been conceived and accepted interiorly. Thoughts, feelings, desires, projects and events are elaborated in our heart. There is to be found God's sanctuary, and from that sanctuary Mary confesses her virginity, her availability, her acceptance. It is the moment of listening and enlightenment, not only in the sense of piety, but also as regards the best method of understanding apostolic action: it is attention, study and deeper analysis.

It is there that the Spirit is at work with his grace which renders Mary interiorly Mother of the Word, who is conceived in her soul before being conceived in her womb. Significant is that representation of the Annunciation which shows Mary kneeling and attentively reading the Scriptures. She is concentrating peacefully and absorbing the words. The expression on her face shows she accepts them and rejoices. And from this flows her openness to the future.

At the words of the angel she expresses those perplexities and difficulties which we too shall manifest; that what is asked for is not possible. They are too fine and great, because they are measured by God's standard. But when she understands that it is God who asks it, she believes and gets down to work.

Dear brother and sisters, Salesians and lay people, in everyone's life there is an annunciation; indeed there may be many of them linked together, which invite us to make some innovation and open ourselves to it in hope. Our own vocation was an annunciation, and so are the subsequent calls and responsibilities in which we must entrust ourselves to God and look to the future with trust and confidence.

An annunciation too is the event of the General Chapter which we are living in these days. There is a voice, a promise, a spirit which makes it fertile. Our task is to believe, to dispose ourselves to participate wholeheartedly in the enterprise, and then wait in peace for the results.

Mary will teach us how to do it, as she says also to us those words: We are the servants of the Lord! May what God has said be accomplished in us.

APPENDIX 23

Homily of Holy Thursday

Rome, 4 April 1996

Today, Holy Thursday, we recall with veneration what Jesus said and did at the last supper of his life on earth, at which he gave a meaning to spiritual sacrifice to the Father.

A number of motives are interwoven in this celebration which leads us into the Easter Triduum: the Church, the new chosen people, founded on God's pact with humanity realized in Christ, and established historically on the twelve witnesses and depositaries of the secret of Jesus; the Eucharist as the sign, memorial and actuation of this covenant in different times and places; the common priesthood of all, and in particular of those who had been with Jesus from the beginning, and at this moment were chosen by him as his family to celebrate the Passover with him; and loving service, the key to the interpretation of the Jesus event, the explanation of the Eucharist, a commandment for the community, a task and reason for the priesthood.

These motives imply and involve one another. In the special context of the Lord's Supper it is impossible to separate them without losing a part of their significance. Today we need to take them up again, reflecting on our priestly ministry. It is unusual to have so many salesian priests united for a celebration of Holy Thursday.

Every year on this occasion the Pope writes a letter to priests. Moreover we are at present engaged in a deeper study of the educative and pastoral community, the salesian family and movement, and the exchange of benefits which must take place in them. In the last thirty years we have done a lot of thinking about the service which must be rendered by those who animate communities, and it has been emphasized that it must be enriched and inspired by priestly endowments and experience. This has not been considered only as a preliminary condition for taking on the task, but as the very content of animation, which is not something technical but spiritual, based on grace and aimed at a more intense living of the state of grace or holiness, through the mediation which Christ conferred on his apostles.

The ordained ministry is not primarily a delegation to do something, but a vocation and charismatic gift. Before being a satisfaction of the people's need for meetings and common prayer, it is an invitation by God to follow Christ in a certain manner. No one accedes to the priesthood for family reasons or because of purely personal qualities, but because of an internal voice which is heard and is later discerned and accepted by the Church. It springs from the Spirit. We do not form a social group. Ours is a spiritual priesthood like that of Jesus. The Spirit's grace leads us to become conformed to Christ the Shepherd, and disposes us to offer our lives to God for men; for their salvation which consists especially in the revelation of God, in whom man succeeds in discovering his destiny.

This was the great work of Jesus, as he himself summed it up in those last supreme moments: "To them I have revealed your name..." with patience, with persistence, with pedagogy. To this are referred all his works and actions. They reach our corporal and psychological dimension, but especially they awaken our awareness of being children of God; they communicate the Spirit's gift, they give sense to our existence, they reconcile us with the Father.

