SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO – 28th GENERAL CHAPTER
What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?
(Turin – 22 February 2020)
08.00 – OPENING HOLY MASS – FEAST OF THE CHAIR OF ST PETER
- HOMILY -
(João Braz Card. de Aviz)
Dear brothers and sisters gathered here today,
My dear brothers, the Salesians of Don Bosco,
Today, all of us, with the Church throughout the world, are celebrating the feast of the Chair of St Peter. This Chair, this most significant of locations, is in Rome in St Peter’s Basilicia, but it is present in a particular way in the person of Pope Francis, who is Peter for us today.
In the faith of the Church we welcome Jesus’ words to the apostle Simon: ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’ (Mt 16:18 ff [NRSV]).
It is in this faith of the Church that the Salesians, as a living part of the people of God, are seeking a deeper understanding of Don Bosco’s charism during their 28th General Chapter now beginning, by asking the question: what kind of Salesians for the youth of today?
This deeper understanding of the Salesian charism will certainly bear very much in mind the identity of consecrated life and its contribution today to the life of the Church and the world. Indeed, it is as consecrated individuals that the mission continues and with the characteristics of the ecclesial kairós and the “signs of the times” that are manifested through the encounter of today’s men and women with the Lord of history.
The twenty centuries of the Incarnation of the Word in human history, with its extraordinary fruitfulness amidst the very many difficulties the Church has lived through, offer us consistent proof of the Lord's fidelity to those who seek the ways of the Gospel to give meaning and depth to their personal life, to the community and to the social body.
It is a journey not without its turbulent moments, as we are experience now in the life of the Church, but it is the only possible way, since turbulence is necessary, in the words of Pope Francis, for our faith to be proven and authentic, based on the fidelity of the crucified Lord, so that we might be risen along with Him.
This is why the Council Fathers, as Fathers in faith, have shown us paths of light for our time, with the background of the Word of God and the great Tradition of the Church. The Second Vatican Council is a spring that continues to offer sweet water for us to return to making the life and mission of the Church fruitful again in our day.
For consecrated life in particular, the Council recalled the need to return to the witness of the ‘sequela Christi’ [discipleship], which for us consecrated persons is given in the form of Jesus, through the evangelical counsels.
The conditions of this discipleship are the same for all the baptised. In fact, there are no first or second class disciples, but only disciples in all vocations, be they for women and men, whether married or single, old or young, or children. All of us in Christ are children of the same merciful Father and brothers and sisters among ourselves. Today it is particularly necessary to recreate this kind of fraternity because from this they will know that we are disciples of Christ, as he himself has told us.
The Second Vatican Council also called on us, as consecrated individuals to rediscover our founders. It is a precise indication to support what is essential to the charism, including its good traditions over time, but without attaching ourselves to secondary elements that prevent a sincere and genuine updating, and courageous development towards new dimensions that are necessary today.
This dynamism, this energy of the charism comes from the Spirit who generated it and hence it cannot lead us astray. We cannot remain just thinking ‘it has always been so’, as Pope Francis warns us. This ‘stagnating’ extinguishes the dynamic force of witness in us.
The reading from the First Letter of the Apostle Peter in this Eucharist at the beginning of a new Chapter for the Salesians of Don Bosco, allows us to recognise in them pastors of the young people that their charism and the mission has entrusted to them. St Peter’s words, then, are truly precious: ‘Tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it – not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away’ (1 Pt 5:2-4).
Last week I went with some brother bishops, priests and lay people to a town near Vicenza, where a Salesian bishop was born who worked in the Middle East for many years but has now died. His name is Bishop Armando Bortolasso.
He worked intensely for the youth, for peace and for rapprochement between Churches and religions. For this reason the Municipality wanted to dedicate a village square to him. The Salesian Provincial of the place was also present and with him a group of boys and girls who accompanied the short ceremony with music. The Provincial left a beautiful impression of the charism in us because he spoke directly to the young people with passion, but taking into account all of us who were there. The testimony of the Salesian life of Bishop Armando, lived with contagious joy until the end, left a strong impression on us who were there.
My dear Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, my dear consecrated Salesians and your community, let us remember in this time of grace that the Apostle Peter, moved by the Father of Jesus and our Father, professed his faith by telling Jesus: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (Mt 16:16).
May he, Jesus, the living God in our midst, together with Mary Help of Christians our Mother, continue to guide the Church and humanity at this moment in history. Let us renew with confidence our act of faith so that the 28th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco may help the whole Salesian Family to be faithful to the Church and, following in Don Bosco’s footsteps, to the young people of today.