13 January 2013

Don Bosco Our Model


Our Salesian call 
When we think of our call to the Salesian life, how many of us can say: “I decided to be a Salesian after going through a deep study of the Preventive System and the Salesian Spirituality”?  How many of us can rather say: “If I am a Salesian it is because of father or brother so and so … My vocational journey started when I met him and I said to myself: “I would like to be like him!”.
Since this second alternative has been my experience I tend to think that the majority of the Salesians could say the same.
Models play an important role in the life of a person, especially at the early stages.  
 From the Constitutions
The Salesian spirit finds its model and source in the very heart of Christ, apostle of the Father”. (C11)
“We study and imitate him (Don Bosco)”. (C21)
“Our living rule is Jesus Christ… whom we find present in Don Bosco who devoted his life to the young”. (C196)
“The first Salesians found their sure guide in Don Bosco. Living at the very heart of his community in action, they learned to model their own lives on his. We too find in him our model”. (C97)

1. Looking at the model The Lord has given us Don Bosco as Father and Teacher. Before being Father and Teacher of the youth, Don Bosco is OUR Father and Teacher!
As a father Don Bosco reflects in a special way the “fatherhood’ of God. All his life he displayed a father’s heart. He said to his Salesians: ”No matter in what remote part of the world you may be, never forget that here in Italy you have a father who loves you in the Lord”.
As a teacher Don Bosco reproduces some features of the Divine Master, Jesus Christ, who has been his guide from the first dream at the age of nine. Of Jesus Don Bosco incarnated certain aspects: gratitude for the gift of vocation, predilection for the little ones, zeal in preaching and saving, the gentleness and self-giving attitude of the Good shepherd. (C11)
Before being a teacher, Don Bosco is a good disciple! He reflects Jesus in his life and points to Jesus as the perfect model: “He will always be our Master, our Guide , our Model”. Don Bosco is there with all his “splendid blending of nature and grace … deeply human and deeply the man of God … with a closely-knit life project, the service of the young”.