* The charism received by those who are called to the priestly ministry is destined for the community in four different forms.

There is the charism of foundation; it continually brings back the community to Christ by exhortation, but above all by linking it historically with the event of Christ through participation in the apostolic succession of the Bishops. The Christian faith is not a refined religious humanism, nor is it the summation of what is best in all the existing or possible religions. It is the acceptance in the first place of an established fact and of its consequences: the incarnation, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. To this event communities are linked through the testimony of the apostles, maintained by the Church, which reaches even as far as us through their successors. It belongs to the priesthood to keep alive the memory of this reference and bring it about that all other concerns and initiatives of the community become linked with it. There are many gifts and endowments in the community, but the ministry is the charism of foundation. And it is not a matter of personal ability alone nor of professional preparation, even though these two may be of the greatest help, but of the constitution of the body of Christ as is clearly proclaimed in today's celebration. It is the duty of every priest, through his familiarity with Jesus, to make him present so that the community may be supported and grow on solid foundations.

The priest brings a second gift to the community: he becomes the sign and energetic force of ecclesial communion, in an internal and spiritual as well as a visible sense. The Christian community is not characterized by celebrations or by a feeling of sympathy for Christ, nor even by the content of faith alone, but by a historic belonging. It is a people called to be an instrument of the salvation brought by Christ, not outside or beyond history but within it. This membership or belonging has signs of identification and implies also demands of life. It is a spiritual communion and a visible unity. Priests do not monopolize the sense of the Church, but they certainly nourish, sustain and enrich it from the lowest level (like convergence on some human values) up to total communion.

Linked with the preceding there is a third gift: the authenticity of faith and Christian experience. The faith of the individual and the community is a response to the proclamation of salvation and the acceptance of its conditions. It requires both vibrant feelings and depth of reflection; it regards the Gospel, not speculations produced by the human mind, and it has a means of verification: the Church of the apostles. It is in this proclamation and in this comparison that one must delve in order to penetrate the sense and consistency of human values in line with their ultimate destination.

On the foundation of Christ, in ecclesial communion, and with attention to authentic faith, we enter progressively into the realm of grace, of relationship with God, of the human experience of feeling ourselves children of the Father, lived also at a psychological level: it is the itinerary of the spirit within us, the understanding of the sacramental and vital mediations offered us by God. Again, it is not a matter of powers but of a vocation and a gift, with which the Spirit makes us instruments to be vehicles of grace as he sends us to the community.

* Priests recall the foundation; they insert others in the Church, they develop the faith and introduce others to grace through the service of the word. All take part in the proclamation and exhortation, but the priest signifies its urgency for unveiling the mystery of life: he recalls that it culminates in Christ Jesus; he dedicates himself to embodying this in life and puts himself at its service.

In the same way he helps the individual and the community to give the generous response to God which is holiness. All collaborate to this end, but the priest perceives it as the greatest benefit of the person; he is concerned that individuals and community progress in it for men and for God, and offers the riches of experience and grace which Christ and the Church possess.

Priests animate and guide the community to direct them towards Christ, to live in love, and to give fullness to their ecclesial membership.

Once again they do not do this alone, nor is it necessarily done from posts of administration or coordination. It arises whenever there is clarification of rapport with the Lord and there is defined the witness of charity. He has it at heart that the community should not live for itself but place itself at the service of others as Jesus did. In this existence for others they must not stop at human possibilities, but grasp the divine plan revealed in Christ; that they trust not only in temporal means but in spiritual means too; that they believe in the fertility of the Spirit's presence which educates the conscience and opens up to grace.

* To enable them to exercise these ministries not in a bureaucratic fashion but with interior joy, dedication and conviction, the Spirit equips priests with an energy which is the characteristic of their existence and spirituality: pastoral charity. Everybody has this, but the priest receives it as his principal gift. It is the love which leads him to contemplate and identify himself with Christ and to collaborate with him who enlightens, heals, gathers people together in unity and gives his life for them. And not only this! It enables him to make Christ present around him through words and gestures which are visible and intelligible, and solidly directed towards the goal of salvation.

