EXPOSED TO LOVE

A Bicentenary Reflection on Don Bosco's Mission amongst the young. 

  

1 Exposure

Don Bosco is  ordained a priest;

He goes  to the city

·         He walks its street,

·         he enters the slums,

·         he visits the prisons.

“I was horrified! I saw large numbers of youth, fine healthy youngsters, alert of mind, - seeing them idle there, infested with lice, lacking food for body and soul, really shocked me.

Public disgrace, family dishonour, and personal shame were personified in those unfortunates.

What shocked me most was to see that… they were aban­doned to their own resources.”

·         Don Bosco still walks the streets today

·         Still goes to the cities

·         Still meets the young.

2 Rejection:

It was a dark night when I came upon the little boy.

Who are you? I asked.

He replied.

I am abandoned.

I am alone.

I am an outsider, even in my own family.

I belong no where.

I belong to no one.

Living hurts me.

Each day I hear that I am nobody.

I am a throw away.

I am a mistake.

I am a burden.

I am a parasite.

People are right to get rid of me.

People are right to want me out of the way.

I am without a home.

I am without any true friends,

          Because I cannot trust anyone enough

          To let them be a friend.

The people who hurt me most

are the people I once trusted.

I am never going to trust another person again.

I know that there are others like me but that’s no comfort.

We live in quarantine

          each an inhabitant of his own universe.

Everyone else is a stranger, a user.

Each meeting with another person is just

          Another opportunity for being rejected

Another opportunity for being kicked

Another opportunity for being thrown away

For being told I am nothing

That I am useless

That I am trash

That I should never have been born.

3 MINISTRY

How can I minister to one who is so alone, to one who is so lost and so hurt? How can I break the good news upon him, upon her? How can I heal when everything says it is too late for healing, the damage is gone too far, the hurts are too deep? How can I say welcome to someone who does not know the meaning of home?

Don Bosco also was in anguish as to how he could reach out to them. He was disturbed by their situation but left it “to the Lord's grace what the outcome would be. Without God's grace, all human effort is vain.”

Scene : A youth sneaks into a sacristy.

  I come to you who are wounded, and lost in your world of pain. What do I say to you? Be healed? Not yet because you are not ready to hear it.

First, I show you my wounds because if I have no wounds I cannot heal you. I minister from my wounds. I minister from my brokenness. Paul tells me to be proud of my weakness. Paul tells me in my weakness is my strength. If I accept my wounds and if I let you touch them, then together we can go to Jesus. By his wounds we are healed.

Don Bosco too carried a deep wound – the loss of his father left a mark on him. His whole life was a search for the missing father he never had. His meeting with Garelli touched on this wound, and in reaching out from this wound he would become the father of so many poor youth. His whole life took on a meaning by becoming that which he himself never had.

Don Bosco had enough personal experience to know that for a child or young person in need,
the present moment is the only reality that he or she knows.

That is why,inspired by the Gospel call to welcome a child, he offered to help the young immediately

“Do you want to start now?”

4 Affirmation

Dawn was beginning to break when I came on the little boy. “Who am I?” he asked. I replied:

“You are accepted just the way you are.

You are cherished.

You will never be alone again.

You are of enormous value.

You have a dignity no one can take away from you.

You have a place you can call your own.

You have people around you

          Who care for you and who love you

Life now can become something we can celebrate together

Each day we will grow to understand new depths of beauty

          New heights of life’s mystery, which is love.

You can begin to trust again,

          For you are loved

          You are loveable

You have no need to be afraid

It is never too late for healing

It is never to late for love.

5 Kairos

One day I met a wise old man and I asked him, “What do I need if I am to minister to the homeless, to the broken?”

He answered. Remember. Remember all the home-coming stories you ever heard. The bible is a story of home-coming. Only in God can we really be at home. Let the homeless teach you. Through them you will learn the depth of yearning that is in all our hearts.

His Name is Today

We are guilty of many errors, of many faults,

but our worst crime is abandoning the children,

neglecting the fountain of life.

Many of the things we need can wait.

The child cannot.

Right now is the time his bones are being formed,

his blood is being made and his senses are being developed.

To him we cannot answer Tomorrow.

His name is "Today."

. Gabriela Mistral  (Nobel Prize-winning poet from Chile)

Magnifcat

A simple Hail Mary was the start of his work.

Let us sing that beautiful prayer asking Mary to once again intervene through us on behalf of the young and rejoice with her for the great things God has done for his little ones.

This Reflection on Don Bosco for the opening of the Bi-Centenary Celbrations can also be watched on Youtube.