«Joseph did what the Angel of the Lord had told him to do»

Homily for the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation

Jer 23:5-8; Ps 71; Mt 1:18-24

Turin, 18.12.09

Dear Confreres, Sisters, Salesian Family, young people,

I would like to express my great joy for the grace of celebrating this Mass with you, here in Valdocco in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, where we are expressing our praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for the 150th anniversary of the foundation of our beloved Congregation, the seed from which the Salesian Family has sprung. Along with all the confreres spread throughout the world and spiritually united with us today in the Mother house, we would like to thank God our Father, and Don Bosco, because we have been able to realise our existence fully, joyfully, attractively, fruitfully in the Congregation, and understanding our life's project more deeply.

We have experienced an authentic year of grace, a jubilee, where we have walked the path of spiritual renewal by rediscovering the inestimable value of our consecration, convinced that the Congregation will have a fruitful future just as it has had a brilliant past, so long as there are young people who continue to give their lives totally to God for Him to dispose of, and use for the salvation of the young. Along the way we have been reminded of a more faithful observance of the Constitutions, the Rule of Life which brings together the spiritual, apostolic and pedagogical experience of our Founder and Father. Only by knowing the Constitutions, loving them, praying them and putting them into practice can we become Don Bosco day by day.

We have a marvellous history of 150 years to tell, but also a beautiful story yet to tell, and there is no other way to do it than beginning with the young, believing in their capacity for generous and courageous choices, becoming their companions on the journey and together taking in hand the “father's dream” translating it into reality each day in the very many situations and contexts in which we find ourselves, as his sons, living out this calling, carrying out the Salesian mission. The young continue to be the most precious aspect of our inheritance.

Like the great founder saints, Don Bosco gave birth to a spiritual and apostolic family, the Salesian Family, convinced that the salvation of the young through fostering human development, education, evangelisation needs a huge movement of people who network in communion of intent and with shared projects. Over the next 150 years the Salesian story must see itself as a true family around a common father, led by his spirit, acting ever more clearly as a movement.

We have all come to Turin today, more precisely to Valdocco, to the cradle of our birth, bearing all of our confreres with us, as represented by the Rector Major and the General Council, to celebrate with gratitude, joy and responsibility the generous, courageous and fruitful gesture which took place on 18 December 1859. This group of young men at the Oratory in Valdocco decided to stay with Don Bosco forever, go halves with him in everything, their work, joys and sufferings, taking up his spiritual and apostolic project, thus committing themselves to give continuity and development to the Salesian mission.

There is no doubt that they carried out their task as founders in a marvellous way, as demonstrated by the growth of the Congregation, the flourishing of the Salesian family, the extension of the work throughout the world, and the holiness of our family.

We welcome this precious inheritance today and, by renewing our profession, we give ourselves fully once again to the Lord and take up the grace and task of continuing to write this beautiful and meaningful story of salvation of the young.

The liturgical season of Advent during which this celebration falls, and the Word of God that has been proclaimed, offer us elements for this future. On the one hand, compassionately sharing the Light, Joy, Peace, Life and Love of God with the dramatic circumstances of needy humanity. On the other hand, welcoming God into our lives each day, shaping our conduct around Christ and his Gospel, and through our lives extending his efforts to render the Kingdom of God present.

Jeremiah's prophecy involves one of the most troubled period's in Israel's history; nevertheless it is a message full of hope. He first announces the coming of a wise king, one who will descend from David as a 'just shoot' who will guide his own like a true shepherd; then he declares the end of the exile, dispersion and the return of Israel to "dwell in their own land". God will give his people a Messiah, a Saviour, whose name will be "Lord ­ our justice"; the presence of his envoy will make the awaited salvation of God more bearable for Israel.

If this Word is light for our lives and hope for "young people who are poor, abandoned or at risk" today as well, we Salesians identify Don Bosco in the one sent by God announced by Jeremiah. This 'lieutenant' of God's has led us like a good shepherd and has ensured God's closeness for those who have found in him a wise father and wonderful life's teacher. Whoever welcome's God's envoy can depend on God's freedom. God has thought to give hope and salvation to a people lost and disoriented, like our young people are, a confused and desperate world, as is the world of the young. He has caused Don Bosco to spring forth as a proof of his commitment to them and as a sign of his love for them.

The king whom the prophet announced was to be born of the Holy Spirit. And we Salesians are certain, and proud of the fact that the God's Spirit raised up Don Bosco (C. 1). This is how God acts: to save mankind he needs mankind. The mystery of his kindness: only He can save, but He saves only with us and for us. The Gospel reminded us of this: God made use of Joseph, a simple man of deep faith, to fulfil the story of salvation that is focused on Jesus. Joseph does not obstruct God's plan, and becomes part of the mystery. Even though he does not deeply understand it, he trusts in his creator and cooperates in obedience and trust. God, in order to carry out his plan, his will, uses people who accept and do his will, even when it is mysterious and incomprehensible. Joseph was one of those who, in obedience of faith, experienced his call in the search for God and his will, and with God realised the marvellous plan of salvation. In his son, who was not his and never would be in fact, because he was not a parent but a father, Joseph offers something of himself, renounces what he himself could manage to allowed God to manage his life and carry out the history of salvation.

Joseph is a just man not for what he does, but because he renounces the fulfilment of his own personal project; he does not offer God what he has, and he refuses what he had planned for himself, his own family and his own child. He bases himself on God's word, something he glimpsed in his dream; he does not attempt to interpret it according to his own wishes; he reads the situation and understands it to the degree that he has reflected inwardly on it, making the Word his own, and living it out in his daily existence. Doing God's will does not exile us from this world nor make us indifferent to others' needs. Nevertheless there is a prior condition for achieving obedience to God, and remaining in dialogue with him. To succeed in knowing what God wants of him, Joseph must make the effort to listen: only the one who listens can know what it is he must obey; only the one who listens religiously is 'employed' by the Lord for his plans on behalf of mankind, as was the case with Mary and Joseph, and as it was for John Bosco and the 17 young men who founded the Salesian Congregation with him.

Like Joseph, Don Bosco had known God's will through a dream. Through this he knew for whom he had to consecrate himself (for young people at risk), how to make his life a life of mission (in presence and loving-kindness) and on whom to rely (Mary, Jesus' mother). God wanted each of us to discover his dream, inviting us to make it our own through obedience. Following this dream results in God causing the just shoot to sprout within the hearts of the young, his kingdom of justice and peace in a wealth of human values expanding like light over the peoples. God does not become God-with-us unless we share his dream of salvation, cooperating with his work.

To have salvation and have it in abundance, our young people need God and they need us. We have been called by name to be with Him and to be sent to the young to be a sign of God's love for them, his commitment to their happiness, their success in this life and fullness in eternal life.

Today, as it was 150 years ago, to be present amongst the young, especially the disinherited and marginalised, and to save them, God needs us, needs our faith which involves renouncing our own pet projects to take on his, as did Joseph who “did as the Lord asked him to do”.

Through our renewal of profession we would like to profess our unconditional availability to God, for him to find in us – as he found in Don Bosco – the very collaborators he is seeking. Let us make Don Bosco's dream our own, for it is God's dream. Let us make our own the same generous and courageous gesture of that group of young men gathered around Don Bosco on an evening like this evening, 150 years ago, and God will continue to write his history of salvation. May Mary be always and everywhere our Mother, Teacher and Guide. Amen.

Fr Pascual Chávez V., SDB

Rector Major