The priesthood, understood in this fashion, is exercised not in certain specific acts, but at every moment of life. It is the priestly existence which is the mediating element as was that of Christ, defined and described as a priest by the Epistle to the Hebrews. The minister acts "in persona Christi" when he celebrates and (without thereby making sacred his own state) even when he walks the streets because it is his life which has been assumed by Jesus.

* This leads us to one or two comments on our salesian priesthood. The Lord calls us to be priests and educators. This means taking the grace of our ministry into the field of human experience of the young and the community concerned with youth. We exercise the ministry of the word when we preach a homily, but not less so when we speak with a youngster in the playground, when we gather together a group of animators, or when we teach a class. As our pulpit we have chosen the school, and as the place for proclamation meeting places indoors and outdoors. The word of God is not left isolated but is offered in a living context. For the young person, the word of God may be a dialogue or a welcoming greeting if he finds in them enlightenment and support.

We draw profit through the energy of priestly animation when we direct communities and works towards Christ, towards a service to the faith of the young even though we may be dealing with technical questions or organizational matters.

Being priests and educators means that we never separate spirit from matter, orientation from the necessary means, objectives from mediations, the secular from the religious, life from sacrament.

We sanctify when we celebrate, but no less in our daily relationships as well. Grace is certainly communicated through the acts of Jesus carried out by the Church, but also by our other acts which spring from a priestly heart.

* A second comment arises from a question which at first sight seems rather disturbing, but in fact makes us decidedly optimistic. Is it true that in the CEP there can at times be several priests, but there is little evidence of priestly gifts and service? And if this is so, may it not be because we thought that the field of education, the educative community, the youthful environment, are not the place for the profitable use of priestly characteristics, and so we waited for Sunday to exercise the priesthood in its most religious and ritual form? This question leads to a perspective which is encouraging. What a wealth of enlightenment, of grace, of orientation and transformation will be unleashed when each of us, people of God and ordained ministers, sets free the energies of his priesthood.

Both youngsters and adults feel the need for this. And it will not signify any mortification of the secular dimension, but rather its perfecting and fulfilment.

To this priestly service, which has its culmination in the Eucharist, Jesus invites us today with those words: "Do this in memory of me".

APPENDIX 24

Homily at the Closing Mass of the GC24

Rome, 20 April 1996

Our capitular experience is coming to an end, enlightened by the presence of the Risen Christ. We have before our minds the image of Mary at the foot of the Cross.

It is a paschal icon. It is only in comparatively recent times that the idea of the "Mater dolorosa" has come to the fore. In the Gospel account there is no reference to tears or sadness; it says simply that she stood near the Cross, taking part in that supreme event for humanity. A first semblance of the Help of Christians.

For St John the cross coincides with the glorification of Jesus, the culminating moment of his revelation, his going towards the Father. "When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all things to myself". From the cross was born the community of believers, represented by the little group gathered around it and symbolized by the water of baptism and the blood of the Eucharist. On the cross is founded the new unity of the human race which Christ was to realize according to the messianic promise. In this ecclesial framework are set the words addressed to Mary which suggest rather a symbol to decipher, a mystery to unveil, than a moving statement of a fact.

The episode of Mary, in fact, is at the centre of those last scenes which have passed down to us the memory of Christ's death. It is linked with the scene of the "seamless garment" which the soldiers did not divide, and is the symbol of reformed humanity, of the people of God definitively united through the grace of Christ. And it is followed by the expression with which Jesus declares that the design of the Father has been fulfilled: "Having said this Jesus, knowing that everything had been accomplished..."

It is not therefore a matter of the solicitude or filial love of Jesus, concerned about assigning to Mary someone who would support her, or of the affection of the disciple for her. These things are true but John puts less emphasis on them. What he is trying to do is to bring his readers to interiorize the sense of Christ's death and penetrate its salvific mystery. He leaves aside the emotive superficial aspect of the drama and dwells rather on its effects for humanity's pilgrimage. It is in this light that he reports the dialogue between Jesus, Mary and the disciple.

He turns first to Mary. We have the impression, and it is precisely what happened, that it was not a case of Mary being entrusted to John, but that he was entrusted to her as a son. It brings to mind that Mary is not called by her own name but always referred to as "his mother". We recall the episode of Cana when the same John says that in it "Jesus manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him". It is the initial glory of the revelation of the Messiah which reaches its highest point in his death. And it makes us think too of the name "woman" which takes us back to the same episode, symbol of the new nuptials. And going further back in history, to the woman of the creation, of the temptation and of God's sentence: Eve.

Of the disciple, on the other hand, the name is not given. It represents every follower of Jesus, all the disciples together, the community of his faithful followers characterized by the fact that they are friends of Christ and loved by him.

All this makes us think that we are at the making, not of some precautionary measure, but of a solemn and sacred entrustment, a point of departure. Jesus calls Mary to a new kind of motherhood which takes its origin from the cross and for that reason becomes fertile. It is a new capacity for bringing men to birth in the Spirit. We are "in the hour" of Jesus, which at Cana had not yet come. Mary will be his Mother, not only because she bore him in her womb, but because through identifying himself totally and in every place with the community born from the cross she will conceive him continually in history in millions of individuals throughout the centuries.

Mary depicts and concentrates in herself the quality of the universal Church, and even the individual local communities. They are all born at the foot of the cross; they are called to enjoy the riches signified in water and blood, and to bear witness to the fact with the ardent fidelity of the first nucleus.

For this reason the community of the disciples takes Mary to itself. We see her with them as they await the coming of the Spirit. She certainly bore a living witness to the historical existence of Jesus from the first years; but still more she was a motherly mediation for opening us to the mystery of Christ, Son of God. From that point she is present in communities everywhere, visibly in the signs by which the community recalls its veneration of her, and in depth with a fertility which gives ever new and unforeseen signs. This is the companionship which we too will bring to our own communities after the GC24.

She will remind us of the value of giving oneself to God as strength for pastoral charity.

We shall receive today a small statue of the "Good Shepherd" with a sheep on his shoulders. Christ's attitudes and gestures, which we often recall as examples for ourselves (welcoming, listening, support, enlightenment, mercy), find in the cross their explanation and coronation. The Shepherd, whom John presents in his Chapter X, is the one who gives life. If this be ignored, pastoral charity would become a technique of approach, of public relations, a form of beneficence rather than of salvation.

Mary, incorporated interiorly through the words of Jesus into this offering, educates us to the mysterious fertility of love.

For her too everything is revealed and fulfilled in this moment. Her concern for the growth of the Son of God takes on another dimension: from Jesus to the Church, historical and concrete, made of men and their doings; from human fertility to that of grace. Acceptance of this was another test of her faith, almost a qualitative leap.

Mary, at the foot of the cross, reveals to us the value of the community in which our service is realized, of the community which is present at Christ's sacrifice in a unique but different manner. She is the bearer of a memory of which she alone understands the sense. It is more than a "group". It is the place where God reveals salvation.

We may think in this way of the educative community which we animate, of the Salesian Family and Movement, of the churches. We foster the reference to Christ, the unity in love and activity. With them we invoke and await the Spirit and make ourselves attentive to his signs.

Mary at the foot of the cross reminds us of the salvation of which we want to be signs and bearers: it is the salvation that stems from Christ's Redemption, that opens us to God to receive from him the fulfilment of our own existence. We start up many initiatives for the benefit of the young and of adults. They are all oriented to a single main end, all leavened by something included in our motto "Da mihi animas": the salvation of God, which is central to the work of Christ.

With Mary, beside the cross, we discover which are the strengths needed for the transformation God wants to work in us and in our communities: the water and blood. The purification is the Eucharist. The Easter season, in which we are living, is the time of sacramental pedagogy. It is proposed in a thousand different ways by the liturgy and the pages of the Gospel.

Soon we shall pronounce the words of our entrustment to Mary. It will be an act of faith in her assistance and the expression of our desire to take her with us.

We have celebrated the passage of 150 years since Don Bosco began the Oratory at Valdocco. The presence of Mary runs like a golden thread through the various stages of his experience, both spiritual and pastoral: the beginning of the oratory, its definitive establishment, the foundation of the Congregation, and its expansion. Now we find ourselves beginning a new stage. May she still be the guarantee of our oblation, of the salvation we bear, of the communities we form.